BPO industry geared for growth

The business process outsourcing (BPO) sector expects sales to grow by a quarter to $9 billion this year as the industry rides the wave of a general economic recovery, reports GMA News.

The industry's revenues of $7.2 billion last year - a 19% increase - came in at the lower end of its target of $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion due to the caution that prevailed among businesses in the first half. In 2008, sales went up by 24%.

The head of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT), says the industry should prepare for an expected pickup in business this year. "What we need to do is to maintain our supply of talent and focus on infrastructure. We expect the BPO industry to grow more as our markets emerge from the recession," said CICT chief Ray Anthony Roxas Chua III.

A panel discussion at the DesignCon 2010 conference deliberated on the pros and cons of the IC outsourcing model, reports EE Times India.

The conclusion: IC outsourcing - which involves the migration of chip design, packaging, wafer production and even operations to third parties - enables companies to cut costs and focus on what they do best.

But it also means the value chain, and jobs, may move offshore. One panellist, Bob Quinn, founder, chairman, and CTO of 3Leaf Systems says:” The trend towards outsourcing more and more functions to third parties in Asia and elsewhere is simply something you have to deal with.”

A service enabling 'over-burdened' advisers to outsource specialist areas of advice but still retain up to half of the commission or fee has been rolled out by Need an Adviser.com, says IFA Online.

Advisers United allows advisers to refer and outsource the financial advice liability by handing over the research and report functions to its chartered financial planners. Either they will present the advice to the client or the outsourcing adviser can.

"We are revolutionising financial advice," founder Ashley Clark says. "It is chartered advice for all. Advisers can continue to talk to clients but have the security of having technical advisers in the background doing the more complicated work." Clark says there is a 'huge hole' in the market because not every adviser is qualified in each area.