Accenture opens second facility in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines - Technology and outsourcing giant Accenture formally opened its second facility in Cebu at the CyberGate IT and commercial building in Fuente Osmeña that will employ more or less another 500 professionals before the end of its fiscal year in August of 2011.

The second Cebu facility will support the global operations of the company’s critical outsourcing services such as finance and accounting, custom-BPO, telco provisioning, cloud computing, digital marketing, testing, plus infrastructure and security services, and others.

This will provide diverse skills that will be needed by the outsourcing firm, which include accountants, electronics and communication engineers, computer science graduates, and even people with extensive background on marketing.

At present, its first facility at the Pioneer building at the Cebu Business Park (CBP), employs a total of 500 people, and company expects its total headcount in Cebu to more than double by the end of this fiscal year on August next year, dependent on client demand, said Accenture BPO Delivery Lead in the Philippines Benedict C. Hernandez.

In a press conference held on the sidelines of the formal opening of the new facility, Hernandez said the opening of its second center in Cebu is not just a testament of the company’s strong confidence in Cebu as an “emerged” BPO destination, it will also provide employment opportunities for variety of career choices, who are not purely IT-skilled people, but also for finance professionals, engineering, marketing, among others.

“With the breadth of its IT and BPO services, Accenture’s talented Cebuano workforce can look forward to varied career opportunities and a rewarding job experience with the company. Accenture is committed to making the company the best place to learn and grow by providing employees with various training and development opportunities for their professional development, as well as community and corporate citizenship activities for their personal development,” said Hernandez.

The Philippines is the 3rd largest country in the world to host the most number of facilities and human resource pool of Accenture’s presence in 120 countries. Last month, the company opened two new facilities in Manila. Including the Cebu new facility, the company expects to hit a total headcount of employees to 25,000 by August 2011. At present, Accenture is present in 13 cities in the Philippines.

Accenture opened its Cebu Global Delivery Center Network for Technology in 2007, and also it opened its BPO arm or call center operations here about two years ago.

It started its Philippine operations in 1985 as an offshore application development center supporting the business internally.

“As we grow [in our Cebu operations] we are looking forward to providing other capabilities that will fuel the exciting growth for employment opportunity for our Cebu facilities,” said Accenture Technology Delivery Lead, Philippines George Son Keng Po.

 “The Cebu facilities are integral to Accenture’s global delivery capabilities and the overall growth of Accenture Philippines. The addition of Robinson’s Cybergate Cebu and expanded IT and BPO services developer from our Cebu facilities strengthen Accenture’s capability to address the demands of its clients around the world,” added Son Keng Po.   - THE FREEMAN