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Saturday, June 25, 2005
Pinoy BPOs could serve Spanish market: players
By Aurelia l. Castro
Sun.Star Correspondent
The Filipinos should capitalize on their ability to learn and speak foreign languages to get more business in the business process outsourcing space.
“The language used in call centers is not just English, but it’s multilingual, depending on what market is to be served. One example is the Spanish-speaking market. India is having difficulty sourcing people who are good in Spanish. It is something that the Philippines can fill in,” said Erik Tabuena, country leader-Philippines, IBM business consulting services, in a press conference last Thursday.
Spanish could be one of the Filipinos’ strengths because of their heritage, said speakers and panelists in a separate press conference held at the 1st International Conference and Exhibition on Business and ICT (Cebu ICT 2005) at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
“It’s where we could differentiate ourselves from Indians, who do not have the heritage that we have. The point is to identify areas that present opportunities that we could address better than anyone else,” said Bong Borja, Business Processing Association of the Philippines chairman and PeopleSupport chief executive officer.
The Philippines was a colony of Spain for over 300 years.
Borja said Zamboanga has a dialect called Chabacano that is quite close to Spanish.
The Spanish-speaking market is large in the United States and other countries.
IBM president and general manager Jajo Quintos also stressed the importance of language knowledge in accepting business process outsourcing work.
“IBM Philippines does expense accounting for all of Asia, Europe and some parts of North America. When you think about it, there is a need here to have the ability to speak (many) languages, like Japanese, German, Spanish, French and many others ... and not just English,” he said.
Quintos said Filipinos don’t have a hard time learning other languages.
“And also, we have eight million Filipino migrants all around the world. Many of them learn the language wherever they are. I think we can tap them as resources in language learning,” he added.
BPO refers to business lines that can be transformed and delivered through information and communications technology infrastructure.
These include customer contact centers, engineering and design, animation and content creation, distance learning, market research, travel services, finance and accounting services, human resource services and other administrative services like purchasing.
(June 25, 2005 issue)
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