PHILIPPINES: AN IDEAL BPO DESTINATION

The BPO industry in the Philippines has seen a 40% dramatic year on year increase since 2004 and even grew by 20% in 2009 despite the global financial crisis. It is now the 2nd largest offshore destination trailing India. Several companies that offshore/outsource work in the Philippines are Fortune 100 companies across different industries i.e. banking and finance, energy services, consumer goods and electronics, insurance, and market research. Metro Manila has majority of the locations but more and more cities outside of Manila are emerging.

The Philippines has been awarded as Offshoring Destination of the Year for 2007,2009 and 2010 by the UK National Outsourcing Council.

Key factors that have made it ideal include:

• Strong familiarity with western culture yet open and easily adaptable to other cultures
• 3rd largest English speaking nation with world-class English proficiency
• 380,000 average college graduates/year
• Strong work ethic, consultative/customer-oriented mind set
• Quality management staff, easily trainable
• Lower costs: approximately one-fifth the total cost of US and Europe
• Affinity to western culture in its educational and legal systems, government structure
• US GAAP and IFRS adopted accounting systems
• High quality telecommunication, low cost bandwidth, expanding domestic infrastructure network
• Widespread government and public support.

Source: BPA/P