IBM Global Business Services is responsible for creating reports regarding the current global trends and competition in various information technology businesses. In their most recent reports, Philippines was recorded as the number one destination for business process outsourcing services, replacing India in that top spot.
The two Asian countries have been competing for several years already, and India managed to be the number one leading provider of BPO services, specifically in the field of Web Development, and other IT related tasks. Alongside, Philippines was a rapidly growing destination of call centers, serving some of the largest companies in North American and Europe. Eventually, more and more Philippine-based BPO companies explored the area of back office services mainly focused on clerical or secretarial services. This similarity in services heightened the competition between the two countries. For so many years, Philippines always came second to India, which the Filipino business sectors still took warmly.
Some of the factors identified that pushed Philippines to the number one spot are still their call center infrastructures that are already well-spread in almost all cities in the country. Call centers also provide the Filipino community with limitless job opportunities. The IT sectors of the country are also providing extensive trainings specially to graduating students to make them more equipped with the right knowledge and skills needed to perform back-end office functions, which the country is still relatively new at. Typically, there are two categories of BPO companies: 1) managed by onshore by a Filipino, coordinating with a foreign marketer or co-owner, 2) managed onshore or physically by a foreign investor.
Most of BPO owners believe that the excellent communication skills of Filipinos also contributed significantly to the current rating of the country. On the other hand, India’s reputation and credibility in the field of Computer programming and other IT related tasks is still uncontestable. Generally, the Asia-Pacific remains to be the top offshore destination mainly because of the significant cost savings and guaranteed quality of services.
