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STAFFVIRTUAL SV OUTSOURCING TO THE PHILIPPINES FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE - AN OVERVIEW A white paper by Ike Stranathan, Founder of Staff Virtual December, 2011
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Staff Virtual White Paper on Outsourcing Companies in the Philippines

Nov 11, 2014

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Ike Stranathan

This white paper describes how outsourcing to the Philippines can give a company a competitive advantage it today's challenging economic environment. For more information, or to download this white paper from our website, visit: http://staffvirtual.com/
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OUTSOURCING TO THE PHILIPPINES FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE - AN OVERVIEWA white paper by Ike Stranathan, Founder of Staff VirtualDecember, 2011

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Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3

Outsourcing - Embracing the New Reality ............................... 4

What is Exactly is Outsourcing? What are the benefits? ........................................................................................ 5

What Do In-house Employees REALLY cost? ........................ 5

Why are Organizations Outsourcing? ............................................... 6

The Philippines - An Overview .................................................................. 8

10 Reasons why Outsourcing is Booming in the Philippines? ........................................................................................................ 9

The Future of Outsourcing and Virtual Staff Leasing in the Philippines ........................................................................... 13

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 14

About the Author ...................................................................................................... 15

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 16

Table of Contents

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This white paper will provide an overview of outsourcing and

its many benefits, and why the business process outsourcing

(BPO) industry in the Philippines is experiencing rapid growth. In

today’s global economy, companies cannot afford for outsourcing

not to be included in their strategic plans. Outsourcing works,

and it’s an attractive option for many companies.

Most outsourcing providers are located offshore, in other countries

where wages are less than that back home. The Philippines is

one such country. Labor rates in the Philippines are extremely

attractive to entrepreneurs, as is their large, college educated,

English speaking workforce. Outsourcing to the Philippines

is increasing in frequency and scope. The BPO industry is the

fastest growing sector of the Filipino economy, already employing

approximately 600,000 professionals. Revenues are projected to

increase sharply in the coming years as companies outsource

more complex and creative business processes. According to the

Business Processing Association of the Philippines, the Philippine

BPO industry is expecting 2010 revenues of approximately $9

billion, and total BPO revenues could increase to a staggering

$25 billion by 2016.

In the current uncertain economic environment brought on

by the global financial crisis, companies of all sizes and in all

industries must adapt and innovate to become more efficient and

cost conscious. Strategic partnerships with quality outsourcing

providers are more important than ever. Outsourcing can improve

operational efficiencies and give a competitive advantage while

reducing labor costs.

Introduction

Outsourcing to the Philippines for Competitive Advantage - An OverviewA white paper by Ike Stranathan, Founder of Staff Virtual

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is

the most adaptable to change” ~ Charles Darwin

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Outsourcing - Embracing the New Reality

Jack Welch, the legendary retired CEO of General Electric, recently responded to a question about outsourcing in his weekly column, Winning. The question was: “How can we change things in the United States so we don’t have to outsource to India and other countries anymore?” His response was simple: we can’t, and we shouldn’t. Welch went on to explain that the real question should be, “How do we use outsourcing to enhance competitiveness in what is, and forever will be, a global marketplace?”

Welch acknowledges that outsourcing has caused its share of pain with the resulting layoffs in certain markets, but believes that it is ultimately good for the economy. Driven by consumer demands for low prices and high quality, companies have had to look around the world for cost advantages, which has led to offshore outsourcing. Welch points to the 20% growth in the U.S. economy since mid-2003 as evidence that the outsourcing trend has been positive overall for the United States. Both outsourcing and virtual staff leasing are driven by the need to cut costs. For these reasons, the outsourcing of services is gaining popularity worldwide for businesses of all sizes and types.

