PLDT's BPO unit aims to more than double revenues in 3-4 years

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Long Distance TelephoneCo. (PLDT) subsidiary SPi Global, the largest Filipino-owned business process outsourcing (BPO) company, aims to more than double its revenues in the next three to four years from $185 million this year to $500 million.

This as PLDT and SPi Global chairman Manuel Pangilinan revealed that SPi is looking at a broad range of possible companies to acquire, including foreign ones, as part of its bid to increase revenues and expand its presence.

Pangilinan, in an interview, cited data from the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) which projected that from $9.8 billion last year, the Philippine BPO industry will grow to $11.6 billion this year. “In the next five years, they expect that industry revenues will rise to $17 billion, and the 500,000 total workforce to double,” he added.

But he expects competition to intensify, with the likes of China growing its skilled workforce. “In this business which is a global industry, scale is important. Only about five percent of our graduates have IT or engineering-related degrees compared with China and India which have 20 to 25 percent. Our educational system has to be geared towards supporting the IT and software development sector, which has a higher value-added than voice,” Pangilinan said.

SPi president and CEO Maulik Parekh said bringing the $185-million company to $500 million in the next three to four years can be achieved organically. “But to get to the $500-million mark and become one of the top 10 BPO companies, the rest will have to come from new acquisitions or adding new verticals,” he pointed out.

SPi Global, a consolidation of two companies formerly under the ePLDT wing, namely, knowledge process outsourcing unit SPi Technologies and call center firm ePLDT Ventus, has been structured recently to be a full-service global BPO solutions provider operating with three core business units or verticals: content solutions, health information management and customer relationship management. SPi currently accounts for around six percent of the PLDT Group’s total revenues.

Parekh explained that many of their customers now want to see less vendors or suppliers and have been inquiring whether SPi can assist them in other areas like finance and accounting, and human resources management outsourcing. “We are therefore looking at greenfielding in F&A and HR,” he said.

He noted that some of their non-voice clients for content and health care are now tapping SPi’s voice products while the voice clients are also leveraging the non-voice products.

From the current 14,000 manpower level, of which 11,000 are in the Philippines (600 are in Vietnam; 1,800 in India; and 700 in the US and in Europe), Parekh said they expect the total employee count worldwide to more than double in the next three to four years.

In the Philippines where SPi has presence in Metro Manila, Laguna, Iloilo, Cebu, and Dumaguete, the company also aims to expand its footprint to places with talented workforce.

Between content solutions and CRM, SPi has close to 10,000 seats. According to Parekh, they are looking at adding 600 employees.

Parekh revealed that they have received inquiries from the Latin American market. “If they are willing to sign up a contract, we can operate there,” he said. SPi is also looking at expanding in India.