Stream to be world's top BPO firm

The world's biggest business process outsourcing firm in the next few years may be based in the Philippines as recently merged Stream Global Services and eTelecare Global Solutions have been easily raking in billions of revenues and employing the most number of people in the country, the BPO firm's CEO announced recently.

The company's CEO and Chairman, Scott Murray, said that in three to five years, the consolidated Stream of New York and Filipino-owned eTelecare could be the top BPO firm across the globe with the $5-billion worth of revenues it generates, besides the 50,000 people it employs, reported the Manila Bulletin.

Stream has the ability to increase to five times from what it is now over the intermediate-term along with the existing trends that favor mergers. Consolidated BPOs are being preferred by customers who are consolidating themselves. There are plenty of opportunities for aggressively buying small players and the shareholders of the mergers can fund those acquisitions, he said.

Stream has a 57.5-percent merger control, while eTelecare's parent company Ayalas EGS Corp. has 42.5 percent.

Murray stressed that the Philippines is very much preferred among the clients of Stream and said that the country would follow India's footsteps of becoming a leader in application development, citing work ethic and better quality of English here as the reasons.

However, the executive also warned that government support in the country is an essential factor in the development of the BPO, compared to India.

Stream is now among the five leading outsourcers across the globe and it opened in the country two years ago. It has also been in business for the last 15 years and chose the Philippines to be its Asia Pacific corporate headquarters while its expansion is taking place in Japan and China.