In today’s global economy, companies cannot afford for outsourcing not to be included in their strategic plans. Outsourcing is effective, and it’s an attractive option for many

companies. The ability to achieve cost-savings and improved efficiencies by going offshore is now so widely recognized and accepted that even Time Magazine has run stories about the phenomenon, along with many other general-interest magazines and newspapers. This phenomenon is not just limited to large multinationals and their offshore call centers or customer support operations. Small- and medium-sized businesses who are looking to expand their workforces also are benefiting greatly by outsourcing and leasing employees from quality providers who are headquartered in the United States, but whose main offices are located outside the United States, such as Staff Virtual. According to some studies, companies are already outsourcing more business functions during the current recession.

The quantity and quality of highly educated, technical, and available business talent in emerging markets such as Philippines, South Africa, India and South America, have grown significantly over the past decade. Technological improvements have also improved dramatically during this time, shrinking, connecting, and flattening the world. Today, wherever there is a high-speed Internet connection, high-quality professional services can be delivered. Globalization and outsourcing are two phenomena that are here to stay.

Legendary CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch

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What Exactly Is Outsourcing? What are the Benefits?

Outsourcing involves contracting an external provider to perform a business function or service that was typically prior performed in-house. Many business functions such as customer support, data entry, email response-handling, social-media marketing, research, technical support, human resources and payroll are currently being outsourced by companies of all sizes.

There are many reasons to outsource various jobs, but the most obvious advantage is cost savings. American companies outsourcing to the Philippines are abundant for this reason. Most outsourcing companies are located overseas, where labor is much less expensive. This labor-cost arbitrage means

that outsourcing providers are able to do the same work for considerably less money than their in-house counterparts, a savings which they pass along to their customers. For example, accountants and human-resource managers can often be eliminated, greatly reducing payroll costs. The staff-leasing agency charges a fee along with the employees’ wages, much like temporary employment agencies. This fee is often less than the cost of hiring human-resource experts and payroll accountants. Because workers are not considered employees of the company in a legal sense, personal injury and workers’ compensation claims become the responsibility of the virtual staff leasing agency.

What Do In-house Employees REALLY Cost?

Employers sometimes refer to their actual cost per hour of employing personnel as a “loaded rate.” The rate is calculated by adding the employee’s hourly wage to the employer’s cost of hiring and retaining the person. These additional include the costs of hiring, providing workstations and office space, taxes, government compliance, benefits, worker’s compensation, time off and bonuses.

The loaded rate is around 140% of the hourly wage. That means a $10-per-hour employee has a loaded rate of about $14 per hour. With already exorbitant health care and insurance costs on the rise, loaded rates are increasing rapidly.

Employers are also responsible for paying a federal unemployment insurance tax of 6.2% for the first $7,000 an employee makes. Many states add an additional tax of around 4%. Medicare and Social Security tax might be deducted from an employee’s check each month, but that’s only the half of it; the employer pays the other half. So, for up to $106,800 of an annual salary, the employer and employee each pay half of the total tax.

Every time an employee is hired, there is a financial gamble for the employer, called the “cost per hire”. This number includes costs for advertising for the job, interviewing costs, training costs, and “time to fill” (the amount of money the company loses by having a vacant position). The total is expensive; most companies estimate this to be around $1,500 for each hourly employee hired.

So how much does a $10-per-hour employee REALLY cost? Let’s assume a part-time person who works 15 hours per week makes $10 per hour. If the employee stays for one year, the employee actually costs nearly $17 per hour. That’s almost twice as much as her hourly pay. Employers are well aware of the big investment associated with each of their employees, so they must continually incentivize employees to encourage retention and lessen turnover. Why? Because they are investing a lot of time and money into an employee’s success.

For this reason, many employers are turning to outsourcing and staff-leasing to fill positions quickly, and cut costs. Then, the loaded rate is actually borne by the outsourcing company, not the employer.

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Why are Organizations Outsourcing?

Besides the significant cost savings, organizations are outsourcing for the following reasons:

Sharper Focus on Core Business — Outsourcing allows companies to focus on core business issues while having non-core competencies taken care of by outside, subject-matter experts. For example, organizations often outsource IT functions to specialized IT service providers.

