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HIGH salary and transfer rates in India are making that country less appealing to business process outsourcing (BPO) firms --a trend the Philippines can take advantage of by accelerating information technology (IT) training among students, an executive of a US firm said Monday.

Jim Sanderson, vice president and chairman of applications developer Lawson Software, said India could readily provide large companies with 10,000 people or more with its big number of IT professionals but its BPO costs were rising 15 percent, compared with relatively stable costs in the Philippines.

“We see that small to medium sized companies looking to hire a few hundred to a few thousand professionals with three to five years’ experience have a better environment in the Philippines,” Sanders told the Inquirer.

He also noted that the attrition rate in India is about 30 percent, compared with 10 percent or so in the Philippines.

“A new Indian IT person expects to be promoted within six months and (to get) a 20-percent raise in six months, then another 20 percent on his first year, and so on,” Sanders said. “If he doesn’t get it, he will go to another company. Being a software developer, rather than being a project-related company, we [at Lawson Software] can’t have that kind of attrition.”

Sanderson said his company is optimistic that its investment in Filipino technology workers will result in a long-term partnership with the local workforce.

The potentials and skills of the workers were what drew them to the Philippines, preferring it over other countries in the region, he said.

Sanders warned, however, that the Philippines had to make IT education and training more accessible to young Filipinos to cash in further on the BPO trend and to keep other countries such as China from catching up.

China has started emphasizing English language classes from grade schools to universities to make its massive workforce more attractive to foreign companies, he noted.

In 15 years or so, this generation of English-speaking, IT-trained Chinese professionals could be luring companies away from both the Philippines and India, he said.

“English proficiency and people skills, while important, would not be enough when that time comes,” Sanders said.

“The Philippines must increase the talent pool of professionals with more advanced IT and English skills in order to continue attracting BPOs and other foreign-invested companies.” With INQ7.net

• India's Tata Consultancy says 3Q net profit up 47.2%
• Ayala unit acquires US BPO firm
• NSCB chief slams call centers, RP education problems

• RP to spend $5.6B to service debts
• RP, China, Vietnam pursue Spratlys project
• IMF urges continued buildup of forex reserves
• Banks' capital adequacy ratio fell to 18.33% in June 2006
• RP tax effort increased to 14.3% in '06
• PNOC needs just a month to auction Malampaya oil
• C&P; Homes seeks creditors' OK for debt swap
• Investments in Davao region down 63% in 2006 to P2.4B
• Oleochemicals exports seen increasing by 111% in '07
• New team takes over local KPMG subsidiary
• Stocks seen to weaken on profit-taking
• GMA Network spending P1B for studio expansion