FAO together with knowledge process outsourcing has been in demand in the Philippines because of the lack of talents from mid-market segment. Small and big companies, especially those who want to reduce their overall production cost will choose to outsource these services rather than go through the dilemma of talent utilization and cost arbitrage. There are also companies that have their own internal audit department that co-source specific audit functions rather than hiring more people.

Globally speaking, client’s companies will be looking more into “best-in-process” operation rather than cost arbitrage. Platform and Software as a Service (SaaS) integration and based offerings of the computerized system and services in the F&A outsourcing will be more in-demand from mid-sized buyers.

According to Ms. Gigi Virata, Director for Information and Research of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP), the outsourcing industry is to hit the US$11 billion revenue mark in 2011 which will lead to higher employment rate this year. The whole outsourcing industry is expected to grow up to 26% per year with F&A outsourcing at its early stage.

The outsourcing industry will prioritize more of IT-BPO Road Map for the year 2011-2016. In the Philippines, Cebu and Manila were included in Tholon’s Top 10 Emerged Outsourcing Cities in 2010 and for 2011. Hopefully these rankings will pave way for more investment opportunities in the country.

Locally and internationally, it is going to be a more exciting year for F&A outsourcing. With more business setting in their sights to outsource their financial and accounting functions in the Philippines, the government should be prepared to grab every opportunity.

According to the survey conducted by BPAP, nine (9) percent of the BPO respondents are already offering knowledge process outsource (KPO) services to their clients. Germaine Reyes, Managing Director of Synergy Business Consultancy, said that market research can be monetized by introducing the Philippines as a potential research hub to provide the services needed by the KPO industries.

KPO is considered the extension or the transition of BPO that involves greater business complexity. Focusing more on knowledge-intense business processes, KPO industries need more significant domain expertise from prospective workers. The industry may include financial, analytics and equity research. Its services may range from web design to financial services and pharmaceutical research and outsourcing.

The Philippines is very cost-effective compared with other countries. Our workers also have the ability to look at the client’s business requirement in a different perspective to provide more business-focused output, Reyes added. The Philippines has reached its goal in beating India as the top BPO provider. It is highly possible that the country will be one of the most qualified KPO service providers in the near future. “High value and knowledge-based BPO provides will rise and will be more sought-after since companies around the world will lack the talent, domain expertise and scale to operate their support functions,’’ said Charles Villaseñor, CEO of Transpocure, company engaged in global BPO procurement solutions and receiver of the e-Service Awards 2009 for Business Development in BPO.

The US$25 outsourcing revenue goal is very achievable. The outsourcing industry has created 84,000 new jobs. As this industry continues to diversify, KPO in particular, has opened different job opportunities to skilled workers with the required specific qualifications and requirements. It is expected that KPO industries’ employment quota will increase up to 200% this year, which will in turn create more revenues for the outsourcing industry in the country. KPO has been a good transition for BPO industries instead of being a threat.

What does a call center agent really do? A call center agent, also known as customer service representative, basically answer the inquiries made by customers through calls or emails. They are given the authorization to look into the customer’s personal information stored in the system. Since call center industries in the Philippines cater to US clients, agents’ work hours are always during the night shift to adjust accordingly to US time zone. This is where “some” problems come in. Agents have to adjust their body clock in order to adjust in the normal day time for US customers.

Answering different kind of inquiries from different individuals in one day is really tiring. Aside from the fact that it is highly possible that you have to control your emotion while interacting with an irate client, you also have to answer inquiries from customers who are literally clueless about a certain service item.

From the things mentioned above, some may think that being a call center agent has no advantage at all. Looking at the positive side of things, being a call center agent can also offer different benefits and advantages. Below is a list of reasons that can boost your confidence in taking a call center job.

High Compensation

The call center industry offers more than basic compensation for successful applicants. Competitive salary packages for call center agents are presented by BPO companies to get the attention of prospective employees.

Improved Communication Skills

Being a call center agent gives you the chance to communicate with different people throughout the day. Each interaction is a chance to improve and develop your skills in communicating with people. Improved communication skills may lead to future career growth and personal improvements.

Personality Development

Confidence is a significant factor in one’s personality. Everyday interactions with people as a call center agent can help boost one’s self-esteem. One will become confident enough to talk and communicate even with someone they don’t know. When an agent is able to answer the concerns of his or her customer, it will give a feeling of self-satisfaction that will aid in improving some of his personality traits.

