This 2012, Cebu Philippines establishes itself as a ideal Knowledge-Process Outsourcing (KPO) destination, the province develops more training programs to produce highly skilled human resources with honed proficiencies in communication, digital technology, research and business operations.

KPO is an emerging segment in the outsourcing sector that the Philippines has yet to penetrate. Though Cebu is seen as the preferred choice of big KPO multinational companies, such as Wipro, Lexmark, NEC among others, the global KPO market is dominated by India.

Professionals in finance business analysis, human resource management, accountancy, industrial design et cetera, are required for these middle and higher level outsourcing services.

Cebu is confirmed to have the infrastructure potential and the raw talent pool, key ingredients to attract the global the KPO market.

The province has to implement plans to provide highly-trained, skilled workers for KPO to sustain a huge projected growth.

Currently, of the  about 600,000 people are employed in the province’s BPO-IT sector, about 75 percent of whom are in customer contact/call center voice-related services.

A pending US Congressional bill seeks to restrain American companies from outsourcing work to other countries. “Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill” (US House Bill 3596) deters outsourcing by making American companies that outsource ineligible for federal grants and loans for five years.

US enterprises are also required to disclose physical location of customer service facilities and agents. Companies that fail to report overseas locations risk paying a penalty of $10,000 a day.

The United States holds the biggest figure of companies outsourcing business operations to the Philippines.

By tapping other markets worldwide, the Philippines, particularly the province of Cebu aims to lessen any potential negative impact US HB 3596 on the local business process outsourcing industry.

The Cebu Investment Promotions Center (CIPC), with the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), holds an exhibition in the United Kingdom, presenting Cebu as THE outsourcing destination tentatively scheduled for the middle of 2012.

Given the province’s track record with other multinationals with satellite offices/business facilities set up here, and being prized among the top in the list of outsourcing destinations provided by global business strategy consultancy Tholons, marketing Cebu as a high-return business location would not be difficult.

To further solidify Cebu’s prominence in the global BPO industry, the province continues to strengthen its lead in information technology and business support services in innovation and creative design.

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 SOURCE:

Aznar, Mia. "Cebu to hold roadshow on
BPO services in UK." 19 January 2012.
SunStar Cebu. Accessed 23 January 2012.
Link Here.

Business technology and research firm Tholons cites five cities in the Philippines among the premier hundred destinations in the world for information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services.

In its 2012 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations report, Tholons states that Southeast Asia and its countries, particularly the Philippines, is still a “dominant figure” in the worldwide outsourcing industry.

Philippine cities Metro Manila ranks 4th in the Top 100 list, Cebu City is 9th, followed by Davao City (69th) and Sta. Rosa, Laguna (86th). Iloilo City is ranked 92nd, improving by six places from last year.

According to Tholons, customer contact support/call center services remains to be a key driver for the Philippines’ outsourcing industry growth.

It also highlighted on the growth rate of IT-BPO through the launch of delivery centers for leading technology brands such as HP, IBM, Dell, Convergys, and Teleperformance.

In 2011, the Philippines’ contact center industry employs at least half a million Filipino workers.

The report forecasts that Southeast Asian region would exhibit strong growth in 2012.

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SOURCES:
Tholons. "2012 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations."
Accessed 13 January 2012. Link Here.

loQal. "Five PH cities in Top 100 outsourcing destinations."
Accessed 13 January 2012. Link Here.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Cebu prepares to market itself to global markets or regions, other than that of the United States.

The BPO sector in the Philippines starts exploring outsourcing prospects outside the US in order to constantly thrive.

The CIPC-ECCP partnership was forged last year, when both organizations launched promotions of Cebu as an ideal BPO destination for companies and enterprises based in the United Kingdom.

The United States is still the largest client case for the Philippine BPO sector, outsourcing is a global business, and that other non-US multinationals see the Philippines as a prized destination for business investment and outsourcing services.

