Vol. XXI, No. 186 [ Business World Online ]
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
A BUSINESS PROCESS outsourcing (BPO) unit of telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) will add up to 250 seats this year as it expects more demand for health care-related services such as medical transcription.
ePLDT, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Ray C. Espinosa said its wholly owned subsidiary SPi Technologies, Inc. would expand its business by up to 50%.
"Right now, we have 500 seats here and over 1,500 worldwide, including the US and India. Depending on the volume of business, we would add another 50%," Mr. Espinosa said.
Mediaquest Holdings, a subsidiary of PLDT’s beneficial trust fund, has a minority stake in BusinessWorld.
"Prospects look bright because there is an increasing demand for health care-related services like medical transcription," Mr. Espinosa said.
He noted that even if the peso rose by almost a fifth against the dollar last year, revenues of the local medical transcription industry went up by $100 million. This year, it is expected to grow by 15% to 20%.
In a telephone interview, Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, Inc. Executive Director Raymond Eruma said their business requires an investment of P30,000 to P35,000 per seat, excluding personnel training.
The medical transcription business also requires software, aside from the computer hardware, to run the business efficiently, he pointed out.
In a related development, Eastwood City Cyberpark posted a 21% increase in export revenues last year to $228 million, with BPO firms from Megaworld Corp.’s mixed-use development providing jobs to more than 12,000 workers.
These employees received a total of P4.4 billion in wages, which also boosted the growth of allied industries such as restaurants and other retail shops in the area, Megaworld Corp. First Vice-President for business development Jericho Go said yesterday.
In 1996, the listed firm shifted its focus to office buildings to support BPOs by starting the development of the Eastwood City community in Libis, Quezon City. In 1999, the cyberpark became the country’s first IT park with a special economic zone status.
Aside from offices, the East-wood City Cyberpark has restaurants and a cinema complex. There are 36 BPO-related companies at the cyberpark, including IBM, Citibank, Siemens, Dell and eTelecare.
As Megaworld develops more offices in the area, the city expects BPO revenues to reach $1 billion by 2010. — with R.A.M. Rubio
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