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If India is moving up in the outsourcing market, the Philippines is gaining a fair share in the customer-contact call center business.

It might be low-margin and low-end but it is still considered as an employment boom for the Philippines.

For the last five years, the call center business in Makati City, Philippines has grown 100-fold with as much as 200,000 workers; even BPO companies are looking for ways to double their work force. Bacolod City call centers  have also been booming.

In previous studies, India was the best choice for American companies looking for outsourcing services.

However, those who are seeking cheaper options for more basic services have discovered the Philippines. With the long history of contact with the United States, the Philippines are far more attuned to Western culture than most Asian countries since the Philippines has been under American Rule for about half a century.

Employees at call centers not only find it easy to relate to Westerners but are also quick in adapting a variety of accents.

Additionally, most call center agents are intensively trained to achieve the accent of the country they will be calling.

The Philippines have some of the lowest unit costs, highest quality and lowest attrition rates of any call centers in the world. The country is very well placed not only to compete but possibly to dominate in the sector.

The Training and Responsibilities

Although call centers in the Philippines began with simply providing e-mail responses and handling services, these aspects have developed to almost all types of customer interactions, including travel services, technical support, financial services, customer care, online business and business support.

Like most call centers, the calls handled by call center agents in the Philippines are categorized into outbound and inbound calls. Outbound services available include telemarketing, advisories, reactivation of accounts, loyalty program benefits, sales verification and more.

On the other hand, inbound services cover a broad range of services from all types of technical help, transcription, inquiries, complaints and billing.

Philippine call center agents adhere to a strict performance metrics and are typically assigned in graveyard shifts. They usually interact with customers from all around the globe mostly from the United States.

In addition, call center agents from the Philippines have undertaken training processes, which usually include phone screening, initial interview, examination and a final interview.

Top Call Centers in the Philippines

In recent news, a major United States newspaper has outsourced customer care to the Philippines. MediaNews Group, one of the largest newspaper companies in the United States, has chosen the APAC Customer Services Inc. for the outsourcing of their customer care.

The call center employs about 4,000 college-educated, English-speaking Filipinos in many contact centers including the City of Bacolod. The services will include subscriber retention, delivery, billing inquiries and fielding inbound customer calls.

Aside from the APAC Customer Services Inc., there are also other call centers in the Philippines that have gained global appeal like the call centers in Bacolod City.

The LogicaCMG is also another major international player in the business and IT services. The company focuses on enabling the customers to build and maintain leadership positions through the use of deep industry knowledge.

Call center operations in the Philippines have been credited by several Global BPO providers based on the United States mainly due to its world-class productivity and the ample supply of highly cost-effective human resources. It is also projected that Philippine call centers will have over 300,000 seats, fully employ up to 500,000 Filipinos, and yield as much as $7.3 billion in annual revenues by 2010.

Are you considering BPO outsourcing but have no concept where to start? In almost each and every business there is the opportunity to outsource at least a few of the common tasks done in the industry. In some industries there may the possibility of outsourcing the majority of the common duties while in other industries there might only be the chance to outsource one or two of the typical duties. In either case outsourcing can result in a lightened workload and also an improve in profit.

Evaluate Daily Actions

The first step in finding methods to outsource is to take a really close look at the daily actions you carry out when tending to your business. Make a record of every of these actions and note any related activities which are typically done in conjunction with each other. Making this note is essential because activities which are typically done together should either be outsourced together or remain as in-house activities together to maintain the highest level of efficiency.

Finally, review your list of activities and note how long it takes you to carry out each of the activities you could outsource. This information will be helpful later if you decide to search for a candidate to complete these tasks.

Prioritize Every day Actions

After you’ve carefully examined your every day actions, it’s time to prioritize these actions. Create a comprehensive list of all of your daily actions in their order of significance. For this record consist of both the actions requiring your personal attention and the actions which can be outsourced.

Think about Administrative Duties

We have already discussed the significance of evaluating your own every day tasks in the procedure of discovering ways to outsource but it is also important to think about tasks completed by your staff members. Administrative duties are often duties which could be outsourced so examining these duties will give you a great idea if you are able to improve the efficiency of your administrative assistance by BPO outsourcing some of their responsibilities.

Develop a Strategy for Managing Outsourced Actions

Before starting to outsource daily activities, you should develop a strategy for managing all of your outsourced activities. This plan should include the following:

* Technique for selecting candidates to handle outsourced work
* Method for overseeing the function performed by independent contractors
* Technique for evaluating the function performed by independent contractors

Buying high-priced production machines isn’t feasible if you just want to run the PCB manufacturing and assembly of a couple of prototypes. As an alternative you probably want to outsource the prototype assembly to a reliable contract producer. I will demonstrate what to look out for when picking a supplier. I will also give some pointers on which services modern vendors provide.

