According to the respondents in the survey, they plan to hire more KPO workers in the succeeding months due to these firms’ optimism that there will be significant growth in the KPO industry. Factors included in the respondents’ claims about KPO include increasing demand for offshore KPO services, availability of trained knowledge workers, and minimal to no downtime in terms of business continuity.

Read the full article at PhilStar.com

Advances in technology have made it possible for virtual teams to work together. The problem with this set-up, however, is how one will lead a virtual team effectively. This article talks about the advantages and disadvantages of having a virtual team. It details what skills are necessary for a manager so he can better supervise his team of professionals who are located across the globe. Some people are effective and infectious when it comes to face-to-face interactions but are ineffectual when it comes to interacting with people in a virtual space.




More on What Managers Need to Know

The Philippine BPO industry will benefit immensely if it adopts common standards in hiring, training and measuring competency among the industry’s workforce, says Hayley McCarthy, Future Perfect director of communications. Currently, call centers might be turning away good communicators and hiring poor ones instead because of the inferior recruitment standards they employ. These assessments don’t often relate to quality scores. Several problems that call centers experience such as customer satisfaction issues can’t be resolved by trainers using school-book approaches. The suggested improvement to the current standards will hopefully address such problems by changing the training and assessment practices currently in place.




More on BusinessMirror’s article via The Outsource Blog

The provincial government’s program ties in well with the employment opportunities in the local BPO sector. An international outsourcing company, Sutherland Global Services, lies in the heart of the provincial capitol complex and employs around 1,000 local workers. Students and graduates alike of the two-year old English proficiency training program will also benefit from the recently opened Embarcadero Business and IT Park, a luxurious business hub developed by the Sunwest Group of Companies, in the heart of Legazpi City.




Learn more about Camarines Sur’s English-Proficiency Program

Currently, massage therapist is reportedly the number one “profession” of blind people in the country. RBI’s program aims to change this by arming visually impaired persons with other skills they can use for other employment opportunities. BPO firms and call centers like IBM Philippines usually have diversity policies that allow differently abled individuals to work in their companies.




More on Blind Persons Seen to Succeed in Call Centers

Attendees of the forum included representatives from big BPO firms such as Optus, Telstra, Transurban, Drake, Adecco and HSBC. Offshore outsourcing itself is a highly controversial topic in the local Australian business community. However, the forum as well as the entire program chose to focus on the rarely communicated social implications of offshore outsourcing to other countries. Attendees – who are normally competitors in the BPO sector – shared stories of how their firms contribute to the economies and societies of other countries where they outsource jobs.




Learn more about how Outsourced Offshoring Empowers Women

This article details what general characteristics BPO and IT employees need to catch the eye of their employers and get promoted. Advancing their careers though doesn’t always mean a huge upward movement in the corporate ladder; they may need to move from agent positions to supervisory posts to low level middle management. It’s a sequential process and they need to be patient and diligent to achieve their goals of becoming leaders or managers.




Read about Career Advancement: Working Up the Ladder in a Call Center or BPO

When firms look at potential applicants, they usually look at what other trainings applicants have attended or what other skills they have that will make them effective leaders or management employees. The article details what kind of certifications and skills workers will need to catch the attention of their employers. These skills, certifications and trainings allow BPO and call center employees further their careers and reach their goals in the corporate world.




More on Call Center Management Training Courses

Read more about BPO Services Provider Expands Philippine Operations

Among the BPO services said to be in demand in this 2005 survey are Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) services and Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) services. Several years after this survey was conducted, these same services are still in demand despite the changes in foreign and local economies. The global financial crisis may have affected the BPO and KPO industries in the Philippines but it did so with both negative and positive effects.




More details at PITON

Convergys is one of the major BPO firms in the country that establishes contact centers in areas outside Metro Manila. Convergys’ Castillo states that Cebu alone has a huge talent pool continually refreshed by new graduates and assisted by training centers. The company recognizes the advantage of doing business in the Philippines due to it being a rich source of talent and growth. The increased demand in BPO services is expected to be answered by the high quality service of Filipino employees.




More about Philippines’ BPO Firm Convergys Forecasts More Growth

The firm’s CEO, Sajan Pillai, states that the Philippines is teeming with untapped talent in the engineering and IT sectors, but lacks a good number of qualified middle management candidates. The latter, however, can be addressed through good in-house training. UST Global expects the country’s IT industry along with the global IT sector to grow tremendously as demands for technology jobs increase. According to the CEO, the cost of outsourcing IT and BPO services to the Philippines is at par with India.




