iCall of Singapore ties up with JG Summit’s S2

Summit Internet Investments (S2), a subsidiary of JG Summit, has been appointed by iCall of Singapore to be its Asia-Pacific Internet contact center.

Gulliver Go, S2 business development director, said S2 has partnered with a call center facility that runs 200 customer service representative (CSR) stations operating since 1998. The facilities are located in Libis and Balagtas, and currently handle 80,000 calls daily.

Under the iCall deal, S2 will handle the customer service calls of iCall’s clients from Singapore. "We are very honored to work with S2 and count them as part of the iCall network," said Terence Seah, CEO of iCall Systems. "In the months ahead, as iCall proceeds to drive more call volume from the US, we expect to channel these to S2." Internet-based support, such as chat services and co-browning activities, has experienced growing demand from global retail, technical and financial sectors.

Industry analysis forecast the global call center operations market to grow 21 percent annually, from $7 billion in 1998 to $18 billion in 2002. The Asia-Pacific segment is estimated to expand annually by 20 percent and is projected to be worth over $1 billion by 2006.

S2’s partner call center is in the process of upgrading its existing $9-million multi-service environment (MSE) facility into a state-of-the-art e-CRM solution that would support all media. "For S2 clients, this will provide automated customer interaction," Go mentioned, "Through this, S2 can support a faster response time coupled with enhanced compliant/information handling, and precise data capture of customer profiles."

Go said S2 is targeting a diversified set of local and international industries to service CRM requirements via phone of Internet. S2 is actively pushing its call center project in English-speaking countries, offering lower operating costs as an outsourced alternative and the Filipinos’ advantage of fluency in English.

S2 has interests in several e-business ventures, including JobStreet, the leading on-line recruitment site in Southeast Asia; Latitude Web, a regional Internet applications company; Summit Interactive, creator of on-line content and community sites such as Female Network and CandyMag.com, and Bayantrade, a B2B e-procurement consortium put up by six Philippine conglomerates.