Philippines is one of the destinations when it comes to outsourcing jobs, as Filipinos are known to be skilled workers and cheaper than any other countries, a major reason why many companies choose to establish outsourcing jobs like call centers here. Things are getting better, as recent research shows that KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing is also developing for the Philippines.

Earlier last week, Research Firm Ovum reported that India still leads in the development of KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) along with several notable KPO service locations namely the Philippines, China and Sri Lanka.

What are some examples of KPO services?

Some Examples of KPO Services are:

• Equity, credit and investment Research

• Research and Development

• Legal process outsourcing

• Sophisticated services for health care/ Clinical trial management

• Sophisticated services for publishing

Surprised that the Philippines is one of the named countries? Don’t be… Philippines has recently been recognized as a developing country for KPO. Some main potential pointed out for the Philippines were publishing and health care services. Philippines, slowly but surely is becoming one of the important players in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry. As mentioned by Ed Thomas(the Ovum analyst and the author of the report ) said: “A major challenge facing life sciences companies is the growing cost of R&D and, as a result, a growing number of pharma companies are turning to outsourcing and offshoring as ways of reducing these costs…”

This really isn’t a surprise considering that a number of countries emerging in the KPO industry like China, Sri Lanka and Philippines offer quite the potential in terms of providing services. On the other hand, Thomas also added, “The recent emergence of countries such as China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka as viable locations for KPO delivery has been a positive development for vendors, as it has enabled them to begin offering a blend of offshore and nearshore delivery while also giving them access to sizable and previously untapped talent pools,”

Ovum also noted that health care, legal process, animation and publishing outsourcing are emerging as the Philippines’ KPO strengths. With this, the Philippines’ outsourcing industries should take this into account because there are real potentials in these and even though India reigns supreme now, it may only be a matter of time that other countries such as the Philippines to take over their place. After all, the Philippines have taken over the ranks as the world’s call center capital.