Opportunities for Extensive Training

Call center industries are always hiring. As long you’re computer literate and have a good command of the English language, you can be a successful agent even if you don’t have any experience in handling calls. Most call center companies offer extensive training to successful applicants from the basic up to the most complicated aspects of customer service. This means more opportunity for fresh graduates to get a job.

Teamwork

Being able to work in a different environment with strangers is not a common trait for every individual. Working in the call center industry, one will learn how to work with the whole team. One’s metrics matter a lot for the overall team’s standing.

LWS Media continues to successfully deliver its client’s needs, maintaining quality service at the same time taking into consideration the needs of its employees. Call center agents in LWS Media is provided various benefits together with suitable working environment. Working as a call center agent may be tiring but looking at its benefits advantages all the efforts are still worth it.

Choosing the right web design is not an easy task. It takes many things into consideration before you can even come up with one. How do you choose the right web design? What are the factors that you need to consider in choosing one?

First and foremost, you should be able to create a good page composition. This means that each page of your website should be inviting and can fulfill your marketing objectives, especially when it comes to your homepage. A good homepage must be able to let your visitors know what you are offering them without the need of scrolling down.

A good design web layout should also consider the different types of browsers. The website should be easily accessible in different browsers. Potential customers might lose interest if they need to install another browser just to view your site. A good web design layout should also consider the type of software that can affect their search engine rankings. For example, flash websites might not be as readable by search engines compared to pure text sites.

Most importantly, you have to hire a good web design company with skilled and experienced web designers. They are the professionals in this field. They know what to do and what not to do. You can say that they are knowledgeable in the ins and outs of a website design. LWS Media, one of most competitive when it comes to outsourcing business, offer creative web design service and packages. Expert web designers with more than enough knowledge to make the website design you want.

Aside from these services, this company has experienced and skilled individuals that comprise their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) team to help your website rank good in Google search results. All of the factors mentioned above if followed and taken into consideration carefully will surely be able to deliver you the results you want for your website and your business.

Outsourcing is primarily divided into three categories, namely, technology services outsourcing, business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing.

1. Business owners know the importance of technology in pushing a business to its full potential. They acknowledge this fact by employing individuals that are trained in sophisticated and modern technology. As such, the have the option to outsource people who are advanced in their knowledge and training in technology. Website development and telecommunications industries are just among the work functions that are part of this category.
2. Customer relations management and the likes are commonly outsourced because it costs less. If you are outsourcing employees for these purposes, you are involving in business process outsourcing. This type of outsourcing started to hit it off with business owners before the dawn of the new millennium as a response to the advancing internet industry. The distinct aspect to this type of outsourcing is that it typically involves third-party firms.
3. In any business endeavor, research is of utmost importance. This is where knowledge process outsourcing comes in. This type of outsourcing is used by pharmaceutical and development research and is often compared to business process outsourcing. The main difference, though, is that this particular type of outsourcing gives the outsourced talents more control as compared to BPO.

Planning to outsource talents can be made more convenient for you and for the outsourced employee if you know basic things about outsourcing. Citing the differences among the three major types of outsourcing can give you the jumpstart to drive your business into fruition.

Through E-commerce, companies found a way to present their products online. Buyers can secure their purchase online with its shipping costs. Through the aid of World Wide Web, they now reach both local and international grounds, paving the way for a larger scale of foreign consumers. Products are being offered to different people of different cultures with different needs. This is an opportunity and a risk at the same time. In this point, offshore outsourcing is of great help.

Outsourcing enables a company to hire people anywhere in the world, without being there to monitor every move. The task is handed upon the outsourcer, with its further operations intended to comply with company guidelines. Outsourcing improves domain expertise, which means employed people abroad can cater different approaches to their work and yet still produce great results. This provides a broader view on business based on foreign experience. Chances of meeting different needs are increased.

One of the advantages of offshore outsourcing is the price-competitiveness. Companies can now promote their products through online advertisements and marketing. This puts away the expensive international airtime and ad space. Companies only pay mostly of the work. Additional currency fluctuations are reduced but labor would still be of value.

Business Process Outsourcing firms like LWS Media Inc. delivers competent outputs to international clients when it comes to back office support solutions. E-commerce clients are ensured of an accurate, complete and comprehensive information output. SKU management is prioritized, helping you all the way to achieve best results through high performance resources.

The Philippine call center industry is undeniably thriving as it continues to grow further in recent years. Originally, contact centers in the country catered mainly to email response and managing services for eCommerce. Eventually, BPO firms kept on emerging in the country’s major business districts like Ortigas and Makati to provide outsourcing for almost any type of customer relations, including travel, technical support, project management, virtual assistance, and so on.

