Beyond voice: Cebu needs to step up digital transformation

CEBU HAS to step up in digital transformation to be able to bounce back in its ranking in the Tholons’ top outsourcing list, a Cebu City consultant said. Joel Mari Yu, consultant at the local government’s Cebu Economic Business Unit, said Cebu’s drop from the Tholons’ 2017 top 10 global outsourcing hubs has shown it is lagging behind in terms of digital advancement and innovation. Mr. Yu said while Cebu will continue to do well in the voice segment in business process outsourcing (BPO) operations, the industry needs to put more focus on digital innovation as the demand changes. “We can do a lot of things,” Mr. Yu said in a recent interview. Cebu’s ranking in the Tholons Services Globalization Index 2017 (Top 100 “Super Cities”), released last June 28, slipped to the 12th spot from 8th last year. In its annual list this year, Tholons introduced “innovation, start-up ecosystem and digital transformation” as key components in the ranking. Metro Manila — which was second last year after Bangalore, India — was also downgraded to fourth place after Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. Briann Mueller of the Cebu Innovation Council believes Cebu has a lot of potential to advance in digital innovation given the availability of talents. In a recent report, Colliers Philippines said: “BPO operations in Cebu City are continuously growing. The projected 5% to 10% annual growth of Cebu’s outsourcing work force should support the expansion of the city’s consumer base.” Supporting Cebu’s retail sector growth, it said, is the establishment of more knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms in the city that provide higher value outsourcing services such as health information management, software engineering, and finance and accounting. “We are optimistic that Cebu will continue to attract more KPO companies given the presence of adequate infrastructure, redundant Internet connection, ample supply of skilled college graduates, and a high level of urbanization driven by the development of several townships and public infrastructure projects,” said Gerard Thomas S. Padriga, general manager at Colliers’ Cebu office. —