14 Jan Outsourced IT Services Grow in the Philippines
Next to India and China, the Philippines is regarded as one of the largest suppliers of workforce in the field of Information Technology or IT in the Asia-Pacific region today.
IT has undoubtedly become the main employment generator for key cities in the country such as Cebu and Iloilo, now dubbed as emerging hubs for business process outsourcing. In fact, based on surveys by US-based Meta Group, the Philippines is ranked consistently as number one in providing available knowledge-based workers worldwide.
Outsourced IT services continue to contribute hugely to keep the local economy buoyant, amidst economic recession and crisis. Newspapers reported that the Philippines – citing local industry companies as source – is on its way to double its global market share by the year 2016.
According to an officer of the Industry Development of the Information and Communications Technology, Office of the Department of Science and Technology in a meeting with members of the Philippine Software Industry Association, Information Technology outsourcing is "growing fast and is driven by converging global mega trends , such as the growth of the knowledge economy and the global technology revolution. "
In addition to this, the country's outsourced IT services remain to be the lowest in costs, while maintaining a wide variety of skilled and talented professional workers. And government is also making efforts to support the industry as well.
Though admittedly, the Philippines still needs to catch up in the tough race, there is no denying the fact that its workers have an edge over them in certain aspects.
Understanding how it works
IT is vital in the way people make business, especially at this day and age when consumers and the general public are spending more time online. IT outsourcing makes sense because it means contracting a company's computer service, computer programming, or any Internet-related work to another company.
IT involves a lot of functions and responsibilities that outsourcing can manage in an independent and affordable way, rather than directly employing in-house providers.
IT outsourcing can be provided in different industries with IT processes, especially IT projects where budgets and resources are either limited or non-existent.
Outsourcing provides additional 24/7 support to get any project completed on or before the deadlines. Usually, outsourcing is responsible for speeding up the process dramatically.
The United States Experience
Many skilled and semi-skilled American workers of large and multinational corporations planning to outsource their IT departments are losing their jobs to workers in outsourcing destinations in Asia.
Meanwhile, it becomes more difficult for those who are poor yet willing to find even minimal skilled jobs, which in effect reduces consumer spending and tax revenues as well.
These issues have been sparking debate whether outsourcing is good or bad for the United States' economy.
Whatever the business path may be, the point is that the workforce in outsourced IT services should be happy and satisfied. There is nothing to fear about the changes going on, for as long as people are aware of taking control of their own lives.
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