The Philippines has been declared as the top destination for the call center outsourcingindustry after having surpassed its Indian competitors. There have been a couple of reasons provided as to why the Philippines is regarded as such. In an article published in Outsourcing Insider entitled "Philippine Contact Centers Surpass Indian Competitors", we have discussed that what makes the Philippines a higher bargaining power is its manpower's ability to speak and understand the English language very well. However, its Indian competitors have not been entirely neglected by business owners who are looking to delegate their customer service or voice support to a process outsourcing service provider as the Philippines' main competitor is still approached for such type of services.
It is undeniable that the call center outsourcing industry's popularity has skyrocketed within the previous decade. It may be beneficial for business owners especially with the superb quality of work they are getting at a cheaper price as compared to executing the processes themselves in-shore. But with the quick growth rate of both offshoring and outsourcing's popularity, it could not be avoided for the industry to have critics, especially those who feel that jobs are being taken away from them. This has been a concern for many residents of countries who outsource a large part of their businesses offshore, in which the United States is an appropriate example. Recent news suggest that an Anti-Outsourcing Bill in the United States has been passed and is currently moving its way through the legislative body of a country which could probably be considered as the largest market for call center jobs. As expected, the said bill has caused alarm to both India's and the Philippines' respective lawmakers and officials as this means that call center opportunities and contracts may lessen or, worse, be pulled out from their countries.
Indian lawmakers has already expressed its disdain towards the aforementioned bill and they are set to study the US bill so they could further work on their strategy on how to protect their Indian businesses as well. The Philippines' lawmakers also share the same sentiment. However, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has issued a statement last week that there seems to be no need to lobby against the Anti-Outsourcing Bill but the Philippine president remains hopeful as he said that outsourcing is one of the country's sunrise industries.
There is quite a huge population of business process outsourcing companies, including call center solutions providers, that have facilities, if not headquartered, in India; examples of global service providers in India and the Philippines are Teletech (NASDAQ:TTEC) and Stream Global Services (NYSEAMEX:SGS). These call centers and the businesses that they serve will be greatly affected by the bill that could probably cause trouble to the economies of India, Philippines and the other emerging outsourcing call center destinations such as South Africa and Egypt.
But come to think of it, the outsourcing industry is not entirely a negative thing, as Indian Ambassador to the United States claims that the outsourcing relationship between India and the United States bore fruit to 65,000 jobs in the United States in the previous year. To foster a relationship of give and take with each other within the outsourcing industry could be the very solution to the looming threat of halting call center outsourcing to offshore service providers.
Author: Jamee C.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.