Mla, Cebu improve rankings in outsourcing destination

MANILA, Philippines - Manila has displaced Delhi to become the third major destination of global outsourcing companies in the world, a survey conducted by services globalization and investment advisory firm Tholons.

In the latest annual ranking of the top 100 global outsourcing destinations, Tholons said Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) claimed the number three slot after Indian cities Bangalore and Mumbai.

The survey showed than Manila moved up from the fourth spot in 2012 to overtake Delhi in India that slipped to fourth spot.

On the other hand, Cebu City also improved its ranking in the top 100 global outsourcing destinations to No. 8 from No. 9 displacing Dublin, Ireland from eighth spot.

More Philippine IT-BPO hubs were also included in this year’s ranking. Although Davao slipped one rank to No. 70, Sta. Rosa City in Laguna climbed two spots to No. 84 while Iloilo is No. 93. Bacolod City re-enters the list at No. 94 and Baguio City is a new entrant at No. 99.

According to Tholons, the Philippines enjoys a more vibrant IT-BPO industry than either Indonesia or Malaysia.

These three countries are considered the most promising Southeast Asian destinations in 2012.

“The region’s maturing outsourcing brand, improving macro-economic environment, and expanding domestic markets” were cited as the reasons why large service providers prefer Southeast Asian markets, hence their upward movement in this year’s ranking,” Tholons said.

It pointed out that the country’s information technology – business process outsourcing industry was fueled in 2012 by increased new investments from large and mid-sized foreign providers, as well as greater expansions of established locators and captives across many of the country’s established delivery locations.

For this part, Business Processing Association of the Philippines president and chief executive officer Benedict Hernandez said Tholons’ report reaffirms the Philippines’ position as a destination of choice for outsourcing services.

“In 2012, we saw impressive growth across all sectors of the Philippine IT-BPO and GIC industry. The year 2013 promises to be even greater as we expect revenues to increase to $16 billion to provide employment to 926,000 Filipinos,” Hernandez stressed.

Tholons also acknowledged the efforts the Philippine IT-BPO industry has been exerting to maintain its global leadership in voice BPO services while also expanding into other outsourcing sectors – including software development and IT outsourcing, animation and game development, and healthcare information management (HIM) outsourcing – and looking to penetrate markets outside the US.

“Based on the events of 2012, the Philippines continued to garner interest from large, Western providers, not only as an offshore delivery location, but likewise as a potential rich domestic market for IT Services,” the Tholons’ 2013 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations said.

Among the events in 2012 that were catalysts for significant investments and expansions in the country’s IT-BPO space and were noted by Tholons in its report were Teleperformance’s decision to establish another delivery center in Mandaluyong City over Canada; Convergys’ 18th call center in the Philippines in Mandaluyong City; and IBM’s continuous growth in BPO services with focus on higher value analytics and high value customer support services.