Call center
hub
THE
COUNTRY'S potential as an outsourcing Mecca has convinced foreigners
like Phil Murphy to move here from Australia. "I found out from
the Internet that India and the Philippines will be the next big market
for call centers. I chose to move to the Philippines," said Murphy.
His interest in call centers started at 17 as a part-time telemarketer
for an Australian company, selling raffle tickets over the phone. His
six Australian dollars an hour-pay, plus commissions, helped put him
through school. Now, Murphy, barely in his 30s, is operations manager
at Contact World, a joint venture of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone
Co. and Jardine Salmat of Australia. Salmat runs three call centers
in Australia, among the biggest in the country with a total of 650 seats.
The idea for the local joint venture started years ago when Danilo Reyes,
Jardine Salmat's general manager in the Philippines, visited PLDT's
office in Sampaloc, Manila. Reyes said he saw "an entire building
of female phone operators" and was intrigued by the business. Little
did he know that his keen eye for beauty and opportunity would eventually
serve as his introduction to the growing business of call center operations.
In its simplest form, a call center is a customer service operation
where agents (now called "customer care specialists"), on
behalf of a client, place and receive customer calls and/or e-mails,
ranging from inquiries and complaints to product promotions. Companies
that value and invest in customer relationship management, such as those
in banking, financial services and insurance, transportation and freight
handling, hotels, and IT usually have a need for call centers. The size
of the operation is described in terms of the number of "seats"
instead of agents as phone operators work in shifts to adjust to the
different time zones of the countries where the calls originate. In
late 1999, Reyes said a committee in PLDT was already exploring ways
to maximize the company's 2,000-strong call center, which was then strictly
catering to the internal requirements of the telecommunications giant.
From selling Salmat's directory assistance system to PLDT, Reyes said
he found himself later selling the idea of forming a joint venture between
the companies to set up a call center. Given its experience in the business,
Salmat will provide the "know-how," while PLDT will supply
the infrastructure. Both have so far invested $3 million in Contact
World at a cost of $4,000 per seat. The company has 205 seats, 73 of
which have so far been filled. It currently services outbound calls,
mostly for telemarketing and inquiry. For PLDT, it handles the e-cash
product Smart Money and the PLDT Txt 135 how-to-use inquiries. Currently
in a test phase are its services to international clients such as a
telephone helpdesk for US inventors and credit card inquiries for Maple
Credit, a rival of American Express.
Competition
Competition
in the industry is heating up, he says, not just in other parts of the
region but within the country as well. There are currently over 20 call
centers in the country handling outsourcing operations, excluding the
"mom-and-pop" type, run by 10 people, handling one client
and charging as low as $2 per hour. Aside from Contact World, among
the big players are Software Ventures International (SVI) and SPI's
E-Telecare. Unlike the route taken by most of its local rivals, SVI
bought a call center in the United States to immediately establish its
presence in the international market. Telemarketing Concepts, based
in Yorktown Heights, New York, has 400 agents. In addition, SVI runs
SVI Connect, which has 200 seats in Ortigas Center, Pasig City. E-Telecare,
meanwhile, is a joint venture between SPI and former top executives
of the McKinsey management consultancy group that has extensive experience
in the business. E-Telecare's office in Eastwood City Cyberpark in Libis,
Pasig City, houses 300 seats, servicing US telecommunication firms,
financial institutions, and issuers of travelers checks. It also has
an office in Monrovia, California, conducting sales and marketing for
the company. While its operations only began in September last year,
E-Telecare already accounted for a quarter of SPI's first-half 2001
revenues. SPI expects its call center unit to generate up to $30 million
in revenues once it reaches full capacity of 750 seats. So far, it has
invested over $10 million in its call center.
Neutral accent
In
separate interviews, the top executives of the three companies agree
India still poses the biggest threat to the Philippines in the call
center outsourcing business. While the Philippines remains competitively
priced (ranging from 6 dollars to 10 dollars per hour per seat), it
cannot match the number of call center agents in India which now stands
at around 300,000 versus the less than 10,000 agents available in the
Philippines. In terms of the quality of speech and infrastructure, however,
the executives believe the country still has an edge. "We're unbeatable
when it comes to the way we speak English. We're also more patient in
handling calls and more customer-oriented," said SVI assistant
vice president Domingo Guanio. Contact World's country manager Andres
Enverga said Filipinos have a "neutral accent" compared with
Indians. Still, at Contact World, agents handling international calls
are trained to speak "Yankee English" and undergo an "American
culturalization process." Greeting visitors at its Ortigas office
are an American flag and a poster that reminds its agents that the area
is a "Yankee zone." "When clients dial a 1-800 number,
they'd think they're still talking to an American when, in fact, it's
already a Filipino operator taking the call," Enverga explained.
