Asia Times: The Philippines rocks India's call center status


	November 20, 2001	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

The Philippines rocks India's call center status

NEW YORK - As the economic downturn forces US businesses to cut costs, India's place as the most attractive call-center destination in the region is threatened by the progressive infrastructure policies of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The call-center business is one of the fastest growing sectors within the IT software and services industry. By 2003, around US$60 billion is expected to be spent on call-center services worldwide. With over 100,000 call-centers worldwide and 200,000 more expected to be established by 2002, the mantle of being the Asia-Pacific regional hub is a coveted one.

India's call-center industry employed 16,000 personnel last year. Indian outsourcers have been challenging their US counterparts, claiming that their call-center agents are better, smarter and more effective, at a lower cost per transaction. And, as the cost for telecom services continues to fall, Indian call-center cost are becoming ever more competitive.

But India should not rest on its laurels. With around 50 call-centers in the country, including in-house company call-centers, the Philippines looks set to surpass India, Singapore and Australia as the most attractive location for outsource call-center services in the Asia-Pacific region. Approximately 150,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the next four or five years. The country's call-center industry may have been dragging behind India so far, but some companies are already on the move. US-based IT solutions provider Infonics, which already has an Indian office, plans to set up an office in the Philippine city of Makati.

"The Philippines is poised to become a really major force in the industry," said Ardie Balderrama, marketing director of CQuadrant, an e-customer contact management company. "Our main competitor, India, is ahead of us, but this is because they went into the call-center business ahead of us. Some of the companies with offices in India are now coming to the Philippines because they encountered a lot of problems in India."

"The Philippines is better suited for the western region," said Benedict C Hernandez, general manager at eTelecare International and chairman of the newly formed Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP). "Compared to India, the country has better telecommunications and power facilities."

The industry has gained a further boost following the signing of three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) between American and Filipino firms witnessed by Arroyo during her current trip to the United States.

The memorandum of agreement (MoA) signed between Source One and Customer Contact Center is expected to help develop the sunshine call-center industry in the Philippines and make it more attractive to other foreign investors. It combines the resources of an American global network of contact centers that deliver top quality customer service and the fastest growing call-center network in the country.

Another agreement was signed between Manila-based ICCP Venture Partners, Inc (IVPI) and the United States' Ambergis Solutions Inc, which is expected to provide employment to 1,500 workers in the ICT sector. IVPI's major principals are the Investment and Capital Corp of the Philippines, a leading investment house in the Philippines, and Ionics Inc, the largest Philippine exporter of electronics assemblies. Ambergis, on the other hand, is a provider of customer interaction solutions offering voice, e-mail and Web chat outsourcing services from its operation base in the Philippines.

The third agreement is between the Philippines' Immequire and the United States' Tele Response Center Inc. It seeks to conduct an outbound telemarketing campaign to raise funds for US-based non-profit organizations. Immequire is a provider of contact center and customer support services, backed up by a state-of-the-art technology which provides the full-suite of contact center services, including Internet-based live-chat, Web collaboration, e-mail, Web forums, voice-over IP and customer relationship management software. Tele Response Center Inc, on the other hand, sits 45th among the top 50 outbound teleservices agencies in the world. Since 1988, it has developed and implemented successful programs for highly respected charities and non-profit organizations nationally, regionally and locally.

Arroyo's administration is putting its efforts on ensuring appropriate policy and legal environment for business through the creation of a cabinet-level Information Technology and e-Commerce Council to lead information and communications technology (ICT) policy formulation and implementation. Arroyo noted that she has asked the Philippine Congress to enact laws in addressing Internet privacy and security, multimedia convergence and the creation of a Department of Communications and Information Technology. She said that to be successful, the ICT sector must be driven by the private sector, with minimal government intervention and regulation.

Arroyo also said that the human capital must be developed to close the digital divide even as she noted that the Philippines is the second highest among Asian countries in the number of trading facilities for computer programming and other computer-related courses.

Arroyo said that as a result of her consultations with American economic and financial leaders, her administration will continue concentrating its efforts on building physical infrastructure, especially in telecommunications. "Interconnectivity is a must and I support wider public access to a minimum set of communications and information services through the establishment of operational telecenters and through the provision of broadband services, cities and identified growth areas," she said.

(Asia Times Online/Asia Pulse/PNA)