Outsourcing and the Philippines

The skills set of the Philippines’ IT workforce is beginning to move up the value chain as global demand for application outsourcing increases. This means that the country is no longer just a producer of contact center agents, but applications developers as well. This is the observation of Senator Manuel Roxas who was the guest of honor during the inauguration of HP Philippines’ new Global Delivery Philippines Center (GDPC) in Ortigas last month.

“There is now a very positive evolution in the skills set and services we are able to provide,” said Roxas. Whereas five years ago, most outsourcing activities in the country were call center-focused, there now is a much more sophisticated undertaking by the industry, he said, citing a major insurance company that has recently located its financial forensics activity in the Philippines as example. The senator said that this is the direction the country should be taking.

Having been recently awarded a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 3 certification for its organizational practices in software, systems engineering, and integrated product development, the GDPC would focus primarily on application outsourcing across SAP, Oracle, and .Net applications. HP GDPC’s operations, employing more than 600 employees, would be split between the company’s main offices in the Robinson Summit Center in Makati and the new facility, with the new site to accommodate an initial 200 employees.

Bala Mahadevan, head of the application services delivery unit for HP’s Global Delivery India Center, said that the necessary ingredients for spectacular growth in the outsourcing industry are, in fact, already present in the country; it is all just a matter of improving what the country has and maximizing what is present. “I see here what I saw in India a few years ago,” said Mahadevan, adding that the Philippines even has some advantages over India — like it being a smaller country. “Sometimes size can be a problem because it is harder to control,” he said. Further stressing that a skilled workforce is the country’s greatest asset, the HP official said, “I’m seeing productivity and passion, that’s the key; people have to be a big part of it and I see that here.”

— Jenalyn M. Rubio, Computerworld Philippines