Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is imperative for today's business managers to have a competitive advantage. As non-core activities are outsourced, internal resources can be freed to focus on core business competencies and channeled to allow other areas of the business to grow.
Performance, trust and reliability are the cornerstones when it comes to outsourcing, especially high-end complex BPO activities. Singapore is backed by its trusted and reliable hub status, excellent global connectivity and access and BPO competencies; and is well positioned for this value proposition. This is further amplified by more than 7,000 MNCs (with over 60% based in Singapore as regional headquarters) which makes Singapore the ideal nerve centre for the coordination, management and execution of BPO services.
Singapore's unprecedented reputation as a trusted and reliable BPO hub is backed by:
- Establishing the world's first Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery Standards. The assurance of a world-class quality service provision strengthens BPO service delivery in Singapore.
- KEMA Consulting GmbH (2003 and 2005) rates Singapore favourably for highly stable and robust power by means of System Average Interruption Frequency (at 1 outage per customer every 10 years).
- The Business Economic Risk Intelligence (BERI) and the Institute for Management Development have both ranked Singapore as the lowest risk country in Asia Pacific. Singapore also enforces a strict Intellectual Property (IP) rights regime and legal framework.
- Ranked first for 'Best Business Environment in Asia Pacific' by EIU Country Forecast 2003, the cost of business costs in Singapore is competitive as Singapore telecommunications market is fully liberalized with 32 facilities-based operators and more than 690 services-based operators offering a broad range of services at different price levels.
A strategic location, key Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) such as the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the New Zealand, Japan, European Free Trade Association, and superb infrastructure connectivity make Singapore's it an ideal choice for companies to have their nerve centre in Singapore to control and conduct their regional opportunities. Southeast Asia has a market of 500 million people, with an Asian market of over 2.8 billion people.
Singapore is linked to these markets with direct telecommunications connectivity of more than 26 terabits per second of bandwidth and 99 per cent of island-wide broadband coverage boasts connectivity to over 20 key regional as well as international countries. In addition, Singapore is equipped with world-class sea and air links around the world. Singapore Changi International Airport alone is linked to 140 cities in 50 countries, with more than 3,250 weekly passengers and cargo flights. When it comes to BPO, these connections represent crucial ready physical deployment on-site when necessary.
Singapore also has a ready pool of skilled manpower with strong technical expertise in existing and emerging technologies. Many have extensive domain knowledge across high-end sectors including financial, biotechnology, logistics, healthcare and IT. Over 55 per cent of Singapore's 104,000 base of Infocomm manpower have degree qualifications or higher, while 25 per cent possess diploma qualifications. This puts Singapore in fifth place (after Iceland, Austria, Israel and Finland) for its pool of readily-available skilled labor (Source: Institute for Management Development World Competitiveness Yearbook 2003).
And because of its multi-ethnic, highly mobile workforce, foreign talents can readily be deployed in Singapore. This facilitates crucial multi-language/ cultural support for businesses in Singapore as well as in other parts of Asia.
The competencies restrict not to manpower but also companies. As world-class service providers, they have also received certifications ranging from CMM, Suntone, BS7799 to Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery standards adherence. As part of the government's commitment to develop local capability, IDA assists companies in the innovation of their BPO service delivery and promotes R&D on outsourcing technologies.
By 2008, the global BPO market is set to hit an estimated net worth of over $170 billion U.S dollars (Source: Gartner) . To find out how you can tap into the BPO market - whether you are a BPO partner or a service provider, or someone making a decision to locate your BPO services in Singapore, contact IDA's BPO team at bpo@ida.gov.sg.