Last 2011, there were fourteen new BPO companies that came to Cebu that sought the services for CIPC. At present, nearly 70,000 workers are employed in the BPO sector in Cebu. Of this population, 57% work as call center agents.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) remains to be Cebu province’s major economic driver, and is primed to expand even further in the year 2012 and beyond.

BPO service providers are persistently brought in to Cebu City, because of its vigorous business environment and skilled talent pool. Cebu’s talent pool for IT and BPO companies is provided for by the city’s nine university campuses.

There’s an expected 20 percent increase in the current 50,000 workforce with the further completion of office buildings within Cebu IT and Business Park Districts.

For clients in the North America and Europe, the BPO industry in Cebu is a viable destination in Asia where these companies can recover after the 2008 global economic crisis. The industry continues to offer opportunities.

For example, global outsourcing firm Aegis People Support unveiled its own Aegis Tower Cebu at the Cebu IT Park in the last quarter of 2011. The decision to build its own captive facility in Cebu is a sign of Aegis People Support’s commitment and confidence in the Philippines’ BPO industry and Cebu’s workforce.

Another major outsourcing company, Stream Global, is reported as hiring 60 to 70 employees on a weekly basis. One more outsourcing services company, Convergys, is also expanding with new office premises in Cebu.

Some of the firms that expanded in Cebu last 2011 include HP, Fluor Daniels, Dell and JP Morgan & Chase.

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Source:
Cacho, Katlene. "BPO still Cebu's Growth Driver." 29 December 2011.
SunStar Cebu. Accessed 2 January 2012. Link Here.

Cebu, Philippines. Companies recognize the value of their employees in the success of business. This is why they take in account the culture, work practices and values of their employees.

Some national cultures develop ideal professionals, dedicated to the assigned tasks and focused on achieving objectives in return of proper incentives.

Get to know what sort of professionals, the Philippine national culture produces.

The Philippine national culture is identified as a “collectivist” culture, indicated by close family and community ties in society. Therefore, Filipino professionals can easily integrate and work together in groups.

Filipino workers in particular consider good pay to be paramount, good job security next important.

Filipino professionals also look for job satisfaction, for work that meet their abilities, earns them respect and a sense of achievement.

Coming in last place is good work hours. Filipino professionals do not mind working for the extra mile as long as their time and effort is well-rewarded and appreciated by their employers.

Organizations can consider these unique work values in working with Filipino professionals, in designing reward systems, engagement programs, and strategies for motivating their Filipino employees.

To attract the Filipino worker and keep him/her loyal, companies can offer high starting pay and solid retirement plans.

It is also best to keep in mind that national culture is not the only factor to consider achieving the best performance from Filipino employees.

There are other factors such as individual differences and socio-economic status, education and training can play roles in people’s job commitment and performance.

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SOURCE: Fernandez, Patricia. "Employee work values."
18 April 2011. The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Accessed 27 December 2011. Link here.

Cebu’s outsourcing industry goes on its second phase to further maximize the potential of its business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT-related services.

This second phase will look deep into what the province needs to get to higher level from an emerged BPO destination to an established global destination for Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO).

The Philippines outsourcing industry currently dominates as the ideal destination for voice related services.

BPO service providers in Cebu can take advantage of the province’s potential to provide excellent KPO services. Though the training for the ideal human resources and professionals for this high valued service, the revenue the province can achieve would be as huge as that of voice related work.

The Cebu BPO/IT sector now employs more or less 60 thousand people, only a small percentage of these dedicated professional perform KPO work such as software development, animation, and graphics.

Cebu has versatile human resources, technically and skillfully capable to work in accounting, human resource, and medical services, legal and financial consultations.

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Source: Dagooc, Ehda. "Outsourcing industry to start 2nd phase of BPO roadmap."
22 December 2011. The Freeman. Accessed 22 December 2011. Link Here

Cebu City, Philippines can become an alternative educational destination for international students. The city presents a lot of potential, especially on educational tourism.

Cebu and its academe can prepare for this type of tourism as a promising source of additional revenue.

