Philippine Call Center Stable

By Roberto L Bacasong
Company Writer
Unique Interaction Philippines

THE Call centers industry in the Philippines is stable according to the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last July 2007. Mrs. Arroyo, clad in a red terno expressed the significant on how call center industry is helping the country in terms of providing jobs to the Filipino people especially to the fresh graduates. This industry is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance.

Mrs. Arroyo is taking cognizance of the importance of call center industry because of the ability of the Filipinos to speak fluently in English. She even said in her speech: “The Philippines ranks among top off-shoring hubs in the world because of cost competitiveness and more importantly our highly trainable, English proficient, IT-enabled management and manpower”

It only shows that call center industry in the Philippines has been called the “New India” as the country offers an abundance of inexpensive, English speaking labor. This was according to the 2003 Philippines Call Centre Industry Benchmark Study conducted by call centres net. Our country is very viable alternative to other locations in the Asia Pacific and hence many local and multinational organizations have set up contact centers. This trend is set to continue as numerous companies progressively seek an Asian presence to service customers both regionally and globally.

“Information technology will help the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) bring in more taxes in the coming months,” she stressed.

It means to say that more investments are likely to happen in the following years because of the presence of this industry. The country has approximately 200 call centers and 20,000 seats. It is estimated that 80% of these seats are operated by call center outsourcing bureaus.

She further said: “While our strength in contact centers is well-established, we are now focused on growing the higher value-added services, including accounting, legal, human resources and administrative services.”

She stressed: “The business services sector has become the fastest growing in the economy providing 400,000 jobs compared to 8,000 in 2000. By 2010 the forecast is one million jobs earning $12 billion, the same amount remitted by our overseas Filipinos today.”

If the government will unite and continue to promote the country as an investor-friendly in Asia many foreign multinational firms will choose Philippines to put up their contact centers here. The political bickering will not help the country in stabilizing the economy. If political noise continue to exist especially most of the newly elect senators and solons are from the opposition parties. Let’s hope and pray that the last election should serve as lesson to the entire nation.

Many factors should be prioritized if the government is serious in keeping this industry. First, is to focus on education. Knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth. Without knowledge we cannot move on and do the things we want. With this development, the President said that the nation is investing more for education: PhP150 billion, PhP29 billion more than last year. In 2006, the government and private sector built 15,000 classrooms instead of the usual 6,000. Since call center industry wants their employees to be computer literate. The government reported that one third of the public high schools now have Internet access, with private sector support.

The President quoted in her speech: “We have a scarcity of public high schools but a surplus of private high schools. So instead of building more high schools, we give more high school scholarships - 600,000 scholars this year.”

Aside from education, terrorism should be the top priority because it will scare the investors on putting their businesses in the country. The President herself is aware of the presence of the terrorists, which threatens the sovereign, democratic, compassionate and decent way of life. “Therefore, in the fight against lawless violence, we must uphold these values. It is never right and always wrong to fight terror with terro.”

I welcome the development that Human Security Act, a new anti-terror law that took effect last July 15, underscored the resolve to deal with terrorism and contribute to regional security. Due to the continuous conflict between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the More Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, it is a good thing that she asked the Congress to enact laws to transform state response to political violence: First, laws to protect witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers. Second, laws to guarantee swift justice from more empowered special courts. Third, laws to impose harsher penalties for political killings. Fourth, laws reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services who betray public trust and bring shame to the greater number of their colleagues who are patriotic.

“It is my ardent wish that most of the vision I have outlined will be fully achieved when I step down. It is my unshakeable resolve that the fundamentals of this vision will by then be permanently rooted, its progress well advanced and its direction firmly fixed with our reforms already bearing fruit. All that will remain for my successor is to gather the harvest. He or she will have an easier time of it than I did.”

No matter what happen, the Philippine call centers will continue to be part of Mrs. Arroyo's strong republic campaign. The Sona lasted 56 minutes to deliver and was interrupted by 102 rounds of applause, including the standing ovation at the end.*