The BPO industry is regarded as one of the fastest-growing industries in the world and call centers are a huge part of outsourcing operations. In the Philippines, where the BPO business is pegged to be a USD 150-billion dollar industry, call centers have successfully boosted the country’s employment rate as they continue to grow in number. One main reason for this is the relatively less expensive labor and operational costs in the country. Second, Filipino call center agents are valued for their native English-speaking tongue and loyalty.

Between 2001 and 2006, the Philippine call center industry grew to up to a hundred times bigger. Recently, Convergys, an outsourcing giant based in the United States announced plans to establish five new customer contact centers in the country, which is projected to provide some 7,000 jobs. In line with the ongoing global economic recession, BPOs are even considered effective fallbacks for overseas Filipino workers who may have lost their jobs.

The Philippines and India are two of the world’s strongest competitors when it comes to BPO firms and contact centers. American companies seeking to outsource in developed countries have the two destinations high on their list. In India, outsourcing operations mostly revolve around “sophisticated, mission-critical functions.” Product managers, financial analysts, software managers, and other skilled professionals requiring high salaries are in abundance in the country. However, the Philippines is seen as a less expensive alternative for basic services like customer service.

This is not to say however that operating a call center in the Philippines is very cheap, especially in current times where the peso-dollar exchange is exhibiting a downward trend. Another major factor to consider is that with the industry continuously growing, competition on the local level is quite strong.

For starters, opening a call center in the country would cost around USD 1,000. That does not yet include taxes, which is around 40% of the business’ income. Call center owners also have employee benefits and the procurement of advanced office equipment like computers and VoIP to think about. Employee benefits include SSS, Phil Health, tax, back pay, 13th month pay, sick leaves, and vacation leaves. On top of that, office rentals should eat up a huge part of operation costs, as well as Internet network subscription fees and overseas calls.

Wage rates are definitely cheaper, which is one main reason behind the call center boom in the first place. Business owners planning to operate contact centers in the country also have to option to hire work-from-home agents, although this has its own share of disadvantages. Filipino agents are reliable, educated, and they are widely exposed to American culture compared to their Asian neighbors.

The growth of the call center industry is due to the development of information technology combined with the constant increasing need for more efficient and faster customer service by manufacturing companies. With the strict consumer demands, most companies from the United States and other parts of the world choose the Philippines among other Asian countries because of the country’s competitive edge when it comes to human resources skills and quality service.

Call center operations include outbound telemarketing, inbound customer service, customer contact services, accounting, lead generation, medical and legal transcription, administration, logistics, technical support, software development, web development, human resources management and language training.

Innovation in technology makes it even much easier for the call center industry to succeed across different countries and the world. This gives opportunity for small and average outsourcing companies to thrive in the Philippines and other countries not just for clients from the United States but also for Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom. Businesses from these companies are considering the Philippines as the leading location for outsourcing. Today, small and average companies like LWS Media have one hundred to five hundred call center representatives while the well known call centers such as Accenture and Convergys have at least one thousand to five thousand call center agents all over the country. This is because of the efficiency of the business pattern, which is quality, quantity and cost-effective that results to the excellence in terms of professional skill.

With globalization, the benefits of global Business Process Outsourcing is expanding and it is now possible for small and average companies to take advantage of the system. In the past, Business Process Outsourcing was only accessible for big companies and firms but today, the trend is beginning to develop. China and India are the leading outsourcing countries, followed by the Philippines. More and more business in the United States are participating in the international picture, the same as more and more businesses are beginning to eye the Philippines as a prospect in terms of call center outsourcing.

Compared with the other outsourcing locations in the world, Business Process Outsourcing in the Philippines does not only provide high rate currency exchange but also offer excellent and high-quality service due to its English-speaking residents. Furthermore, the lifestyle and the culture in the Philippines are very much similar to the United States.

The call center industry is one of the largest recipients to avail the advantages of VoIP services. Aside from its increased productivity and cost-effectiveness, call centers also get benefits from VoIP services such as scalability, security and flexibility. In fact, VoIP can be used in monitoring and ensuring the quality of calls in a complex network setting.

Most call centers all over the world as well as the internet telephony services take advantage of VoIP service because it can be used at considerably lower rates. It offers seamless connectivity, which can greatly help the businesses to succeed especially with the advanced call center solutions. In the past, VoIP services were used for dealing with customer calls as voice-only solutions but today, these have improved to cover highly developed skills.

