Why PH's BPO industry needs more employees

MANILA – The information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry in the Philippines is actively seeking to employ more workers as it is expecting to grow bigger come 2016.

Accenture, one of the leading IT-BPO companies in the country, said that it is opening its doors to anyone who aspires to be a part of the industry.

Accenture Philippines Country Managing Director Manolito Tayag said that because the IT-BPO is a vast industry, it provides fast employment and a lot of career opportunities.

“When we talk about IT-BPO, it’s a big industry – there are a lot of career opportunities… Based on your performance, you can move up the career ladder really fast.”

Tayag, who has served as Accenture Philippines’ top executive for four years now, is a management engineering graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University. He currently serves as vice-chairman of the board of the IT & Business Processing Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).

He said that in 2013, the IT-BPO industry was able to provide 900,000 jobs, and generated 15.5 billion dollars in revenue. In the next few years, however, IBPAP expects the industry to grow bigger.

“[The IT-BPO industry] will continue to grow and our roadmap for the whole industry is to get to 1.3 million direct employment by the end of 2016 and to generate about 25 billion dollars in revenue. The industry is, I believe, one of those pillars of growth of the Philippine economy.”

Accenture Philippines currently employs 32,000 workers in the country and is ranked the third biggest Accenture branch in the world in terms of employee population, after India and the United States.

“In the Philippines, especially, and maybe even globally, we are the only ones who can make that claim: providing end-to-end services, from creating the strategy to providing the technology solutions to running the operations for the companies.”

Tayag said that the IT-BPO industry is a great platform to showcase Filipino talents to the rest of the world and contribute to the growth of the Philippine industry.

“We help the industry and the rest of the country. I believe that this industry is one of those industries that can help in the sustainable growth of the Philippine economy.”

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FRESH GRADUATES

Asked if Accenture is open to the idea of hiring new graduates, Tayag answered in the affirmative and said that it is actually necessary for the industry’s growth.

“I think that we will only be able to continue to grow this industry if we continue to get fresh talent. That is why it is important for the academe to actually provide the skills that are necessary [so] that the industry [would] be able to employ [the graduates] immediately. That is the kind of collaboration that we’re having with the government and the academe. It will allow us to have less cost of training and so we could employ them directly.”

Tayag revealed that contrary to popular belief, the IT-BPO industry does not only employ technology-savvy people. He said that as a matter of fact, Accenture needs graduates of health-related courses just as much as it needs call center agents.

“The IT-BPO industry will have call centers under it, the non-voice BPO, the IT people, the games development, the animation people. In the non-voice BPO, you will have the health management where nurses will be part of,” Tayag said.

“We always say, ‘Work abroad and live in the Philippines.’ That means we are able to provide decent employment sufficient for these people not to work abroad and therefore not to have the social cost of being an overseas worker.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

More fun to outsource in Philippines - study

MANILA – It’s more fun to outsource in the Philippines because of lower labor costs and bright young talents, according to an IT research company.

"The daily minimum wage is set to approximately $10 per day, making it far cheaper to outsource in the Philippines. As such, Filipino salaries are but a fraction of their western counterparts," Lauro Vives, chief analyst at XMG Global, said.

Based on a global study, Indian professionals are, on average, paid 37 percent higher than their Filipino counterparts.

Another cost-reduction factor for business process outsourcing is the fewer number of legal holidays, Vives said.

The Philippines has 18 holidays a year, compared with India’s 33.

"Lower business costs translate directly into higher business profits; let’s face it! The Philippines remains a less expensive choice. The typical operating costs of a BPO company in the Philippines results in average savings of $15,000 to $22,000 per annum," Vives said.

The Philippines also has plenty of economics zones, numbering 248 locations that give opportunities for investments, and locating business operations.

Besides lower labor costs, the country’s workforce is highly-skilled and competent, possessing a world-class education in IT and competitive infrastructure backed by several multinational companies.

Country estimations project 440,000 graduates for 2012-2013. Of that total, 50,000 are IT graduates.

Despite its advantages, the Philippines however lacks multilingual talent, Vives said.

"An estimate of over than 6,000 multi-linguals in 2011 far exceeds labor market projections. Last year, with insights and help from XMG Global, a tie-up between the Board of Investments and IBM was formed to implement programs to enhance the capabilities of multilingual talent in general, but more particularly in the BPO sector in languages other than English," he said.

"This effort will play a crucial role to hit the industry’s goal of generating $25 billion in revenue by year 2016. This is yet another example of government and business working in concert to achieve a common goal," he added.

As of last year, the BPO industry employed over 640,000 people directly and 1.3 million indirectly, generating $11 billion in revenues, equivalent to five percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.

source: interaksyon.com