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Business process outsourcing Archives | Optimal Outsourcing

Apr 09
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Why is Clark in Angeles City a Good Location for BPO?

By Outsourcing

The viability of Clark Free Port Economic Zone located in Angeles City as an outsourcing centre was started in the late 1990s after a call centre company (Cyber City Services) decided to set up its offices inside the former military base.

Clark has been home to the United States’ military forces since before World War II, until after the eruption of the Mt Pinatubo volcano coupled with a senate bill led to their untimely exodus out of the country.

This event led to the creation of the BCDA (Bases Conversion and Development authority) tasked with the conversion of the former U.S military bases (Clark included) into free-port economic zones. The Clark Development Corporation (CDC) was established to head and operate the more than 2,000 hectares of the free port.

The signing of Executive Order 619 by then Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo further pave the way for duty free shops to set up shops inside the Free Port and enjoy tax and duty incentives.

This first transformation of the Free Port enjoyed relative success for some time, creating various employments for the locales in Pampanga and the neighbouring provinces.

The BPO industry bloom in Asia particularly in India and Philippines particularly in Angeles City proved beneficial for the Free Port as well.

Here’s some valid points as to why Clark is the perfect location for your BPO business and outsourcing centre in Angeles City.

Setting Up Your BPO Business in Angeles City

Strategic Location

Located in the province of Pampanga which is nestled in the central plains of Luzon bordered by the mountains of Zambales in the west and Mt Arayat in the East, Clark Free Port Economic Zone can be accessed using multi-point motorways.

If you are coming from the north, you can take the Tarlac-Pangasinan Expressway (TPLEX) that leads directly inside the Free Port.

From the west you have the Subic-Clark Expressway (SCTEX) that can guarantee a 30-45minutes travel time. The North Luzon Expressway links the capital city of Manila and the south to the Free Port.

The Clark International Airport inside the free port ensures fast international travel to and from the business district.

Infrastructure

With infrastructures and utilities (cabled telephone lines, fibre optic internet connection) well in place, with building locations secured, fenced and gated, the Clark Free Port is the perfect venue for many outsourcing companies that want to set up their offices in Angeles City.

Low Cost

Being a Free Port, BPO locators are entitled to certain tax incentives and privileges. You can cut cost up to 70% instead of hiring in-house talents from your location.

Highly Educated and Young Work Force

The young and educated work force demographic prolife of the province also proved to be a big factor that draws a lot of BPO companies to do business in the Free Port.

With a literacy rate of 93.94 (Pampanga), university graduates of 9,869 (2012-2013 alone), with 32.20% of this coming from the Business Administration related field and 17.49% coming from IT-related disciplines, the province is brimming with highly capable, very educated and English speaking workforce.

Pleasant All Year Round Weather

The weather condition within the region ranges from dry and humid summer and a wet rainy season. The Free Port is located in an elevated section of the city of Angeles, almost on the foothill of the Zambales mountain ranges, sparing it from any major flooding issues during the rainy seasons as experienced in some areas around the city and major problem for Manila

Minimal to No Power Outage

The Free Port also has its own electric generating system ensuring brown-out free operations 24/7 all year round.

Outsourcing your office processes to Clark Free Port Eco zone ensures maximum delivery of services, with high degree of efficiency and accuracy of tasks without incurring high costs and worrying about other variables such as reliability of the infrastructure in the process.

Contact us today and we’ll help you set up your outsourcing office.

Apr 09
outsource to the philippines

3 Killer Reasons why Outsource to the Philippines

By Outsourcing

The number of international companies that have started to outsource their business processes to the Philippines continue to rise.

Why?

Unlike other Asian countries like China or India, the Philippines incorporates a culture that’s compatible with the Western world. Once a Spanish colony, the Philippines was ruled by the US from 1899 to 1946 – their influence is still very evident today.

English is the primary language for business and education within the Philippines though the official language is Filipino. With the robust presence of the U.S., the Philippines has developed a government that’s somewhat like the U.S. system. This makes Western corporations more comfortable doing offshoring within the Philippines.

