Although competitors, the new board has come together to share best practices and ensure the continued success of the industry
By Cora Llamas
Watch out for the new CCAP, it is going to get bigger and better.” The promise comes from a grinning Jojo Uligan, the Executive Director of CCAP, which since its founding in 2001 has grown to 39 members and counting, many of whom are major players in the contact center industry. As he says, one would be hard-pressed to find a prominent contact center company that is not a member of CCAP. The figures also augur that, despite the recent US economic slowdown coming from the subprime crisis, a brighter horizon lies in wait for this particular sector of Philippine business.
CCAP started in 2000 at a time when the industry was just taking root in the country. Uligan and the seven original founding members immediately recognized its immense potential. Uligan remembers, “It was going to grow. That much we saw. The members and I saw the need to have an association in order to promote the Philippines and make it the country of choice for call centers.”
The goal has certainly been accomplished. As far as voice operations services are considered, the Philippines is the country to beat. When it comes to the other non-voice sub-sectors, our nation comes second only to India which holds the number one position.
CCAP has done more than its fair share of promoting and marketing the Philippines to the global market. Some of the more illustrious international trade gatherings it has attended include ICCM 2002, ICCM 2003, Outsource World New York, Outsource WORLD London, and IT Trade Missions in the USA, the European Union (EU), and Australia.
The new Board that has been sworn in this year will certainly build on these gains. It is composed of the following contact center industry leaders: Raffy David, Marketing Director of Pilipinas Teleserv Inc. who heads the Membership and Events Committees; Bong Borja, President of PeopleSupport, who manages the External Affairs Committee; Marife Zamora, President of Convergys, who is in charge of the Research Committee; Benedict Hernandez, Senior Vice-President of eTelecare, who chairs the Education Committee; Beaver Lopez, Pacific Hub Chairman and CEO, who handles the Human Resources Committee; Vic Endaya, President and CEO of Advanced Contact Solutions, Inc., who handles the Special Concerns Committee along with Sitel President Dan Reyes; and John Langford, ICT External Vice-President of Philippine Operations, who is in charge of the Finance Committee.
Although it must be noted that the companies this new Board represents are in fact competitors, Uligan enthuses that cooperation is very much possible because of the huge market; currently, the Philippines has only captured 10% of revenues that can be obtained from the US. Uligan foresees a 35% growth by the end of the year that will translate into 20,000-30,000 additional seats and projected revenues of $4.2 billion by 2008.
“It has come to the point that we in the industry can share our best practices,” Uligan says. “One reason that the Philippine contact center industry is so successful that is that even if we are competitors, we can work together. We don’t have to kill each other.”
What this new Board has on the immediate pipeline is to strengthen its ties with its members even more through surveys that will help determine the concerns of each company as well as those of the over-all industry.
Uligan says, “I am excited because our Board members have a lot of plans. We just finished our meeting and pin-pointed the necessary initiatives.”
Manpower remains definitely one priority. CCAP members have begun to branch out and are setting up sites in provincial cities like Cebu, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, and Batangas to tap into the greater talent pool outside Metro Manila. They are also partnering with educational institutions like the De La Salle University to forge a curriculum that is more aligned with skills and competencies that the industries need; hopefully, students who studied under this curriculum will be more qualified to apply and be accepted in contact center companies.
CCAP has always taken a pro-active approach in the technical equipping and training of its members. Its conferences and expos gather all the members in an event that is a one-stop venue for learning, networking, and business opportunities. About 6,000 delegates attend these yearly events. The Call Center 101 seminars provide critical information on operations management for call center site directors and operations heads.
Uligan points out that CCAP members can avail of the resources and opportunities in this event for a heavily discounted fee. “In this way, they can get access to information, network with the different players, and even get discounts from suppliers.”
All contact centers that have a minimum of 50 seats can join CCAP. The membership has also been extended to invite the so-called captives or in-house call centers of companies.
At the same time, CCAP is looking at an even broader horizon. Uligan shares, “We want to replicate our success in the US in Europe, Australia, and Asia-Pacific. We can support language services to countries that need Japanese-speaking or Spanish-speaking agents.”
He also believes that American clients will outsource more in order to save, an action prompted by what others are beginning to call a new US recession. “They will come to us,” Uligan opines. “This slowdown is another opportunity to get more business. Besides, voice operations will not scale down. And up to now, no country in the Asia-Pacific region can compare to our workers’ fluency in English and our knowledge of American culture.”
Uligan will be sharing his and the new Board’s plans to the members in their quarterly meetings which he hopes will become more frequent. As he looks back at the 10 years, he acknowledges, “We want to give more to our members, beyond what they need. CCAP is primarily about taking care of our members because the association would not even be possible without them.”
