BPO firm launches virtual call center technology in RP

A New York-based business process outsourcing (BPO) company held the global launching of what is described as a groundbreaking technology in Malacanang that would further “virtualize” the multi-billion dollar industry by allowing BPO agents to work at home.

In Friday’s meeting at the Palace with President Arroyo, iQor president and chief executive officer Vikas Kapoor demonstrated the proprietary technology that fully virtualizes the company’s global call center footprint.

The technology, which is called FeAther, will allow iQor to flexibly and securely deliver calls anywhere in the world to any iQor call centers as well as to agents who work at home, Kapoor said.

“Our new proprietary technology represents a quantum leap for call centers, and will vastly increase both flexibility and security for our clients,” Kapoor said. “They no longer need to choose a specific location for their work, and can simultaneously access the best workers anywhere in our global footprint, or use qualified workers who do not wish to commute to a call center.”

“My biggest challenge in the industry worldwide is attracting good people and there are many people who want to work in this business and would be terrific at it, but who are unable to do it because they don’t have physical access or they don’t want commuting,” he said.

Officials said the multi-million dollar investment, developed at the Clark Freeport Zone, underscored the power of the technology to create new job opportunities for people in remote rural areas as well as those who prefer to work at home due to travel constraints.

“When a call center agent’s fingers touches their keyboard, iQor’s network uses biometric identification to determine who they are, what systems they can access and what calls they can handle. It, therefore, allows call center services to be securely handled by any worker in any of iQor’s centers worldwide, as well as to people who have high speed Internet access at home,” Kapoor said.

The launching held in Manila was also in recognition of the Philippines as among the top in the global BPO industry, Palace officials said.

Kapoor also said the Philippines is iQor’s number one overseas destination owing to the government’s efforts to create a business-friendly environment.

He said compared to other centers in the world, its BPO centers in the country are performing extremely well because of the availability of the best people and performance.

“The Philippines has a systematic competitive advantage in the business and that’s why I’m bullish about the Philippines,” he told reporters.

For her part, Mrs. Arroyo said she was “happy about it (new technology) and that people are putting a lot of investments here.”

At a meeting in New York City in June this year, the President and Kapoor announced the opening of iQor’s third call center in the Philippines that will create 700 new jobs.

iQor plans to hire 300 new employees at its new Center of Excellence at the Clark Special Economic Zone before the end of the year and will add the remaining new hires by the end of the first quarter in 2009.

This growth will bring total jobs created by iQor in the Philippines to 2,500 since the opening of its first call center in the country in 2005.

“This is iQor’s second call center within the Clark Special Economic Zone. The first Clark Center opened in August 2006 with 50 employees and after only two years, it reached full capacity at the facility and has now opened a new state-of-the-art 32,000-square foot center to meet growing client demand,” a Palace statement said.