Enhanced Access to Talent — Finding, attracting and retaining top talent has always been a fundamental business imperative. While access to capital, free markets, and good ideas are all critical elements for business success, the firms that employ the “best and brightest” typically come out on top. Through smart outsourcing, companies can enjoy access to a larger talent pool, and more sustainable source of skilled labor than is often available at home. Also, if a company is looking to expand, outsourcing is a cost-effective way to start building foundations in other countries.

Improved Quality — Outsourcing services may create new and improved workflow systems that increase efficiencies

and drive the errors out of processes, achieving quality improvements to a service or system.

Creating Leisure Time — Individuals may wish to outsource their work to virtual assistants to optimize their work-life balance, or improve the quality of their work life. Individuals, as well as business, can outsource many time-consuming, repetitive jobs to virtual assistant companies to improve their quality of life and create more leisure time. In today’s hectic and demanding world, where there never seem to be enough hours in the day, this ability is more important than it has ever been.

Best Practices — Virtual staff can provide qualified access to operational best practices that would be too difficult, expensive or time consuming to develop in-house. Best practices often result in significant and measurable effects to cost, quality, performance and security.

Risk Management — Risk in providing the service is borne by the outsourcing provider or virtual-assistant company, not in-house. Outsourcing companies offer their services through

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Why are Organizations Outsourcing?

legally binding contracts with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services. Outsourcing services also eliminate and/or mitigate the risks associated with lawsuits. If an employee slips on a banana skin in the office, the employer is liable. If this person is working for your outsourcing partner, the outsourcing company is liable.

Change Catalyst — Outsourcing services is not merely a cost-cutting tool; it is also a strategy to achieve organizational transformation. The outsourcing company becomes an indispensable agent of change that the home company couldn’t have achieved singularly.

Cost Restructuring — Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. By offering a move from fixed to variable costs, and by making variable costs more predictable, outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio.

Enhanced Innovation — Companies increasingly outsource services to supplement a limited in-house capacity to innovate or develop a new product. Having an army of in-house

engineers no longer means a company can control its fate alone. Instead, many progressive companies have become adept at using the creativity and skills of workers around the world. This can reduce new product-development time and time to market.

Enhanced Flexibility — Outsourcing providers are prepared to manage a temporary or permanent increase or decrease in personnel, often due to business cycles or seasonal variation. Outsourcing services makes a business more flexible. Also, companies can often scale faster when they have access to workers who are much less expensive.

Improved Customer Service — In today’s turbulent economic environment, customer service is more important than ever. Outsourcing can drastically improve the ability to deliver a better customer experience, consistently aligned around customer needs, while reducing overhead costs. In turn, loyal customers have a demonstrable effect on the top line, by buying more and referring other customers.

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The Philippines - An Overview

The Republic of the Philippines, also known affectionately as “The Pearl of the Orient”, is a country in South East Asia located in the western Pacific Ocean. An archipelago comprising 7,107 tropical islands, it has a population of approximately 93 million people, making it the twelfth most populated country in the world.

Most people are unaware that the Philippines has the third largest English speaking population in the world! According to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Filipino and English are the two official languages, however, English is the language of business, commerce, and the government. More than 90% of the population are Christians, 80% being Roman Catholic while 10% belong to other Christian denominations. The National Statistics Office reports a simple literacy rate of 93.4%, and a fast growing IT literacy rate of approximately 7%. Every year. 20,000 Mathematics and Information Technology graduates join the workforce.

As a newly industrialized country, the Philippines has been transitioning rapidly from an economy based primarily on

agriculture to one based more on manufacturing and services. Despite the global financial crisis, the economy has remained robust over the last 12 months, with 6.7% GDP growth reported in Q3 2010 and 7.7% growth year-on-year (National Economic and Development Authority). Record setting remittances, a young and highly educated population, and one of the best performing stock markets in Asia for 2010 (up over 38% YTD) are boosting confidence in this rapidly developing Asian Tiger economy.

