Siemens opens 1st call center in RP

German industrial group Siemens Inc. launched yesterday its first customer call center in the Philippines that will cater primarily to English-speaking global customers.

Tertius Vermeulen, president and chief executive of Siemens Inc., a wholly owned unit of Siemens AG, told reporters the company invested P250 million in the 450-seat call center, which is expected to employ 700 people by the year’s end.

Alexander Langhans, vice president of Siemens Business Services GmbH & Co., said Siemens also was looking at other locations in the country for future expansion.

Outsourcing is the fastest growing industry in the Philippines, with government officials and industry players forecasting sales to grow fivefold to $12.41 billion by 2010 from $2.49 billion last year.

By February, the Philippines will have 150 call center companies, where the number of seats rose to 70,000 last year from 40,000 in 2004, according to the Department of Trade and Industry. By comparison, there were three million seats in US-based call centers and over 200,000 in India in 2004.

Siemens, Inc. has an agreement with Siemens Business Services (SBS) Global to establish the new business unit to deliver IT helpdesk and customer care services mainly for English-speaking global customers.

The Philippine call center is the latest addition to the existing satellite call center offices of SBS in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Turkey and Singapore.

Siemens Business Services is an internationally leading IT service provider.

The Siemens Group offers services all along the IT service chain from a single source — from consulting to systems integration, right through the management of IT infrastructures.

With regard to outsourcing and IT maintenance, Siemens Business Services is among the top 10 providers worldwide. Sales in fiscal year 2004 (ending 30 September 2004) came to around EUR 4.7 billion, 76 percent of which was achieved outside the Siemens organization.

The company currently has approximately 36,100 employees worldwide.

Vermeulen also indicated Siemens interest to actively provide other products and services to the telecommunications, power and water sectors.

Siemens, Vermeulen said has acquired interest in US Water and Bonus which will boost Siemen’s presence in the water products and power sector.

However, Vermeulen clarified that Siemen’s interest is in supplying products and services rather than in operations.

Vermeulen assured that Siemen’s decision to invest in the Philippines is due to the availability of a huge pool of English-speaking human resources. – With AP