Read the full article at The Manila Times.net

Ayala Corp.’s BPO unit, Livelt Investments, Ltd. has made significant steps in achieving the corporation’s goal to become one of the top five global BPO companies. Livelt recently merged the operations of eTelecare Global Solutions, Inc. with a global call center company based in the US. Livelt has a 25.5% ownership of the combined entity. Ayala-owned KPO unit, Integreon Managed Solutions Inc. acquired a captive strategic research and decision support unit which used to belong to one of the world’s leading management consulting companies. The company is taking its time to choose its investments wisely – Livelt is touching the $110-million revenue mark, a far cry from its $10-million revenue status three years ago.




Read more about Ayala Corp. eyeing more acquisitions

This BPO tower is aimed at housing companies operating in the BPO, ICT and software development sectors because of its special designs. Firms offering these mentioned services have specific requirements as most of these firms operate 24/7. Ascendas’ tower has floor plans that are flexible and has generous floor loading that allows for customizing work spaces. The developer boasts of the building as being environmentally-friendly and at the same time cost-efficient in terms of overall energy consumption. The BPO tower has many other features that Ascendas assures will accommodate many BPO, ICT and KPO service providers’ requirements.




Read more about Ascendas’ first BPO tower in Bonifacio Global City

http://call-center-software.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center-services/articles/70639-state-florida-extends-bpo-contract-with-convergys.htm

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/219361/excelasia-opens-eastwood-facility-launches-online-recruitment-site

http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/economy/18032-rps-top-bpo-firms-post-2-b-revenues.html

http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/top-news/18173-for-uk-bpo-pinoy-worker-is-tops.html

The Philippines is the third-largest English speaking country in the world, enabling its manpower to have a unique edge over neighboring countries in terms of labor quality. Its workforce is easily trainable and generally skilled. Flanked by the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, its strategic location makes it a critical entry point to some 500 million people in the ASEAN market – offering vast trade opportunities – and an ideal base for business. It is also the best Asian country in terms of overall quality of expatriate life, considering its cultural compatibility with expatriates, housing, sporting and recreational facilities, quality healthcare, and first-rate educational institutions.

Being an archipelago, the Philippines has a lot to offer as well in terms of natural resources. Its 7,100 islands boast numerous white and black sand beaches, making it eminently attractive to vacationers and tourists. Its amazing marine biodiversity affords abundant species of flora and fauna. Land-wise, it is also among the biggest producers of copper and gold in the world.

Considering its strategic location, unique edge as an English speaking country and rich natural resources, the cost of doing business in the Philippines is surprisingly low, with wages down to less than one-fifth of that in the U.S. Communication, electricity and housing costs can go as low as a mere half of the costs in the U.S. Foreign companies now outsourcing programming and business processes to the Philippines incur 30 to 40% business cost savings, 15 to 30% call center services, and 35 to 50% application systems and software development. However infrastructures in the Philippines lag behind those of comparable countries. Furthermore, weather conditions put a regular threat on those infrastructures with frequent typhoons.

Business policies of the government tend to be investor-friendly, but the government is plagued with intense corruption. It has allowed more private sector participation in the development of infrastructure and services through privatization. The innovative Build-Operate-Transfer scheme has been adopted by the government. Foreign ownership of up to 100% is also allowed in almost all economic sectors, but the banking industry where a foreign company can only owned up to 60%. Attractive incentives are offered in numerous Special Economic Zones and Industrial Estates, which are being promoted as agricultural, industrial, commercial and recreational hubs.

Private consumption is the key driver of the Philippines economy as it represents more than 70% of GDP, a high level compared to regional peers. This private consumption is also fueled by the high level of remittances from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Remittances represented 10% of the GDP in 2008 with more than $16 billions.

The Philippines has a strong export sector in electronics and computers which represent 2/3 of total exports. Imports mainly concern electronic parts that are assembled and then exported, foods and commodities, and oil.

How to invest

Foreign corporations must first register with the Securities and Exchange Commission before they can engage in business in the Philippines. The necessary licenses or registration certificates must be secured from the appropriate government agencies, depending on where the project is to be located.

For projects outside special economic zones (SEZs), go to the Board of Investments.

For projects in any of the SEZs under the PEZA, go to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

For projects in the Subic Bay Freeport, go to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

For projects in the Clark SEZ, go to the Clark Development Corporation.

For projects in the Cagayan SEZ, go to the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.

For projects in the Zamboanga City SEZ, go to the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority.

From: http://www.wikinvest.com/industry/Investing_in_the_Philippines