Cities in India & Philippines are the Top 5 in Tholons Top 100 Outsourcing Cities List

A recent research study clearly reflects the dominance of India & Philippines, as the ‘destinations of choice’, at least as far as the English-speaking outsourcing market segment is concerned.

Tholons, a leading Strategic Advisory firm for Global Outsourcing and Investments has recently released this year’s Top 100 Outsourcing Cities ranking.

The research study reveals that the Top 5 cities are Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Manila and Chennai. Not surprisingly, Bangalore retained first place for the fourth year running. But we see that Mumbai has moved up to second place this year, thanks to its vast bank of skilled manpower and their innate ability to deliver enhanced, value-added services in the complex and high-value FAO services segment.

The Top 10 Outsourcing Cities

2010	Region	Country	City
1	South Asia	India	Bangalore
2	South Asia	India	Mumbai
3	South Asia	India	Delhi(NCR)
4	Southeast Asia	Philippines	Manila(NCR)
5	South Asia	India	Chennai
6	South Asia	India	Hyderabad
7	Western Europe	Ireland	Dublin
8	South Asia	India	Pune
9	Southeast Asia	Philippines	Cebu City
10	East Asia	China	Shanghai

This year’s list of Top Emerged Outsourcing Cities has extended, identifying ten global delivery locations. To new cities namely Cebu City of Philippines and Shanghai of China, have joined the Top 10 Emerged List as they have significantly developed their respective outsourcing industries.

Tholons “Top 10 Aspirants” list is also quite surprising as it contains four cities from Asia itself. Two cities from India (Bhubaneswar and Thiruvananthapuram) and the other two from the Philippines (Iloilo City and Santa Rosa, Laguna).

Outsourcers from USA and UK continue to consider India and the Philippines to be their primary outsourcing destinations primarily because of language compatibility, technical knowledge and cultural adaptability.

India is leading the list of “Countries with 3 or more outsourcing cities” , as 14 Indian cities are in the Top 100. China scores the second place having 8 cities. But the scope of dominance shared by various cities is not the same. For instance, Bangalore alone might generate more revenue than Whole Eastern Europe.

The Philippines has emerged as one of the top BPO destinations over the last decade for catering to the huge demand for offshore call center services. With more than 200.000 professionals, various cities like Manila, Clark, Angeles City, Cebu City, Davao City, and Cagayan de Oro City host BPO operations.

Along with the demand of call centers which holds the largest share of the country’s offshore outsourcing sector, more specialized and higher- end outsourcing services are also in demand such as web design, software development, data and billing entry, legal and accounting services, medical, and technical transcription services.

Major companies that are operating in the Philippines already, consist of AIG, AOL, Barnes & Noble, Chevron, Citigroup, Dell, HP, HSBC, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, and Siemens AG.
According to another survey, “the Philippines ranked first in the availability of knowledge-based jobs and skilled workers worldwide, and ranked fourth among Asian nations in terms of labor quality. The Philippines’ ideal location, the availability of significantly cheaper prime real estate locations, and a growing number of dependable ICT infrastructure further strengthens the country’s bid for BPO excellence”.

The key parameters that affect outsourcing are:

• Low Costs, low salaries

• Availability of skilled workforce

• Service maturity and experience

• Favorable business environment

• Time zone compatibility

• Risk forbearance to explore less mature destinations

• Infrastructure availability

The compilation of all these factors have supported Amicorp’s decision to acquire a new operation in Manila and Davao City to its existing delivery centers in Bangalore, India and Pretoria, South Africa operation as part of the company’s strategy to deliver the best F&A practice to its clients.

For more information about our services please contact:

Mar Hernandez m.hernandez@amicorp.com