Virtual Contact Center Supports Going Green

The virtual contact center has become important for its ability to provide organizations with significant benefits in not only cost savings but also, as more and more businesses become aware of their environmental impact and responsibilities, the virtual contact is also helping organizations go green. The e-business now prioritize going Green. This will mean decrease in the consumption of power in the data center by switching off the air conditioners at night. The call center industry has no exception. The will start to implement a Green hosted call center environment. A virtual call center allows the organization to participate in the reduction of power consumption. Call center will allow its agents to work in any place where they have access to phone and Web connection. This will result to significant reduction of physical space and vivid change on the expenses of rent and utility.

For instance, a traditional call center allocates 120 square feet of office space per agent. Commercial space rent is from $17 to $28 per square foot per year. If the cost is $21 per square foot rental, the cost per year per agent equates to $2,500, or $250,000 per 100-seat call center. Assuming the utility costs is around $30,000 per year and the possible savings in a hosted environment are extensive. Also, the virtual contact center can allow organizations to extend their service hours and offer improved customer service levels as callers are better able to reach agents and are connected directly to agents who can assist them with their needs quickly and efficiently.

Aside from these abilities, the virtual contact center becomes important to organizations looking to go green as the agents they employ are home, not commuting and releasing more carbon emissions or using electricity, fuel or other costly elements of a brick and mortar establishment. By reducing the organizations carbon footprint, the virtual contact center has huge benefits on the environment including a significantly reduced carbon footprint and removing pollution from the air. The Green concept has been over hyped in a number of industries, and call center industry is now starting to enjoy measurable benefits that go beyond by merely giving satisfaction to the environment. By implementing a hosted platform that eliminates the need for a physical building, the organization will then save funds, will trim down power consumption and will force an improved overall experience for everyone concerned.

Generating and Improving BPO Jobs

Knowing that a huge population of the graduating students are in the field of IT, it seems that there will be another group of overqualified graduates who will be engaged in call center. So at present, the BPO industry is a sure alternative for employment opportunity for the newly grads. Since we have a low-cost labor here, most BPO firms have decided to hire a cheaper workforce than losing a business. It's depressing that we're losing jobs, not just here in our country and we know it also happens worldwide. But due to the strength of the BPO industry, it is not a lost for our employees and graduates.K

Most of the new employment opportunities in BPO industry worldwide were created in the Philippines during the last month. This has, in effect, made the Philippines the fasted emerging BPO service hub globally. Industry expert says that altogether there 25,700 new job opportunities were created in the business process outsourcing sector in the Philippines. Among these new jobs, as many as 72 per cent were based in the Philippines, he added. It may be noted that the BPO industry in the Philippines had created as many as 70,000 new employment opportunities during 2009, with the contact center sector having the maximum number of employees – 280,000 agents. Despite, the worldwide economic slump, the BPO industry in this far eastern nation was successful in spawning revenues to the tune of $7.2 billion during the last fiscal denoting an increase of 19 per cent in comparison to the $6.06 billion generated in revenues.

The rate of call center agents that are being hired isn't enough in the large demand of agents in different call centers. Furthermore, there is an estimated 20,000 new jobs per month and on 2010 it will contribute $13 Billion to the economy. However, there are few qualified job applicants. There is only 4% of applicants are hired of call centers. 40,000 fresh college graduates have sub-standard English skills, because of this; Agents' competence must be enhanced to meet the higher demand for new employees of call centers.

There are three strategies for this shortfall: First, industry lead standards are being developed and shared. TESDA and CHED have signed the memorandum of agreement for a good curriculum about call center in all pilot schools. Second, government is supporting training for new-hires. P350 million worth of scholarship grants have been given by TESDA for the training of would be-agents. Lastly, partnerships between academe and companies are being formed. This strategy must helped schools to modernize the curriculum based on the needs of call center development. Also, on-the-job training is relevant in this strategy. Indeed, the three strategies must be done successfully and effectively to sustain the needs of call center on having enough employees.

Virtual Assistance as a Leading Home-based Business

Virtual Assistance is now leading as the most in demand hottest home-based businesses, as published in some articles in BCentral. Com, MSN.com. Virtual Assistance is a new administrative profession. Professionals are called Virtual Assistants or VAs. VAs are small are small-scale business owners who provide administrative and personal support while working in long-term collaborative relationships with only a handful of terrific clients. Using phone, fax and email, VAs support their clients without having to ever step foot inside the clients' offices. It's a fabulous way of working, and opens new doors for administrative professionals.

Virtual assistance becomes the hottest home-based business since it is easy to start and the start-up costs are low, and Virtual Assistants (VAs) provide a much needed and valued services that are easy to know. But before one could start this kind of business, there are two things need to be considered: first, assess yourself if you really have the abilities and qualifications of a VA; and second, examine yourself first before you take another step forward if you can handle the tasks of Virtual Assistants. All could have their own business, but not all are meant for it. And to understand more about this new trend in business.

