Global crisis forces outsourcing firms to offer new services, survey claims

MANILA, Philippines - Thanks to the global financial crisis, Philippine outsourcing companies have introduced new services, providing additional revenue streams for their businesses.

These findings were among those reported by a survey that polled executives of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the Philippines.

“…[D]espite some challenges associated with the global financial crisis, innovative firms are identifying new opportunities as a result of the crisis," Gillian Joyce Virata, executive director for information and research of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) said in a statement.

“This is enabling them to continue growing their businesses," she added.

Although demand for BPO services remains strong, labor supply remains an area of concern for many firms, Virata said.

Forty-five percent of respondents indicated that their companies hire only six or fewer applicants out of every 100, said the survey entitled, “State of the BPO Industry: Mid-Year Report."

On the hand, more than half of the respondents indicated they hire seven or more applicants out of every 100.

A positive indicator for the industry is that attrition is either the “same," “decreasing," or “decreasing significantly," 79 percent of respondents said.

Fifty-three percent of respondents said attrition in their companies is 10 percent or lower.

However, a significant number of respondents – at 29 percent – said attrition rates in their firms run between 11 to 20 percent.

Seventeen percent said attrition is above 21 percent.

As a result, high attrition rates have “sustained demand" for companies such as ExcelAsia which provides recruitment and training services for the country’s large BPOs.

The company “continues to grow rapidly," Rita Trillo-Ugarte, ExcelAsia president said.

Services providers themselves indicate that expansion efforts are continuing resulting in increased demand for workers.

StarTek, a mid-size value-added BPO, recently announced that it is ramping up its Makati facility to full capacity to meet expanding demand for complex services.

Convergys opened three new call centers in Cebu, Santa Rosa, and Quezon City in April which will provide almost 3,000 new jobs and increase the company’s headcount to 16,000 in the Philippines.

Telus and Sitel have also opened new sites in recent months.

In a related development, Thomson Reuters recently announced that it has established a team to support global legal content initiatives, its most profitable division, in the Philippines.

The company already provides services in five other operations areas, including the Investment & Advisory division, from the Philippines.

“The Philippines is providing increasingly complex services for Thomson Reuters customers worldwide," Raoul Teh, senior site office for the company, said recently.

Next: Philippine BPOs seen to expand by 20 percent this year