Siemens to put up P200-M call center

Siemens Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of German firm Siemens AG, signed an agreement with Siemens Business Services (SBS) Global to establish a P200-million call center in the country.

The new business unit will deliver IT help desk and customer care services mainly for English-speaking global customers.

With an initial capacity of 500 agent seats, the soon-to-open IT outsourcing division of Siemens Inc. will be based in Eastwood City CyberPark, Quezon City.

With the establishment of the Siemens Inc. call center, the Philippines becomes the latest addition to the existing satellite call center offices of SBS in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Turkey and Singapore.

Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila thanked Siemens for locating its call center in the country.

"I am glad that Siemens has seen the competitive advantage of the country in hosting their outsourcing services and I am sure that they will be happy with the infrastructure, quality of work and the human resources that the country will be able to provide to them," Favila said.

Favila added that the Siemens’ investment was a fruit of the outbound mission launched by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), spearheaded by the Board of Investments (BOI).

"The IT-enabled services sector is one of the country’s bright spots in attracting capital to the country and we are intensifying our efforts to promote this sector in Europe and the United States. Our target clients are multinationals companies that are in need of outsourcing services such as help desks, financial services and medical transcriptions," Favila said.

The call center is scheduled to be inaugurated on Jan. 17, 2006.

Siemens Business Services is among the top 10 IT service providers in the world which offers from a single source – consulting to systems integration up to management of IT infrastructure.

Sales in fiscal year 2004 (ending September 2004) amounted to EUR 4.7 billion, 76 percent of which was achieved outside the Siemens organization.

The company currently has approximately 36,100 employees worldwide.