Working with a virtual assistant is fun and convenient. Philippines call center has unique virtual assistant which can help you in your daily work. It doesn’t just reduce your work load, but also lessen your worries thinking of tasks being done. VH virtual assistants are skilled and capable of doing tasks on time. You wouldn’t be bothered by your deadlines and the quality of work because you are assured that our virtual assistants are there to provide you excellence. No matter where you are, if you’re out of the country or having a vacation trip, our virtual assistant will be there to work for you. With the use of your phone or the Internet, you can instruct your virtual assistant what you want them to do. You can readdress complicated and arduous errands to your virtual assistant to save time and do other tasks to meet deadlines. This would also allow you to spend valuable time with your family and friends. Virtual assistants are flexible and organized. They have complete control of their work and manages time effectively so that they can do several projects instantly. Their initiative and brilliant ideas allow them to do multi-tasking and provide high quality work for their clients.

Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs in Developing Countries

Offshoring and outsourcing in services from call centres to accountancy and medicine have created good jobs in terms of pay and working hours in developing countries. But the International Labour Organization (ILO) study found that improved work practices in the outsourcing industry could reduce excessive rates of staff turnover. The study gives the lie to claims that outsourcing of such work has created "cyber-coolies" or "electronic sweatshops", said Jon Messenger, an ILO researcher and main editor of the study. He said that the jobs being created in offshore business services in developing countries are reasonably good quality jobs by local standards in terms of wages and working conditions.

Wages are below those for similar jobs in rich countries is one of the main motives for companies to outsource operations but average pay in the sector in India is nearly double that in other areas of the formal economy. In the Philippines they were typically 53 percent higher. The study found that average weekly hours were 46-47 hours in India and 45 in the Philippines, whereas one fifth of workers in developing countries work more than 50 hours a week. But negative factors such as frequent night work to handle customers' different time zones, and demanding targets enforced by electronic monitoring resulting in a low level of worker autonomy, led to extremely high levels of staff turnover. Sometimes the turnover rate in the typically young and well-educated workforce could exceed 100 percent a year, and rates of 30-40 percent are not unusual. A few key changes in policies and practices could actually make these good jobs even better while simultaneously helping to reduce staff turnover which would benefit businesses. These could include steps to improve health and safety for night workers, such as regular check-ups, and more flexibility for workers to organise their time and to meet targets.

Governments would want the industries to develop and innovate to move up the value chain rather than simply replicating imported processes. They would also want to retain skilled workers at home rather than encouraging them to emigrate. The industry is highly influenced by language skills, with India and the Philippines serving English-speaking countries, Argentina serving Spain and Mexico building up operations to serve Spanish-speakers in the United States. Africa is relatively underdeveloped although Nigeria's computer-literate population gives it potential.

Maximizing VoIP Benefits in the Call Center

Almost half of the call centers in Asia will use voice over Internet Protocol systems by the end of next year, according to new research. A report from the Yankee Group says that despite VoIP adoption lagging behind earlier predictions, the call center market is embracing the technology. Forty-seven percent of call centers are expected to roll out VoIP by 2007, compared with just 17 percent in 2005. The key reasons for using the new technology are to manage multiple call center sites cheaply and flexibly, and to be able to place agents anywhere, including at home. The largest call centers--those with more than 500 seats--will see the greatest increase in VoIP adoption from now until the end of 2007, the analyst firm predicts. Though VoIP for the enterprise has been much hyped in recent years, Yankee Group said adoption has not met its predictions.

The new VoIP platforms offer appealing features, such as a quick connect function. This feature helps to reduce abandon rates by connecting the call with the agent prior to connecting with the customer, thus eliminating the lengthy pauses associated with dialer-generated calls that many customers associate with incoming sales calls. Another function that many VoIP switches support is automatic recording, so a company can capture 100 percent of its calls. Companies can also automate many of their internal processes, and use the customer intelligence captured to refine and enhance its customer service and sales initiatives. Contact center agents can be trained via best practice interactions, which are captured and later organized via the VoIP recording component. As a result, improvements in contact center service quality and front line supervisor productivity become more possible.

The potential benefits that unified communications offers include improved productivity and lower operating costs. Employees will be able to respond to messages instantly regardless of where they originate; businesses will be able to cut their communications cost because they will rely on fewer components. Unified communications meshes well with the growing variety of user inputting devices. While there has a great deal of progress with using VoIP in the call center, there are still a few barriers to adoption. Many companies do not have the infrastructure to support the new devices. In many cases, CRM hardware is a long-term investment, one spanning several years, so companies may have to wait months or even years before being able to re-examine their infrastructure. Yet, those shortcomings are viewed as short-term issues. Many companies are now using VoIP to enhance their CRM deployment and many more will be joining them during the new year.

