Indians write the BPO script in Philippines

NEW DELHI: BPO firms, which have so far been big job creators in India, are now shifting employees from here to emerging outsourcing destinations, including the Philippines.

Not only are domestic BPOs like Genpact, Sitel and Intelenet hiring people in India in droves for their Philippine operations, MNCs like Citibank and Accenture with operations in that country, too, are relying on Indian talent.

“While at the associate level, the Philippines has talent that is comparable or superior to their Indian counterparts, there is a complete void at middle and senior management level. It’s largely Indian executives who fill this void at Indian, local and captive BPO firms in the Philippines,” says Quatrro BPO Solutions managing director Raman Roy.

The Philippines has emerged as an attractive rival outsourcing destination to India, on the back of its large English-speaking population, a slew of fiscal incentives and lower property rates. Apart from the capital, Manila, other places — Cebu, for instance — have also come up as favourites for setting up call centres.
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IGNOU To Start A Diploma Course For BPO Jobs

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will soon start a diploma programme to train students from across the country to take up jobs in business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, well known as call centres. This will be a one-year diploma course conducted jointly by Accenture Services, a Bangalore based global technology service and outsourcing company.

“You know the BPO situation in our country. It’s a growing industry and the number of trained manpower required is huge. Here we have stepped in to provide trained human capital,” IGNOU spokesman Ravi Mohan told.

Mohan said the varsity has already signed an agreement with Accenture. Candidates who have passed 10+2 or equivalent can apply for the course.

“It is just not outsourcing for foreign companies, many Indian companies, government offices too have opened and will open call centres for better customer relations.

“This course will create a pool of professionals who will be able to handle the job better and reduce attrition rate,” Mohan added. Those having IGNOU’s certificate course in communication skills will have an edge but alternatively students shall be screened through a communication evaluation test.

The specialization would be offered in finance and accounting, insurance, banking, human resources, sourcing and category management, customer contact services, health care, pharma, engineering services, equity research, capital markets, order management and technical writing and learning services.

IGNOU shall ensure that the course will be imparted through a mix of education delivery channels across India including print, CD, web-based learning materials, contact sessions and simulated exercises labs for language and application learning.

India most mature spot for BPOs - BPO Updates

BANGALORE: India has emerged as the most matured location for offshored IT and BPO services, though this dominance might be chipping away given the rising costs. Everest Research Institute in its report “Global Sourcing--Market Vista Q1 2008” said that the cost inflation in Indian cities is exceeding the 2007 levels and this has increased the risk of labour arbitrage closing very rapidly.

There has been a constant threat of newer locations such as China, Philippines and Eastern Europe, which are challenging the dominance of India. Everest said that players are continuing to expand and the competitive intensity for talent remains unabated. Further the consumer price at an alltime high since 2004 is potentially creating inflationary pressure on wages.

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