TAGBILARAN CITY, October 14 (PIA)–There is a current move by information communication technology (ICT) and business process management (BPM) bigwigs to shake off the list of next wave cities (NWC) in lieu of a more reliable location profile.
No less than Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) president Jonathan de Lazurriaga bared this at the Kapihan sa PIA Thursday, a day before Bohol opens its doors again to prospecting investors during the Bohol ICT Summit.
ICT and BPM investors especially the big ticket call center companies into business process out sourcing have always looked for possible locations of expansion of operations.
This need pushed local industry leaders to rank potential locations and called them the NWC where in a list, the industry stakeholders update over the years.
Lazurriaga explained that the NWC is a distinction given to possible locations all over the country based on four identified factors.
He said one factor considered is the availability of local talents like call center workers aptly trained adopting a global standard for competitiveness.
Under this, he explained that a place must have sufficient training institutions that come up to quality and quantity of the graduates to hopefully man the possible investments.
Secondly, national industry stakeholders look for the most business friendly environment in a location.
Investors especially in the BPO would like to settle in an area that would be easy to make business with, safe where crime and corruption is inexistent to low.
Third, BPM investors want power and water service utilities that are cheap and reliable, the location is safe and costs of living is manageable, social issues like traffic, pollution, food, housing and basic necessities are reasonable as this affects the cost of operations.
Finally, investors would certainly be interested if the new location has already or is willing to put up key infrastructure needed for the BPO management operations.
However, Lazurriaga said the listing has become less significant with investors now seeing the key factor of a life-work balance in their workers.
For now, the move is to do away from the NWC ranking, the chair of the country’s software industries leaked.
The PSIA chair said the NWC has created a template that is sets blinders to the more relevant work-recreation balance, that the ICT stakeholders would rather go for a profile of locations to guide big-ticket call center companies to locate.
It may be recalled that Bohol has recently pressed for the placing of Tagbilaran as among the NWC in the country.
The Bohol ICT Summit has been an identified step towards the attainment of the goal.
But, Lazurriaga stressed that getting to the NWC may not be that important anymore.
PSIA hopes that when the profiles are out, it would certainly shift the focus of investors in the BPO and ITC, and this is what Bohol should get, Lazurriaga who comes to the Bohol ICT Summit bared. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)
