Tuesday, January 30, 2007 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES

News

BY ALLAN E. LALISAN

Convergys wants home-based call center agents

Ohio-based call center firm Convergys Corp. wants to expand its local employee base to include home-based agents, but must first address issues such as unreliable broadband connections and creating methods to monitor home agents.

In an interview with BusinessWorld, Convergys Corp. business development manager for the Philippines Josemari P. Mercado said current broadband connections in homes generally still did not meet industry standards.

"We have to ensure 100% connectivity. If a customer gets disconnected in the middle of call, he’ll be very dissatisfied. We’re currently studying ways to mitigate the possibility."

At the same time, the company also needs to determine methods to monitor the quality of home-based agents. "Agents working in an office can easily be watched, sometimes without them even knowing they’re being listened to. We’re still trying to come up with a system for home-based agents," Mr. Mercado said.

Other issues, such as a possible modified salary structure for home-based agents, have yet to be determined. Mr. Mercado said there was no time line yet as to when the company would begin employing home-based agents in the Philippines.

He said the company was now testing 300 home-based agents in the U.S., where the broadband infrastructure was more advanced. The company is testing two models for home-based agents: the "full employee" model gives an agent a regular periodic salary, while the "full agent" model gives a salary based on transactions completed.

Mitch Locsin, executive director of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines said the main advantage of having home-based agents is expanding the job’s accessibility.

"It’s really a question of getting good agents. Some of the best call center agents are middle-aged women that are well-educated but have kids at home that they need to take care of."

He noted that there were already home-based agents in the Philippines for outbound calling services like telemarketing. But he said agents for inbound services had different software and logistical requirements that could not yet be handled at home. "I think the Philippines is not yet ready for it. Maybe in one or two years," Mr. Locsin said.

Convergys President and Chief Operating Officer David Dougherty earlier said that a home-based scheme could save the company the capital required to build contact centers.

Convergys is one of the world’s largest call center firms, with over 60,000 employees worldwide, including over 9,500 in the Philippines. Last month, the company said it would open a new call center facility in Cebu City which will house up to 700 new employees. The facility is expected to be operational late in the first quarter of this year.

Convergys serves clients in a broad range of industries, including communications, financial services, technology, and consumer products.

Its operations in the Philippines started in 2003.

http://www.itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=013007a

Davao businessmen want techno-entrepreneurship

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES

News

BY CHRISTIE E. UAYAN, Correspondent

Davao City — Foreseeing an expansion in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector starting 2007, businessmen in this city are moving to ensure that demand for competent workers will be met.

Members of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. are discussing with colleges and universities the possible inclusion of a subject in techno-entrepreneurship.

Andre Fournier, newly elected board member of the Davao chamber, said the group has made a proposal for local schools to include a six-unit elective course on developing students' business interest in the ICT sector.

He also said that this early, two schools have indicated that they are interested in offering the subject next school year.

The Davao chamber has financed the studies of a Davaoeño scholar currently taking up a technology entrepreneurship course in Australia.

The chamber will tap him to help encourage more schools to offer the subject as well as to train individuals who are interested to engage in the sector.

"We must establish long-term foundation for techno-entrepreneurs because we want our people to stay in Davao," said Simeon Marfori II, also a board member of the Davao chamber.

The establishment of the Damosa Information Technology Park along J.P Laurel Avenue, six kilometers from Davao City proper, is seen to further boost this thrust. Developed by the Floirendo Group, the 23-hectare area will house two information technology buildings, a data building, and a commercial and utility building with unlimited power supply.

The information technology park's first phase of development, which aims to support information technology facilities and infrastructure, is estimated to cost at least P20 million.

The company said it will need P150 million more to construct the second phase of the park, which will enjoy incentives such as a four-year income tax holiday, or six years for pioneer businesses; an option to pay a special 5% tax on gross income earned, in lieu of all national and local taxes, except real property taxes; and exemption from payment of import duties and taxes on imported machinery and equipment and raw materials.

Damosa Land's presentation to local media showed the park will be equipped with a high-speed fiber-optic telecommunication backbone and high-speed international gateway facility or wide-area network.

Company official Ed Villaber said the park will "spur economic growth in the city."

Damosa's ICT park is the second in Mindanao after Cagayan de Oro City's Pueblo de Oro Park, which received its accreditation two years ago.

http://www.itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=121906c

PLDT in outsourcing alliance with Infosys

PLDT in outsourcing alliance with Infosys

THE Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and India’s Infosys Technologies Ltd. have formed an outsourcing alliance to serve Infosys’s clients.
           
Bangalore-headquartered Infosys Technologies is a leading consulting and IT services company and India’s second-biggest software services exporter, with the US as its biggest market.
           
Ventus, the contact-center company of ePLDT, and Infosys BPO Ltd., the business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, will collaborate on offering call-center solutions to Infosys’s clients.
           
Ventus president Rose Montenegro said in a statement Thursday that alliance would provide US companies the best that Asia has to offer. “This is a pioneering partnership between an Indian BPO and a Philippine call- center company,” said Montenegro.
           
Under the agreement, Ventus will host Infosys’s entire call-center activities backed by Ventus’s network operations center. This will involve inbound call-center support and global networking solutions.
           
Infosys BPO Ltd. currently provides BPO solutions for a number of industries that include customer service, finance and accounting, human resource, order management and procurement.
           
Ventus currently has 4,500 seats housed in seven sites. By the end-2006, it expects to increase the number of seats to 5,000. Another 1,000 seats would be added in 2007.
           
“I hope PLDT will end up more than just a lessor of equipment, and that this alliance will lead to both companies setting up joint-venture companies in this field,” said Edgar Bancod, head of research at ATR Kim Eng Securities in Manila. “This alliance will generate more business for PLDT.”
           
PLDT is expanding its call-center business as the growth in mobile-phone services, its main source of revenue, slows. Last month it became the world’s third-largest supplier of transcription services to health-care providers after buying Richmond, Virginia-based CyMed Inc. for $35 million.
           
Bancod said an alliance with PLDT will help Infosys Technologies meet client requirements of diversifying risks by spreading the location of the Indian company’s call centers outside its home country.
           
“This is a very strategic partnership that will enable both companies to reach additional markets and offer expanded services to customers,” said Montenegro.
           
“It’s no longer about which country is better but which country is best suited to provide the specific skill sets that US and British companies require.”
           
PLDT shares rose 3.9 percent to P2,285 at the noon close of trading in Manila. The stock has gained 25 percent this year compared with a 22-percent advance in the Philippine Stock Exchange Index.

Business Mirror
September 22, 2006
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/comp01.php