Knowledge Process Outsourcing in the Philippines

The advent of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) is believed to be a by-product of the flourishing BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry. As BPO continually grows globally, it subsequently created a facsimile but with a hint of sophistication. While BPO is all about customer support and data encoding, KPO requires a more scrupulous and knowledgeable approach. Knowledge Process Outsourcing is a “ higher, more complex and more mature” form of business process outsourcing which entails intellectual capability, analytical skills and expertise of the workforce. This workforce includes professionals and scholars from different fields such as legal, engineering, marketing, research, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and education who are qualified and experienced enough to take the tasks. Service providers from different countries offer a variety of services. Each of these countries tries to create proficiency in a particular section. KPO companies in the Philippines established success in the area of animation and content development while Russia intends to be an outsourcing ground for medicine and technology-related KPOs. Whereas, India remains to be the top destination for KPO because of its multi-service environment in BPO that cater to different segments.

Nevertheless, the Philippines exudes a considerable amount of potential. It has proven to be one of the top countries to dominate the incessantly growing industry when Manila, the capital, was hailed as the second top BPO destination in the Asia-Pacific region by the International Data Corporation in 2008. On the same year, it also garnered “Offshoring Destination of the Year” title by the United Kingdom’s National Outsourcing Association. Furthermore, three of its cities; Quezon City, Cebu and Davao ranked 7th, 8th and 10th, in the “Top Ten Asian Cities of the Future” in the survey conducted by the London Financial Times.

Apart from that, the Philippine government continues to support the expanding demands of the industry by providing reliable infrastructures. Although India can produce 441,000 technical-related graduates and almost 2.3 million graduates every year, the Philippines is not lagging behind in terms of labor force. The Philippines produces approximately 450,000 graduates annually and was able to generate almost 56,000 engineering and IT-related graduates, by which the government expects to grow by 20% by 2012. From the statistics gathered by the Professional Regulation Board, the country has over 2 million licensed professionals in 2006. This includes over 70,000 engineers, 16,000 architects, 100,000 accountants, 95,000 physicians and more than 40,000 medical technologists.

Having mentioned all of these potentials, it is highly possible for the Philippines to belong to the top countries that could compete with Russia, China and India in providing professionals in various fields and services. It is a challenge for the Philippine government to provide qualified manpower, dependable infrastructures and other requirements posed by overseas clients. Its success in expanding its scope in the KPO industry depends on how they can cope with the changing demands of the market.