The Philippines has a proven track record of delivering low-cost and high-quality outsourcing services. Over 620,000 Filipinos work in the outsourcing industry. That figure is expected to grow to over a million within a few years. Hundreds of companies are setting up offshore operations there every month to tap into the vast, technologically savvy, English speaking talent pool that exists there to become more efficient and cut costs.

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10 Reason Why Outsourcing is Booming in the Philippines

Why is the Philippines becoming globally recognized as the ideal country for finding highly skilled professionals who speak great English? What is behind such astonishing growth in virtually all segments of the Filipino BPO industry? What are other reasons for the impressive gains enjoyed by the Philippines BPO industry? Here are ten reasons why.

1. Labor Costs — One of the main benefits of tapping into the Filipino, IT and BPO workforce is the relatively low labor cost when compared to similar specialists in other markets. Labor costs, compared to those of other developing nations such as India, have not increased much in the Philippines in recent years. Salaries for IT professionals, tech support and call center support representatives are significantly lower than in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. For this reason, even leading Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, the IT services and BPO arm of India’s giant Tata Group, opened its very first BPO center in Southeast Asia this year in Bonifacio Global City, Philippines.

2. Culture — The Philippines is a highly westernized culture, largely as the result of its status as a protectorate of the United

States for nearly 50 years. Filipinos learn American English in the first grade, and watch TV shows like Friends long before they step foot inside a call center. Filipino culture is a combination of Eastern and Western cultures, and its strength as an outsourcing hub lies in its close affinity with the US. The Filipino legal, education and political systems are in large part based on American systems. Over one million Filipinos live in the US, and almost every extended Filipino family has someone living or working in the US. This fact is very much reflected in their society, fashion, food and lifestyle. Even the malls and the cinemas are full of American brands and movies. The similarities in culture make Filipinos easy to train. Also, they readily adopt the US accent compared to other locations where accents are much harsher and difficult to neutralize, such as in India. Having such a close cultural link helps mitigate many of the problems that result from hiring, training, and managing teams across international borders.

3. Hospitality — Filipino hospitality is legendary. The Filipino people are generally warm and extremely friendly, they are also very family- and relationship-oriented. Although Filipinos

Oprah with Filipino singing sensation Charice Pempengco

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10 Reason Why Outsourcing is Booming in the Philippines

are not the only people in the world who can be friendly and welcoming, their attitude towards other people is said to be exceptional. As a culture, they highly value being “mabait,” which is the Filipino word for “kind.” This kindness, warmth, and empathy are important characteristics that have helped Filipinos become highly successful in the BPO industry. Filipinos have developed a reputation worldwide as being extremely skilled when answering customer complaints, which makes them ideal for customer support jobs and as Virtual Assistants (VAs). They excel in relationship-oriented jobs where interpersonal communication skills and emotional intelligence are of paramount importance.

4. Strong Government Support — After witnessing the growth of the BPO industry in India, the Philippine government began promoting itself as a viable offshore outsourcing hub. Today, the industry enjoys widespread support throughout all branches of government. The Philippine government formed the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC) in order to promote itself as an attractive offshore outsourcing hub. The ITECC has proactively positioned their workforce to better provide the skills and services which are in high demand, including IT skills. The focus of the government’s information and communications technology policy is on five areas:

• Developing IT development zones within city planning

• Enhancing the Philippines’ information infrastructure

• Promoting services to potential clients

• Providing a regulatory environment which is conducive to growth

• Legislating to ensure wages remain contained

5. PEZA — PEZA, short for Philippine Economic Zone Authority, which is a part of the Department of Trade and Industry, is the Philippine government agency that promotes foreign direct investment, extends assistance, grant incentives to and facilitates the business operations of investors in export-oriented manufacturing and service facilities inside selected areas throughout the country. BPO companies in the Philippines may opt to register with PEZA, which entitles them to many benefits, including an income tax holiday for three to eight years. After that, PEZA-registered BPO companies are subject to only a 5% tax on gross income, in lieu of all local and national taxes. PEZA is just one of the many ways in which the Philippine government encourages economic growth in the BPO industry by enacting favorable tax and regulatory policies designed to encourage direct foreign investment.

