Outsourcing Philippines: Solutions for SMEs

As smaller companies tend to have minimal in-house teams, there is often far too little emphasis on global thinking in the minds of their executives. Why expand offshore when there are more cubicles to fill? The truth is that a company does not need to be huge to benefit from outsourcing to the Philippines. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is an important industry that the island nation takes very seriously. There are many proud and dedicated employees in the Philippines waiting to take valuable functions like customer service and accounting into their expert hands. For many reasons, you should give serious thought to taking advantage of it.

“To a smaller business, cost of labour is probably the biggest expense. You may not be able to afford to pay employees competitively based on Australian standards, but in the Philippines, the cost of labour is easily halved. At home, your budget may make it hard for you to compete for the best professionals, but here, it gets you talent,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning outsourcing provider in the Philippines.

“Hiring overseas diminishes property and technology costs as well. You no longer need to expand your office to accommodate new team members. Additional expenditures for equipment are also reduced. Overall, it can help you cut costs by up to 60%,” he adds.

Another advantage is that the technology expertise of Philippine outsourcing providers allows you to automate certain routine tasks and save labour for more specialised services. This automation, of course, also reduces cost. These providers are well-versed in the technology to get the job done. For example, you can ask a call centre in the Philippines to set up a chatbot to instantly help customers with simple requests and allow your team to focus purely on handling the most important aspects of customer relations.

“Human-to-technology communication, at least in the initial stages of making a sale or request, is now the norm, and these technologies are only getting better. AI is advancing, growing even more sensitive to the needs of a customer and sending calls and messages to the right contact. Chatbots are no longer synonymous with disappointment for buyers,” says Ellspermann.

Additionally, as a smaller company, you are likely to recognise your competency in your industry, product, or specialisation, but you may have less experience in the big-picture operations, like customer support. You may know how you want to serve your ideal customers but find yourself lost on the right tools.

“Outsourcing to the Philippines saves you the time and money in developing this expertise from scratch and instead allows you to delegate these tasks to the people who are already experts. This frees up your in-house team to focus on the core tasks, like new product development and sales, which is extremely important to get a smaller company the boosts it needs,” Ellspermann explains.

With your biggest challenges out of sight and out of mind, you can rest assured that they’re in the right hands. There are hundreds of call centres in the Philippines with a great history of achievement for their clients. The population of the Philippines is young and well-versed in technology. Outsourcing is built into the education of their local institutions. Instead of guessing and checking business processes for yourself, you can trust that the job will be completed successfully the very first time.

Working with experts provides a valuable learning opportunity for a smaller company. These well-managed outsourcing vendors in the Philippines are a great example of how to effectively handle both teams and logistics. Just through a working relationship with a vendor, you may find yourself more capable of operating your company in-house.

“This relationship can start small. If you’re not comfortable with a full-fledged partnership, you can always begin by outsourcing a few simple and low-priority tasks. Then, when you decide to take full use of the services of your selected outsourcing provider, you already have an effective relationship that will help you make the most of the partnership,” says Ellspermann.

For all these reasons and more, there is no cause to fear outsourcing as a small company. As you look into BPO, make sure to consider the Philippines! Since outsourcing is such a major contribution to the country’s economy (employing 1.2 million people), much of the population receives education in the services you need. This, combined with a hard-working culture that reveres employment and is closely connected to Western ideas and language, ensures that the outsourcing providers in the Philippines can support you efficiently—and will be proud to do it.