Businesses in other continents have viewed the Philippine BPO industry with a high-regard due to its workforce’s linguistic prowess and English proficiency. Those attributes make the country very competitive when it comes to being ranked among the most preferred outsourcing destination for many businesses.
However, the Philippines’ global BPO rank must address the so-called “fourth-industrial revolution” out of the emerging platforms of automation and artificial intelligence. According to the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (ITBPAP), over six million jobs are at risks within the next decade if the country’s BPO workforce cannot upskill themselves to meet the technical job requirements in the modern BPO.
“The world is evolving. Technology is evolving. The digital organizations as well as artificial intelligence, robotics, automation and the cloud is affecting the way we do things,” said IT-BPAP executive director Penny Bongato as quoted by the Business Mirror. “Most of the things now are in the cloud. If you are an employer and you don’t allow your employees to be socially connected, you will have a problem with engagement.”
The most at risk are the lower and entry level jobs in the BPO as forecasts predict that the demand for these jobs will slow down in the years ahead. For the middle and higher jobs in the BPO, they are seen to only increase when it comes to job vacancies. These are: contact-center skills, IT, health informatics, game development, animation and shared services.
The World Economic Forum defines the fourth industrial revolution as a major shift in doing business where automation and artificial intelligence will reshape the business climate.
Innovation and the country’s “automation readiness” have worked against the local BPO industry’s favor as the Philippines slipped 10 rankings in the recent 2016 to 2017 Global Competitiveness Report. The country found itself ranked 57 out of the 138 countries listed.
Other factors that contributed against the Philippines’ ranking where market efficiency, business sophistication, infrastructure, labor-market efficiency, market size, institutions, technological innovation and technological readiness.
IT-BPAP’s Bongato issued the results as a challenge and eye-opener for the businesses in the Philippines.
“So the question is, are we prepared? If we’re not prepared, what do we do to make ourselves prepared? This is a challenge imposed to both industry, academe and government,” Bongato said. “How do we get our acts together to prepare for this curriculum which we do not understand now. How do we bring it to the Philippines? If we don’t have the expertise here, how do we bring it here?”
The country’s BPO and IT-BPM industry offers diversity when it comes to the technical qualifications needed for large IT projects. Ezy Outsourcing Hub can recruit and assemble a technical team to support your business operations and IT projects. Call +63 917 5680402 and +63 917 5166897 or email us contact@ezyoutsourcinghub.com.
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