SME-type call centers seen flourishing by Yankee Group

(Business World (Philippines) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)

Business process outsourcing industry will continue to wax in the next two years as lower entry costs allow small-and-medium-sized (SMEs) businesses to put up call centers, worldwide consulting firm Yankee Group said.

SMEs comprise over 90% of the number of Philippine businesses.

Sheryl Kingstone, managing director of Yankee Group, said that use of emerging technologies like software as a service (SaaS) and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) will let SMEs engage in customer relations management with just computers, headsets, and reliable internet connection.

SaaS is a software delivery model or a fully hosted system that enables companies to build contact centers without huge upfront investment.

VoIP, meanwhile, is a technology that allows internet subscribers to make low-cost calls to anywhere in the world through a computer.

International call center solutions provider Five9, Inc. estimates that opening of the contact center business to SMEs will effectively churn 90,000 call centers jobs in the next two years.

Junie Pama, Five9 country manager, said the company is tapping schools with idle computer laboratories to function as call centers at night or during idle days. He said Five9 is in talks with Mindanao State University, St. Paul College and STI.