6. IT Infrastructure — The Philippines enjoys high Internet penetration, with some estimates placing the number of Internet users as high as 24 million people. The country has a sophisticated cellular phone industry with a high concentration of users. Text-messaging is extremely common in Philippines, where approximately 2 billion text messages are sent each day. The Philippines has good international radiotelephone and submarine cable services, along with a domestic satellite system with 11 earth stations. Cellular communications are also robust, and include a combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular telephone density of about 80 telephones per 100 persons. A series of submarine cables provides connectivity to the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, powered by multiple international gateways. With the greater availability of online facilities, DSL, broadband and satellite service, and new cable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the Philippines, it is projected that the total number of Internet users in the Philippines will increase by over one million every year into the foreseeable future.

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10 Reason Why Outsourcing is Booming in the Philippines

7. Human Capital — The Philippines enjoys an abundance of disciplined, highly educated and native English-speaking professionals. Over 400,000 university graduates join the workforce each year, many of which are graduates in IT, or IT-related and engineering fields. Many top universities and institutions of higher learning are now offering outsourcing industry-related curriculum, certifications, degrees, and advanced degrees. This provides for a large and varied workforce for potential employers. Many IT companies, including Indian companies, are moving to the Philippines precisely because of its considerable reserve of highly skilled IT professionals waiting to be tapped, especially in the field of software development. Filipino outsourcing companies and professionals are now recognized worldwide for their credibility and expertise in many fields, including communication, education, finance, health care, science, research and IT. Manila, the capital of the country and home to its largest and most highly skilled labor pool, is recognized worldwide as a major outsourcing center. Filipino professionals are also particularly noteworthy for their marked customer-service orientation, superior work ethic, high degree of train-ability, flexibility, multicultural adaptability, and loyalty.

8. Strategic Location — The Philippines’ 7,107 islands stand strategically at the crossroads of regional and international trade. The country is an ideal access point to all of Asia,

currently the fastest growing region in the world. International flights are inexpensive to and from the Philippines, and flight times are short to major cities across Asia. From the Philippines, it’s just two hours by air to Taipei or Hong Kong,

and four hours to Tokyo and Seoul. It takes around nine hours to fly to Australia. It is also relatively close to the United States, with only a 12-hour flight from Los Angeles to Manila. Manila is a central hub of international shipping in the region, and is a critical entry point to over 500 million people in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN economies are beginning to integrate into the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, making the Philippines an excellent strategic location for firms

that want access to the large ASEAN market and its many trade opportunities. The Philippines also enjoys availability of prime yet low-cost commercial real estate and affordable office space, even in the Central Business District of the

The Philippines sits at the crossroads of East and West

[ Manila is a central hub of international shipping in the region ]

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10 Reason Why Outsourcing is Booming in the Philippines

Manila metro area, which is the most expensive real estate in the Philippines. Real estate and labor costs are even less expensive in other emerging Filipino outsourcing hubs such as Cebu, Baggio, Bacolod City, Baguio City, Cagayan de Oro, Clark (Angeles City), Dagupan City, Davao City, Tacloban City, Dumaguete City, Lipa City, Iloilo City, Legazpi City, Iligan City and Urdaneta City.

