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Business Process Outsourcing is not entirely new to Vietnamese firms but most have not grasped the potential of an industry predicted to be red hot in 2010. BPO services were first seen here in 2005 when multinationals outsourced simple work to Vietnamese firms and did more complex work for others.
Tran Manh Huy, director of FPT IS BPO Service Center, said the basic function of BPO is connecting high technology with low-level labor to perform what can be considered the companies’ administrative burden.
Since Vietnam possesses an abundance of young, low level workers, the BPO market remains wide open to Vietnamese businesses, even at the global level, he said.
Nguyen The Trung, head of the DTT Technology Group, said developing BPO means fostering the country’s IT sector.
Though several Vietnamese companies began offering BPO services before it, FPT IS BPO Service Center, established last July, is one of the few service providers operating on a large scale.
We want to create a market to sell these types of services, Huy said. Vietnamese businesses say the major hurdle in offering BPO services is customers fear of security risk and losing independence over their operations.
Huy said BPO service providers must be creative in packaging their products and must be willing to share the risk with their clients.
FPT IS aims to employ 50,000 people in the next five years and achieve revenues of USD 500 million. The company plans to open two more centers in Can Tho and Khanh Hoa to add to the three it already has in HCMC, Da Nang and Hanoi.
FPT IS says it is working with 10 universities in the country to train people for its BPO services. It also plans to recruit high school students and people with disabilities for more elementary work.
A typical BPO service provider in India has between 10 and 30 employees. The Philippines started providing BPO services in 2000 and now has annual revenues of USD 1.7 billion.
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