Philippines as a Leader in Business Process Outsourcing

In 2010, the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), a non-profit outsourcing organization in the United Kingdom awarded the Offshoring Destination of the Year award to the Philippines beating the countries Ukraine, Sri Lanka, and Egypt.NOA selected the Philippines to be the world’s finest in outsourcing services taking into account its chief strengths over other major outsourcing destinations. These strong points include abundant and quality labor force, stable infrastructure, and unwavering government initiatives.The Philippines is not only a leader in the contact center industry. The country is rapidly becoming the top choice for providing services in fields such as shared services, medical transcription, software development and animation. This article discusses the reasons for Philippines’s global outsourcing attractiveness. RP’s PeopleGiven all the qualifications that the Philippines have, the NOA specifically merited this archipelago’s attractive people resource. At present, the country’s labor force comprises about 36 million workers, 450,000 of which hold college education. Their people’s high literacy rate which is at 92 percent makes them a far better choice for an outsourcing provider. Aside from this, Philippines also have a very high cultural affinity especially to the US, following years of American occupation in the country. This makes most Filipinos good English speakers. Their ability to speak in neutral accent is their major advantage particularly in the call center business. This is the basis for countries like the US, Australia and UK to setup their contact centers in the Philippines. Furthermore, instructions in most universities are generally in English. The government pushes hard to keep Filipinos’ English literacy on an advanced level.Language and cultural differences are not supposed to concern those who are considering outsourcing services for certain LOBs. Filipinos are recognized for having strong skills in dealing with people. Good communication means good work relationship. And when this is achieved, there lies a greater potential for excellence in the delivery of expected business results. RP’s Political SettingAnother factor that leads to this country’s appeal to outsourcing clients is the suitable legal and regulatory environment. Philippines gives income tax holidays to outsourcing clients for the first six years of their operations in the country. Moreover, they provide a flat five percent income tax rate for Philippines IT economic zones buildings and installations locators right past the four to six years of the income tax holiday. In addition, RP also offers other fiscal and non-fiscal incentives as a form of its government’s support in the outsourcing industry.However, corruption and political stability are some of the main challenges that the country is facing. Still, its government is still putting great efforts on making sure the country attracts more foreign investors. RP’s Technology and TelecommsThe overall infrastructure in telecommunication and technology also affects the decision of multinational companies in selecting their business processes vendors. The quality and stability of a nation’s technological framework is ultimately critical in outsourcing services like animation, customer care, technical support, and information technology.In comparison with other Asian countries, the Philippines have advanced and inexpensive bandwidth that is largely aiding in making the country attractive in terms of communication and telecoms capacity. Although the IT sector of the Philippines is still in maturity, it is recognizable that it is swiftly advancing.Faced with many challenges in its political and business environment, the Philippines still boasts its competitiveness in skilled workforce, advanced infrastructure and sustainable economic plans for the development of outsourcing services. The NOA Award only solidifies Philippine’s position in the global outsourcing market.