9. Expat-Friendly Lifestyle — The Philippines provides an excellent expatriate-agreeable lifestyle. By and large, expats find living in the Philippines to be pleasant, exciting and fun. Filipinos are, as previously mentioned, very kind, hospitable, and welcoming to foreigners. One reason why expats enjoy themselves is because they can experience a high standard of living for a relatively low cost. Many luxuries which are unaffordable back home, such as drivers and live-in housekeepers, are readily available in the Philippines. Quality business centers, housing, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, beach resorts, and recreation centers are also available. With over 7,000 islands, many of which are

still uninhabited, the Philippines offers world-class vacation destinations for tourists, as well as for the thousands of professionals who choose to live and work in the Philippines or do business there. The Philippines is the only English-speaking country in Asia; hence, communication, conducting business, and socializing are relatively easy there compared to any other Asian countries. Because the Philippines is an enjoyable place to work and live, people want to set up shop here, and live here, thereby growing the economy and BPO industry.

10. Proven Track Record — Many multinationals, as well as small and medium sized businesses, when faced with the important decision of where to outsource, and for whom to partner with, try to avoid investing in countries which are too risky, or lack a proven track record. Over the last ten years, Filipino outsourcing companies have proven to be world leaders in many segments of the BPO industry. The Philippines has a proven track record of success. Numerous Fortune 500 companies are already taking advantage of the unique benefits available from outsourcing to the Philippines, including:

Outsourcing

American Express

Maersk

Siemens

Nestle

HSBC

Lufthansa

Shell

IBM

Telus

Aegis

Warner Brothers

IT Outsourcing

Dell

Deutsche Bank

Morgan Stanley

American Express

Accenture

Fujitsu

Ford

Intel

eBay

Pixar

Disney

Call Center Outsourcing

AT&T

JPMorgan Chase

Expedia

Direct TV

Singtel

Convergys

Verizon

Teletech

Sykes

Sitel

Infosys

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The Future of Outsourcing and Virtual Staff Leasing in the Philippines

Expect 2012 to be another banner year for the Filipino economy, with increasing levels of foreign direct investment, booming eco-tourism, a thriving property market, and a rapidly growing outsourcing industry that continues to grow in both size and complexity of services offered. Multinational companies continue to open offices in the Philippines, and foreign direct investment continues to pour in. According to Deloitte Research in the 2010 Asia Pacific Economic Outlook report, foreign direct investment into the Philippines increased by 26% last year “even as the global economy was in recession.” Much of this direct foreign investment was poured into the outsourcing industry.

India, where offshore call centers first exploded, fields as many as 350,000 call center agents, according to some industry estimates. The Philippines, which has a population one-tenth as big as India’s, overtook India this year. As the newly crowned “king of the hill” when it comes to call centers, look for the Filipino outsourcing industry to continually evolve

to accommodate more specialized outsourced solutions, often referred to as knowledge-process outsourcing, or KPO. After BPO, KPO is the next stage in the evolution of the outsourcing market. The Philippines is already one of the top destinations for KPO, and many foreign companies are already outsourcing many processes that require much higher levels of skill and expertise. Strong growth is expected for knowledge-based services in the years to come, especially in the areas of finance, accounting, and legal services. Look for these KPO services, and the companies that provide them, to continually increase in size and complexity in the coming years.

While the Philippines has long been one of the world’s best destinations for call centers and voice-based BPO services, as well as KPO, industry leaders are now pushing for the country to be recognized as a world leader in creative process outsourcing (CPO) as well, due to Filipinos’ exceptional talented in several disciplines of art and design. CPO activities such as 3D animation, video game development, music- and sound-

The administration of newly elected President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III has clearly identified the BPO industry as a key business sector which his future administration will be looking into as a continuing source of new jobs.

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engineering, advertising, film and video production, industrial design, architecture, photography, and publishing are already regularly performed in the Philippines. As with BPO and KPO services, sharp increases in CPO should also be expected in years ahead. Pixar, the leading animation studio in the world, recently set up shop in the Philippines. Expect many other animation firms to follow their lead and setup CPO operations in the Philippines.

