RP aspires to become call center capital

The Philippines is positioning itself as the call center capital of the world, in line with the government and the private sector’s call for the country to find a niche in the highly competitive information technology field.

The country wants to be known as the service capital of the Asia Pacific region. Aside from IT, this market also includes call center services.

More and more countries, including the United States, are outsourcing the handling of inbound and outbound calls on inquiries, complaints, sales, research, and other customer transactions. In fact, the world outsourcing market is projected to increase from $45.26 billion last year to $54 billion this year and to a whopping $125.4 billion by 2006.

In North America alone, there some 25 billion calls made a year to utilities and other companies that sell products, many of which have already started to outsource the call center function. There are also around 70,000 call centers in the US alone.

According to Customer Contact Center Inc. (C3), a newly formed company of Benpres Holdings Corp. India and the Philippines are getting a bulk of the outsourcing business away form the traditional suppliers like Canada and Australia due to their large, well-educated English population and versatility in accents.

C3 is earmarking $20 to $30 million for the business of providing total call center solutions. It is one of the largest center operators in the Philippines with a network of more than 500 seats in multiple locations – Manila, Cebu and San Francisco, USA. It is also expanding its capacity to 1,300 seats by middle of this year and is constructing a brand-new 850-seat call center at the Eastwood City Cyberpark in Libis.

It has more than six years of experience in utilities and telecommunications, through its relationship with ABS-CBN Broadcasting, Manila Electric Co., Maynilad Water, Bayantel, and SkyCable.

"The company is now positioned to meet the emerging market for outsource services in the Asia Pacific region, originating from North America, Europe, and within the region itself," Karen Batungbacal, C3 chief executive officer said.

She said the company is setting its sights on the growing outsource market from North America and Europe.

"The Philippines’ competitive edge is its rich pool of English speaking workforce, low operating cost, and the availability of skilled and educated individuals. C3 is supporting government‘s effort to turn the country into the call center hub of Asia," Batungbacal said.

The C3 official said they are closely working with the Department of Trade and Industry to get the business away from India, where the cost of telecommunication links is still expensive and highly regulated.