TeleTech to open 3rd call center; Dell readies its first

Dell, the world’s largest PC company, finally announced it will invest in the Philippines. However, it won’t be to establish a subsidiary office or a manufacturing plant but to open its own customer contact center.

Prior to this announcement, Dell executives reportedly visited several call centers in the country, which somehow created the impression that Dell has plans to outsource its customer support operations or even open a Philippine sales office.

For a long time, Dell’s PC business in the country has being carried out by a few people in a so-called representative office. This will be in stark contrast to the planned 700 technical support and customer service agents whom Dell plans to hire for a possible Makati-based call center.

Dell plans to start its call center operation in February 2006. Hiring and training of personnel are ongoing. The Philippine facility will be part of Dell’s network of contact centers in over 30 locations around the globe. Dell’s consumer phone-based PC technical support service is not limited to hardware but also includes software applications that cover solutions for virus and spyware.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Dell has sales operations in Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The company manufactures in Penang, Malaysia and Xiamen, China for customers in the region and provides technical support from contact centers in Penang, Malaysia and Xiamen and Dalian, China.

Meanwhile, the largely residential district of Novaliches in Quezon City is now home to the third customer contact center in the country of US-based TeleTech Holdings Inc.

This puts Novaliches, where the famous La Mesa Dam watershed can be found, on the world’s call center map. TeleTech’s Novaliches call center occupies two floors inside the Robinson Place Fairview Mall and has a total floor area of 9,200 square meters, making it the biggest of the three TeleTech sites in the country.

TeleTech’s latest call center will handle initially two new client programs for a digital imaging company and a broadband/DSL provider in the United States. Some 2,000 call center agents are now reporting at this brand new facility seven days a week, and in two shifts to provide technical support to customers in the US’ West and East Coasts.

The concept of a call center inside a mall appeals to the young call center employees as it gives them easy access to restaurants, bookstores and entertainment places during their breaks and off-hours, says Craig Reines, general manager and vice president for the Philippine operations of TeleTech.

Situating a technology-driven call center business away from the concrete jungles of Makati and Ortigas to the laid-back Novaliches (which is home to Metro Manila’s one and only real forested area – the La Mesa Eco-Park), also helps send the message that new areas outside the premier central business districts are also becoming conducive for business investments. Quezon City, for one, has a sizable labor pool of 997,000 people that a manpower-intensive call center operation like TeleTech’s can tap.

TeleTech’s Novaliches facility, which has some 1,500 workstations, will be formally inaugurated next week. The company’s other facilities are in the cities of Pasay and Taguig.