Call center industry is poised to end 2009 with a 20-percent revenue growth, its lowest expansion thus far in its decade-old existence.

For next year, Jojo Uligan, executive director of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), said the industry is expected to grow just 20 percent anew with the economic crisis still a key negative influence.

“We will again focus on the cost and quality that we give to our clients. We will continue to take advantage of the situation because with the economic crisis, companies look to outsource more of their operations to save on cost and, at the same time, improve on their quality of service, which is what the Philippines delivers,” said Uligan.


Call-center operations started in the late 1990s and have grown exponentially into a $4-billion industry by 2008.

Uligan said the industry looks forward, however, to increasing its number of agents to 280,000 by year-end from 240,000 in 2008. He added there is no forecast yet for the number of personnel it will have in 2010.
In the first of the four-part quarterly survey on the contact-center industry “Contact Centers: Forerunners of Resiliency,” it was recommended that smaller companies’ weakening operating margins signal they will have to confront the possibility of merging with other companies to take advantage of economies of scale.
Uligan said bigger companies have better chances of landing contracts because some clients require large capacities in looking for a contact-center partner. “Medium-size companies should join forces so they can become bigger.”

The survey, done in collaboration with Pricewaterhouse Coopers Financial Advisors Inc., also highlighted that 60 percent of agents are in Metro Manila, 20.9 percent in Makati, 13.5 percent in Quezon City, and 11.3 percent in Pasig City. Outside Metro Manila, Cebu City has the most agents with 11.8 percent.
Another finding was that 80 percent serve the telecommunications industry, financial services (71 percent), technology (52 percent) and business services (52 percent).

The top five service types offered are complaints handling, account and product questions, help desk/technical support services, order-taking and confirmation, and telecollection.

The industry caters mostly to the companies in the United States, Britain, and Australia.

Source : Businessmirror.com.ph