|
PIA Press Release
2009/02/03
Bacolod City (3 February) -- Bacolod needs to skillfully position herself as a business process outsourcing (BPO) destination with news about the bright prospects of the Philippines in the non-voice services in 2009.
The recent study of Everest Research Institute showed that the country's offshore market is poised to emerge as a leading destination for non-voice BPO work for buyers looking beyond India to grow their off-shoring footprint.
Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Chair, Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT), Inc. welcomed this positive report of Everest Research Institute, but urged that a well-prepared investment policy directions and marketing strategies must be in place for Bacolod to emerge as a potential location.
By March 2009, Negros Occidental and Bacolod City will again produce about 12,000 graduates, and there is a need to seriously look at other industries that can somehow help cushion the combined effects of the global crisis, the massive layoffs, and the forecasted prolonged off-milling season, Batapa-Sigue warned.
In a news statement, Nikhil Rajpal, Principal of Everest Research Institute said that the success in voice-based BPO services has positioned the Philippines as the second largest low-cost BPO destination after India, and both countries combined account for 50 percent of the BPO market in revenue terms.
Batapa-Sigue stressed the need for Bacolod to grab this opportunity to leverage its potential by intensively investing on talent development and business environment.
"Bacolod has showed that it can attract voice-based BPO's, but we need to take stock of our manpower in terms of the non-voice services, such as transactional services such as finance, accounting, legal and medical transcription, as well as judgment-intensive services, such as research, analytics and legal services, and other high-value applications like animation, software and game development", Batapa-Sigue said.
The city and the province should take advantage of the fact that the national government is focused on development of the non-voice BPO industry, providing incentive programs to attract investors as well as providing grants and infrastructure developments, Batapa-Sigue said.
Everest Research Institute, the research arm of global consultancy firm Everest Group, serves as a central source of independent and objective strategic intelligence, analysis, and actionable insight for leading corporations, suppliers, technology providers and investors in the global outsourcing and offshoring marketplace. Everest Group has earned a worldwide reputation for ongoing innovation as it helps clients achieve maximum value from their operations including sourcing strategy and implementation.
The Philippines, whose offshore market has grown 46 percent annually since 2004, is expected to get a piece of the US$35 billion global BPO market, with an addressable opportunity of $220-280 billion by 2012, with 90 percent of the addressable opportunity in non-voice work.
However, although a number of providers are leveraging the Philippines for a vast scope of non-voice functions, there is limited awareness of the Philippines' capability in non-voice services, which has grown significantly over the past three years, according to the Everest's study: The Silent Knight: The Philippines' Emerging Non-Voice BPO Capability.
The study highlighted the data of Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), which shows that the US$6.8 million Philippines offshore market which employs more than 450,000 people is concentrated mostly on voice-based services, such as call centers. This has positioned the Philippines as the second largest low-cost BPO destination after India, and both countries combined account for 50 percent of the BPO market in revenue terms. (Batapa News/PIA/EAD)
|
