The Philippines remains a favorite destination for company-owned, outsourced contact centers, global in-house centers (GIC) and offshore captive centers. A report from global consultancy firm Everest Group says that although India accounts for 50 percent of all global in-house centers, companies are looking at alternative locations like the Philippines, Malaysia, Costa Rica, China and Malaysia to establish offshore captive centers or global in-house information technology and business process delivery centers. 

A traditional call center stronghold, the Philippines continues to attract global companies wanting to establish offshore captive centers and outsourced call centers due to the country’s large talent pool of English-speaking workers, lower costs, and cultural compatibility with the West. Everest Group partner H. Karthik said companies that have a heavy presence in India are also diversifying to other locations to lower risk.

Everest Group explained that the offshore captive center model is again in vogue this year, and alternative locations are benefiting. 

“The [global in-house] model has been thriving, and divestiture activity continues to decline…At an overall level we expect the model to continue to grow,” said Karthik. 

The new captive center model has matured, however, with the primary drivers being process improvement and value generation instead of cost savings. Karthik added that established captive centers are focusing on expanding their services, undertaking more complex work, and growing revenues. 

Generating 25 percent of the $150 billion global services market in 2014, captive centers are ideal for complex “knowledge” work, mission-critical tasks and activities involving intellectual property and sensitive data. The biggest users of captive centers are Fortune 500 firms in the technology and manufacturing, distribution and retail (MDR) sectors.