STI forms holding firm for non-education operations

Information technology school STI will form a holding company to oversee its non-education operations such as call centers and healthcare and business process outsourcing services, according to STI president and chief executive officer Monico Jacob.

STI recently joined the burgeoning BPO or call center business through a parthership with Five9 and John F. Kennedy Center Foundation Philippines. The JFK Center Foundation seeks to revolutionize the BPO-CC industry in the country through the development of centers of excellence and is working with educational institutions such as STI.

Five9, on the other hand, is an international call center solutions provider that has chosen the Philippines as the site of its regional headquarters in Southeast Asia. In 2005, the company introduced its award-winning Five9 Virtual Contact Center (VCC), a revolutionary technology that allows small organizations to start a call center with minimal capital.

Under the deal, Five 9 will provide the technology while JFK Center Foundation will offer the training. STI, on the other hand, will provide the infrastructure and manpower.

JFK and Five9 will establish 400 to 500 small to medium-sized call centers that are expected to generate additional 88,000 jobs by 2008, on top of the current 00,000 jobs.

According to Jacob, the call center is now in pilot operation with outbound calls that started early this month.

"The call center enables the school to maximize the use of its resources particularly its computers. This would be a huge cost savings for us," Jacob said.

Jacob said on STI colleges and education centers alone, its call center capacity can already reach as much as 5,000 seats.

He said the move is in line with the school’s efforts to strengthen its Enrolment-to-Employment (E2E) program.

"Ours is not convergence but divergence. All these efforts and those to come are geared towards strengthening our Enrollment to Employment System which aims not only to provide our students with the best education but also to present job opportunities for them" Jacob said.

STI earlier acquired a significant stake in Delos Santos Medical Center, marking its entry into the healthcare services. The hospital is now called DLS-STI Medical Center.