NCO Group Planning Huge Growth in Philippines

As part of a plan to expand its call center presence in offshore locations ("NCO Group Looks Offshore to Ease Labor Costs," April 3), debt collection and BPO giant NCO Group has some aggressive growth plans for its operations in the Pacific island nation of the Philippines.

The Horsham, Pa.-based NCO already has a presence of some 4,800 employees in the country. But current plans call for that number to grow by 3,000 to 4,000 by the end of this year, according to NCO Vice President of Investor Relations Brian Callahan.

Callahan explained that most of the work done in the Philippines is in the company’s customer relations management (CRM) division. “We entered the Philippines through the acquisition of a CRM platform,” said Callahan. But the company has been getting a lot of interest from clients wanting to shift debt collection work to facilities there.

“We are moving more of our ARM division’s work over there,” said Callahan.

The company is currently in the process of opening a new center at the former Clark Air Base, some 40 miles north of Manila, now called the Clark Freeport. The development employs some 47,000 and is a hot-zone for call center and IT outsourcing work.