Davao BPO firms now eyeing other shores

BUSINESS process outsourcing (BPO) companies in Davao City are already looking at other shores as the United States continues to tighten its grip on outsourcing companies.

In an interview with Sun.Star Davao, BPO frontrunner Bert Barriga said BPO companies in Davao City are eyeing countries in Europe like the United Kingdom, Spain, and France, and the countries of Canada and China as possible markets for the BPO industry.

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"A lot of markets are sensitive to the Indian accent, while our Filipino-American accent is generally acceptable throughout the world," Barriga said. "Also, we have a growing number of Spanish speaking people who we can tap for the Spanish market."

One of the prime drivers of the economy in the past couple of years is under threat as a legislation being pushed in the US seeks to restrict the outsourcing of call centers to countries outside the United States.

"From how I see it, we will benefit more from the legislation as our rates remain to be competitive and our accents acceptable," Barriga said.

Call center agents in the Philippines may have to start changing their scripts when they answer calls as a U.S. senator is now pushing for a bill that seeks to inform callers of what country their calls are being diverted to.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer was quoted by the US media as saying that the bill "will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back."

The rapid growth and expansion of call centers and other business processes outsourcing companies in the various parts of the country has greatly contributed to the economic growth and even in the buffering of the economy during the 2009 financial slowdown.

The proposed bill, once passed, will mandate companies that callers be told where their calls were rerouted.

The companies would also be required to certify to the Federal Trade Commission annually that they were complying with the requirement. The bill also seeks to impose a $0.25 excise tax on any customer service call placed inside the United States which is transferred to an agent in a foreign location. The fee would be assessed on the company that transferred the call.

Customer service call centers have become increasingly popular with businesses in recent years to deal with questions ranging from billing to technical support.

Aside from the Philippines, the most popular countries for outsourcing of US call centers include India, Indonesia, Ireland, and South Africa. (CPM)