BPO or business process outsourcing is big business in countries such as the Philippines, India, Russia, China and South America. In recent years many US and European jobs have drifted to these locations to outsource accounting, information technology, services and manufacturing positions. Although outsourcing has been part of any company’s business model for a few years already, only a decade ago that it has reached an unprecedented rise in demand as more and more American and European companies got aggressively involved in such dealings.

Among the top ten locations, the Philippines has seen tremendous growth in BPO. In fact, many companies are finding it easy to deal with the talent from this location because of its English speaking abilities, affinity to American culture and fast learning capabilities.

There are many more reasons multinational companies are drawn to the Philippines as an outsourcing country. Here are some more reasons to consider this location your next stop for BPO:

1. High literacy rate. Among the developing countries, Philippines ranks very high on the literacy rate which stands at 94%. City dwellers are bilingual. Filipino (the national language) and English are widely spoken.
2. College educated pool of talent. If you outsource to the Philippines, you can have pick of third party service providers who have a talent pool of college graduates and professionals.
3. Flexible. The rotation in working hours is not a problem. Some even want to work on nights because of the extra benefits. 24/7 businesses thrives in the Philippines.
4. Efficient and hardworking. Highly skilled, diligent and fast learners, the Philippines can compete with the rest of the world even when it comes to the most technical type of jobs.
5. Exposure. Most Filipinos like the professional experience that they get from multicultural environment. Working for multinational companies is preferred by most professionals because of the invaluable exposure that they get from it.
6. Highly trainable. With the proper training, Filipinos can easily adapt to new concepts and goals.
7. Wide coverage. Outsourcing locations are not only concentrated in its capital city, most cities nationwide are also in place to accommodate more projects.
8. Cultural affinity. There are many schools in the Philippines that are patterned after the American educational system. Since the Philippines was a colony of the US, western ideas and thoughts are not really alien to its people. More so, with Filipinos’ high level of adaptability, they can grasp western concepts easily. So when you introduce western concepts to this country’s workforce, you are assured that they will easily understand what you want to achieve.
9. Loyalty and retention. Despite the shifting schedule, many young professionals prefer to work for multinational companies so it’s easy to keep them for the duration of the project.
With the above mentioned reasons and for as long as the opportunities for growth and benefits are well defined, the Philippines will always be a top destination for offshoring accounts.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is booming in the Philippines. The most common BPO services here in the country are call centers, software development, transcription, encoding, animation, human resources, accounting and payroll outsourcing. BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain its position in the marketplace. There are also a lot of new BPO opportunities, aside from the most common BPO services mentioned above, that anyone can embark on. Outsourced writing is one. For a long time now, writing and editing works have been subcontracted to smaller institutions and writers which became known as Ghostwriting. Ghostwriting was revolutionized with the advent of the internet. New company websites, portals, forums and blogs are created every second. With that comes along the increased demand for content. You have to remember that Content is King.

Blogging is now commonly being outsourced. A lot of Filipino bloggers are now considered as probloggers as they have taken jobs in blogging in behalf of the companies/persons that hired them for their blogging service. Bloggerwave gives another option for bloggers. Bloggerwave will ask you for your valuable feedback to advertisers with respect to their web sites, products, services, and companies. The best part of this is that bloggers get paid! 😉

Why Outsource to the Philippines?
Business process outsourcing or BPO is an emerging industry in the Philippines. This industry was regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The BPO boom is led by demand for offshore call centers. It is estimated that 112,000 people were working in call centers in the Philippines in 2005, bringing in revenues of US$1.12 billion for the year. This is a sharp increase from 2000 when call centers employed 2400 people and earned US$24 million. Overall, Philippine BPO is forecasted to earn US$13 billion for the year 2010.

This emerging 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 Philippine language proficient information technology, human resource, and finance/accounting professionals are a significant contributing factors as well. The proficiency of many Filipinos in English and Spanish were major factors in the growth of BPO in the Philippines.

The Philippines has the largest number of accredited accountants in Asia, with the number growing yearly. Filipino accountants are also renowned for their flexibility in working with multiple accounting standards. The Philippines Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) report for 2004 cited the Philippines as among the top 10 choices for offshore operations. Major companies that already operate in the Philippines include AIG, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Chevron, Citigroup, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, and Trend Micro. Notable BPO vendors include Accenture, Convergys, and Unisys.

