MANILA -- Telecommunications mogul Manuel Pangilinan believes that the Philippines has already gained its place in the burgeoning global business process outsource industry as he keep tabs of the country’s improvement areas.
“The Philippines is already there although we know that we can still improve our standing. We have the second largest BPO operations in the world next to India, cornering around 16 percent. While other countries have experienced a plateau or even a drop in revenues due to the global financial crisis, the growth rate in the Philippines remains strong,” he told reporters.
This came after the Pangilinan-led Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) announced the consolidation of its BPO companies, SPi Technologies and ePLDT Ventus Inc. into a single company, SPi Global Holdings, Inc.
“Our move to consolidate aims to build public confidence and understanding of SPi Global’s strength in the content, health information management, and customer relationship management (CRM) outsourcing arena,” said SPi Global President and Chief Executive Officer Maulik Parekh.
Parekh added that the consolidation is in line with the country’s bid to attract more BPO firms to operate especially in areas outside Metro Manila which are trying to improve their infrastructure in order to house these firms.
The Filipino-owned BPO firm, which serves 500 clients and has more than 14,000 employees in 24 locations worldwide, said it is expecting revenues to pick up in the next three to five years after posting $185 million in 2009.
“We want to reach $500 million in the next three to five years. We are also planning to add more employees as part of our expansion plans especially in areas where there are incredible language and analytical skills,” said Parekh. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)