Convergys launches San Lazaro contact center

MANILA, Philippines - Demand for Philippine-based customer service support is growing with more facilities opening and generating jobs for Filipinos. Only recently, the largest contact center in the country, Convergys Corp., inaugurated its newest facility in Manila with no less than President Aquino as guest of honor.

Jeffrey Fox, president and CEO of Convergys, and Andrea Ayers, president of customer management, flew in for the occasion and to personally witness the unveiling of the marker at San Lazaro.

The facility was Convergys Corp.’s 12th contact center in the country and its first in Manila. It boasts of a recruitment center, executive and administrative offices, training rooms, conference rooms, and employee lounges and is expected to employ about 2,400 when filled to capacity.

“As the largest contact center in the country and the largest private employer in the Philippines, Convergys continues to invest, grow and prosper here,” said Marife Zamora, Philippine country manager and managing director for Asia-Pacific and EMEA.

Aside from the President, a high-level team of government officials led by Trade and Industry Secretary Greg Domingo, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) chairman Ivan Uy, and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim graced the facility’s inauguration.

The President cited the outsourcing business in the country for generating jobs for an estimated 557,000 Filipinos, with forecast $9.1 billion in revenue by end of 2010, which he said could mean more funds that the government could use to build more schools and provide basic health care to the people.

“The BPO industry is an increasingly vital factor in our economy. As one of the most globally attractive locations in setting up call centers, we need to take advantage of the opportunity in generating jobs and investments. As we embrace the challenges of a technology-driven world, we will further harness the partnership between government agencies and private entities,” Mr. Aquino said.

Fox and Ayers accompanied Mr. Aquino on a guided tour of the production floor after the ceremonies.

The unveiling of the San Lazaro contact center came shortly after the transfer of Convergys’ state-of-the-art command center from Jacksonville, Florida to Manila last month.

Ayers said that with 12 of its 68 sites around the world now in the Philippines, handling as much as 188,000 inbound calls and employing 22,000 of its current 65,000 workforce across the world, it makes sense to put up a state-of-the-art command center in the Philippines to monitor and manage huge call volumes.

The command center uses advanced proprietary technology to route calls with spare capacity among different locations in the Philippines and in its other global facilities. There are two other command centers in Cincinnati, Ohio and India.

“The journey to the Philippines with Convergys and success of the Convergys team is a great testament to the partnership between the Filipino people, the government and our company,” Fox said.

Currently, the operations of Convergys in the Philippines support 28 clients in industries such as technology, health care, communication, online retail, consumer finance, and online payments.

Just as the San Lazaro facility will be generating about 2,400 jobs, Convergys is also expanding in five of its 12 sites. The company announced recently that additional jobs expected to be generated in these five sites will reach about 3,600 by yearend.

“We are very happy with the talents that we have here and we will continue hiring thousands of people every month,” Ayers said, noting that in Manila alone, Convergys is being supported by 35 colleges and universities.

The three biggest schools to have provided manpower to the facility are the University of Santo Tomas, Far Eastern University, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.

Convergys executives disclosed that the company is also looking at the next wave cities for possible expansion in the years to come.