CRMs Part on Call Center Success

Customer Relationship Management being the customer centered strategy of the decade and finding its roots in customer satisfaction and customer focus, has started to play a very prominent role in the call center sector. Call centers are finding that implementing this strategy brings them vast benefits. For example the high potential that call center CRM software has in collecting vital customer data and storing it. This data is entirely essential to the call center and is utilized in its day to day activities. It helps them possess a clearer view of the customer being handled and enables them to give the right answers to customer queries, problems etc. Knowing the customer, his preferences, his purchase history etc all contribute significantly to the better handling of the customer. Call center CRM software benefits the call center through its provision and storage of valuable customer data, increased automation, visible reduction in call center costs and its potential to boost customer service levels thereby increasing productivity and ensuring customer satisfaction. It enables customer databases to be kept up to date at all times.

Philippines call centers is providing integrated CRM solution sets that are cost-effective, highly customizable, and functionally rich, specifically geared to the needs of Philippine enterprises, with complete sensible CRM software. These solution sets are what the majority of Philippine businesses look for and are based on a market research done by FPI's mother company, for the Asia-Pacific region. It is predicted that we are at an innovation trough that we the industry will slowly but surely climb out of in the next few months. This is because of the emergence of some really innovative products. Furthermore, the VoIP space is seeing a tremendous amount of growth right now, and many traditional contact center vendors are IP-enabling their solutions. In doing so, they are creating many new features and increased functionality levels.

Key competency on Philippines call centers relies on its capability in providing end-to-end service, combining its CRM business knowledge, its unequalled technical expertise, and a range of flexible and readily installable products. Its various CRM software products extend the functionality where it is required. The resulting program is a thin-client and as such, can be used anywhere Internet access resides. Users can use BEA Weblogic Portal or a Java interface, among others. This can really help with vitalizing call centers and allowing them to be more easily offshored or 'at-homed,' to coin a new phrase. Offshoring is a touchy subject, but the reality is that most contact centers are looking at the potential of offshore locations to reduce costs, and Jacada helps make this possible. The company is currently targeting centers that are 100 seats or more in size and the system payback can be a matter of months, depending on a company's situation. Contact centers have been around for ages, but there are still many areas for us to improve.

Effects of Outsourcing on the IT Industry

With technology becoming the man focus in almost every aspect of life, including industries like banking, manufacturing etc, Information Technology or IT industry makes for one of the most sought after industries in the world. Like most of other industries though, even IT industry was hit by the economic slump or recession in the late 2000s. Today, even though the world is still recovering from the recession’s after-effects, IT industry is on a go again! However, the trend now is a bit different.

With everyone chanting the ‘outsourcing’ rhyme, IT industry too could not stay away from its charm. In fact, it was precisely due to the outsourcing trend that IT industry could recover that fast from the slow-down. In the present scenario, US has more than 500,000 IT-related jobs lying vacant because there are not enough qualified personnel to take up these jobs. How then can an industry grow if it lacks properly trained people? Outsourcing came as a natural answer! Several third world nations such as India and China bring out thousands of well trained engineers and IT personnel every year. With the abundance of skilled man-power available in these countries, it was obvious for the IT companies from more developed nations to shift their base. Not only is finding a skilled personnel easier here, but it is also costs less than their home country.

With technology changing every day, establishing proper R&D infrastructure, hiring trained staff and yet saving on the costs made outsourcing a better option. With BPOs ready to take on the task of hiring and managing workforce, IT companies could increase their performance manifold. Besides, customer satisfaction also enhanced through outsourcing. Getting latest technology too became a cost-saver, what with outsourcing of several processes requiring latest technology. Hence, companies would save on refurbishing their older technology every time a new version came.

Nevertheless, fears are ripe within the developed nations that the kind of outsourcing happening in the IT sector might ultimately affect the youth in their home nations itself. Since outsourcing curbs the number of jobs created, fears of unemployment become heightened. According to a report, more than 3 million IT jobs will be outsourced from United States to other nations by 2015. However, IT companies are of the view that cost saving, access to better technology and enhancement of company’s performance make for a better economy than lesser jobs.

It may hence be rightly concluded that amongst most other industries, it is the IT industry that has been most widely affected by outsourcing. While the developing nations are enjoying from the vast benefits of inflow of foreign currency, fears of unemployment are eating discussions within the outsourcing nations.

PAL Hires PLDT for their Call Center Operations: A Win-Win Situation!

The whole idea of outsourcing jobs has created much stir in the business environment. However, it works on the basic principle that one man’s loss is another’s gain! Whether it be the loss of jobs in America, which created great opportunities in outsourcing destinations or whether the recent Philippines Airlines(PAL) decision to hire Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) for their call center operations, along with other catering and many other airport services!

