GMA opens P1-B BPO facility at Clark

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga – President Arroyo inaugurated yesterday a new P1-billion facility owned by the Sutherland Global Services (Sutherland), one of the world’s leading multi-national business process outsourcing (BPO) providers.

During the inauguration rites,  Sutherland chairman and chief executive officer Dilip Vellodi turned over to the President a check for P2.5 million for the victims of recent typhoons in the country. He said the amount was raised from donations of some 15,000 employees of his company worldwide.

Briefing the media, Vellodi said Sutherland’s BPO facility here is the third in the country and "has increased the company’s employee base in the Philippines to over 2,000." Sutherland has two other such facilities in Metro Manila.

Vellodi said Sutherland is investing some P1 billion in its facility at the Clark special economic zone.

Sutherland provides business consulting, back-office processing, account management, customer care and technology support to a global client base, 70 percent of which are listed among the Fortune 500.

Sutherland also announced its partnership with Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) "for delivering advanced BPO training in Quezon City and Clark".

Vellodi said about 300 individuals have undergone such training and about 60 percent of them have already been employed by Sutherland. He said that such "training initiatives" as well as his company’s expansion support the Medium Term Development Plan of President Arroyo.

The President lauded the establishment of the Sutherland facility here, saying this meant "addition to many high value jobs for the province (of Pampanga). This is a real boost to this community and a vote of confidence to the talent pool available in the Philippines".

"Within the first year of its operations, Sutherland has clearly emerged as a leading BPO player in the Philippines," the President said.

For his part, Vellodi said "the Philippines continues to exceed our expectations as a world class BPO delivery destination, offering advantages of high value solutions at competitive costs for our global clients."

"Following the success in Manila, we are extremely pleased that we were able to leverage our 20-year information technology enabled services (ITES) legacy and move into the provinces as planned," he added.

Sutherland is a multinational IT-enabled and BPO company specializing in customer management and back-office services for Global 1,000 clients. It was established in 1986 in New York and now employs about 15,000 professionals offering "right-shored, blended services" from its 18 delivery centers in India, the US, Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines.