If outsourcing leaves you scratching your head, and offshoring has you feeling even more confused than outsourcing, then the BPO industry might be just what you need to recover from outsourcing and offshoring.

When it comes to outsourcing and offshoring, everything is pretty much self-explanatory except for one word: "BPO". If you're not familiar with this term, don't worry, because that's why we're here! We'll take our time explaining exactly what a BPO is so that by the end of this article you'll know all there is to know about outsourcing through business process outsourcing in the Philippines.

Let’s talk about BPO and the different advantages of hiring one in the Philippines.

BPO work is a rapidly growing industry in the Philippines. The outsourcing of services has brought many new jobs to the country and has quickly become the second-largest industry behind OFW or overseas Filipino workers (some studies even say that it's about equal).

A business process outsourcing (BPO) refers to the outsourcing of any business support function, such as customer service, human resources, technical support, etc.

The Philippines is one of the world's leading providers of customer service outsourcing solutions due to its large English speaking population and lower operating costs compared to other countries. 

There are many reasons why outsourcing in the Philippines has become very popular. One major reason for outsourcing is because there are significant cost savings when outsourcing to a foreign country, but outsourcing can lead to further benefits when you combine this with offshoring.

High-quality staff - The Philippines has a huge supply of workers who are fluent in the English language because it was once an American territory. The Philippines also has many outsourcing companies to choose from. Other outsourcing countries are instead limited in choice, flexibility and quality outsourcing staff.

High levels of outsourcing training - Outsourcing training is fully integrated into the education system in the Philippines. You can start outsourcing training at the high school or college level depending on your needs, and it's even possible to get government scholarships for outsourcing related courses. This ensures that your outsourcing workforce can be upskilled throughout their career which will lead to higher retention rates than other outsourcing countries.

Offshore development centres - Development centres located in the Philippines can help companies save costs by running software development projects remotely. The Philippines has various offshore outsourcing services which can be used to run your projects while outsourcing your software development, web design and content writing needs.

English speaking workforce - Because of the Philippines' location in Asia, it's very strategically located to service customers in North America, Europe and Australia. This means that there is always a large English speaking talent pool available for outsourcing work.

Access to specialist skills - If you require highly specialised outsourcing work such as translation or transcription, the Philippines provides access to large populations of bilingual employees who are skilled in more than one language.

High-quality broadband connectivity - Three out of five Filipinos own mobile phones with internet capabilities so the delivery of outsourcing services is easier because almost everyone in the country is online. In outsourcing countries that don't have high broadband connectivity, outsourcing services are limited to where they can be delivered.

Low cost of living - The Philippines has a much lower cost of living compared to outsourcing countries in Europe and America due to the low levels of income tax deducted from employees' salaries. This means that outsourcing companies can pay their staff higher salaries while still keeping outsourcing costs down because the Philippine's cost of living is so affordable.

The following is a list of major outsourcing industries in the Philippines:

Customer Care/Contact Center - This outsourcing specialization entails providing call centre services such as telephone reservation operations, technical support services, customer information services, ticketing systems through voice or e-mail inquiries via phone calls or written messages received by means of mail or email. The outsourcing firm handles all sorts of inquiries coming from transacting clients.

Data Encoding/Data Transcribing - Data encoding outsourcing firms encode tape-recorded customer accounts into digital formats for data storage in microprocessors. The outsourcing firm is responsible for converting speech files, recorded on tapes via telephone lines so that the information can be inputted into computer systems or other technological platforms.

Animation - The outsourcing company specializes in creating animated TV shows and movies with characters acting out roles depicting certain scenarios through dialogue and/or body language. Some outsourcing firms also specialize in producing 3D animations (e.g., virtual reality) for TV commercials, video games with matrices, etc.; while others produce 2D animations (e.g., storyboards).

Back Office Operations - Billing outsourcing is an outsourcing specialization that requires recording financial transactions into computer systems and maintaining all kinds of accounts related to electronic billing processes. It entails maintaining accounts payable and receivable through various payment modes such as cash, check, credit card, wire transfer and others; along with providing account and financial reporting to management. 

It is difficult for most people to determine which outsourcing company in the Philippines gives them the best outsourcing services, especially given that outsourcing is not cheap (which means you should learn everything about outsourcing before making a choice). This article will be of great importance to you if you are new or planning on outsourcing.

The first thing I would like to say on this topic is that it has become increasingly more difficult over the years for companies looking to outsource their work overseas. There are so many outsourcing companies in the Philippines now, and only some of them provide good outsourcing services while some do not know what they're doing or just want your money by promising false hopes.

So where do you start? How do you know which outsourcing company in the Philippines provides outsourcing services that are appropriate for your outsourcing needs?

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself before outsourcing:

1. How many outsourcing employees do I need in the Philippines, what types of outsourcing jobs should they be doing and how much work do they have to handle at once?

2. What kind of outsourcing company do I need in the Philippines? Do I want an outsourcing firm or a freelancer? How about an outsourcing company with call centres, IT support, web development, creative design, etc.? The more extensive their list of outsourcing services is for all kinds of outsourced projects (app development, software development, creative design work), the better off you'll be because then you can just hand over everything to them instead of looking for outsourcing companies in the Philippines that specialize in specific outsourcing jobs.

3. How long has the outsourcing company been in business?

4. How much outsourcing services do they charge?

5. How skilled are their outsourcing staffs in the outsourcing jobs I need them to do, and how long have they been doing this type of work?