Bayan beefs up offerings for outsourcing, offshoring firms

Bayan Telecommunications is beefing up its capabilities and offerings for customers involved in outsourcing and offshoring after a new study it commissioned proved that years of opportunities and growth are still due this industry.

Firstly, the company is adopting Bayan Business as the new corporate name or brand for its enterprise solutions. Secondly, it would dedicate P150 million in 2008 exclusively for the improvement of its core infrastructure for data services.

Speaking to the press, Tunde Fafunwa, Bayan’s chief executive consultant, said Bayan will remain a service provider to outsourcing and offshoring companies here and abroad and will not compete with them as another BPO operator. Today, Bayan services a good 80 percent of the largest call centers in the country, Fafunwa added.

Asked why BPO companies would engage Bayan Business over other telecommunication companies, Fafunwa said, “Because you don’t have to be the biggest to be the best.”

He also went on by saying that Bayan has cultivated good relationship with its customers by proving its reliability and fast delivery of service.

Bayan B2Biz

Armed with the new study on the Philippine Outsourcing and Offshoring (O&O), Bayan Business can now better market abroad the country’s capabilities in this field, said Brigs Merin, head of Bayan Business.

“When we sell (our O&O capabilities) abroad, we are looking at not just the traditional telecom services for international and domestic connectivity but also managed services, an area that Bayan went into since last year,” Merin said.

Merin said Bayan’s corporate solutions account for at least a third of the company’s total revenues.

Meanwhile, Bayan has decided to make available free copies of the Philippine Outsourcing and Offshoring study to stakeholders of the industry, Fafunwa announced.

Conducted by the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis (IDEA) from July to September 2007, the report is the first installment to Bayan’s planned series of formal studies on emerging industries called Bayan B2Biz, which the company hopes could serve as instrument for nation-building.

“Bayan’s purpose with this study is to also highlight that the term ‘BPO’ is not enough to represent the breadth of business opportunities possible. We want to refocus the mindset on the broader O&O perspective… With the technologies, talents and skills available in the country, we at Bayan aims to help position the Philippines as a leader in O&O,” Fafunwa said.

The study points to an addressable O&O market of $1.067 trillion as of 2005. This year, 15 percent of that global market was exported to different countries, but the report indicates that the Philippines only got a negligible two percent.

The study also shows comprehensive figures and analysis of issues confronting existing and potential players, how the industry can address brain drain and upgrade other social development barometers.