Last year when I was considering various third parties for website troubleshooting help, a company based in the Philippines turned up in a Google search.

Based in China, was I loco to consider outsourcing an IT position to the Philippines?

As it turns out, the move wasn’t right for me as the monthly service fee was very high, especially considering the nation is still a developing one. For others though – dare I say it – the Philippines could be a good outsourcing option.

I dare, although various China business pundits already have discussed Vietnam and India as potential outsourcing options only with disdain (you know who you are). I wonder if that’s for self-interested reasons because their practices only/mostly involve China.

Hopefully the title of this story confused them enough to stay away, so at least the Pig Latin educated among you could read this post without their naysaying comments. Something tells me you still won’t.

Anyway, BusinessWeek recently shined a thoughtful light on outsourcing to the Philippines which deserves considered attention.

Here are some key points of that article:

• The Philippines has to be doing something right. “According to the Philippine Software Industry Assn. (PSIA), the industry had $423 million in revenues from both outsourced and product software in 2007, up from $200 million in 2005,” BusinessWeek noted.
• Hot areas for outsourcing include: project maintenance, customer-requested modifications, and some new product sales.
• The Philippines “has better cultural affinity with the U.S.,” and better infrastructure than both China and India, BusinessWeek notes. The PSIA estimated, for instance, that 45 percent of its outsourced work came from the United States versus just 25 percent each from Japan and Europe.
• Local isn’t bad in the Philippines. Ninety percent of software companies are run by local entrepreneurs.
• HR is getting better in other countries, perhaps making the Philippines’ cultural affinities to certain Western countries more obsolete. Meanwhile, the best Philipines talent gets brain drained overseas.
• As for the good stuff, Filipinos have an “excellent service-oriented attitude, are responsive, passionate, and have strong English skills,” BusinessWeek reports.

Oodgay Ucklay!

    Channel: Local Wisdom     |