A survey by Kelly Services, Inc. based in Michigan, showed that India is no longer the first choice of U.S. companies looking to setup their offshore backroom operations. The study cited companies eyeing the Philippines as the better site due to quality. Filipinos enjoy a comparative advantage over American workers for two reasons. First, labor costs in the Philippines are a fraction of those in the United States. Second, most BPO workers in the Philippines are college graduates. Many overseas labor sourcers also prefer Filipinos over Indians when it comes to customer support and customer interaction due to Filipino relative ease and familiarity with American culture and U.S. slang.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

Business process outsourcing provides significant advantages to all types of business whether small scale or multi national companies. Centers for business process outsourcing handle customer service, technical support, data entry, sales, finance and banking and travel and hospitality. When you outsource other departments of your business you gain more: you have sufficient and efficient man power to handle all customer service concerns which gives you more time to focus on product research and development and on improved marketing; plus there is a great reduction of overhead labor cost. When you employ people in-house to handle  all your customer service and technical support issues it becomes very costly and the time and effort add more to the cost.
A third party or an outsourced company already have a system that’s established to cater to your needs. Human resource recruitment handles the selection of employees you want to hire based on your pre-qualification criteria. Philippines for example has an abundance of workforce with various experience and high English proficiency.  Training department can provide Culture and  communication enhancement if needed and will also handle product specific training which includes basic information about your company’s product and services, call handling and management. Training will also assist new hires into transition from training to handling actual calls. SMEs or Subject matter experts will provide updates to all employees to keep everyone in-synchrony and abreast with the information about the account. By and by new information about the account or their products have to be disseminated and the information across all agents that are handling calls; SMEs will take care of this for you. QA or Quality assurance analyst can calibrate calls and ensure that agents provide correct information to customers and that they are able to manage each call they take. Big companies use a program that captures and save all the calls taken by each agent for calibration, audit and improving customer service. Having a QA is an integral part of your business to ensure that all calls handled by your customer service representatives abide to account standards.

On a bigger scheme business process outsourcing companies handle multiple overseas accounts having different requirements and different needs. The demand for a secured system is very important thus, they have to equip themselves with an advanced technology that can handle multiple Internet usage and voice. The quality and standard of phone systems must be that it should sound as if you are only calling locally. Although all Americans are aware that most of the services are being outsourced already they still feel hesitant to give their personal information if the person they talk to sounds like someone inside a tunnel with muffled voices and statics on the background.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

Business process outsourcing has become a major debate in the electoral party this year. America has seen the power that outsourcing has impacted on our lives. Major offshore business process outsourcing countries such as China , India and the Philippines have flourished in their economy due to this high demand of outsourcing.

Most of the toys and computer products you see on Wal-Mart are made in China— the master manufacturer for low cost products– great goods for less to us. Call Expedia or United Airlines for a flight reservation and most likely you will be talking to someone from the Philippines. Call Earthlink or Dell technical support– and you will soon realize you are talking to an IT support in India. Amazing huh!

This economic change is inevitable. On a small scale it may seem that the American jobs are taken away from us. On the bigger scope however this has a positive effect. The offshore outsourcing in Asian countries are mainly focused on customer support and manufacturing which in return increases the buying capacity of the American people. This surge in our buying capacity allows us to push our boundaries into more rewarding jobs that require a master’s degree– microbiology and advanced medicine research. So, while outsourcing is getting more and more appeal to American corporations, American economy may still have the upper hand. By improving the education and training of our American workers this will equip them for a far better rewarding jobs.

Business process outsourcing has helped a lot of business from small scale to fortune 500 companies. Each has experienced a considerable amount of success ensuring higher profits, lower cost per head on work force, and improved quality of product and services. When a company outsources some of it’s components it can also serve as an image builder for the company.

