Philippines Catching up with India in Outsourcing

India, the dominant player in outsourcing touted as the "world's back office", would soon have to contend with a rival third world - the Philippines.

A highly skilled English speaking workforce. A reliable telecommunications infrastructure. Low cost of qualified personnel. These are some significant reasons for choosing India or the Philippines for outsourcing support.

IT OUTSOURCING IN INDIA

India, a former colony of the British Empire for almost two centuries, has the second largest pool of IT talent in the world, because of its Britain-influenced education system that places great emphasis on science and mathematics. With 120,000 trained IT professionals added to the Indian workforce yearly, India is preparing to be an IT giant in the third world and is ranked as the first choice of U.S. companies for software outsourcing. According Nasscomm, a conglomerate of Indian software and services companies, Indian companies are software solution provider for more than half of the Fortune 500.

The launch of India's first private undersea cable has tremendously improved the international situation width of banda. Furthermore, the significant bandwidth is available with the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited government, partially owned by India's largest business conglomerate. The privatization of the telecommunications industry has led to a significant drop in telecom rates. Observers predict that the entry of new operators in the industry will see a further drop in telecom prices. Over the past decade, the cost of telecommunications in India fell by 85 percent.

Over the years, India has built a strong brand equity as an attractive destination for software development and support. India is home to established IT companies like IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Sun, HP and Alcatel.

OFFSHORE DESTINATION: PHILIPPINES

But the Philippines - one of the world's second largest English speaking population - is rapidly catching up in India.

With a literacy rate of 94%, the Philippines has a large pool of professionals in information technology and a competitive cost of telecommunications infrastructure. The country ranks third in the knowledge and information-based jobs in the 2002 Global Technology Index research done by the META Group. Three million graduates join the workforce each year, providing a tremendous source of talent.

An American colony for almost 50 years, the Philippines has a Western culture, influence, a unique feature that clearly distinguishes the country from other offshore destinations. Although Asian orientation, Filipinos watch American TV and are therefore able to communicate effectively in American English.

PHILIPPINES: CALL CENTER HUB

In recent years, the Philippines has become the offshore destination of choice for call center outsourcing, specializing in customer support services. Because high-level Filipinos' knowledge of English and strong customer orientation, many corporations have used the Philippines as a global center for customer service. America Online, the largest ISP in the United States, maintains a staff of 600 at its call center in Clark, Pampanga. Caltex, Procter and Gamble, Barnes and Noble, among others, have built large service centers in the Philippines.

A very promising area, which has sought the support of outsourcing in the Philippines is the business of medical transcription. The Philippines boasts a large talent pool of medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, doctors and technicians. The demand for medical transcription has risen as U.S. hospitals are now required by federal regulations to convert medical records into data format. Seventeen medical transcription companies are now in operation, employing 1,200 Filipinos.

GIVING INDIA A RUN FOR HIS MONEY

While the Philippines may not be as a great provider of offshore web and software services as India, which holds great promise in the field of customer services. Even if India does not charge less than the Philippines - for data encoding work, India charges around $ 4 (U.S.) versus $ 10 in the Philippines - more multinationals are choosing the Philippines because of the high quality of work. Moreover, Filipinos make good customer service agents, not only because they are fluent in American English, but also because of their nature friendly and helpful.

More and more companies are choosing the Philippines for offshore support. Among the services offered in the Philippines-based outsourcing companies are copyediting and indexing, web design and maintenance, data conversion, data warehousing, data capture and data entry, scanning services and OCR, proofreading , coding and typing, graphic design and imaging services, call center and customer service, analysis and document conversion, typesetting, and tagging, among others ....