Championing the call center industry

( First of two parts )

Our recent focus to encourage international outsourcing activities to be directed to the Philippines prompted me to highlight the call center industry. This is an abbreviated version of a study written by Robert O’Malley, COO of Asian Call Centres Inc.

Last year, Asian call centers (ACCs) produced the first-ever analysis comparing all the countries in Asia for their suitability for English-speaking offshore call center activity. It was produced in response to a lack of information about the potential locations for offshore call center work. The report received widespread praise for its work detailing the pros and cons of each country in Asia from Pakistan heading east to Japan. By including Hong Kong, Taiwan and China as three separate entities in this report, we are simply reflecting the different economic positions in each of these three areas. In no way does it reflect any political position.

New groupings

There are now five groups instead of four. This year, there is an additional group named "someway off." The reason for the introduction of this group was that "the next wave" was quite broad and there are some members of the group which are a long way off from being ready for international call center traffic.

The Main Contenders. The main contenders are the two countries that have a proven track record in English-speaking offshore call center activity. This group consists exclusively of the Philippines and India.

The Chasing Pack. The chasing pack is the group of countries that has done little or no offshore call-center work to date but theoretically has the ability to perform such activity now. There is generally at least one issue that has prohibited the expansion of the industry in these countries. These countries will take on a limited amount of call center work but won’t become serious contenders for at least five years and we recommend against outsourcing to these countries until at least 2005.

The Next Wave. The next wave is the group that has the potential to conduct offshore outsourcing work in a minimum of 10 years but lacks the ability to effectively perform such an activity at present. These countries are generally even lower cost bases than the first two groups, making the potential rewards greater. However, there are some issues with these countries that will always prohibit the outsourcing of call center work to them until at least 2010.

Someway Off. This is the new group, which includes the countries of Indochina. These countries are not genuine alternatives at the moment and are unlikely to have the potential to perform such work effectively for at least 15 to 20 years. We advise that you don’t even consider these countries for call center work.

The High Cost Base. This group consists of Japan and Asia’s four so-called "tiger economies." These countries are far too expensive to be major contenders for offshore work. In fact, some of these countries may even outsource their own work offshore. Much of Singapore’s work will move to Malaysia and traffic from Hong Kong and Taiwan will eventually move to mainland China.

In our next column, I will present the critical factors to the call center business as discussed by Robert O’Malley.

ACC is British-owned and -managed, and conforms to British standards. It is complemented by a local partnership with one of the Philippines’ most respected families. ACC’s management team has in excess of 30 years’ experience and has developed, set and managed highly successful key accounts for companies such as MCI Worldcom, Cable and Wireless, Sky, American Express, Vodka Martini and MBNA. By combining local expertise with extensive global experience, ACC is in a unique position to provide worldwide clients with realistic and commercially viable direct marketing solutions.

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Abigail K. Yap is the CEO of Active Business Solutions Inc. (/a/b/s/), the parent company of Asian Call Centres Inc. and a member of Yapster e-Conglomerate Inc. You may contact her at [email protected].