Among the countries that lead the way in business process outsourcing is the Philippines. Philippines is located in South East Asia and the culture is very diverse. What separates the Philippines from the pack is their proficiency in the English Language. Many Asian countries (ex: Japan and Korea) go to the Philippines to learn English. This goes to show the quality of English training Philippines has provided. English is already being taught in grade schoolers and Philippine text books in Science and Mathematics are also written in English. There are now short courses in English enhancement to help facilitate the transitions of those that will be working in business processing outsourcing centers in the Philippines. They teach about Culture and Communication, understanding the American culture and accent neutralization.

By outsourcing your business to the Philippines, you can ensure that the person task to take care of your customers in the US is proficient in the English language, has the educational background to back them up in their chosen field and is trained properly in the tasks they are to face.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

The world economy is going downslope and everyone is at a cringe how to reverse this crisis. Doors are being opened to find ways to save some money and yet still deliver a quality service. All types of business whether large or small scale are doing major overhaul to find an affordable solution. Some areas of production that require repetitive tasks, documentation and research can be can be done by a virtual assistant. Having a virtual assistant is like having extra limbs and minds that handle the same tasks as you do except that someone else is doing it for you.  Of course one can just hire a physical assistant or a secretary that you can watch over.  But can you really afford the overhead cost? There’s a better option.

Business process outsourcing gives many businesses the upper hand to continue their production and save on overhead pay. As the competition gets tougher the aim to maintain high quality customer service and technical support is a must. When you hire a virtual assistant offshore it frees up a lot of your precious time allowing you to do more important things to improve profitability for your business. You may hire one, two or three virtual assistants depending on the tasks that you need. All of them may perform the same tasks or each can perform a particular task. They can be monitored daily through reports or some other means to check for productivity. Since virtual assistants are considered an extension of yourself then of course you need some time to train them and let them see how things work and how you would want it to work. Each business has its unique way of approaching things and both you and your virtual assistant should meet the expectations.

Philippines has become a major source for business process outsourcing. It has provided tremendous output to major companies such as HSBC, Verizon and Dell. The tremendous impact of business process outsourcing has not only served major corporations but also small and medium sized companies. Filipinos are skilled in communication and technological advancement– two major requirements for virtual assistants. Their work ethics and dedication are very much appreciated by their American and European clients. Many dedicated virtual assistants work long hours to meet the requirements of their clients. Business process outsourcing companies already has the facility, infrastructure and equipment furnished for you– it’s part of the package when you hire an offshore virtual assistant. They understand the basic requirements of small and medium sized businesses. The program and software just need to be migrated on line and everything should go smoothly after which. Business Process outsourcing companies would prequalify the applicants for you to check who possesses the skills you require. They then allow direct interview with the foreign clients especially to gauge more if the communication and experience of the applicant would suit the requirements. That’s all there is to it — you now have your own offshore Virtual assistant.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

As developing countries such as India and Philippines developed an image for being among the top choices in business process outsourcing there has been a great surge of interest from all sorts of foreign investors. The growth has become continuous and is rapidly expanding in various fields. Mass ramping-up can be seen on a quarterly basis and multi skilled workers are getting excited. There has been a strong need to seek offshore as there are certain processes that are necessary yet these may only be contributing a fraction to over all productivity. A lot of the procedures maybe time consuming and repetitive. Since they may require special skills and expertise, the company cannot afford to lose these processes and so they may need to get other people to perform these process while they focus on core areas of the company such as marketing and research and development. By outsourcing other areas of the business process the company gets to boost their efficiency and meet deadlines effectively.

The Philippines lead the way in the proficiency of written and spoken English with a vast pool of qualified professionals from different fields graduating each year. This great surge in the demand for choosing the Philippines  for business process outsourcing is brought mainly because of the need to maintain a high quality service and at the same time cost effective. Since foreign companies would have to pay a premium if they hire someone locally, they have opted to seek overseas for people that can deliver the same high quality output at a lesser price. Companies opting to hire offshore no longer have to pay a hefty amount for Human Resource and Recruitment. The business process outsourcing centers are ready to provide and meet the requirements of the foreign clients regarding the number of agents, qualifications, skills, number of hours rendered and call quality. Certain metrics are being implemented to maintain a high quality of calls, ensuring that each call is properly resolved at an allowable time.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

Business process outsourcing allows other departments of a certain business to be performed by a third party. Due to high demand in manpower and that companies nowadays have staffs working until seven to late at night just to comply and meet the demands outsourcing has become a must for most. Organizations nowadays are forced to explore available tactics to remain competitive due to the current decline in the economy. Business process outsourcing of certain functions will improve basic services while allowing the company to remain afloat and have time to do strategic role in their organizations. These areas may include, prospecting, customer service, technical support and marketing. This approach can cut cost in the company’s budget as outsourcing especially offshore is considered a cost saving approach. Let’s discuss the reasons for outsourcing.

