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RP call centers 'further ahead' than in India, China

Posted October 16, 2008

THE Philippines is Asia-Pacific's second-largest call center market, next to India, a June 2008 study released recently here by Oracle Corp. said.

The study also noted that while call centers in China and India cited generating profits as their main challenge, in the Philippines, business process outsourced (BPO) operations are now more focused on increasing revenue generation.

In the area of finance, whilst the main challenge for contact centers in China and India is moving from a cost center to a profit center, contact centers in the Philippines cite increasing revenue generation as the main challenge, the research report commissioned by Oracle said."This suggests that contact centers in the Philippines are further ahead in transitioning from traditional reactive service units to re-venue-generating operations, when compared with contact centers in China and India," the study said.
The 21-page study cites the challenges faced in the past 12 months by contact centers in the region's top three contact center markets.

The research, copies of which were distributed Wednesday here, revealed that the main challenge for contact centers across China, India, and the Philippines over the last year ending June was customer service.

Managers of 44 contact center managers in the Philippines said the other challenges according to importance included: human resources, finance, operations and technology.

"Operations and technology are rated as 'moderately low' challenges," the study explained.

"The results suggest that a stronger focus is now being placed by…Filipinos on improving the quality of service and also on staff recruitment and retention."

The research that Oracle outsourced to Singapore-headquartered firm callcentres.net cited that despite an average 20-percent annual growth rate of the contact center industry in Asia as measured by seat size, "the industry experiences increasing operational challenges."

India, which has about 500,000 seats, is regarded as the largest and one of the most mature markets in the region. The Philippines has about 129,000 seats in total and is a reasonably mature market but growing at an aggressive 23 percent per annum, the study said.

China, a developing market, has a growth rate of 20 percent per annum. "Really, watch out for China," Oracle executive James Owens said in a press briefing.

Owens said employee turnover or attrition remains a low challenge in China, at 36 percent while 52 percent of those surveyed in the Philippines said this is a major issue after maintaining operational costs (which is at 59 percent).

The study said the operational pressures and challenges being experienced by these contact centers "will only escalate" despite an expected average 15-percent increase in seat size over the next 12 months.

The study points to "decentralization" of call center operations as an alternative.

It cited as an example that an organization's head office may remain in a central location, while maintaining satellite offices.

"It's sort of a hub and spoke concept," Owens told the BusinessMirror after the press briefing.

"Agent attrition may also be reduced by moving call center operations nearer to population centers and away from the cities where the race for talent is more accurate," the study said.

Source: businessmirror.com.ph, October 15, 2008
by Dennis D. Estopace

 
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