With so many outsourcing companies mushrooming in many countries, anyone who wants to join in may feel overwhelmed especially when the constraints involved in starting such project are considered. Come to think of it however, challenges in getting started with outsourcing can be easily met by employing certain strategies.

First of all, as a would-be outsourcer, you must predetermine what service or product you plan to farm out. It will be more favorable on your part if you pick something that needs lengthier time, more extensive work and extended methods. This way, you will be able to maximize your resources. Money of course is of the essence here such that the more work is required in delivering your service the more you will save from your operation costs.

The next thing to be considered when putting up an outsourcing business is choosing your offshore third-party company. Now since you have no idea whether this partner company will truly be able to deliver your services, a trial period, which is normally free, should be requested. In this case, you need to be straightforward in dealing with your provider by giving your desired specifications, standards and expectations about the job on hand. Don’t be stingy with your details and be as explicit as possible with your requirements in order to lay down a good foundation of your business relationship. The trial period will determine whether your product is an ideal service to outsource. If not, then you can always make adjustments to find the right service that will fit in the outsourcing business, or you might as well totally amend your business plans. LWS Media in the Philippines, for example, allows customization and a project plan that best fits what you need, and is not encumbered by strict processes but actually makes use of those strict processes to be more efficient and productive.

Choosing an offshore partner entails, above all, scouting for the right location. In this aspect your foremost consideration should be the human resource available in the area. You need to conduct a research and study on this matter to find out if the workforce in said location is equipped with the proper skills needed to provide or deliver your service or product. Another thing to mull over is the cost required in putting up and maintaining an outsource business in the place of your choice. The urbanization level of the city where you plan to establish your offshore business is likewise important. Most likely, if a city is highly urbanized, you will need a higher capital as you have to cover steeper costs of operations and salaries of the employees.
Don’t be afraid to take risks in selecting an outsourcing partner, thinking it might not be successful or you might not be satisfied with the output. If you fail once with one provider, you can always find another. Outsourcing partners abound in the offshoring trade and you will never run out of options.

On the other hand, you need to have a clear cut time frame for your outsourcing work. Therefore you should structure your timetable in such a way that the start and end points of your outsourcing work are definite. The sooner the job is started, the earlier it will be finished and then you can start with another outsourcing project all over again.

It has been the experience of many outsourcers that getting a multiple service provider is more advisable because it gives you a leeway and you are not stuck with just one service provider. As has been proven time and again in the outsourcing business, the more options there are, the more beneficial it will be for the outsourcer.

Competition is stiff in today’s tough economy. Businesses should continuously think of ways to innovate their respective niches in order to just survive. Some investors bank on good state-of-the-art technology, while others invest on human resources, a good example of which is hiring call center agents overseas. Some investors even apply both of these strategies to maximize profit. By outsourcing manpower from countries who can communicate well using the English language together with VoIP technology, businesses increase target revenues and improve productivity.

VoIP has definitely improved much over the years. To have a clear picture of how the technology works, think of it as the ability to make communicating through the internet a reality, via a broadband phone or a special device that can transport voice signals over the web.

The existence of VoIP has provided a ton of outsourcing opportunities, bringing about the birth of companies that operate over great distances. Overseas sales managers, consultants, account executives, and customer support representatives are now a reality, but this is only a small part of what outsourcing really is. The Philippines and India, leaders in the outsourcing industry, offer low rates for the services offered by their call center agents. One of the reasons why costs are low is because VoIP does not cost much either. Whatever profit is gained by companies that outsource their customer support will most likely be used to continuously innovate and improve the services offered to their consumers.

VoIP is not solely used for outsourcing services. Have you ever heard of Google Talk, MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Skype? These products have paved the way for communication to be as convenient as possible. An individual with an internet connection can make use of these services to communicate with family members at any time of the day. Most of them offer enticing packages such as unlimited services at a flat-rate cost per month. Also, many of these products such as Yahoo Messenger and Skype let you make free voice calls and leave voicemails. Innovation is a trend with these products. Not only do they offer free voice calls, they also allow you to converse with one another with their video features, so communication is at its most efficient state.

Meanwhile, it cannot be denied that calls using VoIP encounter technical issues every now and then. Latency and disconnection problems are the major challenges experienced. Thus, it is also advised that one should use a high-end Operating System such as Windows 98, Windows 2000, or some other newer version in order to enjoy a more real-time conversation.

In conclusion, because of the efficiency level and the low costs offered by VoIP technology, not only businesses but also private individuals are now slowly switching from the “old school” telephone system to the VoIP systems.