CEBU CITY – After having been cited as this year’s number one emerging destination for business process outsourcing worldwide by industry publication Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons, Cebu is taking a step higher by trying to attract a huge chunk of the knowledge process outsourcing industry (KPO).

Bong Borja, former Chairman of the Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) expressed optimism that Cebu could leverage on attracting the emerging KPO industry, described as a higher level outsourcing service, given that industry stakeholders, including the Cebu City government, are working on encouraging college graduates to take up graduate studies.

“The KPO is an emerging segment in the outsourcing sector that the Philippines, especially Cebu can capitalize on because Cebu and Metro Manila have the necessary infrastructure – manpower pool, IT parks, good telecommunications services, among others – making them a KPO destination. Cebu is even positioned more advantageously because it is both a business and leisure destination,” Borja pointed out in an interview recently.

According to Borja, who is also Chief Executive Officer of call center giant Aegis People Support, the KPO industry is currently dominated by India but “give it a few more years (and) the Philippines will penetrate this market.”
KPO is a form of outsourcing in which knowledge-related and information-related work is carried out by workers in a different company or by a subsidiary of the same organization situated in the same country or in an offshore location to save cost.

Unlike the outsourcing of manufacturing, this typically involves high-value work carried out by highly skilled staff.

This middle and higher level outsourcing service will need professionals such as financial analysts, accountants, and people who have degrees, whether undergraduate or masteral, in human resource management, and accounting, among others.

Borja noted that KPO firms, in addition to providing expertise in the processes themselves, often make many low-level business decisions — typically those that are easily undone if they conflict with higher-level business plans.

“The profile of people being hired to serve within KPO service companies is more diverse than just being drawn from technical IT services,” he said. “These are people with MBAs, and with medical, engineering, design or other specialist business skills.”

The central theme of KPO is to create value for the client by providing business expertise rather than process expertise. KPO involves a shift from standardized processes to advanced analytical thinking, technical skills and decisive judgment based on experience.

“These are the very expensive or high-paying type of outsourcing. I believe we have the talents and raw ingredients to attract the KPO market,” Borja said.

In an earlier report, British Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham also encouraged industry players to work on positioning the Philippines as the preferred KPO destination in the world, most especially for companies in the United Kingdom.