PLDT eyes Euro firm for 4th call center

Telecommunications leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., through subsidiary ePLDT, is set to engage in discussion with some European partners for the setting up for a fourth call center engaged in the international customer contact service business.

PLDT senior vice-president for multi-channel contact centers Rosalie Montenegro told The STAR that the three existing call centers that have been put up by ePLDT do not address the needs of the fast growing call outsourcing business in Europe.

Right now, the PLDT group has three call centers. The first one – Contact World, which started last year, is 51 percent owned by ePLDT and the rest by an Australian group that is also into the call center business. The second one, which opened last March is Parlance Systems Inc., and the third, which began just this month, is Vocativ. Both are 100 percent ePLDT owned.

ePLDT, a wholly owned subsidiary of PLDT, is an information and communications technology company whose purpose is to provide enabling infrastructure and services focusing on next-generation communications, connectivity, content, and multi-media applications to consumers and businesses.

Montenegro said most of the outsourced businesses in Contact World involve Australian companies while Parlance and Vocativ are American. "The fourth one will cater to European businesses and we are looking at a European marketing partner for this," she explained.

Right now, ePLDT is already the largest outsourcing center in the country with three call centers catering to mostly US customers with 1,200 seats installed and operations active in all of its call centers.

The company is now looking at the possibility of establishing a call center that will focus on the domestic customer relationship management (CRM) business. "We do not mix the international with the domestic business," Montenegro said.

For Vocativ and Parlance alone, ePLDT invested around $11 million. Parlance, which is projected to post a net income of $1 million in its first year of operations, is expected to have 500 seats by June 1 while Vocativ, which is now at 500 seats, can expand to 720. Contact World has 200 seats.

Call centers or the customer contact service business, involves mainly satisfying the customer relationship requirements of clients through various multi-media or personal access services with or without Internet service. They generally act as sole or sub-agent or representative of any client in any location as well as provide marketing and promotions facilities to promote, advertise, and sell clients’ goods, services, and products.

The Philippines is now making its mark as the newest call center capital of the world, and according to Montenegro and ePLDT co managing director Ariel Roda, the country is now giving its biggest rival which is India ‘a hard time.’

"India just happened to have a three-year headstart. But the Philippines has a far more superior telephone infrastructure, our rates are competitive, and we have a good English-speaking workforce," Roda noted.

In fact, ePLDT’s Parlance, which now serves one of the biggest direct broadcast satellite companies in the US with over seven million subscribers, had to compete with India and one other company, to get this contract, and won.

Parlance, which was inaugurated just yesterday, uses PLDT’s international global point of presence infrastructure that hauls both voice and data from the US continent directly to the Philippines. Parlance chairman and ePLDT co-managing director Ray Espinosa said Parlance is expected to be the fastest to grow as it has a direct US customer, which guarantees a minimum of two million minutes worth of international traffic and call activity.

Espinosa said this is consistent with the direction and view of PLDT president and chief executive officer Manuel V. Pangilinan for ePLDT to generate incremental revenue streams that are dollar-denominated.

Locally, PLDT has 2,500 seats serving the internal customer requirements of PLDT. Summed up, that translates to 3,700 seats, which represents a substantial contribution towards the government’s efforts to make the Philippines the call center hub in Asia.

"The 1,200 installed call center is certainly a proud achievement within a span of one year," Montenegro, who is also Parlance president, noted.