“Glad to be of service to you sir,” she says with a sparkle of enthusiasm and vibrant tone.

Most of the BPO companies’ work begins not long after everyone had lain down to sleep. Ortigas, having the largest number of call center companies have just started their “day”. Men and women scurry to elevators up to their work stations, carrying their own headsets, a sweater and cup of coffee to keep them dynamic while they sparklingly negotiate with their customers.

Tina Paguinto, a 19 year-old college student taking up Journalism at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) is among those workers who spend their nights in front of monitors dealing with customers from different countries and diverse cultures. She lives with her parents and two siblings at Mandaluyong City. Her mother is a plain housewife while the father manages a machine shop. But an unfortunate incident took place; her father being the bread winner of their family had a stroke and could not manage their talyer anymore. Currently, her grandmother supports their family. Tina has been working as a part-time customers’ sales representative agent for nine months now at Information and Communications Technology (ICT), one of the country’s major BPO companies. When asked why she chose to work, “Dahil dun sa problem dati, at ayokong maging pabigat kasi nga lola ko nagpapaaral sakin. Pero kahit siguro di nagka-problem gugustuhin ko pa ring magtrabaho kasi gusto ko may own money at independent ako.” Tina had plans to work even before, basically for experience. “Kahit jollibee dati ok lang nung di pa uso ang call center,” she added. According to Tina, her college and work aspect seem to have given her a very wonderful life. To her, college life is more strenuous when compared to her midnight shifts in work, “mas nakaka-stress yung school kasi dami pinapagawa. dun naka-upo ka lang at magbebenta” she explains.

BPO: Contemporary Life

The emergence of call centers or business-process outsourcing (BPO) has taken over large number of employees for the past years. This business involves IT-related activities carried out by hired employees. BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance (http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/what_is_bpo.asp). The areas that fall under this business process are human resources, distribution, telemarketing, receivables and payables, information technology, management and payment services.

The BPO industry includes call center companies, medical literatures, editing, office services and those that are intensively IT. Therefore in essence it provides service. A certain company manages product support and provides information to customers. The call center dynamics have two major processes involved – inbound and outbound. Outbound activities are done by Outbound Sales Associate whose primary function is to sell products online, via phone telemarketing, while inbound calls made customers to acquire information and ask for assistance are entertained by Inbound Sales Associates and Technical Support Associates.

India, having the greatest number of call center seats is being challenged by emerging countries nowadays. Ms. Cynthia Houlton, Senior Analyst of RBC Capital Markets told the Davao Today that among the US companies to consider the Philippines as a top destination for their offshoring services are ACN (Accenture), Genpact, ICT Group, Inc., TTEC (Teletec Holdings, Inc.), ETEL (eTelecare Global Solutions, Inc.), and PCPT (People Support, Inc.), thus making the country second highest investment of BPO services. In view of the fact that Filipinos are fluent when it comes to speaking in English, it is one of the major reasons for call centers to invest in the Philippines. This South-East Asian country had been the former colony of the United States, thus there is an influence in the culture. Another major aspect that had brought this country into the limelight of outsourcing is the innovative technology it possesses. Innately, Filipinos are hospitable and affable, and this has become their key to successful service world wide.

Part-time CSRs like Tina, consider their work as great advantage. Having midnight shifts aren’t much of a hassle since they consider that their earnings is worth their effort. Working as a CSR is fun and you get a lot of benefits, says Tina. “Dami pera tapos di pagod masyado. American company kasi kaya mataas sa usual yung salary.” The employment rate increased as great numbers of call centers arise thus generating thousands of jobs. Since American BPO companies consider Philippines as the top investment for outsourcing, our country recognizes the huge benefits, most especially in the economic phase. According to Corporate News in Philippine Business, the peso has risen six percent in 2007 against the dollar from the end of 2006, aided by the country's brighter economic outlook, investment inflows and overseas remittances (http://www.myph.com.ph/myph_business.htm). Yet, earnings at business process outsourcing firms in the Philippines are being hurt by the strong peso, and further appreciation in the currency could risk future growth, industry executives told myPh Business.

This boost in the BPO industry has brought Philippines a forward step to development. But as large number of applicants of undergraduates and lack of qualified applicant are coming into the industry, this causes a turn down in the attractiveness of BPO investors. If this continues, Philippine BPO industry would soon decline like that of India. Given this fact, the government is extending training programs that will allow students – high school and college undergraduates, as well the unemployed professionals to qualify as a call center agent since Philippines is still one of the major seats of BPO industry worldwide. “It brings in businesses, which would be very good for the economy though when you manage an account that bills a client in dollars as I do, you tend to feel torn between decreasing revenues (lower dollar to peso conversion rates) and the stronger peso,” says Flynn Villaluz, account manager of Sykes Asia.

“The industry is very underrated, a lot of people think it’s easy to get in to a call center, it’s not. You can be the smartest guy on the bus but if your English sucks, you dont have a chance,” he explained. “I'm a young account manager, just 18 months out of promotion and there are times that I still struggle with the job.” He believes that “cheap labor and better people” is the basic attributes of our country that attracts investors. Being in the industry for seven years, Flynn has met a lot of people from diverse cultures, earned a lot of contacts and with his work it has thought him to be logical and rational. With regards to the call center boom in the country, he suppose that if startup call centers do not have a good development and training program, it will eventually die out because they will not be able to retain the best people leaving them with nothing. Given the information that I have, only the small to middle size centers are at risk.

How can I help you?

When asked about plans of resigning, Tina keenly admitted that she never thought of it at all since she could balance both her college and work life. “Pero di kasi sya dapat full-time job. dapat sikapin pa rin nilang magkaron ng totoong trabaho,” she added. Indeed, this job brings satisfaction when it comes to earnings, but just like everybody agrees to, “it is only temporary, mawawala rin ito soon.”

Tina says, “mas maganda if they hold some degree. at iba kasi pag ginawa mong mundo ang call center, nakakabobo rin kasi. Dapat you still get something more or get a life out of it.”