Philippines' Call Center Growth Exceeds Expectations for 2011

While economists look for signs of life in the U.S. economy and jobs market, many are seeing a little more life in the call center industry than the economy as a whole. Call centers are a growth industry, and not just in the U.S. The Philippines' BusinessWorld Online is reporting that call center growth in that nation – a popular business process outsourcing (BPO) destination – is expected to exceed expectations and projections for 2011.

“Even if we don’t have the final numbers yet, we believe we’re going to surpass our projected load of 15 to 20 percent in 2011. We’ll probably end up at 21 percent even if the world economy isn’t doing as well... that is the current assumption and we are still gathering data for the industry,” said Jojo J. Uligan, executive director of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP).

While growth is sold in most vertical areas, it has been particularly robust in two.

“We saw improvements in health care services and the financial sub-sector in 2011. For 2012, we still have to validate which ones we’ll focus on for growth, since we’ll need to realign strategies depending on which industries to target,” added Uligan. “For this year, our conservative forecast is 15 percent to a good scenario of 20 percent, but there is no exact and official target yet until we meet this coming week for our performance updates and marketing plans for the year.”

The Philippines is a popular contact center outsourcing destination because of its large English- and Spanish-speaking workforce (a Spanish-speaking labor pool is a distinct advantage the Philippines has over India, another popular outsourcing location) as well as strong government and private sector partnerships in human resource development and promotions. Many U.S. and international call center outsourcing companies have contact center facilities located in the Philippines.

Uligan said that future growth may come from countries that have yet to be tapped by the Filipino call center industry, such as Canada, some EU nations and Australia.

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