Valuing the Philippine Call Centers

By Roberto L. Bacasong
Company Writer
Unique Interaction Philippines


THE recent State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo highlighted the booming business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines. Mrs. Arroyo, clad in a red terno expressed the significant on how BPO is helping the country in terms of providing jobs to the Filipino people especially to the fresh graduates. BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance.
When I was practicing my media profession, I recalled that my former Editor-in-Chief from Sun.Star Bacolod stationed me at the Fountain of Justice in front of the Bacolod City Hall where the rallyists from the local level were staging their sentiment on Sona. These groups are handling different materials such as placards, streamers and effigy portraying Mrs. Arroyo in a very ugly creature, among others. I also have the chance to interview their respective secretary-generals on how they reacted as the President was receiving claps including numerous standing ovations while she was outlining her achievements and plans for the country. Of course, I already anticipated their message that they want to oust Mrs. Arroyo. As a faithful journalist, I see to it that everything I wrote was fair and not judgmental in order to have a balance story at the end of the day. I also reminisced that my former Visayas Bureau Chief from BusinessWorld also prepared assignments that I need to accomplish by asking comments to the local businessmen, politicians and public figures on how they interpret Sona. Just a quick background of my previous employment, I covered politics and governance for Sun.Star Bacolod (www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod) and also a correspondent for BusinessWorld (www.bworld.com.ph), a Manila-based newspaper. I started my career in journalism right after I finished my degree in Mass Communication in 2002.
From the time I completed my data, I wasted no time writing my article for tomorrow’s issue. This is my usual routine writing article to inspire our local readers and our online subscribers. My experienced in journalism gave me the opportunity to learn what is BPO and call center industry is all about. Bacolod at that time was struggling to have at least one contact center compared in the cities of Cebu, Iloilo and Dumaguete, which have their call centers operating in their respective business districts in Visayas region. It was only in 2006 where US-based firms from Manila decided to establish contact centers in my hometown. This is because of the positive feedback that the city produced competitive graduates in terms of speaking English language. Another factor is the participation of the academes and private sectors. Incumbent Bacolod City Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia welcomes the development of BPO industry which really improve the collection of the City’s revenues.
It’s so hard for me to quit my job because writing is really my passion. I know that I have so many things to be done and my four years in the media is not enough. Media is known as the watchdog in the society because we promote peace and brings development to the nation. I thank Mr. Beau Rudd and Mr. Rommel Sarmiento for giving me the opportunity to write again. Rest assured that this significant event in my life will always be treasured.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo is taking cognizance of the importance of call center industry because of the ability of the Filipinos to speak fluently in English. She even said in her speech: “The Philippines ranks among top off-shoring hubs in the world because of cost competitiveness and more importantly our highly trainable, English proficient, IT-enabled management and manpower…”
It only shows that call center industry in the Philippines has been called the “New India” as the country offers an abundance of inexpensive, English speaking labor. This was according to the 2003 Philippines Call Centre Industry Benchmark Study conducted by callcentres.net. Our country is very viable alternative to other locations in the Asia Pacific and hence many local and multinational organizations have set up contact centers. This trend is set to continue as numerous companies progressively seek an Asian presence to service customers both regionally and globally.
Mrs. Arroyo also said: “Information technology will help the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) bring in more taxes in the coming months…”
It means to say that more investments are likely to happen in the following years because of the presence of this industry. The country has approximately 200 call centers and 20,000 seats. It is estimated that 80% of these seats are operated by call center outsourcing bureaus.
She further said: “While our strength in contact centers is well-established, we are now focused on growing the higher value-added services, including accounting, legal, human resources and administrative services…”
She stressed: “The business services sector has become the fastest growing in the economy providing 400,000 jobs compared to 8,000 in 2000. By 2010 the forecast is one million jobs earning $12 billion, the same amount remitted by our overseas Filipinos today…”
If the government will unite and continue to promote the country as an investor-friendly in Asia many foreign multinational firms will choose Philippines to put up their business here. The political bickering will not help the country in stabilizing the economy. If political noise continue to exist especially most of the newly elect senators and solons are from the opposition parties. Let’s hope and pray that the last election should serve as lesson to the entire nation. But until when are we able to suffer from hunger and poverty if the rift of the lawmakers continue to exist?
Nevertheless, many factors should be prioritized if the government is serious in keeping this industry. First, is on education. Knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth. Without knowledge we cannot move on and do the things we want. With this development, the President said that the nation is investing more for education: P150 billion, P29 billion more than last year. In 2006, the government and private sector built 15,000 classrooms instead of the usual 6,000. Since call center industry wants their employees to be computer literate. The government reported that one third of the public high schools now have Internet access, with private sector support.
The President quoted in her speech: “We have a scarcity of public high schools but a surplus of private high schools. So instead of building more high schools, we give more high school scholarships - 600,000 scholars this year…” These are the developments that will surely strengthen the BPO industry in the country.
Aside from education, terrorism should be the top priority because it will scare the investors on putting their businesses in the country. The President herself is aware of the presence of the terrorists, which threatens the sovereign, democratic, compassionate and decent way of life. “Therefore, in the fight against lawless violence, we must uphold these values. It is never right and always wrong to fight terror with terror…”
I welcome the development that Human Security Act, a new anti-terror law that took effect last July 15, underscored the resolve to deal with terrorism and contribute to regional security. Because of the continuous rival of the military and the More Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, it is a good thing that she asked the Congress to enact laws to transform state response to political violence: First, laws to protect witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers. Second, laws to guarantee swift justice from more empowered special courts. Third, laws to impose harsher penalties for political killings. Fourth, laws reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services who betray public trust and bring shame to the greater number of their colleagues who are patriotic.
“It is my ardent wish that most of the vision I have outlined will be fully achieved when I step down. It is my unshakeable resolve that the fundamentals of this vision will by then be permanently rooted, its progress well advanced and its direction firmly fixed with our reforms already bearing fruit. All that will remain for my successor is to gather the harvest. He or she will have an easier time of it than I did…”
No matter what happen, the Philippines will continue to be a strong republic. The Sona lasted 56 minutes to deliver and was interrupted by 102 rounds of applause, including the standing ovation at the end. Till the next Sona!!!