Outsourcing is a great way to save money. An average hourly rate for an assistant maybe $10 to $12 an hour. A virtual assistant that is outsource only costs $4 to $5 an hour, that is more than half the price. The company can focus on strategy to further enhance their business by leveraging some repetitive tasks and minor customer issues that can be handled by an outsourced customer service. Hiring an outsourced representative will improve accuracy of your records as the outsourced human resource are mostly college levels and are up to date with their data recording and can immediately follow steps. When you are tight with your budget and need to hire someone with enough experience in accountancy for example, this can be outsourced at a lower price. The technological advances has helped a lot of companies to outsource their customer service and technical support staff allowing them to cater to more customers.

Business process outsourcing or BPO is an emerging industry in the Philippines. Regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world, BPO services is predicted to reach $180 billion in 2010 according to McKinsey & Co. The recent trend in primary business tend to shift from cost effectiveness to skills quality and competence.  This is the advantage that overseas investors see in the human resource in the Philippines a very high quality of service skills at a much lower cost. Continued in- house development are provided by BPO centers in the Philippines to ensure that all their dedicated representatives are up to date with their knowledge and that they also learn to manage all the calls they take. Since many clients have many demands all of these are met maintaining a higher standard of training.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

Globalization, the heightened need for security, and mergers and acquisitions have made the business world a more complex place, and [businesses] use consultants to help move through that landscape,” says Eric Figueroa, an economist with the BLS.

Gone were the seafaring days to trade lambs and textiles. As the global market need requires and presents better and new products, there is now a very high demand of customer service and technical expertise offshore. As giant companies consolidate to save money, they are transferring their human-resources functions outside mainland. JP Morgan Chase, General Motors, HSBC and Sprint are just among the few that caught the Business outsourcing mania. Now, more and more companies are mining human resource offshore. Offshore outsourcing has expanded and improved due to the mobility of globalization. Right now sales and marketing, customer service, technical support, billing and information, banking and finance health care consultation and travel and hospitality— all these companies have sought offshore human resources.

The business process outsourcing markets have become globalized in the past 10 years. Just as BPO have become common that buyers should at least consider to enable process improvement and cost reductions, the global sourcing of BPO is becoming an option that merits consideration. The key issue for outsourcing buyers today, therefore, is how to develop a service delivery model that can fully exploit global sourcing opportunities and is supportive of overall corporate strategies, goals and principles.

After having decided to outsource all of its business process baring its core competing area, an enterprise also has to plan and strategize of how it would actually outsource, to whom and how it would integrate this whole process which is equally crucial for maintaining its competitive edge of its competition. Any corporate house having debated on the various business processes that it wishes to outsource now needs to pick the right outsourcing firms/agencies by doing the necessary due-diligence in terms of researching and analysing a particular firms capability and credentials and its track record for having accomplished outsourcing activity for reputed clients. Equally essential to brainstorm is how would one be bringing all these different outsourcing firms together while integrating the different business components and ensuring this does not entail into complicated issues consuming more time and energy.

The innovations of offshore outsourcing has contributed much toward increased development in either economies. Since business process outsourcing involves an exchange of services, it results to an increase in international flow of capital. Many Information technology zones are created to the increasing demands of business process outsourcing companies such as secured location, clear phone reception and Internet ready area.

The Philippines is considered as the best source for business process outsourcing. Most call centers especially the big ones are strategically located to ensure safety and privacy of the information of the foreign companies they serve especially in the banking and finance department.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

Offshore Outsourcing— the process of hiring an external organization to handle certain business functions in a foreign country– is a common practice to many companies across the world, mainly to save money. But what began as a cost- cutting measure has now evolved into an industry where small- scale entrepreneurs and major companies alike turn to for reasons that go beyond pricing. While cost is still a key benefit of outsourcing, more and more companies are looking at it as a strategic planning and business outcomes tool.

