The Outsourcing Week in Review: Wednesday, November 06, 2019

Welcome to Inside Outsourcing: The Outsourcing Week in Review

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

The Philippines’ Board of Investments has announced that the country’s 19 individual investment promotion agencies will now collaborate on developing a unified national brand to promote the country as an investment destination. The initiative has been welcomed by the British and American chambers of commerce, and comes at a time when foreign direct investment has been tailing off. Despite the slowdown, the commercial real estate sector has remained resilient, says Jet Yu, chief executive of Prime Philippines, a Metro Manila-based commercial real estate consultancy. But the moratorium on new economic zones in Metro Manila is causing concern. The Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club are holding discussions with Manila mayor Isko Moreno on ways to encourage business process outsourcing companies to set up business in the city in the face of the ban.

The week saw positive news in recruitment. Whereas online recruitment growth overall for the country slowed in the recent quarter, the business process outsourcing/information technology enabled services sector bucked the trend and enjoyed healthy growth at 21% for August, and 18% for both July and September, when compared to last year’s quarter, according to the Monster Employment Index. Upgrading IT skills of the workforce will be central to maintain such job growth, particularly as many BPO companies are leading the transformational charge. Cognizant, for example, has now been designated by Forrester Research as one of the leaders in the Robotic Process Automation services sector. Accenture was also recognized as a leader in the data and analytics service providers sector as part of the 2019 PEAK Matrix for Data and Analytics Service Providers report. Startek enjoyed success at the recent 2019 IDG India CIO 100 Awards, where the company won praise for its technological capabilities, particularly its AI-powered digitized and automated email response management system. Wipro announced that it was recognized by Pivotal Software, a cloud-native platform provider, as a Global Breakthrough Partner of the Year.

The Sitel Group also received plaudits by winning Frost & Sullivan’s prestigious Work Hard, Play Hard CC Award for the second consecutive year, which recognized its outstanding contact center culture. The award comes at a time, however, when about 350 employees at Sitel’s John Lewis call center in England may be out of work as a result of the decision of John Lewis – one of the UK’s leading retailers – to transfer its customer service operations to the Philippines.

Other overseas news saw Concentrix announce plans to recruit an additional 245 full-time and seasonal workers for its US site in Daleville, Indiana; and Teleperformance reveal its plans to employ 3,500 agents in its standalone Jamaican delivery center. VXI Global Solutions said that it has appointed three new vice presidents of business development – Darrell Jones, Brad Levy and Heidi Solomon-Orlick – to join its Los Angeles-headquartered company as part of its sales and solutions team.

Keeping up robust employment growth requires having candidates with the requisite job skills, and the news that 113 students have just graduated from Bacolod City’s Negros Occidental Language and Information Technology Center is a step in the right direction. The students have completed either the institution’s Contact Center Services National Certificate (NC) II or its Medical Billing and Coding Specialist course. Having on-the-job work experience is also helpful in giving an edge to winning employment, according to new research by Data 61, the data sciences division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s national science agency. It found that graduates tend to find a job more easily if they have previous experience as an intern; have undertaken on-the-job work-related training in their spare time; or have had work experience as part of their course.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

NEWS THIS WEEK

4 November 2019

• Cognizant Seen as Taking a Lead in the Robotic Process Automation Sector – read article…
• Accenture Wins Praise for Data and Analytics Capabilities – read article…
• Real Estate Industry Leaders Pay Tribute to Resilience of Philippines’ Property Sector – read article…

1 November 2019

• AI Innovation Sees Startek Honored at Indian Business Awards – read article…
• Concentrix Indiana Looks to Recruit 245 in Technology and Healthcare Roles – read article…
• VXI Hires Three Big Hitters for Expanded Sales and Solutions Team – read article…

31 October 2019

• Sitel Group Wins Frost & Sullivan’s Call Center Culture Award for Second Year Running – read article…
• 113 Graduating Students Testament to Success of Negros Further Education Initiative – read article…
• Internships and Work Experience Boost Graduate Employability Says New Study – read article…

30 October 2019

• Teleperformance Employs 3,500 in Standalone Jamaican Delivery Center – read article…
• 350 UK Staff at Risk as John Lewis Looks to Launch In-House Philippines’ Call Center – read article…
• Philippines Set to Adopt Unified National Primary Investment Destination Branding – read article…

29 October 2019

• BPO Trade Body and Local Mayors Pledge to Keep Metro Manila Open to Outsourcers – read article…
• Philippines’ Online Recruitment Slows as Economic Outlook Deteriorates – read article…
• Pivotal Lauds Wipro as its Global Breakthrough Systems Integrator Partner Of The Year – read article…

Read more Inside Outsourcing Newsletters here:

1. The Outsourcing Week in Review: June 26, 2019
2. The Outsourcing Week in Review: July 10, 2019