Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest Information technology (IT) service provider recently announced the launch of a 400-seater business process outsourcing centre in Philippines. This is the company’s first ever BPO centre in Southeast Asia and the latest addition to company’s Global Network Delivery Model.

The opening of this BPO is an example of how fast the Philippines has become an important centre for global BPO operations. Outside India, the second largest BPO destination is the Philippines with a $9-billion BPO sector, that provide employment to 450, 000 people.

After initial stages the TCS BPO centre will be eventually scaled to 1,000 employees. Vish Iyer, head, Asia Pacific, TCS, said “From a TCS perspective, it is not just about shipping work from India to the Philippines. There is domestic opportunity as well. Currently, the Philippines is a $9-billion market, but they have a target to increase this to $25 billion by 2016.” He added, “We’re very excited about the talent pool available in the Philippines for our new BPO centre and look forward to leveraging our best practices and technology excellence from around the world to further develop talent in this region.”

Lately the Philippines has been a competitor with India in the BPO sector. According to NASSCOM’s Strategic Review 2010, India and the Philippines accounted for nearly 40% of the new centres set up globally. However India has been capitalizing on the IT and non-voice BPO segment whereas the Philippines has been focusing on the non-voice segment.

TCS though has refused to divulge quantum of investment entailed in the Philippines BPO.