13 October 2016 — As global interest in Philippine Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) continues to grow, Consul General Mario L. De Leon, Jr. participated at the 4th Annual Digital Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Innovations Conference at the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan where two Filipino-American corporate officials, Ms. Judy Arteche-Carr, CRM Program Executive for Fordham University, and Mr. Rembert DeVilla, Executive Vice President of EXL Service, were recognized as experts in their field and served as panel members in separate sessions. Consul General De Leon was joined in the Conference by Consul Felipe Carino, director of the economic section; Trade Representative Katrina Banzon, and Mr. Wendell Gaa, economic assistant.
The annual Digital BPO Innovations Conference, organized by The Outsourcing Institute, invites industry leaders to get together to discuss and strategize how the BPO industry is rapidly evolving and enabling organizations to transform into digital enterprises. Focused on the next wave of innovative technology trends and business models, the conference serves as a beacon for business and outsourcing executives to develop strategic decisions and produce successful business outcomes.
The Philippines was further highlighted as a prolific BPO investment destination to the attending corporate officials due to its innovative and prolific English-speaking population.
In the morning, Mr. DeVilla partook in the conference program module “BPO In the Digital Age: Lessons Learnt from Digital Disruptors” together with moderator Mr. Anupam Govil, Partner, Avasant and fellow panelists Mr. Peter Nag of AIG; Mr. Albert Eng, Managing Director, M&A and Coroprate Development, TIAA; and Mr. Robert Smits, Global BPO Leader, GE Global Operations. Addressing how digital technology could further enhance current applications that many BPO companies utilize was the focus of the discussion.
In this panel, Mr. DeVilla opined that in a highly competitive field, providers are advised to “walk in the shoe of their customer”, which is a difficult task because they fail to understand the needs of clients. The market is moving towards reliance on analytics, but there are too many analytics in the market. The job of a provider is to understand and be agile enough to devise ways to interact with specific clients and infrastructure, he added.
Mr. DeVilla also said that in insurance and banking BPO, there is a need for agility and speed that results in innovative practices. At this juncture, technological and financial risks, not only BPO, are starting to be outsourced, which comes with innovation. The providers are expected to address the clients’ overall needs, he underscored.
In the afternoon, Ms. Arteche-Carr served as a panelist for the module “IT-BPO Convergence: Is BPaaS Finally Coming of Age,” together with moderator Ms. Lynne Chernow, Senior Consultant, Fordham University; Mr. RG Conlee, Chief Innovation Officer, Xerox; Mr. Steven Allsopp, Category Lead, Bloomberg; and Mr. Al Crew, formerly UBS, Principal, Crew & Associates. Ms. Arteche-Carr shared her views and perspectives with the audience on how internet technology could continually expand as an effective tool for BPO professionals around the globe.
In her panel, Ms. Arteche-Carr said that cybersecurity is now as important as ever and that American companies have set protocols in place. She advised that with innovations such as Business Process as a Service (BPaas), BPO companies are encouraged to view issues from the consumer point of view to arrive at a holistic solution, she added.
Other model panels of the forum were entitled “Going Up the Value Chain with F&A and Transactional Services,” “The Next Wave of Automation: Scaling with High Value Processes,” and “From Hype to Reality: Do Outcome Based Business Models Work?”
The Consulate General is highly supportive of IT-BPO activities in New York where Ms. Arteche-Carr heads the Philippine IT-BPO Advisory Council while Mr. DeVilla is a Senior official of EXL Inc. which counts among its clients, Aetna Health Insurance, which has a significant operation in the Philippines, employing at least 2,500 full-time employees (FTEs) in Manila and Cebu. END
