Categories: Client News

Contact center industry poised for sustained growth

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>800&comma;000 jobs and US&dollar;14&period;7 billion in revenues expected by 2016<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lpar;Manila&comma; Philippines&comma; October 15&comma; 2012&rpar;—In just over a decade&comma; the contact center industry has become a major contributor to the Philippine economy&comma; overtaking India to become the number one global provider of voice services&period;<&excl;--more--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The voice sector posted a 21-percent growth in 2011&period; It presently employs 493&comma;000 direct employees providing &dollar;9 billion in services to global clients&period; It is still the largest sector within the Philippine information technology and business process outsourcing &lpar;IT-BPO&rpar; industry&period; It makes up 64 percent of the industry’s total number of direct employees and over 67&percnt; of total revenues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The contact center industry is not slowing down either&period; Contact Center Association of the Philippines &lpar;CCAP&rpar; and Business Processing Association of the Philippines &lpar;BPAP&rpar; president Benedict Hernandez said that job opportunities in the voice industry are expected to double in the coming years&comma; creating 800&comma;000 jobs and bringing US&dollar;14&period;7 billion in revenues by 2016&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As with any booming industry&comma; industry players expect to meet challenges ahead&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For the next 10 years&comma; the problems that the call center industry should expect are the dwindling talent supply&comma; low retention rate&comma; and maintaining an investor-friendly business environment&comma;” said Hernandez&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Potential talent is there&comma; but we need to make them either ready with the right skills set or willing to join the industry&period; K-12 education can be a tool to prepare the country’s talent to drive future industry growth&comma;” said Sen&period; Edgardo Angara in his keynote address during the recent International Contact Center Conference and Expo&period; To help build potential talent capabilities&comma; Senator Angara said the government intends to donate P1-billion to the industry by investing on education and talent development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Contact center agents account for the single biggest source of business competitiveness and success for call centers and similar BPOs&period; A call center&&num;8217&semi;s ability to sustain the growth and development of its workforce is&comma; thus&comma; equivalent to sustaining business competitiveness and success&period; Our business is our people&period; Without them we have no business&comma;” said CCAP executive director Jojo Uligan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Looking farther ahead&comma; &&num;8220&semi;In 2021&comma; the call center industry will evolve&comma; resulting in new work opportunities and new skills&period; The good news is that the Philippines has these numbers &lpar;of talent&rpar;&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Swati Chawla&comma; lead for Talent Consulting Business-Southeast Asia of Towers Watson&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ateneo Center of Research and Development executive director Maria Regina Hechanova added that effective leadership by people managers could solve the problem in talent retention&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Aside from the incentive programs offered by companies&comma; leadership seminars can also be helpful in instilling effective leadership among leaders&comma;” she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; Dr&period; Winston &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Stan” Padojinog&comma; senior economist and Dean of the School of Management of the University of Asia and the Pacific&comma; emphasized that creating and maintaining an environment conducive for business is also crucial in attracting more investors and global clients&period; Aside from combating threats to peace and security&comma; such as terrorism&comma; it is also important to set up technology innovations&comma; systems and infrastructure especially in emerging hubs&period; The government intends to push for public-private partnerships to drive this goal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite these challenges&comma; the Philippine voice sector is positive that it will consistently perform and meet its goals in the coming years&period; But while competitors are gearing up to get a larger share of the market&comma; local industry players are realizing the need to take a more proactive approach to stay ahead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We shouldn’t just follow&period; Instead&comma; we should take the lead&comma; create and blaze the trails&comma; and proactively make the future of the industry happen&period; We should not just defend our market position&comma; but take the lead in setting benchmarks and best practices&period; We should not just keep the pace&comma; but shape and pursue success with rigor&comma; commitment&comma; and excitement in building the world’s largest contact center practice&comma;” said Hernandez&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>About BPAP<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>The Business Processing Association of the Philippines &lpar;BPAP&rpar;<&sol;strong> is the umbrella association for the IT-BPO and GIC &lpar;Global In-House Center&rpar; industry in the Philippines&period; BPAP serves as the one-stop information and advocacy gateway for the industry&period; With approximately 300 industry and support-industry members&comma; including five associations—Animation Council of the Philippines&comma; Contact Center Association of the Philippines&comma; Game Developers Association of the Philippines&comma; Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines&comma; and Philippine Software Industry Association—BPAP plays a pivotal role in sustaining rapid growth of the IT-BPO and GIC industry by working to ensure an enduring supply of high quality labor&comma; supporting service innovation&comma; and providing country visibility&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>BPAP assists investors in setting up operations easily and quickly in the Philippines&period; Relevant research&comma; introductions to key government and industry officials&comma; and a series of briefings at each step of the investment process ensure a seamless development process&period; On-going support is provided through a wide variety of initiatives&comma; including programs for HR development&comma; business development&comma; and on-going knowledge sharing and networking opportunities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

J Darell Sapin

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