BPO company sets P400-M expansion
Friday, March 14, 2008

A BUSINESS PROCESS outsourcing firm is going to invest over P400 million in the Philippines to expand its seat capacity to 5,000.

In an interview, executives of Transcom-Asia, which provides customer relationship management and credit relationship services, said the company would shell out P300-P400 million for the real estate component of its four-year expansion plan.

"The amount does not include technology, human resources and other costs of doing business," Transcom-Asia Executive Vice-President Duncan Cowie told BusinessWorld.

Transcom-Asia recently opened its P160-million Transcom Center in Fontera Verde, Pasig. The facility sits on a 5,000-square-meter lot and has a total floor area of 20,000 square meters.

The five-floor building serving over 500 multinational clients has 1,200 seats . It has a provision for two more floors. Transcom-Asia is looking to increase its capacity to 5,000 by yearend.

"We haven’t decided if we are going to locate all of that capacity (additional 3,800 seats) here or open additional facilities in the provinces. We are looking at a number of potential sites all the way to central and northern Luzon," Mr. Cowie said.

Setting up a call center costs $6,000 per seat, of which the technology side accounts for $4,000-$5,000, said Contact Center Association of the Philippines Executive Director Jojo J. Uligan.

Mr. Cowie said Transcom-Asia — which came from the merger of Canada-based NuComm International and Transcom Worldwide S.A.’s local unit last August — took into account the potential of the Philippines to become a BPO hub in deciding to expand its offshore business to Asia.

Clients get the same quality of service as in North America for only a fifth of the cost, and so Transcom-Asia decided to make the country its Asian financial and business hub, Transcom-Asia Regional General Manager Real Bergevin said.

Transcom officials said that if the firm opts to expand outside of the Transcom Center, four new call center sites would likely be opened outside Metro Manila to get more workers, hedge on costs, and manage risks.

Prior to the merger with NuComm, Transcom operated two call centers in the country, one in Ortigas, Pasig, and another at the Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan.