Small Business and Home Office Blog Philippines May Archive blog.topic  

Offshore Communications Industry

By Office Bull at 05/24/08 00:15

I was having a discussion with a friend on how far can the offshore communications industry reach (outsourcing and call centers), in regards with the economic importance and its role as an employment maker in the developing countries of Asia.

We all know the reason why these American or European companies invest a lot when it comes to building their bases in 3rd world countries such as India and the Philippines. The definite answer would be the low cost of production. If they were to establish their businesses in the US or in any European key cities, it will cost them big bucks. On the other hand, putting call centers and BPOs on countries like India and Philippines where almost 90% of the population speaks English is a more convenient way for them to cut cost. But how do these firms really choose where to invest between the two countries?

India came first in hosting call centers even before the Philippines does. However, there are failures during its first terms mainly because most Indian English speakers used British English, of which is not primarily understood by many American customers. For this reason, some moved to the Philippines where American English is mostly used. It is also notable that infrastructures and equipments in the Philippines is relatively a lot better than those in India. In the last few years, Philippines and India enjoyed the benefits of this foreign investments - giving jobs to millions of people, giving big taxes to the government, and helping the country to be more globally competitive.

India has maintained its number of establishments regarding the said industry for many years while Philippines has seen great increased and improvement. India is known for being the largest country in Asia who speaks English, Philippines on the contrary is the largest speaking in Asia when it comes to people per square area criterion thus gaining the title 3rd Largest English Speaking Country in the World, next to USA and Britain.

Its like there are 9 Filipinos who speak English in one room as compared to India's 7. But there are more rooms where Indians are, obviously because of their country's massive land size. It is also noted that the quality of English speakers in the Philippines is way better than those living in India. However, it is also known that India's salary cost is cheaper than those in the Philippines. Investors are torn in those two things, invest in India where cost of production is cheaper? Or invest in the Philippines where the quality or work is way better and cost of production is cheap but not cheaper than India?

Eitherway, I feel both countries will do great in few more years to come. But I believe that kind of industry will not stay permanently. So I think both countries must start looking for alternative investments now.

The Best Of Both Worlds

I have met a lot of people who are making use of their times very efficiently. And I really commend them for their efforts. However, I met someone just recently who totally blew me away.

She's young, beautiful, intelligent, enthusiastic, kind, and most of all, hard working. And I'm saying it with a great conviction! Her name is Elissa, a French born Filipino-Irish freelance IT consultant, photographer, entrepreneur, fiction writer, dancer, actress and a part time print model . Interesting, eh? She has the best of both worlds.

She works directly from her home office. She has set up a couple of computers in her house and she also has a mini library for some written scripture researches. Her house is just so full of books and magazine and a couple of interesting items. Aside from the mentioned professions above, she is also an antique items collector.

In her home office desk, you can see old badges by different generals and high ranking officials of the US and Vietnamese military that she has collected when she visited Vietnam. She said those are recovered after the war. She also has the passion for old pens. She has tons of old and new pens in different brands. She even has a collection of the replicas of the official Fisher Space Pens that was used in the Apollo 11 expedition.

She always bring and never will she forget her electronic organizer. With this, she can fix her schedule right away. She just encodes her schedule every morning and it will then remind her if its time for a certain task. It can also store informations of what you've done and what you will be doing.

Elissa and I are starting to become good friends, as I was interested in what she does everyday just like how interested she was with what I do everyday. We both share the passion for some things like photography, writing, theaters, business and traveling. One day I would invite her to write here and share her thoughts regarding her business and the things she does for a living and to discuss how does it feel working inside a home office. For now, we want to hear something from you people.

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