To meet this pent-up demand, and to continue to succeed in a competitive global marketplace for outsourced services, the outsourcing community of the Philippines, in cooperation with the Filipino Government, must continually strive to promote the industry, so that the Philippines can continue to develop a more highly skilled workforce that can deliver world-class BPO, KPO, and CPO services in the decades to come.

The Filipino outsourcing industry is growing rapidly. This growth is taking place for a number of reasons, including low labor costs, a highly Westernized culture, the hospitality of the people, strong government support, PEZA and other tax incentives, a robust IT infrastructure, an abundant highly skilled and trainable workforce, its strategic location between East and West, an expat-friendly lifestyle, and a proven track record of delivering low-cost and high-quality business support services.

Pressure to cut costs, improve efficiencies, and enhance customer service is enormous, and has never been more important as a survival strategy. For these reasons, many companies of all sizes and across virtually every industry have hired Filipino outsourcing companies to outsource business processes, knowledge based solutions, and creative tasks. This trend will continue as long as it is cost effective, enabling companies to become more efficient, productive, and profitable.

Conclusion

The Future of Outsourcing and Virtual Staff Leasing in the Philippines

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About the Author

Ike Stranathan is the Founder and President of Staff Virtual, an American outsourcing and virtual staff leasing company with offices in Makati City, Manila, Philippines. Mr. Stranathan manages operations in the Philippines for Staff Virtual, and does business development for the rapidly growing company. Mr. Stranathan enjoys helping clients become more efficient, productive and profitable by tapping into the vast English speaking talent pool that exists in the Philippines, where he resides.

Mr. Stranathan grew up in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and attended the University of Kansas where he received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Environmental Policy. He also lived ten years in Hermosa Beach, California, working in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, entertainment, and real estate industries. Mr. Stranathan is also a non-profit entrepreneur. In 2006, he co-founded Netting Nations, Inc., an American 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supplies free mosquito nets in Africa to prevent malaria. To date Netting Nations has distributed approximately 20,000 nets in five different African nations.

Mr. Stranathan graduated from the University of Kansas with honors and with a degree in Environmental Policy. He also attended the University of Alicante, Spain. Mr. Stranathan is a proud American, yet thoroughly enjoys living as a self-described “Expatpreneur” in the Philippines.

Mr. Stranathan can be reached at:

M: +63 917 543 7185

O: +1 323 704 4599

E: [email protected]

Skype: ikestran1

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About Staff Virtual

Staff Virtual is an American owned and managed outsourcing and virtual staff leasing company that delivers our services from our modern offices in Makati City, Manila, Philippines. We provide professional, high-touch and cost-effective services that enable our clients to improve work-flow processes and to become more productive, while cutting payroll costs. Staff Virtual provides a variety of front and back-office outsourcing services to our clients including:

Staff Virtual can quickly find individuals with specific skills, or build an entire offshore team so that an entire department or business processes can be outsourced. Staff Virtual’s services are customizable, and can work with any type of organization, from small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to large corporations.

Staff Virtual is built on principals of integrity, trust, accountability and pride in our work. Our corporate culture is best described through our company Manifesto and Integrity Pledge displaying our standards of excellence and values. We believe in green initiatives and developing our staff both personally and professionally while embracing the strong family values of the Filipino Culture.

Administrative Support

Data Entry

Research

Customer Support

Technical Support

Social Media

Internet Marketing

Writing / Content Generation

Search Engine Optimization

Personal Virtual Assistants (VA’s)

For more information about out how Staff Virtual can help your organization become more efficient, scalable, and profitable please contact us:

+1 310 483 5671 (Los Angeles) +63 2 798 2724 (Manila) +44 121 604 8484 (London) Email: [email protected] Website: www.staffvirtual.com

California

636 Manhattan Avenue, #B Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Delaware

PMB 6890, 2711 Centerville Rd., Suite 120 Wilmington, DE 19808

The Philippines

40th Floor PB Com Tower Makati City, Manila, Philippines

Contact Us

STAFFVIRTUAL

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STAFFVIRTUAL

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