The Philippines now ranks first to India as a call center outsourcing destination, with the country’s capital city - Metro Manila, having the lion’s share of the call center market. But recently, more and more cities in the Philippines have surfaced as credible call center outsourcing spots, cities such as Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, and Iloilo. The development of these alternative cities in infrastructure and their ability to support the expanding call center outsourcing industry is crucial to placing the Philippines at the forefront of the global call center outsourcing world.

Some of the factors that contribute to the Philippines getting close to surpassing all other competing countries in establishing itself as the best call center outsourcing destination in the world are: a huge pool of skilled workers and virtual assistants for easier call center staff scalability and lower employee cost, a higher level of education for better capability in handling more complex voice-based interactions and answering services with their clients, and improving telecommunications technology for easier connection with the rest of the world at a greatly reduced price. But perhaps the healthiest indicator is the emergence of numerous new call centers all over the country, with the Philippine government spearheading the development of these new call centers and the business sector actively working to create excellent conditions that optimize cost, control, quality, and risk for firms who wish to outsource.

Here then are the country’s 5 most influential new call centers, who in their own locations have established not just those excellent conditions for outsourcing, but also great potential in helping the local call center industry expand their offerings and grow further in size and demand.

NCO Clark, Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Pampanga

Because of aggressive business solicitation by the government for call center outsourcing companies to establish a presence in Pampanga, NCO – a global call center and BPO company based in Horsham, PA turned its attention into setting up shop at what once was an American military base – Clark Air Base in Angeles City. With a good English-speaking labor pool of virtual assistants and an existing serviceable infrastructure, Clark Air Base has blossomed into one of the most viable call center locations outside of Metro Manila, currently employing thousands of virtual assistants and call center employees and is competing strongly against more established locations, at the forefront of which is NCO Clark.

Advanced Contact Solutions, Light Industry and Science Park, Laguna

ACS has been in the Philippine call center industry since the late 90s, but only lately have they been ramping up and truly establishing themselves as one of the country’s premier call center outsourcing companies. This is evidenced by their expanding outside of Metro Manila at the Light Industry and Science Park in Laguna. This techno and IT hub has a lot going for them: cost of living in the city is relatively lower, and it is very near the capital and important locations such as airports and piers, which leads to higher savings and lower cost of operations. Businesses here save on investments even if scaling up on operations, and ACS Laguna leads the way.

Concentrix (formerly Link2Support), Pueblo de Oro IT Park, Cagayan de Oro and Damosa IT Park, Davao

Cagayan de Oro and Davao now have a more stabilized working environment than in years before, owing much to the government’s aggressive solicitation for businesses to set up centers in these cities. With both having a very strong education system and are publicized as centers of trade in the Southern Philippines area, things were ripe for a huge offshoring campaign. Here is where Concentrix came in, putting up two huge call center sites in both cities, lending its credibility and resources to the now booming call center market in the area. With a wealth of call center outsourcing experience and top-notch expertise in all answering service areas of the industry, Concentrix has put the twin cities of the South in the global call center outsourcing map.

Convergys, Asiatown IT Park and Banawa Hills, Cebu

The city of Cebu has made itself more reliable for companies wishing to leverage the better English speakers in the city, with strong government support and improving technical infrastructure that is faster even than in Manila. The city is also close to suppliers because it has its own ports and an international airport to boot. This potential to become a mature call center outsourcing city has made it attractive for a big company like Convergys to service its offshore call center outsourcing needs here, putting up two separate call center sites within the city in order to maximize the city’s healthy labor base. With numerous awards, a huge pool of virtual assistants worldwide, and the image of a definite world leader in call center outsourcing management, Convergys is fast becoming the country’s number one call center company in terms of visibility and sheer size.

LWS Media Inc, Ortigas Center in Pasig City, Metro Manila

Metro Manila is still the most suitable call center outsourcing destination in the country, and cities here have offered incentives to call center businesses as fuel for future growth. In the heart of the metro is where LWS Media was born, and now this company is swiftly ramping up its client base and pool of virtual assistants, but also carefully making sure that only the best are invited. Considered to be one of the toughest call center companies to get into, LWS Media is being touted as one of the fastest-growing companies in the area and now competes against its bigger, more experienced competitors in values of staffing size, number of clients, and technological resources.

There’s still much in store for these emerging call center companies, and bigger things are in the horizon when it comes to development of their firm capabilities, management, and more access to international markets. But one thing’s for sure: these new companies are gearing up for huge improvement and should be your priority targets when choosing which firms to outsource to in the Philippines.

Tags: Advanced Contact Solutions, answering service, call center, Concentrix, Convergys, LWS Media, NCO Clark, outsourcing, Philippines, virtual assistant

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 11:24 am and is filed under Outsourcing your call center. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.