Australian software firm opens Philippine office

MANILA, Philippines - An Australian company selling software on a usage basis—as opposed to a license basis—recently opened a local office, encouraged by the growth in the Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Call Design Pty. Ltd. (Philippines) is offering the local contact center industry solutions based on the business model of software-as-a-service (SaaS) where the software can be bought when it is needed and not as a license. Call Design offers a range of contact center solutions, including workforce management, call recording, speech recognition and unified communications solutions. In a press briefing in Makati City on Thursday, Call Design Philippines country manager Jaime Richard Sese emphasized the company’s business potential because of the presence of many call centers in the country. Call or contact centers make up the bulk of the local BPO industry which is expecting to grow to a $12-billion industry by 2010. To remain competitive, local industry groups are committed to deliver quality services, knowing that banking on cheap labor as a niche may be unsustainable in the long run. Sese said Call Design's solutions will help the local call center industry deliver its promise. He added that getting the right technology solutions will do well for the local call center industry as these will allow them to cut cost while trying to address another cost-related issue—the hiring and retaining of quality staff that will delivery the quality service to the clients. “Manila offers a high caliber workforce with an emphasis on quality customer service, setting it apart as a regional center," said Sese in a statement. “With staff recruitment and retention being the number one challenge facing local call centers today and the constant pressure to reduce cost, businesses need to start thinking how to better optimize their contact centers," Sese added. One way to cut down cost while remaining efficient is to use the SaaS model. And with broadband services more available recently, it has made the SaaS more acceptable in the local setting. Unlike paying for software license whether it is outrightly needed or not, which was the traditional business model, in SaaS, the company pays for the software only when it needs to use the software. Sese added that local contact centers can remain competitive if they have the right technologies to support their call center agents. - GMANews.TV