Are you looking for a call center in the Philippines?
Check out Unique Interaction Inc

Poor English: A Threat to the Philippine Call Centers?

By Roberto L Bacasong
Company Writer
Unique Interaction Philippines

DESPITE the Philippines is considered as one of the third largest English speaking countries in Asia yet the report released by the US State Department, in its “2007 Investment Climate Statement” this month cited that the “English language proficiency, while still better than in other Southeast Asian nations, is declining in the Philippines.”

This report is a ticking bomb that caused alarm to the Philippine Government, the business sectors and especially the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, which serves as a foundation of call centers in the Philippines.

“High levels of corruption, ongoing efforts to reform the judicial system, weak but improving protection of intellectual property rights, the slow pace of energy sector reform and privatization, the need for further fiscal reforms to boost depressed spending levels for infrastructure and social services, and political uncertainties combined to dampen investor interest,” are the major considerations highlighted by the US Government on basing their statement.

I learned that various sectors put the pressure to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on how she will address the report. She kept on saying that English should use as primary medium of instruction in all schools nationwide. In fact, Mrs. Arroyo highlighted stressed that “knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth”. With this development, the President allocated PhP150 billion, which is PhP29 billion increased last year in education budget. She stressed that that almost young Filipino professionals are employed in a call center in the Philippines and received enjoyable salary package from the different contact centers they are working for. She also reported that most schools in the country have accessed to the Internet because of the program designed by the Department of Education (DepEd).

The report alarmed the business councils both foreign and domestic because it might cause panic to our call center industry, which one of the vibrant industries in the country today. The business council noted that the Philippines is the home of the world largest call center companies aside from India, China, Singapore and among others.

The US State Department noted that “the comparative advantages the Philippines once enjoyed vis-à-vis its neighbors in attracting foreign investment need to be restored in order to attract more investment and support higher growth.”

Meanwhile, Beau Rudd, chief executive officer of Unique Interaction encourage his call center agents to always use English as the first language. Mr. Rudd said that there are so many big call centers in the Philippines and they have a strict policy about English only when you come into the office.

“I have been trying to figure it out for a long time and the only reason I thought it was for is because the customer might hear Tagalog in the background. The reason these company have put this in place is because of this, when you are always taking in English you will always think in English,” he stressed.

It sounds funny but all Filipinos may speak good English but they are converting it in the mind from Tagalog and the problem with them is Tagalog is all backwards, he added.

In a call center in the Philippines, it employed about 200,000 call center representatives working in different companies. This is according to one of the executives in a call center in the Philippines reported during the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) roadmap conference held last July 11 and 12 this year. Call center managers relayed that this business remained to be a sunshine industry and continue to grow faster. The CCAP further revealed that the industry needs at least 500,000 contact center agent professionals by 2010, a target the organization has come up with after extrapolating its current demand but considering the 19-percent yearly attrition. CCAP is now composed of 34 contact center companies based in the Philippines.

This is no joke. Losing employees for call centers will only reflect that we, Filipinos failed to implement the English program policy. Or shall I say, the government is incompetent enough to improve the country’s learning English skills. The good focal point, however, that we Filipinos are dedicated to learn this language in order for us to have edge especially when applying for jobs. Even call center companies expressed their statement that deterioration of English sounds “painful”. These call center leaders blamed the soap operas dubbed in Pilipino, and too much focusing on cell phone text messaging. The education sector blamed the influence of pop culture and the domestic media, where the dominant language is Taglish, a combination of Tagalog and English.

