There are two countries in the world that are quite known for providing effective business process outsourcing services — India and the Philippines. Businesses that are looking to outsource services from BPO companies usually go to these countries to look for a good partner. These two countries are usually battling it out neck to neck in the global BPO industry.
“The top 7 globally accepted locations in specific order are India, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, and Indonesia. China is soon becoming the favourite for basic low-value services, [the] Philippines is the preferred destination for financial services and voice-based support. It is also soon gaining ground in high-value services like engineering and legal BPO,” said Deepak Kapoor, founding member, Business Processing Industry Association of India (BPIAI).
Let us take a look at the BPO industry in India. Just like the Philippines, India is also growing at a fast pace. In 2005, it had a growth rate of 38% which is a good figure. In 2013, it has been reported that the BPO industry has gathered revenue to a total of $447 million. And that just grew to $651 million, according to Statista. Moreover, India has 1.1 million employees working in the Business Process Management (BPM) industry.
This sector in India offers a wide range of services, just like the Philippine BPO industry. They offer services including customer support, email support, web design, web development, content writing, proofreading, and accounting among many others.
India has a readily-available infrastructure. They also have business process outsourcing training ready for new employees. Recruitment is also easy as there is a huge manpower in the country who are prepared and willing to take part in this arena.
Hindustan Times reported that Business Processing Industry Association of India (BPIAI) stated that India’s share in the $186 billion global industry that is BPO is already a whopping 36%.
It is time to take a look at the state of BPO in the Philippines, which is considered as the “Sunshine Industry”. When contact centre companies started operating in the country, many of its citizens were happy because it meant that they would be able to make a good amount of money even if they did not have to go out of the country. It was a good thing. And with the country having English as its second language, in no time, the country became the top place for outsourcing.
The growth of BPO across the nation has been really fast. Since 2006 onwards, the country has been able to mark a growth rate of 46% annually. Though it has slowed down in the past two years, huge corporations and companies around the globe still go to the Philippines for outsourcing.
Business Processing Industry Association of India (BPIAI) reported that the country is outsourced for financial services and voice-based support, all the while increasing its services in the engineering and legal BPO department.
The debate on which one is better — India or the Philippines — when it comes to business process outsourcing has been going on for too long. These countries have their own unique style when it comes to doing the work that is given to them. Also, each of these countries has something to offer that the other cannot.
These two countries have seen how outsourcing has brought them a huge amount of revenue. Because of this, each government are doing their very best to accommodate every company coming in to outsource jobs. There are plenty of factors that they have to go over and choosing should always depend on the company’s standards, requirements, and needs.
A huge part of outsourced jobs is related to customer service. This is because outsourcing means that they would not have to spend a whole lot of money on facilities and on training their staff. This is the very reason why there are plenty of call centres in India and the Philippines.
It has also been reported that the previous investors in India have chosen to go to the Philippines instead. According to Phill Fresht, the CEO of US-based HfS Research agency, Philippines has very strong skills in voice and multi-language. Not only that but “Philippines has a very strong culture for customer service delivery,” he added.
This has made India create some solution to make sure that the investors come back to them. Investors have been looking at the Philippines because of the accent which is what they prefer over India’s.
These individuals are also well-versed when it comes to using the English language. India, presently, has been creating better packages with lot lower price rates so that operations would continue and they would still have a huge share of the market. When it comes to finding new employees, it is a lot easier to find new people in the Philippines as compared to India. 10% of India’s graduates are employable and that is only a third of the Philippines’ employable graduates.
Another important thing to look into when it comes to the whole India versus Philippines deal is the culture. India has a rich culture and the people are proud of it. However, the uniqueness of its culture becomes a barrier when it comes to being competitive in the BPO field. Unlike the Philippines, which pretty much has a culture that is very westernized, Indians are not that well-versed with American culture.
The former has been a colony of Britain for several years and that has affected their culture in one way or another, however, it did not affect nor had a major influence in their daily lives. Britain has been more focused on mathematics and the sciences and this is where India excels a lot in.
Being a colony of the United States for several years, the Philippines was able to adapt most of its culture. In fact, some studies have said that the Southeast Asian country seems to love the United States much more than its own. However, once you do get to see how the Philippines work, you would be able to get a gist of how westernized it has become. Aside from having English as its second language (with a huge portion of the country knowing how to speak it well), the Philippines’ premier university has been patterned from universities in the United States.
In conclusion, it largely depends on what service a company or business wants to get. India is better in some area like with tech support while the Philippines is better on the others like customer service.
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