I often receive offers to do article writing and find myself too tied up to accept them. However, I began meeting young people who are potential creative writers and decided to refer one opportunity yesterday, to a talented 18 year old, that more or less pays US$400 per month. She was very happy about it and even linked Busby SEO Test.
After that, I realized that outsourcing is changing indeed. One doesn't have to be a matured professional to accept work. In fact, the young and talented are an interesting resource to tap for the amount of pay is almost secondary to them. Although still, that amount if converted to pesos, is way above minimum wage. Their first intention in accepting projects is to get experience. Next, since they are still dependent (living with parents), the amount they earn is more for them to spend on things they like.
For the matured ones, I guess this also meant that we have to be really competitive with our offerings and be flexible with our rates as the market is becoming wiser and even practical.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
See you at E-Services Philippines 2009!
I am excited as DigitalFilipino.com will be having a booth at the 9th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition on February 09-10, 2009 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City.
The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) is organizing this event.
Folks are encourage to visit the exhibit for free. Just register to attend the exhibit.
The full conference program is also posted online where visitors can register as a delegate.
E-Services Philippines is also one event where companies converge to launch their outsourcing services. Exhibiting in this event is an investment that is worthwhile for any entity into outsourcing. You can also check out past exhibitors.
Another event highlight as well is the E-Services Awards 2009. Good to all the nominees! (I'm one of the recipients for 2008.)
There are two to three things that I would like to be able to showcase in this event that includes:
- Launch of our international virtual assistants network.
- Philippine-based blog advertising network.
- International blog marketing network.
- Launch of 2 to 3 books. (yes, I'm dreaming)
P.S. Glad that the Busby SEO Test competition will be over by that time. I hope we will have great news by then.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Outsourcing Website Requirements
When a company decides to create a website, it must look into a lot of factors in order to increase its chances of success. Working with a web design company that has in-depth expertise is important especially if high return is desired.
Using Diggy, an Australian Web Design Company as a reference, here are some aspects you need to explore when checking your outsourcing vendor capabilities:
Using Diggy, an Australian Web Design Company as a reference, here are some aspects you need to explore when checking your outsourcing vendor capabilities:
- Website Design
It must reflect the identity, goals, culture, and vision of the company. - Database development
Can they generate the database you need? - Web applications
Do they have ready-made application (or 3rd party) such as customizable image gallery, file management system, membership based website, forums or bulletin boards, blog platform, newsletter system, among others.
- Search engine optimization
This involves optimizing your website, developing high-quality content, and make the necessary link building task to ensure that your site rank on keywords that can generate revenue or traffic for your website. - Pay-per-click advertising
This is where advertising placements in ad networks like Google is performed and manage in your behalf. This is ideal when you don't have the time and expertise to do this on your own. - E-mail campaign
Scope of work in this area includes creating opt-in pages, developing the campaign content proper, and monitoring its effectiveness.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Philippines – challenging as a new offshore location
Ovum analyst David Mitchell just released their view on this subject.
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The Philippines is trying to position itself as the next major global outsourcing destination, in competition with the major outsourcing powers of India and China. Despite a number of different initiatives that have been announced recently there are still major challenges to be faced.
There needs to be major investment in the education system in the Philippines, to deal with the anticipated skills shortfall.
The Philippines has set out major ambitions in the global outsourcing industry, aiming to have annual revenues of $12–13 billion by 2010, according to presentations this week by the CEO of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines – Oscar Sanez. As part of that growth the industry will need to find an estimated 420,000 additional workers, to serve the anticipated growth of contracts.
Of course, there will be expansion of the basic call centre operations that do not have high skill requirements. However, there are also ambitions to grow medical and legal transcription services, engineering services and other higher-value outsourcing tasks. For all of the outsourcing activities there are skill requirements for language, IT, management and customer service – and the various elements of the Philippine education system need to respond positively here. However, the more specialist skills, and the sheer number of different specialist skills that will be needed, are likely to be more difficult to produce without significant support and investment from government in secondary, tertiary and vocational education.
This support will be much more readily provided if the proposed Department on Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in the Philippines is created, with a remit to increase the level of effectiveness of policy development in the country – as has been suggested recently.
Smaller economies in emerging markets need to have focus, and avoid competing with larger economies on cost alone
If DICT is created it should rally the ICT economy around a maximum of four capability areas, aiming to create high-value businesses rather than commodity outsourcing capabilities. The reason for the exhortation that the Philippines needs to focus is two-fold. Firstly, the country is not large enough to compete against India and China on the basis of scale, and so the country needs carefully to select its battles. Secondly, focus brings the ability to charge premium rates, for skills that are rarer. This means the Philippines can avoid being dragged into a low-wage, low-investment spiral.
To date one focus area in the Philippines has been the development of software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses, including companies such as Morph Labs. A further hotspot of SaaS activity is developing at one of the technology parks in the Philippines.
Open source is set to be another area of focus. A new technology park, located at the University of the Philippines, is due to open in December and will focus on developing businesses around open source. However, the key will be to ensure that the open source businesses that are created develop high-value assets, rather than developing as low-value services businesses. This needs to happen to ensure that the Philippine businesses have a greater ability to scale; something that will be crucial, given the labour shortfall that was highlighted above. Working on open source software, hardware and peripherals is all part of the initial open source plan for the latest technology park. Again there are local roots to the open source activity, just as there were for SaaS. Here the creation of an open source electronic health record application (released in beta in May this year) is a good example.
The planned creation of two additional technology parks in the next year or two creates further opportunity to extend the areas of focus. However, there is a danger that too many areas of focus emerge in the Philippine ICT economy, meaning that it will become difficult to gain the depth of skills required to develop globally competitive business that can sustain premium rates – as opposed to the low-rate economy associated with much outsourcing and BPO activity.
---------------------------------------------
My thoughts:
My problem is that I've been in the industry long enough to hear various insights on this subject matter. The concerns and opinions mentioned here particularly on improving the skill set started to sound like a broken record. I wish reports will highlight headways made in this area on various competing economies in the field of outsourcing.
Whether the creation of a DICT will contribute to better policies is a desire the office has and one of the means to justify its creation. I believe that it can already do much in its present capacity. Furthermore, it should get its act together first in providing better transparency in their handling of the multi-billion E-Government Fund.
I find it unfair that the analysis did not recognize the amount of effort exerted by government agencies, like the Board of Investments and Department of Trade and Industry, to help bring the sector where it is today.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Philippines is trying to position itself as the next major global outsourcing destination, in competition with the major outsourcing powers of India and China. Despite a number of different initiatives that have been announced recently there are still major challenges to be faced.
There needs to be major investment in the education system in the Philippines, to deal with the anticipated skills shortfall.
The Philippines has set out major ambitions in the global outsourcing industry, aiming to have annual revenues of $12–13 billion by 2010, according to presentations this week by the CEO of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines – Oscar Sanez. As part of that growth the industry will need to find an estimated 420,000 additional workers, to serve the anticipated growth of contracts.
Of course, there will be expansion of the basic call centre operations that do not have high skill requirements. However, there are also ambitions to grow medical and legal transcription services, engineering services and other higher-value outsourcing tasks. For all of the outsourcing activities there are skill requirements for language, IT, management and customer service – and the various elements of the Philippine education system need to respond positively here. However, the more specialist skills, and the sheer number of different specialist skills that will be needed, are likely to be more difficult to produce without significant support and investment from government in secondary, tertiary and vocational education.
This support will be much more readily provided if the proposed Department on Information and Communication Technology (DICT) in the Philippines is created, with a remit to increase the level of effectiveness of policy development in the country – as has been suggested recently.
Smaller economies in emerging markets need to have focus, and avoid competing with larger economies on cost alone
If DICT is created it should rally the ICT economy around a maximum of four capability areas, aiming to create high-value businesses rather than commodity outsourcing capabilities. The reason for the exhortation that the Philippines needs to focus is two-fold. Firstly, the country is not large enough to compete against India and China on the basis of scale, and so the country needs carefully to select its battles. Secondly, focus brings the ability to charge premium rates, for skills that are rarer. This means the Philippines can avoid being dragged into a low-wage, low-investment spiral.
To date one focus area in the Philippines has been the development of software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses, including companies such as Morph Labs. A further hotspot of SaaS activity is developing at one of the technology parks in the Philippines.
Open source is set to be another area of focus. A new technology park, located at the University of the Philippines, is due to open in December and will focus on developing businesses around open source. However, the key will be to ensure that the open source businesses that are created develop high-value assets, rather than developing as low-value services businesses. This needs to happen to ensure that the Philippine businesses have a greater ability to scale; something that will be crucial, given the labour shortfall that was highlighted above. Working on open source software, hardware and peripherals is all part of the initial open source plan for the latest technology park. Again there are local roots to the open source activity, just as there were for SaaS. Here the creation of an open source electronic health record application (released in beta in May this year) is a good example.
The planned creation of two additional technology parks in the next year or two creates further opportunity to extend the areas of focus. However, there is a danger that too many areas of focus emerge in the Philippine ICT economy, meaning that it will become difficult to gain the depth of skills required to develop globally competitive business that can sustain premium rates – as opposed to the low-rate economy associated with much outsourcing and BPO activity.
---------------------------------------------
My thoughts:
My problem is that I've been in the industry long enough to hear various insights on this subject matter. The concerns and opinions mentioned here particularly on improving the skill set started to sound like a broken record. I wish reports will highlight headways made in this area on various competing economies in the field of outsourcing.
Whether the creation of a DICT will contribute to better policies is a desire the office has and one of the means to justify its creation. I believe that it can already do much in its present capacity. Furthermore, it should get its act together first in providing better transparency in their handling of the multi-billion E-Government Fund.
I find it unfair that the analysis did not recognize the amount of effort exerted by government agencies, like the Board of Investments and Department of Trade and Industry, to help bring the sector where it is today.
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