New York listed Stream Global Services and eTelecare Global Solutions, a subsidiary of one of the largest companies in the Philippines Ayala Corporation, have merged creating an outsourcing monster.

Stream has 50 contact centers located in 22 countries. It manages a staggering 100 million voice, e-mail, and chat contacts a year from customers around the globe.

Sources close to Stream indicated that they have a strong investment appetite and they intend to invest heavily in the Philippines this year. The company currently employs approximately 12,000 people over eight sites in the Philippines.

“We’re here to build a business of size,” said a Stream senior executive, adding that the Philippines has the potential to surpass India as the leading outsourcing destination in the world. “The Philippines has a workforce that can serve high-value clients in back-office functions and also potentially in technology,” he added.

Stream’s expansion plans have delighted the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) who forecasts 26 percent growth in the sector as economies recover from the recent global financial downturn.

Walden International, Olympus Capital, and other investors have pump primed Quatrro BPO Solutions, which employs 3,000 people and has established its presence in India, China, Sri Lanka, and the United States in anticipation of a growth spurt in the Business Process Outsourcing industry worldwide. The initial trench is US$13 million.

Founder Raman Roy says, “The additional funding gives us dry powder to work on deals.” The company aims to implement its organic and inorganic growth strategy through its newly acquired venture capital.

Walden India managing director Rajesh Subramanium says, “We are backing best in breed companies that don’t play in a cluttered segment. The Quatrro model presents the next generation of the BPO wave. Quattro BPO Solutions is their first investment in an outsourcing company in India.

“The client engagement model of Quatrro is outcome based. There is non-linear growth opportunity here unlike in several BPOs where revenue growth is in sync with manpower growth. Hence we see a better realisation opportunity in Quatrro.”

Quatrro BPO Solutions focuses on SMEs, and has already made six investments such as in Auxicogent, gaming business Babel, Flexitronics BPO, and Scope eKnowledge, to name some.

As the Philippines’ Business Process Outsourcing industry matures and looks to new locations to bring into the surging industry, this year’s Top 10 “Next Wave” Cities for outsourcing companies, compiled by the Commission on ICT, Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and the Department of Trade and Industry, was announced recently.

Davao City in the Southern Philippines emerged as the front runner while cities of Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Dumaguete, Malolos, and Sta. Rosa (Laguna) also make it to the list.

Davao was highly rated for human talent, infrastructure, operating costs and its business environment. Currently, Davao employs 6,500 agents and is home to 20 outsourcing companies.

“There were 10 travel advisories by embassies issued last year and Davao was mention in six of those,” said Gillian Joyce Virata, BPAP executive VP

The study also showed that BPO and IT in Metro Manila went down from 82 percent in 2007 to 78 percent, and that this year’s top 10 cities posted an amazing 148 percent employment growth in 2009.

Fast food giant Burger King is celebrating the opening of the BK Call Center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a “Remember the Number” contest, where customers are encouraged to get creative with BK Call Center stickers with the number 600 5 2222 4 on them. They are to stick them in unusual locations, take a photo and upload it to the “Burger King UAE” Facebook fan page, where members will vote on two weekly winning entries.

Burger King aims to offer a centralised service to handle customers’ orders wherever they are in the UAE. BK Call Center agents take customer orders, answer queries and receive complaints in both English and Arabic.

Yasser Abdel Azim, General Manager of First Food Services L.L.C. (Burger King franchisee in the UAE) says, “With the launch of this call center, BK customers in the UAE now have to remember just one easy number to place orders for their favourite flame-grilled burgers – irrespective of the restaurant location. Not only does this eliminate the hassle of finding the appropriate landline number for a particular BK restaurant, it also minimizes the chance of the customer calling to find the line busy.”

Robert Bosch inc. has opened the Robert Bosche Communication Center Inc. (RBCCI) in the Philippines – the company’s first call centre in the Asia Pacific region. The RBCCI is located in the Fort Legend Towers, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, and offers technical support for Bosch customers across the region.

The RBCCI went live right after the holidays in January. This new facility realises Bosch’s strategic global expansion into the BPO industry.

Bosch is aiming for 200 seats by the end of 2010, with provisions for more seats next year. Future plans comprise a portfolio of 70 percent external clients, while the rest serves Bosch’s own customers.

Established in the Philippines over 80 years ago, Robert Bosch Incorporated operates its main business segments in the country, such as automotive original equipment, automotive aftermarket, and power tools. At present, it has 80 employees in its Makati office.

The entrance of Siemens into the procurement outsourcing sector is quite a surprise, but Ray Crowe, Siemens’ director of portfolio and strategy, thinks it’s a great opportunity for the company.

“Most clients have a procurement organisation but we can help in a couple of areas that typically go unmanaged such as one-time or minor purchases. We don’t necessarily replace their existing procurement service; we compliment it and drive savings” said Mr. Crowe.

Most businesses utilise an internal or external procurement organisation for sizeable purchases, but there is also quite a number of one-time purchases that often gets neglected. Crowe admits that procurement is quite a turnaround for Siemens’ IT solution (their business mainly front end, to providing back end services), but he stands firm for the direction that Siemens has taken. “We cover all aspects of internal procurement: software, hardware, buildings and facilities. We have tremendous buying power.”

Crowe also adds, “We are one of the largest users of SAP and Microsoft, and we supply SAP and Microsoft services to clients, host their exchange, help them adopt these functions, design it, help them build it, host and maintain it for them.”

Siemens started offering outsourced procurement services to existing clients that had previously overlooked cost savings on minor purchases.

“We provide a full portfolio of procurement technologies, consulting and outsourcing and we can create a relationship with their [incumbent] procurement provider,” says Crowe. “For us, it is about adding value to the client experience and adding to our portfolio of services. It allows us to have a proven solution – we can demonstrate that it works. There is no better way of testing it than using it ourselves and that concept is important for the customer, they are not tasting the first oyster,” he adds.

A Chinese group plans to develop the largest contract manufacturing facility based in Beijing. The US$120 million project will be located in the Beijing Yizhuang Development Zone, a business zone with more than 100 existing biopharma ventures.

The concept of contract manufacturing has been increasing, as pharmaceutical firms find ways of improving efficiency and cutting costs. By using outsourcing manufacturing, drug makers are able to have more flexibility and balance production to demand. To take layers of cost out of the production process, companies are finding it’s more cost effective to move manufacturing work to Asia, where low labor costs makes production considerably less expensive than Ain Europe or US.

The Chinese CMO development – with interest from large Pharmaceuticals’ and their aspirations is in good shape and the future looks bright.

Drugmakers are flocking to the economic zone – both for Chinese domestic sales and for the ability to cost effectively supply mainstream international markets. The latest contract manufacturing hub is a venture of Suma Ventures, Autek Bio, and Beijing Yizhuang International Co.