Here is a closer look at the major benefits of outsourcing:

Better management of capital costs. Cost-cutting may not be the only reason to engage in offshore outsourcing, but it’s definitely a primary factor. Outsourcing reforms fixed costs into variable costs, recreates capital for investment in some other areas of your business, and enables you to do without huge expenses in the early stages of your business. Offshore outsourcing can also make your firm more appealing to other investors, since you’re able to provide more capital directly into revenue-producing activities.

Improve productivity. Businesses which try to do everything themselves have much higher research, development, marketing, and distribution costs, which result to higher pricing since these expenses must be passed- on to end- buyers. An outsourcing provider’s frame of cost and measure of economy can provide your company a significant competitive edge.

Lessen human capital development cost. Recruiting and the subsequent training of personnel for marginal or temporary projects can be very pricey, and short- term employees don’t always deliver as you expect they would. Offshore outsourcing allows you to concentrate your human resources where you need them most.

Jumpstart new projects. An ideal outsourcing partner has the necessary assets to start a project quickly. Managing that same project within your core operation could take weeks or even months to find the right people and get them ready for the tasks ahead. And, should a project require considerable capital investments (such as additional equipment, infrastructure, etc.), the start- up can even take longer.

Reduce risks. Business endeavors involve some amount of risk. Market trends, business rivals, economies, and technologies all change on a regular basis. Offshore outsourcing providers are generally much better at deciding how to avoid risk in their areas of expertise so you wont have to.

Philippines has a very high literacy rate at 94%. With all educational systems using English as a medium in teaching, Philippines leads the way in Business Process Outsourcing in Asia. Philippines has an abundance of human resource with different educational background. Due to the premium pay provided to call center agents most health care, Information technology and commerce graduates opt to work and make this new trend a career. With more than 250,000 fresh graduates per year investors will always have a fresh supply of articulate and smart workforce.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.

The Business Process Outsourcing industry is considered as one of the fastest business sectors in the world. The strong demand for outsourcing services is predicted to reach as high as $180 billion in 2010, with finance and accounting, customer support, human resource management, and back- end support services getting the most shares. A trend in primary business requirements is also foreseen, market analysts believe that there will be shift from practicality and cost reduction mentality to service quality and consistency. This reinforces the Philippine position as one of the top BPO destinations.

What started as an answer to the tremendous demand for offshore call center services, the Philippine BPO industry has become one of the leading global BPO service providers in the world. At present, an estimated number of 250,000 Filipinos work in BPO companies, not only in Manila but in regional areas like Clark, Angeles City, Cebu City, Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, Bacolod and Dumaguete City. While call centers still hold the largest share of the country’s offshore outsourcing sector, the current surge in the industry is powered by a more specialized and higher- end outsourcing demand such as software development, web design, content writing, blogs, SEO – Search Engine Optimization, flash animation, data and billing entry, legal and accounting services, and medical, as well as, technical transcription.

Among the major companies that already operate in the Philippines include Dell, AOL, Earthlink, Chevron, Citigroup, Sprint, HP, HSBC, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, and Siemens AG.

A survey conducted by a reputable international investment consultancy firm revealed that the Philippines ranked 1st in the availability of knowledge-based jobs and skilled workers worldwide, and ranked 4th among Asian nations in terms of labor quality. The Philippines ideal location, the availability of considerably cheaper prime real estate locations, and a growing number of reliable ICT infrastructure only. The Philippine government supports Business Process Outsourcing and is very appreciative of the feedback it gets from foreign investors. Many locations are made to be equipped with high speed Internet accessibility, active and clear phone lines and satellite dishes. PLDT, Globe and Bayan telecommunications are among these companies that equip call center phone lines. It’s exciting to new that this trend toward enhancing BPO standards have surged continually in the past 8 years and continues to grow annually.

The future of BPO in the Philippines is aimed toward greater and better standards. Short courses on English proficiency allow Filipinos to speak better English. Call center academies aim to train in neutralization of the language and understanding the American culture. This approach will arm call center applicants when they get to apply in top BPO companies in the Philippines.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting www.OutsourcingOutsourcing.Com.