The province’s advantage is the untapped pool of excellent educators who can communicate well with foreign students.

Cebu makes an attractive destination to foreign students for education because of its tourist attractions, affordability of education and Cebuanos’ English fluency.

Educational tourism is an emerging global trend that can propel growth in Cebu’s tourism industry.

Tourism arrivals in Cebu grew by 11%, from 1.1 million arrivals in the first eight months of 2010 to 1.3 million in the first eight months of this year, according to Department of Tourism 7 records.
South Koreans are still Cebu’s top travel market with more 250,000 arrivals this year.

Cebu could take advantage of the tourists that leisure companies bring in here. For instance, every month the travel company Dong Fang Leisure Philippines brings in 30,000 Chinese students for their educational tours.

When Cebu will take advantage of this, this increase tourist arrivals from China to Cebu by 30 percent.

In the promotion of educational tourism in Cebu, it would require adequate infrastructure such as decent boarding houses or integrated facilities. This would entail a huge investment for the City, its academe and the educational industry players.

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Cebu City, Philippines. Colleges and universities expect a surge in the number of incoming students enrolling in engineering courses.

Following the drop in demand abroad for nurses, an increase in the number of enrollees for engineering courses this second semester is noted. The population of enrollees for the second semester usually drop either due to students shifting to popular courses or financial setbacks.

With the weakening state of the quality of nursing graduates all over the country, even the Commission on Higher Education (ChEd) sent out a memorandum late last year asking tertiary schools to stop offering courses in nursing and teaching.

The College of Engineering at the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), in particular, note a
10% increase of engineering students this second semester.

Currently, there is a growing demand for engineering jobs abroad in highly-industrialized and urbanized countries such as Singapore. With more developments, all industries perpetually need engineers.

The main challenge of the industry is the rate of attrition, colleges and universities must be assertive
in encouraging students to take up engineering courses so that there is a continuous supply of engineers in the country and abroad.

Foreign companies are likely to hire Filipino engineers because Filipinos have excellent communication skills and are not only well-educated on the field but also resourceful, keen and diligent.

With the changes and demands in technology and sociopolitics, universities and colleges in Cebu have also taken the lead to adopt and teach green technology in their engineering curriculum. The advocacy for green technology will empower graduates to better responsibility and awareness regarding relevant environmental issues.

Universities and colleges in Cebu will be fully introduced into cloud computing technology, the fast growing technology trend as more and more companies are depending on the cloud-based financial and enterprise-resource planning software for their outsourcing needs.

Netsuite Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based software suites, is already partnering with the University of San Carlos, and aims to expand the program with Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), University of Cebu (UC), and University of the Visayas (UV), and other universities.

Globally, Netsuite has 16 partner universities, which adopted NetSuite as a key component of their accounting degree curricula, these include; University of California-Los Angeles; University of Toronto; Mapua Institute of Technology; De La Salle Univesity and USC in Cebu.

These institutions have embraced NetSuite, for the same reasons that companies worldwide have shifted to NetSuite cloud from on-premise software.

Cloud computing promotes efficiency and productivity to gain a competitive advantage, to avoid hassles with system integration and break out of the vicious cycle of software and hardware upgrades with its high maintenance costs caused by on-premise software.

Cloud computing is mainly introduced in the third and fourth years of the degree programs. The next generation of graduates who can become managers, entrepreneurs, and business professionals can leave their classrooms and enter the job market with a stronger understanding of business operations and cloud computing.

As the demand for cloud-based business management solutions grow, the full introduction of cloud computing technology to tomorrow’s business leaders is required to prepare them to the new business IT work environment.

Combined with professor developed curriculum, students can expect to learn the entire business process end to end, and learn how customers can make better and faster decisions with cloud computing software.

Likewise, the college faculty new to the program can access online training and download materials, to guide develop custom content for their courses.

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 Source: Dagooc, Ehda. "Software suites provider partners with Cebu Schools."
 14 December 2011. The Freeman. Accessed 14 December 2011. Link Here.