Of the many ways that service providers seek to differentiate themselves from the pack, SPI Technologies starts with an offshore location that is tightly coupled with American culture.

Based in Manila, the Philippines based SPI Technologies’ revenue, which is likely to touch $100 million this year, up from an estimated $77 million in 2005, is the only leading offshore-based BPO company outside of India or the U.S.A. Also, it is a company that is entirely focused on non-voice processes, in a land known for call centers. SPI Technologies is also defined by its unique history and growth path. Established in 1980, when offshore was a term associated with oil exploration and manufacturing, this company has journeyed from delivering simple to more sophisticated, higher-value tasks.

The majority of SPI Technologies’ revenues come from fairly unusual segments, when compared with larger providers such as Genpact, WNS, ACS and Accenture. Bigger chunks of its revenues come from publishing services and legal/litigation support services. These account for 40% of its total revenues. Healthcare and financial services, that the company calls transaction-process services, account for the rest, with an almost equal split between the two.

SPI is a practitioner of the think global, act local philosophy. The company operates facilities in the Philippines, India, Mexico, Vietnam, China and the U.S.A. — a spread matched only by Genpact, among offshore-based BPO companies. Of its 6500 people, the majority (4600) are located in the Philippines, followed by India, where 1200 people work for its clients. The target for the company is to match its India employee base with the Philippines manpower by 2010. SPI bolstered its publishing strength by acquiring a typesetting company, Kolam Information Services, and since then has acquired another company, KG Information Services, a medical-transcription company. It has also done two onshore acquisitions in the U.S.A. in the last three years. This inorganic growth by acquisitions strategy is another way the company is diversifying and deepening its vertical industry strengths.

In India, SPI Technologies has consciously focused on the smaller cities such as Pondicherry and Coimbatore, both in the southern part of India, near Chennai. CEO Ernest Cu is clear that he wants to keep his operations in smaller locations, as much as possible.

SPI, which started in publishing services, with keyboarding and data entry, moved to data conversion, typesetting and copy editing, and finally to content generation — an upward journey in the publishing production vaue chain. Today, it has arguably the most complete portfolio in publishing services among all the BPO companies. It provides, for example, a suite of services to Reed Elsevier, its biggest client. The Philippines’ offshore is still trying to get a foothold in the continent.

SPI has followed a similar path in legal/litigation segment, and is counted as one of the top-five litigation support/electronic discovery firms servicing the American market.

Ernest Cu, CEO, SPI Technologies