The Philippines can capture more outsourcing contracts if it collaborates with India which currently dominates the multi-million dollar global business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
In an interview with Computerworld Philippines, George Kintanar, adviser to Rep. Simeon Kintanar, chairman of the Philippines House of Representatives’ committee on information and communications technology, said the government is currently communicating with India regarding a possible collaboration.
Kintanar, who was a guest at a recent forum organized by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, disclosed during a question-and-answer session that he submitted a report to India, which cites the strengths and weaknesses of both India and the Philippines in the BPO field, and added that “India is now interested in joining forces with the Philippines.”
The report highlighted India’s global marketing prowess and the Philippines’ strength in terms of communication skills. “Where India is strong, the Philippines is weak, and vice-versa,” Kintanar pointed out.
At the same forum, Gerry Clark, regional head for TPI, said India is strong in marketing because companies there have invested in “on-site marketing organizations.”
“India has worked very hard to establish itself as the prime outsourcing destination. They have marketing presence in foreign country markets,” he said.
But, as Clark noted, the Philippines offers a unique combination of political stability, language skills, excellent infrastructure, and reasonable resource cost. “The Philippines, with its competitive resources, has a strong role to play in the BPO market,” he said.
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Clark supported Kintanar’s proposal for collaboration between India and the Philippines, saying this would benefit both countries. “There are challenges to be overcome when the two countries collaborate, but, in the end, I think the upside will outweigh these challenges,” he said.
Kintanar, meanwhile, is hoping that both countries can benefit from each other’s experience especially smaller companies in the Philippines that want to enter the global outsourcing market.
The Philippines will take part in the forthcoming World BPO forum that will be held this September in the Indian capital of New Delhi. The forum will feature the top 50 outsourcing services providers in the world.
“With this forum, we want to bring opportunities down to the SMB (small and medium business) sector. The big guys can handle themselves. We want to bag longer-term contracts instead of short-term ones,” said Kintanar.