Forecast of more growth

Friday, April 3, 2009

THE demand for business process outsourcing services continues to fuel the expansion plans of Convergys Corp., which opened a new integrated contact facility in Cebu City last Wednesday.

“We are on track with our expansion plans. There is no slowdown in Convergys. For us, the demand is still there and proof of that is in our expansion. We are confident that we will be able to take care of that expansion. Business is good for us,” said Convergys Philippines sourcing manager for Visayas and Mindanao Jose Manuel Castillo.

Castillo said the company would not have pushed through with the expansion if it had not seen opportunities even in the middle of a global economic crisis.

Located at the Asiatown IT Park, the new, state-of-the-art Convergys’ Cebu i3 contact center occupies 50,000 square feet of space. It features a built-in recruitment center. The new contact center would need an additional 1,000 people.

Convergys simultaneously opened its UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub facility in Metro Manila and the Nuvali TechnoHub in Santa Rosa, Laguna with the i3 contact center.

Since it started operations in the Philippines in 2003, Convergys has built 12 contact centers in the country—three of which are located in Cebu. These facilities already include the Asiatown IT Park i3 contact center, UP Science Park, Nuvali, San Lazaro and Glorietta.

New clients

The entry of new clients and the opening of new sites justify the company’s forecast increase in demand for its services, said Castillo.

In a statement, Convergys chief information officer Jim Goetz said the company continues to see a strong demand from clients to have its customer management services housed in the Philippines.

“To meet this demand, we continue to work with the local government to ensure that the Philippines remains a rich source of talent and growth. The biggest advantage (of doing business in the Philippines) continues to be the availability (of) high quality potential employees (who) are well-educated, English-proficient and have a strong understanding of the US culture,” he said.

Castillo pointed out that Cebu has a huge talent pool that is continually refreshed by new graduates and those that are being assisted by training centers. This pool, he said, helps a lot in expansion plans.

Convergys has about 3,300 employees for its three facilities in Cebu.

Convergys agents handle approximately 1.7 million inbound calls every day for clients in a various businesses that include financial services, telecommunications, information technology, pharmaceuticals, retail and e-commerce. They provide direct response through telephone, web-chat and e-mail.

Goetz said that Convergys currently serves 31 of the Fortune 50 companies. (NRC)