RP remains leader in global contact center industry

The prospects of Philippines outsourcing industry remains bright, with the country remaining as the leader in customer experience deliver, according to Benedict Hernandez (left), chairman of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP). Also in photo are H. Karthik (middle), head of Everest Group Global Sourcing and Location optimization practices; and Jojo Uligan (right), CCAP president. CDND PHOTO / Irene Sino Cruz

CEBU CITY―The business process outsourcing industry is projected to grow by seven percent in 2019, said Benedict Hernandez, chairman of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP).

Hernandez said the Philippines remained as the leader in customer experience despite a global slowdown.

A report by Texas-based consulting firm Everest Group said the 2018 global growth in IT and business process outsourcing has slowed down to three percent to four percent.

H. Karthik, head of Everest Group Global Sourcing and Location optimization practices, said several companies around the world have held back in their sourcing decision as they have to figure out how best to integrate automation, artificial intelligence and analytics in their business and shared services strategy.

As all these are happening, the Philippines grew faster than the global market at 5.1 percent in 2018, providing direct employment to 1.23 million individuals.

However, Everest noted that the actual industry growth was lower than the eight percent annual projection based on the industry roadmap 2022.

On the other hand, the global outsourcing industry appears to be on a rebound with the Everest Group projecting a four percent growth in 2019, Karthik said.

Hernandez noted that in the Philippines, the take-up of real estate for information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) this year has reached 126, 000 square meters for the first four months of 2019.

This is back to historical high levels.

Meanwhile, the shift to digital and the uptick in the global market provides new opportunities for contact centers in the Philippines.

“The shift to digital means new, higher value, higher margin opportunities for contact centers in the Philippines,” says CCAP president Jojo Uligan.

Uligan explained that the Philippines, as the global market leader in contact center services over the past decade, will benefit from the shift: away from classic delivery models to digitally-enabled service delivery designed to disrupt and transform customer experience or CX.

“Clients today have gone beyond traditional service level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). By capitalizing on digital capabilities, clients have started to expect their service providers to help them reshape and transform the end-to-end customer experience to impact both top line and bottom line,” he added.

The CCAP is also holding a two-day conference dubbed as Contact Islands 2019 conference in Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa, in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu starting Wednesday, July 24.

Uligan said around 300 senior level executives from the IT-BPM industry are expected to attend this conference.

“This year’s conference focuses on exchange in views on CX with thought leaders from other industries, like food service, banking, manufacturing, and others,” he said. / celr