Extreme Outsourcing of the Philippines

Call centers has become the number one career shift here in the Philippines. A lot of Filipinos have been pursued by the idea of working in a call center. Not only does it pay high but offers great benefits to its employees too.

Companies not only from America have been interested in putting up customer care and billing and also technical support for their respective companies here in the Philippines. Given the fact that we are the 3rd largest speaking-English-Asian country, and the easiest to understand over the phone gives a lot of Filipinos the chance to cut off its unemployment rate.

However, a report released by the US State department has cited that English proficiency here in the Philippines is declining. This report has alarmed the Philippine government since the BPO industry has been contributing a lot to the Philippine's economy.

Call centers in the Philippines has been dubbed as a "sunshine industry" right now. The country has been a favorite because of the abundance of English speakers that are college graduates and Americanized when it comes to English accent and cultural affinities.
What gets us ahead is the relatively high cost of personnel and worker inefficiency in the U.S., they are now outsourcing this service to countries where labor is cheap like India and of course the Philippines. Reports stressed out that they are still one-million "seats" waiting to be outsource offshore, which only proves that the Philippines has so much potential.

According to the government, they will sponsor scholarships to those aspiring customer care representative students. That may sound like a good idea and another point for the Pres. but the most important move that the Pres. should do is to focus on the curriculum of the elementary and the secondary school education. Studies have shown that most students barely understands simple English.
English maybe the medium of teaching in schools but outside the vicinity is another story. And that is something for the government to watch out for the deterioration of the English fluency in its population may affect its attraction on the BPO industry.

The BPO industry is not the only outsourcing opportunity that Filipinos can have, Foreign companies are that are establishing websites, outsource programming work and web content on a budget should seriously consider getting the work done here in the Philippines. There are a lot of well-educated, English-speaking programmers and writers who are ready to deliver quality work and at a lower rate. However, the rates of an offshore project would normally depend on it's scope. As it is reported online, you can save up to 50% of your budget if you would hire Filipino programmers or writers.

Article writing is also fast rising here in the Philippines,grammar and spelling is not a problem anymore since Filipinos are heavily trained in technical writing. Communication, rest assured is not a problem since most professionals here in the country are very good English speakers and are much aware of the Western trends and behavior. So there's no need to worry about cultural differences and interest. Given that we have been colonized by the Americans before.

The only problem though that a Foreign company may encounter is the huge time difference and may need to rely on emails, web conferences and phone calls to discuss business transactions and agree on certain projects. Of course before outsourcing here in the Philippines it is best to contact the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission to verify the company that you are planning to hire.

Also legitimate companies are not scared to give out the contact numbers of other US or UK based-companies they are working with to check their legitimacy. Real programming companies are also located in actual offices where the address could be in Makati, Ortigas, Libis, Quezon City, or Cebu, then you would know that you are actually dealing with a genuine programming company.

And lastly its strongly suggested that you setup a web conference meeting with the representatives of the company so you can see each other face to face. It would facilitate a better meeting and you would get a chance to see the company's office and assess its professionalism. Most of the companies are shifting their services from here to India. There reasons would be better marketing, better Senior Managers and Entrepreneurs and lastly security.

Although this issue has no definite answer, sadly India is outpacing us.As of this time,outsourcing here in the Philippines has reached its tipping point. Clearly this is not sustainable in the long term, it is thrilling while it lasts and this should be over the next year or two.

The outsource situation here in the Philippines is positive to say the least. Philippines companies should be updated every now and then with the new progress in the market so they won't be left behind.Medical Transcription, Animation, Shared Financial and Marketing services and Software Development Services. The Filipinos should now participate in the fastest rising trend to get on top of their game

[abel]

Originally Posted by filipino

The only problem though that a Foreign company may encounter is the huge time difference and may need to rely on emails, web conferences and phone calls to discuss business transactions and agree on certain projects. Of course before outsourcing here in the Philippines it is best to contact the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission to verify the company that you are planning to hire.

I have a team of Filipino workers working for me. Even though we are working on different timezones, I rarely, if not never have any problems at all. We set aside a few hours every day where we could meet and do a web conference to agree on the work that needs to be done. Other than that, for their every day full time work, I use monitoring tools to track their work and go hands on as much as possible with every project. After all, a good management is what's really needed for all outsourced work to function well.

By the way, thanks for presenting to us the situation in the Philippines. This is a good information for every employer and workers to know.