10-seat contact centers emerging in RP
New sectors are coming out, experts say
By Ronnel Domingo
MANILA, Philippines – THE CALL center industry is already making its presence felt in the Philippines, but the best is yet to come, according to Davao-based businesswoman Joji Ilagan-Bian.
The call center industry has been touted as the country’s sunrise industry, and Bian says new facets of the business process outsourcing sector are still emerging, such as the small to medium-sized centers.
“Small- and medium-scale call centers (SMCCs) are flourishing and they can prove to be as strong a support sector as the big operators we are cheering today,” she said.
Bian explains that SMCCs are those that operate with a capacity of 200 seats or less, and preferably at least 10 seats to ensure viability.
“The CICT [Commission on Information and Communication Technology] refer to these as Smites or small- and medium-scale IT enterprises,” Bian says.
“Whatever they may be called, they are becoming a strong presence in the coming years,” she adds. “In fact, they are dispersed in the regions unlike the big call centers, and the average SMCC has 10 seats.”
Bian herself owns the nascent Six Eleven Inc. which has two sites–one in Davao City with 158 seats and another in Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City with 174 seats.
Six Eleven started in Davao last May 2006, mainly offering outbound sales services such as marketing travel plans.
Business was so promising that the firm opened the second site in Quezon City last August and would start operations on Sept. 28.
“But despite the evident strong potential of SMCCs, they face greater odds compared with the big players,” Bian says. “With less resources, it is hard for us to launch campaigns and promote ourselves to clients because most SMCCs rely on brokers who may turn out to be unreliable.”
For this reason, Bian’s firm joined forces with similarly situated SMCCs and formed the Philippine Call Center Alliance Inc. or PhilCall in October 2006.
So far, PhilCall has 25 members–with an average of 40 seats each–including 999 Inc., Synergia Cybercare Inc., VirCommServe Inc., Right Technicomm Inc., Sysgen Outsource Inc., Tech1 Internet and Farmout Central Intouch Inc.
Bian, who is PhilCall interim president, explains that the association was meant to advance SMCCs interest mainly by curbing the problem of dealing with brokers.
“At this early, PhilCall has been able to undertake initial efforts in representing members when making campaigns,” she says. “This move saves our members from the prospect of not getting paid by clients because of unreliable brokers.”
To strengthen PhilCall and make it more effective, the group has also embarked on a campaign to enlist more members with the goal of being able to represent a total of 10,000 seats.
“Our aim is also to professionalize SMCC operation so that we can establish a good reputation that is based on high standards of services as well as of ethics,” Bian says. “We want to flesh out SMCCs from the underground, so to speak.”
She adds that aside from the current 25 members, there was “a larger number” of SMCCs that have registered with PhilCall for eventual membership.
She says SMCC are spread across the country’s so-called regional IT hubs like the cities of Cebu, Davao, Dagupan, Naga, Baguio, Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro.
A large majority of SMCCs are involved in outbound sales calls, but Bian said opportunities were vast because technical support, data management, accounting, banking transactions and “anything under the sun” could be outsourced.
Moreover, SMCCs do not have to struggle to compete with the big players for clients. “Big clients naturally go for big players, so SMCCs have small clients that are emerging in parallel.”
According to PhilCall’s profile, it also accepts associate members for companies whose business activities support those of the regular members–VoIP and software providers, training and recruitment centers, etc.
“Small and medium home grown contact centers nationwide have come into play serving as conduits for ICT growth in the locality as it creates a ripple effect in the local economy with its increasing demand for technology, infrastructure and manpower,” the profile says.