Top Reasons to Outsource to the Philippines

Low Costs

Offshoring in the Philippines may be low-cost compared to other Southeast Asian countries. Salaries within the Philippines are a fraction compared to what the Western world offers their citizenry, with the daily pay set at around $8 per day.

Newly graduated outsourced staff with college degrees from respected universities are employed at around $300 per month. These low cost salaries also apply to some or all business expenses like office rental, utilities, supplies, and third party services.

Philippine outsourcing is usually aiming to be competitively low compared to costs within the U.S. and Europe. You’ll be able to expect to work an offshore staff at around 30-40% of the cost of a domestic team.

 Highly Skilled Workforce

The Philippines incorporates a 92% literacy rating with basic education offered to nearly the entire population. Filipinos are genuinely artistic and naturally expressive people that they naturally gravitate towards fields of learning like the arts, multimedia, freehanded drawing, and animation. There are many schools and universities that offer top-notch education and coaching in these artistic fields.

Because of its traditionally weak local economy, the Philippines has had many tough circumstances providing jobs to the many thousands coming into the manpower annually, inflicting a major portion to migrate overseas.

The Philippines owes its growing BPO business for providing local opportunities to employees that might otherwise need to leave their country.

For these reasons, BPO companies have very little hassle finding extremely qualified employees for their clients.

This is a stark contradiction with its neighbouring countries in the same business as it is a struggle finding candidates and keeping staff which is always a serious problem.

Government Support

The outsourcing industry has become one of the top revenue generators of the country that is why the government totally supports its endeavours.

It’s created special economic zones, established a Philippine Economic Zone Authority, and grants business enterprise and non-fiscal incentives like a 4-year or 8-year tax holiday to BPO players. Even Indian BPO service suppliers have established operations within the Philippines over the years.

IBPAP plays a large role in promoting the country because of the ideal location of alternative and in supporting BPO players.

Since talent is the primary driver of the business, BPAP is collaborating with government agencies to any improve the education system. It’s conjointly implementing industry-specific coaching programs to hone the abilities of Filipino employees and build them up for BPO work.

It’s no wonder the Philippines has gained a new reputation as the most popular BPO destination – a highly skilled workforce and home to a number of the warmest and friendliest folks in Southeast Asia.

We have a team set up ready and willing to assist you realise your offshoring goals.

At Optimal Outsourcing you can trust us to deliver where it counts!

Contact us today!

Apr 08

How to keep your Offshore Staff Motivated

By Outsourcing

Your offshore staff’s morale is as important as your sales or business’s goals are but not easy to measure.

An unmotivated staff member can be an inefficient and unproductive one, so the mental well-being and satisfaction of your staff is essential to your business’s success.

Not tending to this now could prove to be costly for your organization later – either through an ineffective workforce or high staff turnover.

In any case, encouraging a positive job atmosphere will not cost you an arm and a leg in the process.

Here are some hints to keep your offshore staff motivated

Offer Incentives

Did you know that incentives have direct effect on the productivity of your business? A study conducted by SITE Foundation (Society for Incentive Travel Excellence) released last 2015 offers these key insights:

  • “Impact on performance – Incentive programs aimed at individuals increased performance by 27 percent. Moreover, programs aimed at teams increase performance by 45 percent.”
  • “Significant goal achievement – Ninety-two percent of workers surveyed indicated that they achieved their goals because of incentives. In addition, 57 percent of corporations surveyed reported that objectives were met or surpassed, and 92 percent reported objectives were surpassed, met or at least partially met.”
  • “Quality and quantity goals affected equally – Incentive programs have an equal, positive impact on both quality and quantity goals.”
  • “Employee input is valuable – Incentive programs structured with employee input work best; however, only 23 percent of incentive systems are selected with employee input.”
  • “Long-term incentives are ideal – Long-term incentives are more powerful than short term (44 percent gain for programs beyond a year versus a 20 percent gain for programs less than one month).”
  • “Design and implementation key to success – While even poorly designed incentive programs improve performance, proper analysis of the performance issue, the design and implementation of the incentive program are key to success.” – SITE Foundation

Treat Everyone as an Individual

Every one of your offshore staff have different needs. ““Every incentive doesn’t necessarily motivate every individual,”” says Andrew Backhouse, national contract director at Timothy James, a 2010 winner of The Sunday Times 100 Best SMEs to work for.

