OUR MISSION

To advocate the advancement of the BPO industry

To promote Quality of Service among our member-Providers

To recognize our Social and Civic responsibility

To ensure the success of new BPO business partneships by helping overseas companies find the right BPO Provider in the Philippines

OUR VISION

To lead the BPO Industry to its full potential

Philippines or India?

"A survey by Kelly Services, Inc. based in Michigan, showed that India is no longer the first choice of U.S. companies looking to set up their offshore backroom operations. The study cited companies eyeing the Philippines as the better site due to quality."

"The Philippines probably also has the highest agent productivity in the region. For instance, take the handling of all calls. According to the study, agents in the Philippines handle an average of 98 inbound and 107 outbound calls per day while the numbers for Indian agents are 73 and 78 calls respectively."

"India also faces an unfavourable staff turnover of 31 per cent with 67 per cent of the job-switchers moving to other competing call centres. As a result, staff tenure in India is the lowest at just 11 months while it is the highest in South Korea at 24 months followed by 19 in the Philippines."

[http://www.kellyservices.co.in]

"A recent decision by Tampa-based Sykes Enterprises to relocate a call center from its Bangalore, India facility to other more strategically-aligned offshore facilities in the Asia Pacific region in the Philippines, illustrates some of the challenges associated with offshoring, reports The Motely Fool, following up on a report in the Tampa Tribune. Apparently, some customers were having trouble understanding the accents of the company's Indian staffers when they called for service."

[http://www.shrm.org]

How does outsourcing impact the economy of the US and the outsource provider?

Diana Farrell of McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) calls it a win-win situation.

"Offshoring will allow the U.S. to capture economic value through multiple channels:

Reduced costs - Savings from reduced costs means more savings, which can be passed to consumers or to investors to reinvest.

New revenues - Offshoring creates demand in destination countries for U.S. products, especially for high tech items.

Repatriated earnings - Several providers serving the U.S. market are incorporated in America, which means they repatriate their earnings back into the U.S.

Redeployed labor - U.S. workers who lose their jobs to offshoring will take up other jobs, which will in turn generate additional value for the economy. "

"Of the $1.45 - $1.47 of value MGI estimates is created globally from every dollar spend a domestic company chooses to divert abroad, the U.S. captures $1.12 - $1.14 while the receiving country captures on average 33 cents. In other words, the U.S. captures 78 percent of the total value."

[http://www.mckinsey.com]

Major companies that already operate in the Philippines include AIG, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Chevron, Citigroup, Dell, HP, HSBC, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Siemens AG and Trend Micro. Roster of outsourcing clients includes NEC Telecom, Caltex, Fujitsu and Alitalia.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, center, is escorted by Michael Dell, left, Chairman and Founder of Dell Inc, and Michael Garrison, right, Dell Philippines Country Manager, as she tours the facilities of its outsourcing branch

Notable BPO vendors include Accenture, Convergys, and Unisys. There are numerous smaller operations that either support larger vendors during seasonal demands, or directly service Small and Medium overseas companies. Major vendors are managed jointly by expatriate and local managers whereas smaller operations maintain their viability through direct management by its owners, who themselves are most likely to be from the BPO and ICT industries (see sidebar).

This industry in the Philippines is fueled mostly by customer care, medical transcription, software development, animation, and shared services. Though customer care call centers form the largest part of the BPO boom locally, the Philippines' language proficient information technology, human resource, and finance/accounting professionals are significant contributing factors as well. The proficiency of many Filipinos in English is a major factor in the growth of BPO in the Philippines.

Wikipedia Articles "Business process outsourcing in the Philippines", "BSA/U"

2008/2009 BPO Service Excellence Star Awards preparations are now on-going. This is to recognize BPO companies - both veterans and startups alike - who have shown commitment to excellence.

Nominations are now open in all categories. Gold Rated members are automatically included in list of nominees. Bring recognition and prestige to your company! Let us know about your achievements and innovations.

First Philippine BPO Suppliers Directory to debut in 2008/2009.

Whether you are a supplier/provider of training services, furnitures, stationaries, computers&accessories, or benefit/reward items like travel and tours, spas, or high ticket items like cars, real estate, being in the directory will widen your reach!

The printed directory will be distributed to over 300 BPO companies (free to BSA/U members) and made available for sale in bookstore chains. We are undertaking this project in response to suppliers who request access to our members: as it is against BSA/U policy to sell or rent its members database, the BPO Suppliers directory answers the needs of both members and suppliers, while respecting the privacy. Watch this website for more announcements! This is a rare opportunity to reach your target market at less than half the cost of alternatives.

FLASH: Latest industry estimates puts the 2007 BPO Industry output for 2007 at US$4.5B - US$ 4.9B. Projection for 2008 is now at US$7B, and expected to hit US$ 13B in 2010. Industry now employs about 300,000.

BSA/U is one with BPA/P in advocating the creation of an ICT Department from the existing Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), and Department of Transportation and Communnication to create and advocate an industry-wide roadmap.

The BPO Services Association Unlimited (BSA/U) was formed in 2006 as a private-sector led organization to aggregate the collective interests of the SME-level Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) operations to support the SME Agenda of the Department of Trade and Industry in view of its increasing role. The SME sector is the backbone of the Philippine economy. It comprises about about 99.6% of all registered firms nationwide employs 69.9% of the labor force, and contributes 32% to the economy (DTI).

BSA/U complements efforts of industry associations such as Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP, 2001) and Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPA/P, 2004) that are geared for large joint-venture BPO companies serving the Fortune 500 companies in USA.

As the number of BPO startups multiply, it has become an urgent matter ensure the continuing level of quality and customer service that has become the hallmark of the Philippine BPO industry.

BPO is now a significant component of the Philippine economy. An estimated 120 companies with a workforce of 200,000 people generated a combined revenue of $2.1 billion in 2006 and forecasted to earn US$11 billion and employ 900,000 people by the year 2010. Led by the Call center industry in the Philippines, the BPO is increasingly contributing to the Gross National Product. IT and IT-enables services and ICT support services is one of the 11 identified as Preferred Activities under the Investments Priorities Plan.

IPP 2006, PDF

BSA/U members include Call Centers, Contact Centers, Transcription, KPO, DPO, LPO, Application Development and Maintenance, Animation, Graphics and Web, Engineering and CAD Services throughout the Philippines, with no restriction on size and form of ownership.