New Investors in the BPO Industry
By Paul Catiang

Growth. If there is one thing that has stayed constant with the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines , it has been its unparalleled growth since companies began to outsource to the country at the turn of the century.

In keeping with this trend, more and more companies are coming to the Philippines to explore the outsourcing prospects available here. This section is dedicated to the new arrivals to the Philippine BPO industry, and why they chose this country for their operations.

Perot Systems

Based in Plano , Texas , Perot Systems was founded by billionaire American businessman Ross Perot. A company that serves the requirements of its American health care client base, Perot Systems is looking to the Philippines as the location of its delivery center, which is slated to open in January 2007. The company plans to open a Manila office and then expand to a location outside of the capital at a later date.

The initial operations will employ about 200 people, according to what Enrique Cortes-Rello said to the press. Mr. Cortes-Rello also serves as an advisor to the company's CEO, Peter Altabef.

Mr. Cortes-Rello also noted that the Philippines produces a good number of workers in medical-related fields—which has encouraged the company to locate health care services outside of India .

Perot Systems reported 2005 revenues in excess of US$ 2 billion, according to the company's website.

ICICI OneSource

The Mumbai-based ICICI is also India 's fifth-largest BPO player, and will be opening a facility in the Philippines in November to handle voice-based services. The Philippine facility will have an initial 75 seats, which are expected to grow to 500 seats, according to Vrinda Walawalkar, ICICI OneSource Vice President for corporate communications. The delivery center in the Philippines is intended for voice-based services, which will soon expand to data services.

Unlike basic call center services that cater to basic customer inquiries, Ms. Walawalkar told the press that the services coming from the Philippines will involve higher-level processes, such as claims processing, health care and telecom provisioning for the outsourcer's roster of clients from the banking and financial services sector.

ICICI OneSource, whose fiscal year ended this March, posted revenues of US$ 124 billion, with 50 percent of the revenue coming from the United Kingdom , and the rest from the United States .

TransWorks

One of India 's leading companies in the business process outsourcing space, TransWorks provides what it calls “a complete blend of CRM services”—inbound customer service, outbound telemarketing, transaction processing and finance and accounting-related services. TransWorks is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Nuvo Group, which has a turnover of over US$ 7.6 billion and employs around 72,000 people in over 40 countries.