News
04/12/2007 - Yellow Pages to move directory services to the Philippines
Operators in the Philippines will be handling New Zealand directory assistance calls from next year, as a result of Yellow Pages Group call centre functions being outsourced.
Teletech, a provider of business process outsourcing solutions, said today that about 100 Palmerston North call centre workers would be affected.
Teletech Country manager Jason Lock told NZPA today that his company had been awarded the contract to manage some functions of Yellow Pages.
Teletech signed a multi-year agreement with Yellow Pages Group and Teletech would manage existing personnel and assume client facilities in New Zealand, Mr Lock said.
"This takes effect from April 2008. In the initial stages, the activity and functions will be managed from Palmerston North and later from the Philippines from 2008." Mr Lock said that only the 018 and 0172 directory assistance programmes would be moving offshore.
"About 100 are affected by this move. Sitel, the current group managing the PN centre, has talked to staff."
Teletech would meet and advise the affected staff this week, Mr Lock said.
"It gives us some time to advise staff about opportunities and about redeployment to the Philippines and where possible, provide them opportunities beyond April 2008."
Mr Lock said the economic factor was just one of many reasons for the move overseas.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said yesterday the shift offshore would not provide a better service for New Zealand customers because English was a distant third language for the people who would be fielding calls.
However, Mr Lock said the customer service work done in the Philippines was of a very high standard.
"The English language capability is strong. The Filipino culture has been influenced very strongly by the past strong American presence there.
"The Philippines is also one of the largest English-speaking countries in the world which will surprise many Kiwis but it is a fact."
Their skills levels were also very high, Mr Lock said.
Teletech has 15,000 employees in the Philippines, the vast majority of whom were managing customer care technical support from English-speaking countries.
He said there was a possibility for opportunities for Kiwis to be redeployed in management roles in the Philippines.
"Filipino staff are mostly tertiary-educated and are tested for English language capabilities before being employed."
They were also tested in a business environment course and a component of the course was customised for the New Zealand environment like NZ places, names, Maori language, culture and geography.
Yellow Pages group operations director Greg Hurn said NZ consumers would continue to receive quality directory assistance services from Teletech.
Telecom sold the Yellow Pages to a private equity consortium for $2 billion in March.
- NZPA
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/National/YellowPagestomovedirectoryservicestothePhilippines/tabid/423/articleID/40297/Default.aspx?ArticleID=40297
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