When Jim Franke and Derek Holley founded eTelecare in 1999, a year when over 90 percent call centers in the Philippines had fewer than 100 seats, they had reason to doubt the success of this industry. But now that the size of the voice-based services industry in the country is touching $2.6 billion, eTelecare is looked upon as a successful “case study” by those wanting to set up call centers and BPO facilities there. With 13,000 people, the company is the largest call center in the Philippines and the country’s young dream of working for it.

eTelecare’s success is just a preview to the blockbuster success of the Filipino BPO industry. Thirty eight percent of BPO companies in the Philippines are currently hiring at the rate of 4 percent to 6 percent per year, according to a March 2007 study titled An Analysis of the Philippines BPO Industry. And by 2010, the industry is expected to create 288,000 new jobs.

Many global IT and BPO firms such as Accenture, ClientLogic, Convergys, Hewitt Associates, ICT Group, Sitel, SR. Teleperformance, TeleTech and 24/7 Customer have their call centers in the Philippines. Many of them are even planning to open new call centers — Convergys, for example, plans to open its 9th call-center facility soon! The company, which started its operations in the Philippines in 2003, has more than 11,000 workers there; and its new center will have a seating capacity for 500.

Perhaps one reason for the growth is that employees see work in this industry as a career, and not a stopgap arrangement between university and “real work” as people in India see it. People actively opt for a career in contact centers, data transcription, finance and accounting back-office operations, medical and legal transcription.

While contact-center managers in the Philippines spend nearly 3.5 years in a company, the average tenures of contact-center managers in India and in China stand at 1.5 years and 2.5 years respectively, according to 2007 Contact Centre Industry Benchmarking Study by callcentres.net. The study also finds that, on an average, agents in Filipino contact centers spend 1.5 years in a job; their counterparts in India don’t stay beyond a year (only 11 months).

Moreover, the people  in the Philippines are generally more qualified compared to their counterparts in India and China.