Why the Philippines?
PITON has strategically chosen the Philippines as its preferred offshore BPO destination due to the country’s numerous key competitive advantages over other leading offshore destinations such as India which are briefly outlined below:
▪ Closest Cultural Affinity to the US
As a former US protectorate for more than five decades, the Philippines is known to possess the closest cultural affinity to the US among all offshore destinations. The country’s schooling, legal, medical as well as business system and processes have been adopted from or patterned after the US system. A recent Gartner research report on “Outsourcing Opportunities to the Philippines” emphasized on the fact that “US customers consistently cite cross-cultural differences as one of the biggest hurdles when engaging with Indian-based firms. With regard to working with Filipinos, this issue is rarely cited. The ability of Filipinos to work with Americans and assimilate to their professional environment, as well as their interpersonal norms of behavior and organizational culture, is often praised by US enterprises.”
▪ Superior English Language Proficiency
“American” English is the official language in the Philippines making it the world’s third largest English-speaking country. English is the medium of instruction from primary up to post-secondary levels. According to Gartner Research “the level of English language proficiency in the Philippines is characterized as ‘world class’ as a way to designate it and set the country apart from the other competitive English-speaking country destinations. The reason for this is that verbal skills in the Philippines with regard to clarity and understandability to a US buyer are superior to that of India, Ireland or other offshore destinations. The ability of Filipinos to adopt accents and nomenclature, as well as understand American Idiomatic expressions and usage are significant advantages in service areas such as contact centers.”
▪ Availability of a Highly Educated and Skilled Workforce
The Philippines possesses a considerably large, highly educated and extremely skilled workforce. With an annual output of approximately 400,000 graduates the country is well positioned to support its exponentially growing BPO industry. The literacy rate in the Philippines with over 94% ranks as the second highest in Asia. Today, the offshore BPO industry in the Philippines employs approximately 150,000 professionals.
▪ Consultative, Customer Service Mind-Set
The tone and etiquette of the professional business environment and overall mindset of knowledge workers in the Philippines lends itself to a customer-service-oriented culture. It is frequently cited by Gartner clients as one of the most important intangibles of Filipino workers. These particular benefits align well with service areas such as BPO and contact centers that require a high level of customer interaction, so Gartner.
▪ Low Cost Offshore Destination
The Philippines, as a developing country, has some of the world’s lowest labor rates, which ultimately provides US buyers with significant offshore cost savings of approximately 40-70% vs. standard US bureau rates.