The US government further outlined that the country’s fiscal conditions, helped recently by new revenue legislation, seem nonetheless to be improving and the general economic outlook is cautiously optimistic for 2007. The figures indicates that the Philippines’ GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth accelerated from 5% in 2005 to 5.4 percent as of September 2006, spurred by a recovery in post-drought agricultural harvests, more robust export growth, the continued strength of remittances from Filipinos overseas, and a vibrant call center business.*

Call Center Lifestyle in the Philippines

By Roberto L Bacasong
Company Writer
Unique Interaction Philippines

Yuppie Filipinos get the chance to be employed easily once they obtained their bachelor or diploma degrees because of the emergence of contact centers everywhere in the Philippines. These workers started to fill the 24-hour skyscrapers that gives a colorful background to metro Manila’s financial districts at nighttime.This only shows that people employed in this job for a couple of years were used to on their ticking biological sleeping habit. They slept all day long just to regain their strength and wake up again at the wee hours to prepare themselves for a nightlong work. Clad in casual attire with matching fashionable coats are the most common props if you are a customer service representative. During break time some even used to occupy the al fresco various dining areas in Manila. In Ortigas for instance, call center agents enjoy their 30-minute to 1 hour break at McDonald’s, Starbucks, among others. For those who have extra pennies, they enjoy the hot aroma of Brazilian coffee in various blend. Others may sit on the corner and lit up their cigarette in a way of releasing their stress from work. It is enjoying isn’t it?

At 8 pm. about 100 people, most 25 younger, sit in a room of enclosed cubicles outfitted with phones and computers. They’ll be working until 4 am. or depends on the schedule of their shifts. As their shifts starts, it is usually morning in the US. These contact centers are following US standard zones such as Pacific, Eastern, Mountain and Central.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Luisa Geneta disclosed that call center is her first job when she finished her bachelor’s degree on May 4, 2007. At 12 am., Geneta left her house in Tondo, a suburb village in Manila, as her shift starts at 2 am. This Banking and Finance graduate from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) is one of the top caliber representatives for Unique Interaction, an American call center based in Ortigas.

“Working in a call center in the Philippines is really a big challenge for me especially that I’m new to this business. I spent most of my time and energy on this job,” she said, who handles an inbound account.

It is a very risky to leave my house at midnight for a young lady like me. However, I consider that this is the most rewarding career that we have nowadays and this will be a big help in creating another means of livelihood for us Filipinos especially for fresh graduates like me, she claimed.

On the other hand, Margaret Estanislao, 19, a team leader of the same company, disclosed that placing the agents into action challenge her in keeping her job.

Estanislao, who started as an agent added that they tried everything in sorting out the problem of the customers. “We need to maintain our empathy if the customer is upset. They are pissed and upset not because of the representatives but to the products itself”.

Both Geneta and Estanislao agreed that this job has given them the opportunity to enhance their skills and boost their confidence when it comes of interaction with their clients in a phone-to-phone conversation.

“Not to mention the financial aid that it gives to me and my family. I think this industry will continue to prosper in the succeeding years and it will continue to be one of the leading providers of career opportunities for Filipinos,” Geneta further said.

It cannot be denied that outsourcing business is one of the most flavored industries in the Philippines and other Asian countries. It appears that contact center executives preferred this country because of the number of students produced every year, which can speak English in American way. As the third largest English-speaking country in Asia no doubt that business process outsourcing is in demand today.

BPO companies provides a state-of-the-art equipment in outsourcing their business in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. These companies trained their employees to speak like American way. In Unique Interaction, they provide fundamental call center training before the call center trainees will be allowed to take calls. The trainees has to learn account information first. Once they know the account then they are deployed ready on the floor and receive as many calls as they want. The company also teach their employees on how to handle their customers well. It is so hard to lose a customer, we know that they are considered as the lifeblood that gives full stream of support to make the company up and running and stay on the business for long.

The fact is call centers are part of the Philippine economic activity. Almost half of the 86.2 million people in the Philippines are younger than 20 years old. So don’t be surprised if you will be able to meet supervisors, team leaders, managers below 25. This is because that call center has the fastest way of promoting a career development. If the agent is performing better and receiving good CSAT ratings then no doubt that within six months or less than, this certain employee is entitled to move to another level in his or her career path. The Philippines is also one of the potential factors for outsourcing. It has been also forecast by the XMG Inc., Manila-based research and advisory firm that the nation will surpass India by 2008 as home to the world’s largest call center companies.

The Philippines offers attractive environment for the BPO companies, which is one of the key requirements by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) in applying for this business. Even now big contact center firms also expanded their centers not only in Manila but targeting the provincial levels. So it means, the revenues will not only take place within the National Capital Region (NCR) but it will also circulate to the provincial areas after passing the standard set by the Peza. Largest call centers are also found operating in Pampanga, Laguna and Baguio in Luzon; Bacolod, Cebu, Dumaguete and Iloilo in the Visayas; and Cagayan de Oro and Davao in Mindanao.

The Philippine Government is very supportive to this. Under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, she said that BPO companies will generate billions of pesos in the country with target by 2010. When it starts to operate in 2000, now off-shore call center industry estimates to employs 60,000 people.*