Saturday, September 15, 2012

Russian BPO software firm expands to ‘call-center leader’ Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Attracted by the burgeoning local call center industry, Russian software firm Noda recently announced the availability of its call center software solution for use by Philippine BPO firms.

Initially available in Soviet Union territories in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, Noda’s contact center software comes to Asia Pacific via the Philippines for the first time since being founded in 2001.

The company’s software works as an all-in-one suite that helps manage an entire call center operation, from monitoring inbound and outbound calls to setting up an interactive voice response (IVR) system, all the way to providing real-time agent reports for key performance indicator (KPI) controlling.

Starting as a company that developed Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions for call centers, Noda’s solutions have expanded to include IVR speech recognition, biometric verification, automatic call distribution, and a project management system.

The company trails behind Cisco and Avaya in this space, but has already captured as much as eight percent in the Russian market.

Noda CEO Andrey Zaitsev cited glowing prospects in the Philippines given its leadership position in the global business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, where it currently ranks first in voice-based services and second in non-voice services.

Zaitsev likewise emphasized the changing environment in the global macro economy, where analysts and business observers have observed a quickening shift of power from the US and Europe and into Asia.

“The best region for expansion, therefore, would be Asia Pacific, because it’s rising really fast” Zaitsev said in a recent press briefing, when asked why they chose the Philippines as one of the company’s initial expansion areas.

“All of these things made the Philippines the most attractive option for us,” he added.

The local BPO industry is projected to grow by as much as 20 percent through 2016, delivering an overall revenue stream of $25 billion and employing as much as 2 million direct employees.

Last year, the sector took home $11 billion in earnings and employed 638 million individuals, most of which earn an average salary of P16,000 a month, making employers in the sector among the highest-paying in the Philippines.

source: interaksyon.com