Business
Process Outsourcing undeniably has become a common term in modern business. In
the past, BPO was seen primarily as a cost-control strategy with relatively
short-term objectives, mostly to meet economic changes or to meet a sudden
demand on service. Today, many organizations are looking to their BPO suppliers
to provide other value in addition to cost control. According to a survey conducted by Forbes on
more than 200 top-level and C-suite executives at $1 billion-plus multinational
companies, organizations are now seeing BPO on a newer light on how it can be a
medium in achieving other business priorities such as growths plans, expanding,
and stabilizing sales. They believe it is very important for their BPO relationships to have added value and that it should go beyond those short-term
objective . Nowadays BPOs have also become more strategic in providing
value-added services in line with the competition with other BPO provider . BPOs
are now helping organization in the free cash flow, market penetration, and
customer satisfaction.
It has been predicted in the past
that BPO will make a lot of impact especially for English-speaking countries
like the Philippines. In 2016, the Philippines have already made a reputation of
being the call center of the world. Philippines is now the more preferred
location for outsourcing. BPO in the Philippines continues to grow and spread
out it roots. BPO companies are even looking at the possibilities of expanding
their reach. There are now many offices outside of the National Capital
Region. It is expected that it will still continue its steady growth in 2017
and years to come as many companies believe that BPO will still be an option
that will support their business model for at least three more years.
Clearly,
organizations have changed their perspective on how they look at BPOs nowadays and the demands for outsourcing continue to rise in this swift-paced era. But this
still doesn’t guarantee the stability of the industry. With great changes on
the international market and from countries that offshore to the Philippines
like United Kingdom and USA, we may also experience a lot of changes on the structure
of the BPO industry in general. The following are just some of the predicted
trend for BPO in the Philippines in the coming years:
1.
BPO
revenues will take over OFW remittances.
Jose Mari Mercado, president of the Information Technology-Business Process
Association of the Philippines has predicted that with more than one million
people working for the business processing outsourcing industry, its
contribution to the Philippine economy is seen to overtake the income
remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the next two years.
2.
More
BPO offices will be constructed outside of Metro Manila. According to the Colliers
International Philippines director for research and advisory Julius Guevara on
a phone interview with Manila Times, the increasing rental rates on Metro
Manila has pushed BPOs to find affordable locations that at the same time will
become more accessible to labor. And with the expected talks on Federalism,
this might really be a wise move for BPO service providers.
3.
BPO
will endure international political movement. BPI Securities president Michael
Angelo Oyson in an interview with Inquirer said that the BPO might take a hit
on the potential protectionist policies from US with the change on the power
but will soon get back on as eventually the political rhetoric will be tempered
by the political realities.
