Wipro to expand operations in RP

CEBU, Philippines – Wipro BPO Philippines Ltd. Inc. will expand operations in the Philippines with the addition of a new facility in Metro Manila this year and an additional of 250 more people in its Cebu facility in the next three months.

In an interview with Wipro Philippines country head Romit Gupta, he said that the Philippines has become one of the favorite outsourcing destinations in the world, because of its strategic location and the good pool of English speaking workforce.

Wipro, one of the largest IT companies in the world, has set up its first Philippine site facility in Cebu in November of 2007. The company is now occupying four floors of the Cebu IT Tower, located at the Cebu Business Park.

At present, the company is maintaining a total of 600 workforce for its call center operations in Cebu. In next three months, he said the company will add 250 more call center agents to fill up its 800-seat call center facility.

Although, there is a slowdown in the outsourcing business in the world because of the crisis, especially clients based in the United States, Gupta said Wipro has continued to gain more clients because of its strong name in the outsourcing business in the world.

Wipro is a US$4 billion company, which employs over 100 thousand people around the world. Gupta said there is also a big possibility that the company will expand in Cebu further, by establishing another office, once the 800-seat call center facility in Cebu IT Tower will be fully occupied.

Since Wipro is largely known as an IT software and hardware development and business solutions company there is also a big possibility that it will put up a software development operation here in the future.

Gupta mentioned the good incentive packages being offered by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), as one of the strong come-ons for multinational BPO firms to come to the Philippines, especially Cebu.

Although, next year is an election year for the Philippines, Gupta said Wipro is not bothered at all, and will continue to expand its Philippine operations.

One of the concerns though, is the Philippines’ strict law on owning a property, restricting foreign-owned companies to acquire property and build their own facilities here.

In other countries where Wipro also has investments like China and India, it has built its own building facilities, unlike in the Philippines where they are renting office spaces.

Moreover, the unavailability of mid-management manpower supply in Cebu is also one of the problems Wipro has encountered in its over a year of operations here. He said Wipro is having difficulties in hiring managers, senior managers and supervisors, although hiring entry-level employees is much easier because of ample supply.

“Cebu has all the things that businesses are requiring for, except for the availability of senior management people,” he said.

He mentioned that Cebu has a very good business environment, with the strong support from government (Local government, PEZA), cheaper cost of infrastructure and manpower, and relatively peaceful political scenario. — Ehda M. Dagooc