Diversification to boost BPO revenue to $20.4 B by 2022

MANILA, Philippines - The Contact Centers Association of the Philippines (CCAP) is optimistic about the industry’s growth in the next five years as it continues to diversify the services it offers.

“The Philippine contact center industry will continue to shine and show its relevance as a major economic contributor,” the CCAP said.

Based on the group’s 2022 roadmap, it forecasts revenues by contact centers to reach $20.4 billion, which would create around 1.186 million full-time employments (FTEs) by 2022.

This is part of the $39 billion revenues the Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector is projected to generate in 2022.

Based on figures from the CCAP, an estimated $12.8 billion worth of revenues was generated by the contact centers sector last year with a total employment of 751,207 full-time workers.

For 2017, the CCAP projects revenues to reach $13.3 billion and 818,200 FTEs.

In a media briefing Thursday, CCAP chairman Benedict Hernandez said the growth of the contact centers sector is driven by the diversification of services it offers.

“The growth is evolving into more end-to-end services and the growth is evolving into industry-specific offerings,” Hernandez said.

He noted that from offering front desk services in the past, contact center companies are now providing middle and back-end services.

“A lot of our companies will continue to diversify into different areas,” Hernandez said.

This is also caused by the growth of the non-voice services sector. Non-voice segment is expected to grow much faster, towards higher complexity back-office services,” the CCAP said.

In 2016, the non-voice sector raked in an estimated $4 billion in revenues, almost half of the voice segment’s revenues of $8.77 billion.

Apart from the services it offers, Hernandez noted that the markets the Philippines serve have also widened.

“Five to seven years ago, there was extremely high concentration of our clients located in the US, But over the past five to seven years, it has diversified more and more, “Hernandez said.

In 2015, North America accounted for 72 percent of the contact center and BPO demand in 2015.

Hernandez said demand from other regions is growing with 15 percent coming from Asia Pacific and  11 percent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.