Frequently you will find a quote system on contract manufacturer websites. Using this system, you can get an instant quotation for your board or assembly. This will help you save time when comparing various vendors. Make certain that the quote system permits you to enter all of the details, such as board material, thickness, copper thickness, milling etc. so that you can obtain an accurate quote without any surprises later on.

Generally the cost per board will decrease as quantity increases. This is a result of the fairly high setup expense of circuit board making and component assembly. A number of producers which specialize in smaller-quantity prototype manufacture will utilize a system where boards from a number of customers are combined. This allows the setup process to be completed once for a number of orders which will help lower the expense per board. For medium quantity, using a normal fabrication process is more cost effective however. When you are still in the design phase of your product, you do not want to spin a large volume of boards at first. Once you refine your design you may slowly wish to raise the board quantity.

If you are manufacturing a prototype board then vendors will generally only offer particular types of standard materials and thicknesses because they are trying to combine production of your boards with other customer boards. The production cost will usually decrease with a longer lead time which will give the manufacturer more flexibility in slotting the production. This is typically reflected in lower costs which you will see in the quote section. Obviously if you are in a rush and wish to be moved to the top of the pile you will need to spend more money.

Make certain that your contract manufacturer will support the file format for manufacture that you provide. The most common format for PCB manufacture is the Gerber format but a few vendors will also accept board files from widespread PCB software products. If you go with a vendor that also offers circuit board design services, your supplier will usually be able to correct problems that may exist in your board files. That will help eliminate unnecessary delays.

When outsourcing PCB assembly, make sure that your vendor can mount all of the package types that your board uses. Some manufacturers can’t mount certain type of IC packages such as BGA, chip-scale packages or very small component types. It is best to contact your vendor ahead of time to eliminate problems down the road.

Some contract manufacturers will have in stock an inventory of normal SMT and through-hole parts. You will save time if you can pull from your vendor’s inventory instead of ordering each component yourself. Make certain to specify which components you wish to deliver yourself when you upload your bill of materials.

Most vendors will also offer manufacture of the SMT stencil which is required for PCB assembly. Be sure to buy the stencil right away when buying the circuit boards themselves to eliminate delays.

To ensure quality, be sure that your vendor carries the usual quality approvals. Also, if your board needs special testing, be sure your supplier has suitable testing equipment. Some testing will require extra time and cost.

Outsourcing is one of the newest buzzwords in the business world. It is an efficient business solution that will actually benefit any company. Outsourcing means you will be hiring a third party company to do your company’s business or at least part of it. So, why outsource your business when you can make the business of your company in-house?

The main reason why companies today are outsourcing their business or at least part of their business to other companies is that it is relatively cheaper than doing it in-house. For example, if your company needs a customer care department or a help desk, you will need a particularly large office space for this department and a lot of materials, such as computers, software and your company will also hire a large amount of manpower to act as call center agents or help desk agents.

If you outsource it to call center companies, you will absolutely not need to hire additional employees and you will not need to purchase the technology needed to run an effective call center department. You will also not need to dedicate an office space as the office can be in another country.

Companies prefer outsourcing in another country or offshore outsourcing, principally in developing countries, such as India, Philippines, China, and countries in Latin America. This is because there is quite a large pool of talented individuals joining the workforce every year in these countries. Competent and talented professionals in these countries can provide the same quality services as the qualified individuals in developed countries with companies that outsource their business or part of it, such as the United States, Canada, and countries in Europe.

This means that the companies who outsource their business in developing countries have access to cheap labor. They can save as much as half of their budget when they do not outsource or when they perform their businesses in-house.

Another reason is that the companies who outsource their business or part of their business will be able to focus more in the development of their company. Companies will be able to make full use of their facilities and resources for other significant matters to make the company grow or improve.

The office space intended for the outsourced job can be used for another department. It can be an extension of another department or it can be an entirely new department that the company may add.

Finding the right company to outsource your business can be rather easy to do. You actually don’t have to travel to the country where you plan on outsourcing you business. All you have to do is search for it in your favorite search engine in the internet and you can expect a lot of results.

Since there are many companies that offer outsourcing services, there will be a great chance that you will find a company that will suit your company’s needs. It is recommended however that you should look for a company that is known to provide quality outsourced work. Find out if the company have ever worked with the same business you have in order to know that the company you plan on hiring have an experience in your field before.

Remember these things and you will know why outsourcing can definitely help your business and where and how to find the right company to get your business outsourced.