This massive contract will save PAL P1.5 Billion a year and bail them out of a tough financial situation, but at the same time will affect 300 PAL employees who will lose their jobs as a result of this deal. However, about 600 new positions will spring up at PLDT where these ex-PAL employees will be given the first preference! This, unlike other outsourcing options will work out to be very convenient where new jobs will be created and kept within the country.

The Philippines should promote more such deals which are a win-win situation for both the parties involved. The government will also welcome such deals and is sure to grant some benefits to similar deals in the future. PAL could have also shipped their jobs to a foreign location but made a wise decision by awarding the project to PDLT. Philippines has a great workforce and is one of the big players in the call center industry. Cheap labor, the main reason for which jobs are outsourced is available here in abundance!

The labor union of PAL, known as PAL Employees’ Association (PALEA), has taken stiff opposition to this contract. The job cuts are not something they are happy about and they have filed a notice to go on strike. They definitely need to see this in a broader perspective and understand the wonderful implications that deals such as these will have on the economy of Philippines.

Australian BPO Company in the Philippines and its Effect on the Call Center Industry

Seeing the entire furor that the Philippines call center industry is creating in the world, Australian firm, Salmat, could not stay away from it all. Salmat, the Australian business process outsourcing firm, recently announced that it will be opening up its operations in the Philippines. It is expected to open up an establishment in McKinley Hill in Taguig City, paving way for an 800 seat facility. This is touted as one of the first investments of the company outside Australia. The new establishment is expected to cater to accounts from Australia and New Zealand, while they switch between voice and non-voice services. The company is further expected to expand into areas like web content management, call centers, IT enabled services, data entry and computer programming. All this is bound to have a positive effect on the Philippines BPO industry.

Over the past few years, the Philippines has seen a major growth in terms of attracting investors and clients willing to the country’s call center industry’s abilities. When it comes to knowledge-based positions and workers, the Philippines is being touted as number one throughout the world. Being just one place behind India in terms of employer preference, the Philippines is fast growing and expanding its services to provide more expert-knowledge and services to the clients. With the Australian firm coming to the Philippines call center industry, the Philippines is sure to become even more widely recognized throughout the world for catering high-end business processing outsourcing. Already, the projected earnings of the call center industry is expected to contribute to 6% of the total GDP of Philippines. The next ten years have further projected the total revenues to increase up to US$100 billion from the call center industry alone. With so much to offer, the number of jobs and total household income too will increase exceptionally, thereby changing the entire outlook of the nation.

US Bill Proposed to Charge BPO with Taxes

Outsourcing of jobs has been a topic of much debate in developed economies such as the USA. This form of business has been subject of much criticism. The main reason for this has been the loss of US jobs, which are shipped to cheaper destinations. Senator Charles Schumer recently proposed to introduce a bill which will tax calls which are transferred outside the United States. This will be done by making the companies disclose their calls going outside the country.

The Senator feels that by doing so, they will be able to reduce the number of jobs being outsourced to other destinations. "This bill will not only serve to maintain call center jobs currently in the United States, but also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back," he said. However, the bill might just backfire with leading organizations choosing to move to other countries and keeping their American operations to a bare minimum!

Big Companies today are no more confined to a single location. They are truly global entities. The bill will surely not affect work being outsourced by these mammoth organizations. The bill will only affect their US operations but not any of their other markets. This will, however, affect smaller, all American organizations that outsource their work to foreign locations.

Organizations in the Philippines have gained solid reputation for providing unmatched services to such companies. There are a lot of virtual call center units that are functioning primarily to serve their American customers. This bill will definitely affect business from smaller US companies, unless they go all out against the passing of this bill. However, business opportunities are aplenty in the call center industry and the bill should not harm outsourcing business in the Philippines in a big way. This will be an ideal opportunity for companies to look beyond the USA and concentrate on other markets.

The Philippines has come a long way and established itself as a top destination for virtual call centers. This bill does threaten to lessen incoming business from the USA but with the right approach, it can be tackled with ease!

Outsourcing – Advantage or Disadvantage?

Many companies would say outsourcing your call center to a virtual call center can bring several advantages to your business. The primary reason why most businesses opt for outsourcing is due to infrastructure management and services can expect to save so much – up to 12% to 17% annually. It can help improve and optimize operations while at the same time greatly reducing cost. It also helps your business stay competitive in the large global economy. It is a strategy that provides immediate cost savings and productivity of allowing companies and organizations to focus on their core business.

Outsourcing can contract for services that you need without long standing costs like benefits, retirement, office space, management staff, and the like. If your company chooses to outsource to an virtual call center you will find that you will be provided with a high quality solution at a fraction of the cost of hiring an entire team. Note that the costs associated with hiring and maintaining an in-house employee are always higher than the costs involved with an outside service provider. It also substantially minimizes overhead costs without sacrificing important factors such as quality and the ability of your business to operate and grow.