Become acquainted with every individual from your offshore staff and demonstrate that you understand them by being flexible to their own circumstances.

For instance, if your offshore staff has to travel a long way during weekends to be with his loved ones, you might consider giving them the chance to leave early every Fridays. Subsequently, they’ll be more inclined to put additional hours amid the week to keep abreast with their workload.

Praise great work and offer input

It is vital to be real, so discover something that has awed you, regardless of the possibility that it is as basic as your remote staff’s presentation, and let them realize that they are doing it well.

Some organizations have presented a six monthly evaluations. This offers a decent chance to energize staff, clear up any issues, and re-set up with the team member their expectations of the organization and your expectations from them as well.

Communication is Important

By keeping the communication lines open especially by listening to your staff’s ideas, suggestions, comments and observations, they will feel a sense of importance and value.

A weekly one hour or even daily 15 minute huddles are nuggets that every organization should incorporate into their system.

These huddles can be good indicators of how your staff views the work place “climate” and their work in general.

Changes in the policies should also be properly communicated and agreed upon by your staff.

Also by demonstrating that you are addressing your staff’s concerns can be sufficient to help boost morale.

Keeping your staff motivated is a sure way to keep them working at their best.

In this way, your business’s sales targets and goals will be realised. It’s a win-win situation!

When offshoring staff be sure to pick a company that fosters a positive staff environment.

At Optimal Outsourcing we pride ourselves on retaining staff and providing a great work place environment which will help our clients’ staff perform at their best.

Contact us today!

Apr 08
professionalism in the wordplace image 1

Professionalism in the Workplace

By Outsourcing

Professionalism is the conduct, aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or skilled person; it implies quality of craftsmanship or service.

Every organization must be aware that the distinction between success and failure is in the staff’s level of professionalism.

A highly professional employee is an asset of the company.

Professionalism yields respect.

It will not be a surprise if the company provides recognitions such as salary raise or promotion if employees are observed with excellent level of professionalism at all times.

Typically, it’s troublesome to be in “the zone” each hour of the day, however, it gets easier after you make professionalism a habit.

Focus on your performance and you’ll begin to notice the rewards of your diligence.

The following are 7 traits that one should embody to start becoming a true professional in the workplace.

Continuous Improvement

This can be your main motivation to achieving excellence in whatever endeavour you undertake.

This standard will make your work stand-out.

Striving for the quality of service that is remarkably smart to surpass normal standards, if turned into a habit, will leave a good impression on your bosses and colleagues.

Be trustworthy

In today’s society, trust is a BIG word. Any team member that exhibits this trait is on the quick track to embodying the essence of a true professional.

Trustworthiness is fulfilling any assigned task and is always ready to be counted upon even as an extension- without lowering down expectations.

It is the state of being dependable and reliable when tapped upon to deliver a service so as to earn the trust of your bosses and colleagues – value and integrity should be earned over time.

Be responsible

To be responsible is to stand tall and be accountable for what actions you’ve undertaken, this can be the culpableness and responsibility for your actions and its consequences- smart or unhealthy.

Be courteous and respectful

Courteousness is being friendly, polite and well-mannered with a gracious thought towards others.

It makes social interactions within the office a pleasant one, avoids conflicts and earns respect.

Respect could be a positive feeling of esteem or deference for someone or for the organization.

Be competent

Competence is more than the ability to perform beyond what is expected from you. It is also the mastery of the tasks that you handle.

It’s a mix of information, skills and behaviour wont to improve performance.

It grows through expertise and to the extent one is willing to learn and adapt.

Be ethical

Ethical behaviour is acting within the walls of certain ethical codes in accordance with the commonly accepted code of conduct or rules.

