Decade Becomes Landmark for Cebu BPO

Thursday, July 26, 2012 Unknown 1 Comments

The past ten years have been a good ride for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry of Cebu. From its humble beginnings to its enormous success, specifically from year 2009 up to the present, Cebu surely snagged a title as one of the growing cities worldwide.

Cebu BPO Reaches Out to Visayas and Mindanao

Thursday, July 19, 2012 Unknown 3 Comments

BPO (business process outsourcing) services may not be enough for the Philippines if it wants to keep up with the momentum of the outsourcing industry. Adapting more KPO (knowledge processes outsourcing) services is greatly recommended so that the country could step up to a higher level in the outsourcing industry.

Cebu is a major player of Philippines’ BPO Industry. The KPO-BPO industry of the Cebu province currently employs an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 people. The Cebu BPO industry aims to hire 100,000 by 2014.

Presently, Cebu relies on applicants within the province to fill the workforce of its outsourcing industry, which has already to started to expand by providing KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) services as well. To step up its game in the outsourcing industry, Cebu has stopped limiting its services to BPO only.

KPO services entail more complex systems, more brain work so to say, such as areas in research and development, marketing, accounting, animation, design concepts, and market research. Metro Cebu is deemed to be wanting in its pool of talents or qualified personnel for KPO business functions, as opposed to BPO jobs.

In an interview, Joel Mari Yu, managing director of CIPC (Cebu Investment Promotions Center), pointed out that what current companies are doing is to go out of Metro Cebu and conduct recruitment in other parts of the Visayas and cities and provinces in Mindanao. This is an initiative to fill both BPO and KPO job vacancies in Metro Cebu.

Bacolod, Iloilo, Tacloban, and Cagayan de Oro are the initial areas that the CIPC, together with the companies, will be visiting.

“We see no problem with infrastructure in Cebu because it’s already in place. However, if we are to depend only on our own internal population, we are too small. We are insignificant,” Yu admitted.

Also, this is a new way of promoting Cebu to job seekers from far-off places, showing them that Cebu is an ideal location to fulfill a professional life, besides Manila.

This move does not mean that Cebuano professionals are incapable of delivering KPO services; rather, it is a means of adding more people to the KPO workforce of Cebu. Also, while searching for more qualified manpower in other parts of the country, Cebu is developing its BPO professionals to handle more KPO functions.

“We should now look outside Cebu for additional manpower if we want to maintain our rank as an emerged destination for outsourcing companies,” encouraged Yu.

According to Tholon’s recent report, Cebu has succeeded in keeping its 9^th spot on the list of emerged BPO destinations worldwide. Shanghai, China (10^th) follows Cebu.

Yu said that the cities ranked 11th to 15th are within striking distance to dislodge Cebu from its post. These are Krakow in Poland (11th), Beijing in China (12th), Sao Paulo in Brazil (13th), Dalian in China (14th), and Buenos Aires in Argentina (15th).

The KPO sector of Cebu can also use some support from the local government so raise the city's ranking in the list of preferred outsourcing destinations.

About the Author

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Publish on 07/19/2012
Jane is a freelance copywriter, with majority of her work focusing on the outsourcing industry.

• Is it Talent Famine for Cebu?
• Call Centers are for Cebuanos Too
• Cebu: IT-Certified Destination

Is There Talent Famine in Cebu?

Thursday, July 12, 2012 Unknown 2 Comments

It’s all about quality and quantity. Even for the workforce of Call Centers in Cebu.

With the acquired status of the Philippines as one of the major outsourcing destinations in the world, the pioneering cities within the country are struggling to earn their own sweet spot as a favored location globally.

Also, with this newly achieved status of the country surfaces the ominous idea of shortage in the talents needed by the call center industry of Cebu. As the outsourcing industry continues to move up, so are the requirements to keep up with the momentum of its growth. Outsourcing industry experts and analysts are now pushing for knowledge-based services, which entail a higher degree of proficiency in more complicated job functions.

Cebu, like all other prime cities of the country, is facing the possibility of a talent gap in the outsourcing industry. For the past decade, academic institutions have been the source of supply for the workforce of many Call Centers in Cebu.

Nowadays, however, it has been determined that several of the graduates of Cebu's educational institutions are lacking the basic skills required in a call center or in the BPO industry in general.

In addressing this problem, call centers in Cebu are now collaborating with colleges and universities, coming up with advanced and specialized programs directed towards both BPO (business process outsourcing) and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing).

Fortunately, the local government has established ties with the KPO sector and BPO industry to strengthen the city's status in being a favorite outsourcing destination.

On the other hand, Cebu schools are also concerned with the quality of graduates they are producing. The academic institutions in Metro Cebu are now amenable  to making adjustments to their curricula, adding trainings that can make students meet the demands of the BPO industry.

Greg Victor Gabison, president of CEDF-IT (Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology), confirms how much the academe of Cebu is ready and open to engage in more specialized trainings for their students, saying, “We from the academe are also concerned with the quality of our graduates. We are always willing to work with them especially now that one of the strategies is to move up to higher level outsourcing or the KPO which involves more specialization.”

Gabison speaks for the academe in pointing out that more partnerships between the government and academic faculty are more than welcome, especially in highly technical and specialized skills training like cloud computing and other latest technologies now available.

The outsourcing industry is forecasted to double its growth five years from now, with a target of $50 billion annual revenue by 2016. This is attainable if the projected growth rate of 15 percent annually will be realized.

“I’m not however worried about the demand, it’s the supply that we are worried about. It’s time that we put our acts together and come up with a good resolution to this. There are a lot of opportunities for us here and we need to double time,” said Jojo Uligan, director of CCAP (Contact Center Association of the Philippines).

Another suggestion was for the BPO service providers to scout for other markets like Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, besides the US, which is the current market of the industry.

Indeed, the talent gap poses a threat for the KPO sector and BPO industry of Cebu. The city's industry players are well aware of the situation and are lending one another's resources to keep the industry in tow.

The Cebu government, the academic institutions, the private sectors, the outsourcing companies, and the Cebuanos themselves are working hand in hand to phase out the signs of talent famine in the city. Metro Cebu has become an ideal location to establish BPO and KPO companies. Enhancing such strength and overcoming issues of the KPO sector and the BPO industry will make the country excel further and uphold its global fame of delivering quality outsourcing services.

About the Author

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Publish on 07/12/2012
Jane is a freelance copywriter, with majority of her work focusing on the outsourcing industry.

• Call Centers are for Cebuanos Too
• Cebu: IT-Certified Destination
• Let’s Work Overseas in Cebu