More than the proficiency in the language, SVI's Guanio says Filipinos
also possess the right attitude for the job.
High service quality
A
1999 regional study by Australia-based Call Center Research also shows
the Philippines invests heavily in keeping the quality of customer service
it provides, ranking second only to Australia. India was ranked four
notches lower than the Philippines. It is for these reasons that convinced
US giants such as America Online Inc. and Citibank NA to establish their
own call centers in the Philippines. AOL has a 600-strong workforce
in the Clark Special Economic Zone, handling more than 10,000 e-mail
inquiries a day. Citibank set up its regional call center in Eastwood
City Cyberpark, primarily handling its credit card operations. Still
in its infancy, the growth of the outsourcing business in call centers
is seen further exploding in the coming years. In the United States
alone, it is already a $90-billion business, of which only 20 percent
is so far being outsourced abroad, industry sources say. Its huge potential
for Philippine players is luring even small companies like Dot Consult,
a Web-based applications provider, to enter the call center industry.
The call center will start with only 15 to 20 agents handling delivery
requests of local restaurants and fast-food chains. Jun del Valle, Dot
Consult's president and chief operating officer, said the move would
allow the company to quickly adopt to the changing needs of the market.
He admitted outsourced work for website development had slowed as companies
abroad "try to make do with what they have and drop web investments
from their expenditure list." On the other hand, the slowdown in
IT investments of US companies has also been opening a lot of doors
for outsourcing, which allows them to cut costs. "It's a big opportunity
for the Philippines because whatever you outsource here, you'll hire
Filipinos who are educated, who have the work ethic, and the culture
of being service-oriented," says SVI's Guanio. Five years from
now, however, China will pose the biggest threat to the country in the
outsourcing business, said Contact World's Reyes. "High school
students in China are now being taught to speak English," he said.
China's numbers mean the window of opportunity for India and the Philippines
will soon get smaller. As it is, China is now starting to undercut competition
in data encoding services. It could match India's available 300,000
software experts, although at present only 45,000 of them are highly
skilled. Wait after five years. Other countries like Malaysia and Indonesia
also smell the profit opportunity. "The Philippines will need to
face up to this reality," says Contact World's Reyes.
©2001 www.inq7.net all rights reserved
Nahrungsmittelmaschinen
in den Philippinen gefragt
Gebrauchte
europäische Ausrüstungen bei inländischen Firmen beliebt
Quelle:
XPOS - Das Außenhandelwirtschaftsportal
Manila
(bfai) - Nahrungsmittelverarbeitungs- und -verpackungsmaschinen werden
auch in der Zukunft in den Philippinen gefragt bleiben. Da die inländische
Produktion äußerst gering ist, haben ausländische Anbieter
gute Absatzchancen. Deutsche Produkte waren in der Vergangenheit beliebt.
Die philippinische Nahrungsmittel- und Getränkeindustrie legte
im Jahr 2000 teilweise deutlich stärker zu als die Gesamtwirtschaft.
Landeskenner erwarten nicht, dass die inländischen Branchenfirmen
die hohen Zuwächse des Jahres 2000 Zuwächse 2001 wiederholen
können. Sie gehen aber davon aus, dass der Sektor auch in den nächsten
Jahren einer der dynamischsten bleibt. Hieraus dürfte sich auch
in Zukunft ein erheblicher Investitionsbedarf ergeben. Auch gegenwärtig
werden die Verarbeitungsanlagen ausgebaut. So investieren die Sugarland
Beverage Corp. und ihr größter Aktionär La Tondena Distillers
Inc. rd. 100 Mio. philPesos in den Ausbau der Saft- und Geleeproduktion
und das Fleisch verarbeitende Unternehmen Purefoods-Hormel Co. errichtet
in Alaminos, Laguna, für 1,2 Mrd. philPesos eine neue Verarbeitungsstätte.
Insgesamt bestehen in dem Bereich über 22.500 Betriebe. 99% davon
sind allerdings mittelgroße Firmen oder Hinterhof- und Kleinbetriebe.
