The Philippines continues as a strong and steady contact center hub in the region with $10.1-million factory revenue recorded for the first half of 2013 (1H13), a rise of 10 percent over the same period in 2012.
According to IDC’s 1H13 Asia Pacific Collaboration and Video tracker, contact center market ranked the second largest in the unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) space, dominating 28.8 percent of total revenues in 1H13.
This is followed closely behind enterprise telephony (41.0 percent) and has spearheaded collaboration apps and videoconferencing solutions which recorded 22.7 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.
In a period when the country has undergone its mid-term elections in May 2013, the market has not undergone any slowdown in investments. Conversely, it has maximized its potential to be the hotbed for many UC&C vendors, driven mainly by several factors behind the impressive growth rates of the Philippines business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors.
These include its strong adaptability of human resources, well-educated English speaking workforce, increase availability of commercial hubs (next wave cities), coherent telecommunications infrastructure, deregulation of the telecommunications market as well as tax exemptions incentives.
As the market has gradually moved to higher-value knowledge process outsourcing services (KPO), IDC said contact center solutions will continue to gain traction in the country.
Correspondingly, it has accelerated the uptake of enterprise telephony; videoconferencing solutions and collaboration apps in a multichannel space, given that BPO/ service vertical is now the largest UC&C’s revenue contributor which recorded approximately $9.1M in 1H13, the analyst firm added.
“The Philippines economy is on a higher growth trajectory and will continue to rise in popularity as a BPO and higher-value services hub. Vendors that have ventured into the contact center space like Avaya, Aspect Software, Altitude Software and Cisco have experienced an astounding growth during 1H13,” said Tan Hwee Xian, market analyst at IDC’s Asia-Pacific communications group.
“Other UC&C products like enterprise telephony, videoconferencing solutions and collaboration apps have also inched up with a double digit growth rate half-over-half which indicates that Philippines remains a sweet spot for IT investors, effectively countering the effects of a global and regional’s economy slowdown.”
According to IDC forecast, the Philippines’ UC&C is estimated to hit $110.3M in vendor revenues by 2017. This marks a 13-percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).
Nevertheless, as cloud and “freemium” app services gradually make inroads into the market, such impact will have greater percussion towards the Philippines’ UC market during the forecast period, including contact center solutions.
For instance, PLDT, through its corporate enterprise arm PLDT Alpha Enterprise, has recently launched the country’s first cloud-based contact center service targeting BPO and banking sectors.
With widespread availability of UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions in the marketplace, IDC is expecting more OpEx-friendly UCaaS offerings to appear in the Philippines market throughout various industries.