It’s continuously safe for team members to abide by the rules.

This can be continuously the most effective policy and in instances, acting with a transparent ethical conscience is that the right way to go.

This could cause friction in some organizations.

However, moral organizations can continuously stand by the correct ethical choices and actions of their staff.

Be honourable and act with integrity

 Honourable action is behaving in a way that portrays “nobility of soul, liberalness, and a scorn of meanness” that springs from virtuous conduct and personal integrity.

This can be a thought of “wholeness or completeness” of character in line with certain values, beliefs, and principles with consistency in action and outcome.

Professionalism is extremely valued by every organization nowadays and professionals are hardly ever out of work.

Apply these 7 traits to being professional and luxuriate in an exquisite, skilled and prosperous career.

At Optimal Outsourcing Corporation, we have a team of highly-trained, competent and professional staff ready to assist you realise your outsourcing objectives!

Contact us today!

Mar 02

Outsourced Staff Task: Email Marketing

By Outsourcing

Hiring an outsourced staff is a cost-efficient way to delegate office processes that will enable you to focus on “core tasks” within your business.

In this segment, we’ll shed a light on one common but nonetheless very important marketing strategy that an outsourced staff can effectively manage- email marketing.

With all the ways in which to connect with your customers, whether or not through social media, face-to-face, or different channels, it’s simple to overlook email marketing.

If your business isn’t actively building a list of client emails, you might be setting your business up for digital failure.

So what is email marketing?

Email marketing is more than a rehash of your latest blog post(s). Correct emailing delivers the proper message at the proper time to the proper audience.

So why is email marketing an essential marketing strategy that you can outsource? Let’s take a glance at why it’s thus necessary for your business.

Hire an Outsourced Staff to do Email Marketing for You

Targeted Selling Opportunities

Unlike several different marketing opportunities, once properly enforced, emailing will reward your business with numerous ways in which to focus on specific customers.

To do this, ensure that your email marketing software system permits for lead scoring. This can enable your offshore staff to outline numerous milestones or actions that a user exhibits through interactions in the emails or your website.

At Optimal Outsourcing Corporation, we have an outsourced staff skilled with this task plus more.

Once a user has met the criteria you’ve got outlined, your outsourced staff can then follow up with them with targeted email communication to drive them down the funnel.

More Personal

While the benefits of using social media for your business is undoubted, there’s still a large portion of your customers that don’t subscribe to those channels. However, these same people quite possibly have an email account.

With email marketing data profiling is achievable. There are a lot of different ways in which to capture a customer’s email address. One is by adding an email form in your website to build a listing.

Your outsourced staff can then segregate the list and use the appropriate email according to the customers’ individual needs.

Just think about the ways in which you’ll be able to use this extra data to supply targeted and personalised electronic communication to your customer database. Once you’ve gained extra info, you’ll place sure buyers into new nurturing campaigns to continue the e-mail marketing relationship.

Data Driven & Measurable

Knowing what works and what doesn’t is vital to the success and improvement of a selling campaign. With email marketing, you get insights into your marketing initiatives.

A metric your business will track is the click through rate (CTR) that is basically what desktop users clicked on a link within the e-mail.

If you’re doing emailing correctly, you can test completely different calls to actions (CTA) within your email copy (and even subject lines). Knowing if one explicit phrasing works higher than others in generating click throughs will offer exponential results to your campaign.

Having access to those and different metrics keep your outsourced staff duly informed on what’s or isn’t working in your emailing initiatives.

Generate Sales

Your business is about generating sales after all. There’s this business saying that goes “the money is in the list.” The list they’re referring to here is your email list.

Email marketing is a strategy aimed to assist you increase sales once executed properly. The sensible means to do this is by pairing up your email marketing with an automated marketing platform, permitting you to place your email marketing initiatives on overdrive.

Through lead scoring, lead profiling, and well outlined email campaigns, your outsourced staff can immediately spot if a client is ready to buy.

Knowing wherever your client is within the funnel through lead scoring can provide your offshore staff with insights on when to get aggressive with sales based email messaging.

