BPOs urged to form industry body

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Investments and Promotions Center (CIPC) is encouraging the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies operating in Cebu to form an official body to address local issues in the industry that do not need national intervention.

“There are local issues that cannot be solved in the national level,” said CIPC managing director Joel Mari S. Yu.

The current 56 BPO firms in Cebu have so far not organized a group that will serve as the mouthpiece of the industry, similar to that of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP).

Yu said Cebu is now home to a handful of the worlds leading BPOs such as Wipro, Accenture, NEC Telecoms, NCR, and others, including big call center firms like eTelecare, TeleTech, and Convergys, among others.

CIPC deemed it proper for the local executives of these companies to group together and form an industry organization.

Some of these companies have in fact already expressed some of their concerns in the local level, which include the scarcity of mid-management manpower supply.

This problem, among others will be solved if BPO firms will have its own Business Support Organization (BSO) that will work closely with concerned government agencies in the local level, as well as with other business groups and multi-sectoral organizations.

Australian BPO firm Tech Growth Solutions Cebu Inc. chairman and director for finance Michael Burdette said that one of the issues that will need an immediate intervention in order for Cebu to take off as a preferred BPO destination in the world is to provide ample supply of mid-management manpower.

Likewise, Wipro BPO Philippines Ltd. Inc., country head Romit Gupta echoed Burdette’s sentiment, saying Wipro is having difficulties in hiring managers, senior managers and supervisors, although hiring entry-level employees is much easier because of the ample supply. Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT (Cedfit) for its part had long identified this particular loophole.— Ehda M. Dagooc