Monday, August 25, 2008 BPO company bares plan to add more services to RP operations
A SENIOR executive from Accenture said the company will strengthen the portfolio of services of its Philippine delivery
centers, considering that “customer care is strongest” in the country.
“The most premium customers are being handled by Filipino agents,” Yogesh Malhotra, lead for Accenture’s Philippine delivery center network, said during the Sun.Star Economic Forum last week.
In the last three years of its operations in Cebu, Malhotra confirmed that the performance of Accenture employees has exceeded the company’s expectation, as well as its clients.
With this, Accenture is looking at expanding the line of businesses that is going to be handled by its agents in the Philippines. These would include verticals categorized under the company’s “emerging industries” portfolio, like insurance, utilities, government processing and pharmaceuticals.
Malhotra also said there is a tremendous opportunity for the Philippine business process outsourcing industry as the global offshore and outsourcing players are “setting their sight” on doing business in the country.
But he said investors are concerned about government policies in the Philippines, especially on the implementation of fiscal incentives.
Malhotra echoed the concerns of other stakeholders in the business process outsour-cing (BPO) industry. He said the number one challenge being faced by the industry remains to be talent acquisition.
But he expressed belief that the country is now proactively addressing the issue as the industry has already recognized this problem as a priority.
“People development is also a priority area,” he said, adding that what is more critical is the development of leadership programs.
He said that since the BPO industry in the country is fairly young, there are only a few managers who have the right leadership skills. (DME)
