2008 scores a milestone for Cebu's ICT industry

After almost a decade of toiling hard to place Cebu in the world’s Information Communications Technology (ICT) map, it was in 2008 that efforts finally paid off when Cebu was proclaimed as the world’s number one emerging global outsourcing destination.

"It's reaping time in 2008, after all the hard work we've done to make Cebu a legitimate ICT or BPO hub. It’s a reputation that will benefit the whole economy of Cebu in the long run," said Cebu Investments and Promotions Center (CIPC) managing director Joel Mari S. Yu.

In a survey conducted by Tholons, a reputable IT magazine, at the end of third quarter this year, Cebu ranked as the number one Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) site among 50 promising cities worldwide.

This development is regarded as the "greatest achievement" of the entire ICT industry in Cebu, wherein a strong collaboration between the government and the private sector was made as an example in pushing the ICT industry in the Philippines.

Since 2001, when Cebu City decided to shift into an IT destination rather than a manufacturing investment destination, the IT industry, has since continuously provided jobs that now reached 20,000 people.

Now, Cebu is the home of big IT firms and outsourcing giants in the world, like Wipro, IBM, Accenture, and soon other industry giants like Tata Group in India, Hewlett Packard (HP), and Flor Daniels, among others will make their presence here.

 Last year, Cebu ranked third as the world’s top emerging outsourcing destination. With this prestige, Yu said Cebu easily attracted new outsourcing investors, not just call center companies, but out sourcing firms that require high skilled professionals such as animators, software programmers, accountants, lawyers, medical transcriptionists, human resource experts, content providers, and others.

To date, there are a total of 36 foreign direct investors in IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) operations, excluding the 23 call center firms. Combined, these companies employ over 20 thousand workers to date.

Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT (Cedfit) executive director Bonifacio Belen echoed Yu’s pronouncements saying that the year 2008 marked Cebu ICT industry's history. It kicked off the record of Cebu's legitimacy in the ICT field, not only as investment hub for IT and outsourcing companies, but also as "melting pot" of the world's in-demand IT professionals, as schools and universities had started to produce world-class ICT talents.

According to Gregg Gabison, USJ-R dean for College of Computer and Communication Technology, enrollment in ICT related courses, especially in Computer Engineering and IT had been increasing in the last couple of years, specifically this year because of Cebu's position as an emerging BPO destination all over the world.

"We are expecting an increase of enrollees in ICT courses in the coming school year 2009-2010, because of Cebu's tremendous need for IT professionals," Gabison said adding that ICT courses interest is expected to level with the nursing and other medical courses soon.

Gabison, who is also one of the advocates of ICT industry development in Cebu, and at the same time sits as board of director for Cedfit, said that the good industry and academic linkage of Cebu is one of the largest contributors to Cebu's fast development as a number one emerging BPO destination in the world.

Cebu produces at least 23,000 fresh college graduates every year. Majority of these graduates are employable in any outsourcing company may it be voice (call center) or non-voice operation such as software development, medical transcription, accounting and legal outsourcing among others.

According to Yu, with the incessant building of Cebuano developers to invest on Cyber Park and IT Building facilities, Cebu is on the best position to accommodate the world's outsourcing companies that will locate here.

Job vacancies in the broad Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled services in Cebu are expected to reach 15,000 by 2009, this includes the huge need for software developers and IT engineers.

The study of Tholons that placed Cebu on the top of ranks was determined by six categories, which included scale and quality of workforce (including education), business catalyst, cost, infrastructure, risk profile, and quality of life.

Cebu bested other 50 emerging outsourcing cities in the world, that include; Shanghai and Beijing in China, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Krakow in Poland, Kolkata, India, and Cairo, Egypt.

“The world's biggest outsourcing companies are now looking at Cebu. Now, we are a legitimate outsourcing destination. The world is now looking at Cebu," said Yu.

According to Tholons, top notch global service providers such as Accenture, ACS, Cognizant, HP, IBM, Infosys, Wipro, among others are continually increasing their global presence. In a way, the choice of the right city has become more important than the choice of the country.

It is rather the city [than the country], which represents a more accurate package of attributes that service providers seek.

"Thus, Cebu City and Monterrey matter more than the Philippines and Mexico from a decision stand point," the Tholon survey result contained.

After seven years of working hard to put Cebu in the global spotlight as the most preferred outsourcing site, Yu said the work has finally "paid off".

"Now, we want to aim for the best and a fully developed outsourcing destination in the world," he added.

While the outsourcing giants in the world are now focusing their eyes on Cebu, this will bring good news not only to the economic performance in the city, but significantly to Cebuanos as this will pave the way for the turn-around of employment rate.

CIPC immediately started an advocacy to encourage LGUs and concerned government agencies to improve infrastructure support, sustain the quality of and quantity of workforce, minimizing "cellphone snatching" in the streets, or stabilizing the peace and order situation.

According to Tholon, cities in the Philippines, like Cebu, continue to avail of their large English-proficient workforce in catering the US customer-service market.

Yu said with the global economic downturn, the Philippines, especially Cebu is one of the few gainers, as most companies now in the US and even Europe are looking at outsourcing options to stay in the business.

The Tholons survey included 50 emerging outsourcing destinations in the world, including Toronto in Canada, Belfast in Ireland, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Moscow in Russia, New Singapore City, and San Jose in Costa Rica, among others.

To support the growth of the IT industry in Cebu, IT training firm, Kaisa Consulting, in partnership with Business software solutions provider SAP Philippines has opened this year the first eAcademy in Cebu, to sustain the province's continues need to offer highly-skilled IT professionals.

Kaisa Consulting and SAP's Cebu eAcademy is the first locator of the Technology Business Incubation center of the University of the Philippines-Visayas, which is located at UP-Cebu.