BPO firm opens new facility in Clark

MANILA, Philippines - Global business process outsourcing firm Arvato has opened a new facility in Clark, Pampanga.

Arvato said the new facility will support the company's plans to double its workforce in the next three years.

Arvato, which supports multi-million dollar BPO and Customer Relationship Management program, recently opened the 2,900 square meter facility to provide additional capacity for existing and new clients.

The facility in Clark will initially provide multi-channel English-speaking customer service support for the North American region. This is part of Arvato’s global CRM delivery network of nearly 100 sites across 21 countries.

Fara Haron, Arvato executive vice president, CRM North America and Country General Manager Philippines, said the Philippines is a key location for the comapny.

"The Philippines is a key strategic location for arvato, providing the skilled employees and secure infrastructure we need to deliver best practice BPO and CRM frameworks for leading global organizations. This expansion will provide more capacity to service our existing client base and a strong platform for growth as the Philippines continues to emerge as a major outsourcing destination," Haron said.

Arvato selected Clark as its new location due to its strong supply of young, well-educated workforce. It is looking to hire up to 500 employees for the Clark site by the end of 2014.

The company expanded its operations in Manila in 2012, and has since doubled its workforce. Its client programs include a global BPO partnership with Microsoft for contract-to-invoice services, which processes approximately 80% of the IT giant’s global revenues.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Outsourcing firm Infosys plans to cut up to 5,000 jobs

MUMBAI - India's second-largest software outsourcer Infosys is planning to cut up to 5,000 jobs, a report said Friday, as it seeks to reduce costs in a tough business environment.

"Infosys is asking the worst performers, about 3-4 percent of the 151,000 work force, to leave straightaway," The Economic Times said, citing people familiar with the development.

The Bangalore-based firm wants to reduce costs while moving towards a more aggressive sales strategy, the business daily said.

Infosys was not available to comment on the report when contacted by AFP.

The firm, which is also listed on the Nasdaq in New York, has been struggling to expand its business and has missed sales targets, lost market share and seen its stocks slide in the past year as revenues from the United States slow down.

Amid intense competition, Infosys, which lags in growth to rivals TCS and Wipro, in October announced a six-percent pay rise for Indian employees and a two-to-three percent increase for overseas staff.

The firm projected an unchanged estimate of $7.34 billion for its full-year revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2013.

It will report its third quarter earnings next week, but analysts say the near-term outlook for the firm remains challenging.

Infosys, which is in the midst of a top management shuffle, has decided to focus on higher value software and consulting services for clients instead of labour-intensive outsourcing services.

One-fifth of Infosys' revenues come from Europe, and in recent years the firm has shifted focus to emerging and new markets such as Singapore, Brazil, Mexico and eastern Europe.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

Aegis PeopleSupport Renamed As Aegis

MANILA, Philippines — Aegis PeopleSupport, one of the leading outsourcing services companies in the Philippines, announced recently the adoption of its corporate identity to its parent organization, Aegis. The new identity, which comes into effect starting February 1, is designed to reflect a global customer experience-centric company, built on a continuing history of innovative ideas and service offerings that meet the needs of businesses.

In 2008, Aegis Limited acquired PeopleSupport, a U.S.-based outsourcing services provider with operations in the Philippines, United States, and Costa Rica, and employing a 7,000-strong workforce. The company assumed the name Aegis PeopleSupport upon completion of its merger with Aegis. Since then, the company has leveraged upon the Aegis’ global reach, financial strength, and reputation as a world-leading outsourcing company, and expanded its operations to include over 12,000 employees across 6 centers in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Baguio.

According to Mr. Aparup Sengupta, Managing Director and Global CEO of Aegis Limited, “The adoption of the Aegis brand in the Philippines is aligned with our corporate strategy of ‘One World, One Aegis’ and will provide consistent standards of excellence in managing, enabling, extending, and enhancing customer experience”. He added, “Our employees at PeopleSupport provided us with strong local capabilities in the Philippines region, when we first established our presence here. Having gone through a strong growth curve during last three years, our people are ready to further upscale their skills by adopting Aegis’ expertise in managing global customer operations and successful business transformations.”

“For many years, we have benefitted from Aegis PeopleSupport’s local strengths – its reputation as an employer of choice, innovative processes in recruitment and employee engagement, and its pioneering status in the Philippine outsourcing industry. What Aegis brings to the table is its globally distributed, diverse workforce of over 55,000 and operations spread in 12 countries. By assuming the new identity of Aegis, these synergies will now automatically accrue to Aegis PeopleSupport,” said Mr. Rajiv Ahuja, President – ASEAN and ANZ of Aegis Limited.

For Bong Borja, President of Aegis Philippines, the transition from Aegis PeopleSupport to Aegis is an indication of the company’s readiness to create new opportunities for expansion not only in the Philippines but in the region and a chance to further attract talented people to join one of the fastest growing outsourcing services companies globally. “We are both looking back and moving forward. We are looking back at what we have achieved when we were still PeopleSupport; what we have learned from those experiences, we are bringing it to Aegis. When we started our operations in Philippines as PeopleSupport, we served American customers. Today, our employees are servicing clients all over the world. Under the Aegis brand, we have created more job opportunities for talented Filipinos, who are globally recognized for their excellent communication skills and customer service orientation. As one of the founders of PeopleSupport, I feel overwhelmed and elated to see our local talent getting its recognition in the global market,” he said.

source: mb.com.ph