Die dominanten Nahrungsmittel- und Getränkeunternehmen wie San
Miguel Corp., Republic Flour Mills, Cosmos Bottling Co. und Selecta
Ice Cream sind vertikal-integrierte Unternehmen, die zahlreiche Produkte
verkaufen. Die meisten Firmen beliefern lediglich den einheimischen
Markt. Ausschließlich große Hersteller wie Del Monte und
Dole exportieren auch. Wichtigste Ausfuhrprodukte sind verarbeitete
Früchte, Thunfisch und Fleisch.
Diese Betriebe können nur in geringem Umfang auf einheimisch gefertigte
Produktionsanlagen zurückgreifen, auch wenn die Produktion mit
der zunehmenden Zahl mittelgroßer Branchenbetriebe wächst.
In den Philippinen werden lediglich technisch einfache Ausrüstungen
in beschränkter Zahl hergestellt. Dies zeigen auch die Exportzahlen.
Die Ausfuhren der beiden Maschinenbausparten beliefen sich 2000 auf
7,3 Mio. US$. Wichtigste Ausfuhrprodukte waren andere Nahrungsmittelmaschinen
mit einem Anteil von 62%. Bedeutendstes Abnehmerland war Thailand mit
einem Anteil von 51%.
Der Maschinenbedarf muss daher weitgehend durch Importe gedeckt werden.
Die Einfuhren erreichten 2000 rd. 77 Mio. US$ und lagen damit lediglich
leicht (-2%) unter dem Niveau von 1999. Sie entfielen zu etwa gleichen
Teilen auf Nahrungsmittel- und Getränkemaschinen (PSCC-Nr. 727)
sowie Verpackungsmaschinen (745.27). Wichtigster Lieferant war Japan
mit 23% Importanteil. Es folgten die USA und Deutschland mit 15% bzw.
12% Anteil.
Den Volltext des Artikels und weitere detailliertere Informationen zu
diesem Thema finden Sie in den Datenbanken der Bundesagentur für
Außenwirtschaft (bfai).
TRADE
OPPORTUNITIES
from
American Chamber of Commerce BULLETIN No. 03
February 15, 2001
Listed below are recently received inquiries requesting sourcing
of products and services.
-
Tires:
New, Used and Retread - company specializes in truck tires of all
types; it has three truck retrewad plants and one airplane tire
retread pant, representing 15 different manufacturers; offers assistance
to firms in other countries that may want to get into similar business.
Contact Management Consulting Group at e-mail: Management CG@hotmail.com.
-
Wet
clutch disks for automotive, marine, industrial, offroad, motorcycle,
Allison and agricultural equipment - company is manufacturer of
said products, with manufacturing plants and warehouses all over
the U.S. and worldwide exporter; wants to get in touch with local
automotive part disytributors in the Philippines. Contact Joseph
L. Meyer, ALTO Products Corp., 7525 NW 74th Avenue, Miami, Florida,
USA 33166. Tel. 305-887-7044; fax: 305-887-7045. E-mail: joe.meyer@altousa.com;
website: www.altousa.com
-
Used
Japanese car, truck, bus, van, wagon, pick-up, etc; used left-hand
drive cars (US, German, British, French, Italian, and Swedish makes
from 1983 to 1990 models; recycled engineering plastic resins, used
Japanese cameras, used japanes diesel generators, heavy machinery,
medical equipment; new aluminim and steel sheets - firm is an exporter
and wants to get into business relations with local importers. Contact
BATFA JAPAN INC., Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 154-0017, Japan. Tel: 813-3428-8931;
fax: 813-3428-8932. E-mail: batfa_japan@pop07.odn.ne.jp; website:
www.geocities.com/batfa_japan/official.html
-
Metal
articles (stamps, press-forms, moulds, customer-specified components);
electronic articles and computers; furniture for schools, homes;
mobile archive shelving and storage space saving systems - company
is manufacturer from Vilnius, Lithuania. Seeks local firms interested
in distributing or reselling its final or prefabricated products.
Contact Olegas Dolgopolovas, Commercial Director, Technolitas JSC,
P.O. Box 111, Vilnius-c 2000, Lithuania. Tel.: (+370-98) 44557;
fax: (+370-2) 727802. E- mail: technolitas@technolitas.lt; website:
www.technoliltas.lt
Amcham
Bulletin does not make any endorsement of any kind and cannot accept
responsibility for products, services and/or contacts appearing in this
publication. Unless otherwise indicated, communications should be made
direct to the parties concerned.
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