The Outsourcing Week in Review: Wednesday, October 3, 2018

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THE WEEK IN REVIEW

As the TRABAHO bill moves inexorably onwards, last week saw arguments for and against its adoption continue. PEZA claims up to 700,000 workers may lose their jobs as a consequence if it is passed. In contrast, the Department of Trade and Industry argues that the BPO industry and its workers should in fact benefit: within the bill there is a provision for a PHP5 billion annual fund to pay for a skills upgrade program for the IT-BPO industry. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III called on senators to hurry up and approve it, and for all to move forward.

Adjusting to new technology, another major challenge for the industry, also saw some interesting developments. According to Grant Thornton India partner Depender Kumar the Philippines is now ready to shift to full digitalization given its expertise in IT-business process management. The trouble is it needs to go faster if jobs are not going to be impacted, according to Asian Institute of Management Senior Data Scientist Christian Alis. The Philippines is lagging behind its peers, says Alis.

Still, Singapore BPO Everise, with an operation in the Philippines, announced it had bought into Malaysian AI company Hyperlab to boost its BPO digital capabilities.  Riding high on the back of 11% revenue growth in its Q4 figures, Accenture announced plans to accelerate enterprise automation and innovation capabilities through its application myWizard. Enterprise security firm Fortinet and cloud services giant AWS both announced new Philippines country heads to steer the roll-out of their technology services.

On the world stage, Sitel continued its expansion with new operations planned in China. Infosys confirmed it had won a welcome US$1 billion in major contracts. Another outsourcing company that appears to be moving out of troubled times is UK-based BPO Serco, that is forecasting bumper profits for the year.

Meanwhile, activity to capture talent in a tight labor market continues. BPO firms took the lead with jobs on offer at a recent Baguio jobs fair, and President Duterte passed off on the Aseana Business Park in Parañaque City, bringing another location into the frame for BPOs to consider. Teleperformance also announced that it was behind the concept of a four-day working week of 12-hour shifts to give greater flexibility for employees. According to senior vice president Jeffrey Johnson, the company is already doing this in some cases. The reason: employees prefer less time stuck in Manila traffic. Few working in the National Capital Region would take issue with that.

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

NEWS THIS WEEK

01 October 2018

• BPOs should benefit from the TRABAHO bill in training – DTI – read more…
• Philippines ready to adopt process automation – Digitech – read more…
• British BPO Serco forecasts big profits hike this year – read more…

28 September 2018

• Sitel Group expands BPO operations in China – read more…
• Duterte OKs new ecozone in Aseana – read more…
• Accenture revenues up 11% in Q4 – read more…

27 September 2018

• Fortinet, AWS appoint new Philippines country managers – read more…
• Jobs, investment losses seen amid slow pace of digitalization – read more…
• Big job losses forecast under Trabaho bill – Peza – read more…

26 September 2018

• BPO firms lead job offering in Baguio jobs fair – read more…
• Accenture eyes myWizard’s AI capability expansion – read more…
• Infosys wins US$1 billion contract from two IT giants – read more…

25 September 2018

• Teleperformance backs 4-day work week – read more…
• Everise buys AI company to boost BPO services – read more…
• Senators told by Finance Secretary to approve TRAIN 2 – read more…