06 Oct Where the world comes for business process outsourcing

The Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) defines BPO as the “delegation of service-type business processed to a third-party service provider”.  The industry covers contact centres, back office services, data transcription, animation, software development, engineering development and game development.

BPO in the Philippines has become a high growth sector because of a clutch of factors including low cost of living and the young, educated, English speaking workforce. The majority of international research and data companies have placed the Philippines as one of the top outsourcing destinations in the world.

The BPO sector in the Philippines is world class, having surpassed India as the top destination for contact centres. Over 1.2 million Filipinos work in BPOs, and the industry contributes over £20 billion a year to the national economy, all while helping clients keep costs low and offering top-quality services.

The sector has not been entirely immune to the pandemic. Many businesses hurt by the economic impact of COVID-19 scaled down, or even totally withdrew, their outsourced services. The BPO industry in the Philippines is, however, well-placed to meet the increased demand, despite the difficulties created by the pandemic. The large, experienced, and educated workforce means that BPO companies can easily scale to fulfil new projects or contracts.

The BPO sector in Asia is predominantly a battle between India and Philippines. India has been the outsourcing favorite, BPO sector in Philippines is fast catching up. One of the reasons why companies prefer the Philippines over India is due to its treasure trove of highly-educated manpower. In fact, according to the United Nations Development Programme, the Filipino workforce has an impressive literacy rate of 93.4%, whereas the Indians only achieved a rate of 61%.