New BPO investments to employ thousands

CEBU, Philippines - At least eight new Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies are set to open in Cebu in the next few months, which will initially mean jobs for over four to five thousand people.

Cebu Investment and Promotions Center (CIPC) managing director Joel Mari S. Yu announced that the last two months were the fastest growing months in terms of investors’ inquiries in BPO.

“IT companies particularly in the knowledge process outsourcing [KPO] sector are coming in to Cebu,” said Yu in an interview yesterday.

Amid the threat of the United States’ bill against outsourcing, Yu said there is an influx of investors coming to Cebu. These companies are into high-end outsourcing services which include; medical coding, data mining (research), medical billing, among others.

Manpower requirements of these KPO companies that are set to open within this year, Yu said are professionals who have MBA (Masteral in Business Administration), economist, statisticians, medical professionals.

Yu mentioned five companies that will soon set up its outsourcing operations in Cebu, these are United Health Care, EXL, HCCA, Promet (research outsourcing company), Talleco, and others.

This development he said signifies Cebu’s leadership in attracting KPO companies from all over the world. Most of these companies maintain their headquarters from non-US countries like Singapore, Japan, Canada and Australia.

Yu said some of these new companies will need more nurses, and those who have medical backgrounds to man the operations. This will provide employment opportunities specifically for nurses that are unemployed right now, or those unsatisfied with their monthly take-home pay.

Latest record showed that there a total of 52 BPO companies operating in Cebu that are into non-voice operations, or engaged in KPO services. These firms employ a total of 45 thousand people already.

At present, the total BPO sector in Cebu is dominated by non-voice operations. This means, that of the total 75 thousand people employed in the BPO sector here, 45 thousand people are involved into offering services under the KPO category.

KPO is regarded as the higher value sub-sector in the outsourcing industry. Unlike the voice-sector or popularly known as call center firms, KPO companies offer higher entry level salaries, and higher revenue generation.

Yu said there are increasing number of outsourcing companies signified interest to set up offices in Cebu, mostly are coming from the KPO sector.

In the past CIPC in particular only gets at least one to three inquiries from BPO investors. Now, the number is increasing to four more inquiries each month.

In 2011, Cebu registered a total of 126 IT-BPO companies operating here, this is an increase of 24 percent from previous year.

Yu said this number is expected to double this year, as in the last few months alone, inquiries have gone up significantly, majority of the interested investors have decided to set up operations here in the next few months.

KPO is an emerging segment in the outsourcing sector that the Philippines has yet to penetrate. Currently, this market is dominated by India.

This middle to higher level outsourcing services will need professionals such as financial analysts, people who have degrees and masteral in human resource management, accountants, nurses, economists, among others. (FREEMAN)