Being able to guide the client any down the funnel on their own terms could be a powerful tool. By permitting them to show sure actions before you hit them up for a purchase won’t just make your client happy, but your bottom line also.

Cost Effective & cheap

You might be thinking that emailing sounds nice and all, however with all of these options, it’s for sure an expensive strategy?

Certain there’ll be some initial up front setup and implementation costs, however once the muse is ready, the continuing maintenance cost is low compared to the return.

At Optimal Outsourcing you can bank on us to do your email marketing strategy efficiently. We have well-equipped and highly capable staff that you can outsource to do your email marketing and more.

Contact us today and let’s start building your email marketing success!

Feb 19
overseas staff image 1

7 Tips on How to Get the Best Out of Your New Filipino Overseas Staff

By Outsourcing

Getting the best out of your newly outsourced Filipino overseas staff is a lot easier than you think.

You may be wondering what gives Filipinos job satisfaction.

It’s not very different from what satisfies Western employees ‐‐ a sense of belonging, a sense of job gratification, receiving honest feedback and enjoying a tangible reward system are all key components.

When outsourcing, don’t focus on the fact that these are employees working abroad, but rather integrate them into your company culture as if they were in the same country, city and office.

Watch this short video to learn more

Get the best out of your new Overseas Staff

  1. Having an awesome company culture and a great work atmosphere are incredibly important, and the creation of this is largely dependent on management. It’s important to always maintain a positive attitude when dealing with your outsourced employees. An on the ground Filipino manager helps to manage your overseas staff. At Optimal Outsourcing , our on the ground Manager helps you manage your staff.
  1. Good communication with your employees is essential, especially when they are living and working several time zones away. But remember, communication is a two‐way street; listening is just as important as talking.
  1. Take advantage of any opportunity to absorb ideas for improvement your employees may provide. Business specialists have long been telling business owners to embrace, rather than discourage, racial and personal differences among their employees. Different perspectives on a single issue can lead to a uniquely multi‐faceted approach to a topic, which may solve a problem that’s been eating at you for weeks. So, mention from the outset that you’ll respond to any emails your outsourced employees may send, and follow up if they make good on your offer.
  1. Another good way to keep in touch is to create regular team huddles. Connect via Skype or GoToMeeting or, if you’re outsourcing several employees, establish a live virtual chat room where you can have regular 10 or 15‐ minute discussions to clarify your business goals. Keep it light, inspiring and efficient so that employees will want to start every work‐day with gusto. At optimal outsourcing we can help you set up good lines of communication.
  1. Create a regular meeting time that’s convenient for everyone and make attendance mandatory. Many employers use what are called key performance indicators, or KPIs, to keep a running record of employee activity. These are a great way to establish what everyone in your business should be striving toward. For example, in marketing, they might emphasise things like customer turnover and acquisition rates, existing customer satisfaction data and so forth. Utilising up‐to‐date KPIs, and making everyone aware of these metrics, lets you keep track of your business’s progress, as well as your employees’ work as a team.
  1. Offering bonuses is another way to reward your outstanding Filipino offshore staff. Implementing an achievable reward system will encourage virtual employees to strive to meet company goals, help keep them focused and avoid disenchantment. You can offer financial incentives, gifts or other rewards that demonstrate to employees that you value their dedication and hard work. Tying bonuses to job performance reinforces the idea that when the company succeeds, they reap the benefits, which is excellent motivation.
  1. Also most outsourcing businesses provide you with time-logging software. This type of software is a handy tool that requires contracted employees to log in at the start of each shift and log out when finished for the day. Some variations will take a screen shot of an employee’s desktop, typically every 10 minutes at random intervals throughout a shift. It can also monitor mouse clicks and keystrokes. A few may offer an optional web cam hook-up that will snap a photo of a contractor working, or initiate a periodic pop‐up where an employee will report the task they are currently working on. While this software may seem a bit intrusive, it’s an indispensable tool for ensuring that employees are doing the work you’ve requested. Many of the programs will email a report at the end of each day so you can know exactly what your employees have accomplished, and at what speed, as well as how many hours they’ve actually worked.

