KPO Companies Gearing Up for a New Brand of Outsourcing in the Philippines
Great news for the Philippine KPO outsourcing space as the Outsource Portfolio (outsourceportfolio.com) has released another report outlining the growth of the Philippines as one of the world’s more competitive business process and knowledge process outsourcing destinations next to India. The research paper compares the Philippines with other major outsourcing spaces such as India and China based on their BPO, KPO and call center capabilities. The study reports that the Philippines has as much as 103 million English speakers, most with more neutral accents befitting the call center agent profession. Currently, the BPO and KPO companies are taking advantage of the high English proficiency of the workforce, which is attributed to the country’s westernization due to the many years of American and Spanish occupancy.
Today, the BPO and KPO companies that comprise the Philippine outsourcing space are expected to grow at least 26% from last year and is expected to return US $9 billion, compared to last year’s US $7.3 billion. Moreover, BPO and KPO companies comprising the outsourcing industry have collectively contributed to the industry’s impressive consistent growth of 15% every year for the past three years. BPO and KPO companies in the Philippines actually own 15% global market share, an impressive feat next to India’s 40%.
One of the Philippines’ core competencies lies in the local government, which continues to support the various BPO and KPO companies that comprise the Philippine outsourcing space by providing incentives for these companies. The Earth Times reports that these incentives include income-tax holidays, incentives under the Philippine Build-Operate-Transfer Law (BOT Law), essential off-site infrastructure facilities option to pay a special 5% gross income tax instead of all national and local taxes, permanent resident status for foreign investors and their immediate family members, employment of foreign nationals and assistance in the promotion of economic zones.
More than just incentives, BPO and KPO companies have largely benefitted from the country’s high number of graduates every year, with as much as 380,000 individuals entering the workforce to find a job. BPO and KPO companies in the Philippines expand by the thousands—adding at least a thousand new jobs every time they announce expansion in the Philippines’ many cities. Because of the undeniable success of the BPO industry in the country, BPO and KPO companies are looking to promote knowledge process outsourcing, the next wave of business process outsourcing as it goes up the value chain.
Knowledge process outsourcing or KPO has gotten much hype over the past couple of years but not everyone has jumped on the bandwagon yet, for several reasons—one reason being that organizations are yet unsure about how they will hand over their more important processes of their business. Nonetheless, KPO has been flourishing in the Philippines, where BPO and KPO firms have already put up shop and experienced massive success in the last ten years.
Today, the KPO companies in the Philippines are gaining exposure with several service providers being recognized by their clients globally. The KPO space in the Philippines include the creative process outsourcing service providers, KPO companies specialize in animation and game development industries, music and sound engineering, advertising, film, industrial design, architecture, comics, photography, publishing, writing and conceptualization. The creative units behind these KPO companies have been lauded for their consistent quality and output delivery speed, English proficiency and excellent ability to comprehend concepts and storylines. The Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) fully supports the KPO companies who specialize in the creative arts and services sector
Medical KPO companies have also put up shop to accommodate medical transcription services, which has been estimated to be worth as much as US$10 billion to US$25 billion annually and growing by 15% each year. Another type of medical KPO collaborative healthcare services through medical call centers, a growing industry in the Philippines that employs registered nurses, a human resource highly abundant in the country. In 2009, Fly For Free Health founder Dr. Wei Siang Yu announced that the organization will be investing $2 to $4 million for two KPO centers in the Philippines. Fly Free for Health is an organization that provides collaborative healthcare services through medical call centers managed by healthcare professionals specifically trained in information technology, research and case management to serve a wider array of clients across the globe. It is not a surprise that KPO companies are coming to the Philippines for medical services, as the Filipinos are already globally known to be dedicated, diligent healthcare professionals, among other fields.
With the proliferation of KPO companies in the Philippines, the country is optimistic about getting a fair share of the global KPO market. The Philippine outsourcing and offshoring industry sees KPO as a great opportunity to showcase our workforce’s highly specialized skills in various fields. This 2010, we can expect the KPO industry to further mature and attract more clients both locally and globally.
