Deliver on your promise, Roxas tells e-Services firms

By edison d. ong, Manila Bulletin

Senator Manuel Roxas Jr., former Trade Secretary and now chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, has warned local business leaders and capitalists against the danger of overcrowding the call center and business processing outsourcing industry.

He told a huge gathering of attendants at the CEO Forum on Global Outsourcing Outlook during the recently held e-Services Philippines that they should "not be content with customer care and contact center stuff."

He expressed concern over the industry capability "to supply sufficient manpower."

In a news release from the Center for International trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the organizer of this year’s 6th edition of Outsourcing Conference and Exhibition a.k.a. e-Services Philippines, said "the greatest challenge that the contact center industry faces is how to develop the 60,000 qualified recruits needed to fill anticipated growth in 2006."

Underscoring the dwindling number of qualified applicants as a concern, it reported, "the contact center industry, through the Contact Center Association of the Philippines and the Business Process Association of the Philippines, is working closely with government to meet the challenge of developing greater numbers of qualified applicants. The association, other private sector organizations, and government are collaborating to develop IT and IT-enabled services (ITES)-centered curricula, promote English as the principal language of instruction, and strengthen math and science courses.

Approximately 90 call centers collectively employ around 100,000 people in the Philippines and that number increases by several thousands every month, said Rainerio Borja, president of the Call Center Association of the Philippines. Competition for human resources and increased industry interest in the country has resulted in the decentralization of contact center locations.

Meantime, as the country buys time to train quickly qualified people for the call center industry, Roxas suggested that businessmen and investors consider other industries, particularly those the Filipino talents and skills are abundant in.

"Let us focus on what we can deliver on," he repeated several times. "It is crazy for us to project something we are not. As a country, this is not good.Let us build credibility. Deliver on your promise."

New to this year’s edition of e-Services Philippines is the Human Resources-Contact Center Track with the theme, "Our ICT Advantage: Quality Human Resources."

In an industry where human resource defines success, the Philippines’ claim in the global e-Services arena is only as good as its human capital, Citem said. "The track focuses on one of the most pressing issues in the industry: The continued supply of quality human resource. How we address this would eventually mark the country’s success in the global playing field."

For his part, Ernest Cu, director, Business Processing Association of the Philippines, suggested at a press conference, "Identify the strength in the labor pool and leverage (on it) to go up. If you don’t move up, (then) you will perish."