Also keep in mind when you engage an outsourcing business with a management team in the office in the Philippines as we do at Optimal Outsourcing Corporation, we will help manage your staff in terms of ensuring they are turning up to work on time and are working at their desks.

We provide your staff social interaction through organised office parties and events to help them feel part of a happy office community and a team. At Optimal Outsourcing we understand happy workers work better and stay longer in jobs.

Contact us today at Optimal Outsourcing Australia and allow us to help you achieve your outsourcing needs!

Feb 12

Outsourcing Staff from the Philippines

By Outsourcing

Outsourcing staff from the Philippines is sure fire way to cut on costs while maintaining a high degree of productivity.

For many years large businesses such as insurance companies, banks and airlines have been outsourcing large chunks of their businesses overseas.

Over the last few years with the cost of technology decreasing and becoming more efficient it is now easier and effective for small and medium size businesses (by far the largest employers in Australia) to access the benefits of Outsourcing.

Outsourcing for you could mean:

  1. Living the 15‐hour workweek, whilst travelling the world, watching your kids grow up, pursuing your hobbies fervently.
  2. Continuing to work hard but achieving 3 times as much with your time – more clients, more sales, faster web development. All whilst you’re focusing on the things in your business that matter.
  3. Getting tax deductible trips for every time you visit your staff in the Philippines.
  4. All of the above.

What is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing essentially means delegating tasks to third‐party businesses or virtual workers. Any business of any size can benefit from this type of outsourcing.

Delegating work in this way will help you improve grow your business, lower operational costs and improve the quality of your product.

Outsourcing has transformed the businesses and lives of many ‐ those doing the outsourcing and the workers in the economies in which outsourcing has exploded, traditionally to China and India.

More recently, one destination has taken the outsourcing world by storm – The Philippines. In fact, 2 years ago the Philippines overtook India in the total number of call‐centre employees.

There a several key drivers contributing to the rise of this brilliant nation and we’ll go through those in more detail in a later chapter. With that in mind, let’s take a deeper look at the system and its benefits.

Watch this short video to learn more:

 Why Outsource Staff from the Philippines?

Eager reliable qualified workers for less

Probably the best motivation behind why you ought to outsource. How does having an assistant without having to pay $25 an hour sounds to you?

Outsource to the Philippines and contract an outsourced staff for as little as $8 an hour per person.

Yes, there’s an expression that you get what you paid for. I know you’re worried that the quality will be awful but it is actually not the case. . Filipinos are well educated and value a job for overseas companies. Working for Australian companies is a well paid job in the Philippines.

You need to spend time training to get staff acquainted with the office procedures, and you don’t generally require exceedingly specific abilities, I’m almost certain you’ll discover individuals willing to work for $8/hr.

I realize that you’re most likely thinking that you can just do the tasks yourself and save $8 an hour. But how much is your hour worth?

It Doesn’t it bode well to simply assign the smaller tasks so you can concentrate on the bigger ones?

Cheap reliable Philippine workers can help you grow your business.

Time Difference is not a big deal

I’m certain that a great deal of you are worried about the difference in the time zone –Philippines being located in Southeast Asia.

All things considered, a ton of Filipinos are more than willing to adjust to the time difference. A considerable measure of these outsourced staff worked in call centres and they are very familiar with adjusting to different time zones.

If your business is located in Australia, the time difference is minimal compared to let say the United States.

Good Grasp of the English Language

This is the nation’s primary selling point and this is the motivation behind why the Philippines is the top choice of the top organizations. The Philippines is the second largest English speaking population in the world

The literacy rate in the Philippines in 2012 is around 92 per cent, which is significantly higher than in India, China and Sri Lanka that is why Filipinos can communicate in English rather easily. This implies less occurrences of translations being lost in interpretation.

By outsourcing your smaller tasks to your offshore team, you can achieve a lot more.

Contact us now for details