BPOs revisit roadmap

by Malaya, Nov 8, 2017

The information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry is revisiting its roadmap to factor in the possible impact of an accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation in the sector.

Jojo Uligan, president of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), told reporters on the sidelines of the International IT-BPM Summit at the Makati Shangri-la yesterday, said the study on the call center will be released at the end of the year while other sectors comprising the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) are also conducting their own studies.

“We are recalibrating the initiatives on the roadmap and see if we need to tweak them. Technology is the most important consideration but we did that roadmap based on assumptions, research… the current developments (on AI) are consistent with (the assumptions) but we need to see if we have to accelerate those initiatives,” Uligan said, referring to the retooling and upskilling of contact center workers whose jobs threatened to be displaced by robots can take on more complex and specialized jobs.

“We will do an inventory of the services and based on that we will know how many of the workers and how much of the services will (be affected), said Uligan, saying this would become the baseline of the industry.

CCAP is yet to consolidate data on how many of its members have shifted some of the contact center jobs as well as the number of workers affected but Uligan said individual companies have been doing robotic process automation the past three years.

As contact centers account for 70 percent of the 1.2 million total workforce of the IT-BPM industry, the magnitude of the impact of robotics is most easily felt by the sector, although studies have shown technology would have just “moderate effect” on the Philippines’ call center industry.

But for certain, about 30,000 to 40,000 jobs doing basic work are directly hit.

But Uligan said the industry would as much as possible retain workers although he did not discount the possibility of hiring new workers “because demand is still high.”

Findings of an Everest study shows 40 percent of Philippine BPO companies would rather retool existing workers.

“We will prioritize workers from within the industry…(but) we are still hiring,” he added.

Uligan cited Everest’ findings which said while 50 to 60 percent of BPO jobs would be done by robots, this will take some time.

While there would be a reduction, the market and the kind of work it demands could change and Philippine companies, known for their resiliency, can quickly adopt.

“We will not wait for things to happen,” Uligan said.

IBPAP remains optimistic that IT-BPM industry will remains in a stronghold, sustaining growth in employment rate of 1.2 million to 1.8 million by 2022.

The industry is likewise expected to expand an average of 100,000 jobs every year with a revenue growth of 9 percent.

In the span of five years, IBPAP forecasts the Philippines can cover 15 percent of the global IT-BPM industry from 12 percent global share.

Stakeholders have high level of confidence in the Philippines, with existing locators consistently growing along the years due to the abundance of talented workforce.

Metro Manila remains to be the first choice of new investing companies, but long partners are keen on expanding off the center, extending to other regional centers in Cebu and Davao and other emerging growth centers which are friendly to investors.