MANILA, Philippines - UK-based Northgate Arinso announced yesterday they will make the Philippines their Asia Pacific headquarters as they invest £1 million in the country for their new business process outsourcing (BPO) center in Ortigas.
In a press briefing yesterday, visiting Northgate Arinso chief executive Mike Ettling said that they will double their current operations in the country by the end of next year.
According to him, by the end of 2010 they will have filled up their new center with 450 people. Currently, they employ 235 who are doing full human resource servicing and back office operations.
The capacity of their new facility is 259 but the company is ready to double it when the need arises. In fact, in five years, the plan is to grow to 1,500 to 2,000 employees.
Ettling noted that there are still a number of business solutions that they can move to their Manila operations. He said that their clients have become less prescriptive as to where the operations should be.
Ettling said they expect 100-percent year on year growth. The HR solutions company offer services to the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. For local companies, Northgate is servicing Unilever, Telus, Cadbury, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and China Bank.
Ettling said that they chose the Philippines as their Asia Pacific headquarters because the total cost for operating in the country is more attractive. He said that their attrition rate here is only five percent compared to more than 40 percent in India.
Likewise, he said the incentives given by the local government through the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) have made them choose the Philippines.
Ettling also said that Filipino workers are service oriented who are well educated and speak good English. He noted that the accent of Filipinos are neutral. In addition to this, Ettling said that the cultural affinity of the Filipinos with the US has made it easier for Filipinos to serve Americans.
Aside from Manila, Northgate has four other global delivery service centers. They are in the United States, Argentina, Poland and Spain. Their regional service delivery centers are in the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia and Belgium.
Northgate has 5,000 employees worldwide. They are one of the five largest HR service providers worldwide and has offices in 31 countries on five continents. The company helps HR executives optimize their HR service delivery through smarter process and more efficient technology, supporting key HR areas like workforce administration, payroll, benefits, recruitment, learning, and talent management.