DEAR Mr. President:
It is ironic that the Philippines is known to be the “BPO (business process outsourcing) capital of the world” (or the call center capital of the world), and yet the Philippine government is not doing enough to support and patronize the local BPO industry.
One of the fastest growing and best performing segments in the local BPO industry is the Customer Relations Management (CRM) field, more popularly known as the call center industry. Perhaps we could only count with a few fingers how many government agencies have engaged the services of call centers.
According to Microsoft Copilot, “as of 2022, there are more than 700 contact centers (formerly known as call centers) operating in the Philippines”.
Copilot added that “these centers employ approximately 1.4 million individuals and generate significant revenue”.
Copilot also concluded that that is the reason why the Philippines has achieved the status of being the “Call Center Capital of the World”.
Some management experts have said that the best way to mature an export product is to grow it first in the country of origin. There are many reasons for doing done. The first reason is to achieve the economies of scale. The second reason is to deal with all bugs and defects locally before bringing out the product internationally. The third reason is to have a proof concept that the product is viable. The fourth reason is to prove that the product is sustainable, in terms of materials, logistics and manpower.
In the case of the BPO industry however, their services “bloomed” in the global market before these were even able to “grow” in the Philippines, and even without government support, and even without government patronage. It is not too late however, it is not too late for the Philippine government to start discovering and patronizing the BPO industry, even if it would only take baby steps by starting the companies that are offering CRM services.
In the Accenture model for example, that company provides Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services by “embedding” their own ICT staff within the premises of their clients, as if these staff members are employed by the clients. And since these staff members would bring their own computers, the clients also save on the costs of hardware.
That is not the only approach, because the other alternative is for the staff to work off premise, sometimes doing their work at home.
Mr. President, I strongly believe that this “work at home” (WAH) phenomenon holds the promise of replacing the “OFW phenomenon”. By comparison, the WAH phenomenon would be better for our country because our workers need not go abroad, and therefore we need not break up our families. And yet, we can still earn revenues from the remittances of the foreign employers.
This is already happening now, Mr. President, not only through the WAH workers who are connected with the BPO companies that have their own clients, but with individual workers that are directly hired by their foreign employers.
I think the opportunity, Mr. President, to train more of these workers, so that they could be more equipped to do better in their jobs. I think that this opportunity is so important Mr. President, such that it would be advisable for you to form a task force to work on this, perhaps with the Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Migrant Workers, Department of Foreign Affairs, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Department of Trade in Industry as members./PN
