The Outsourcing Blog

Non-voice Services Are Growing More Popular In Philippine BPO Companies

Kathy Mateo — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:33:38 +0000

During the first few years of the BPO trend in the Philippines, outsourcing companies were still commonly referred to as “call center companies.” True enough, most if not all of these companies exclusively offered customer support, which is mainly voice-based services. However, when the BPO started to be one of the international businesses’ major business strategies, clients’ demand for outsourcing tasks expanded. Businesses were needing more than just customer service from their outsourcing providers. With this, the BPO companies in the Philippines, both under local and foreign management promptly addressed the new and growing demands of the clients. The team of web developers was one of the earliest non-voice team established in most companies.

Establishing a non-voice BPO company has also been an attractive business venture for more investors mainly because of the less competition and investment cost. The increasing number of BPO companies in the country, especially those specializing in non-voice services has provided limitless career opportunities for the IT professionals and graduates in the country. This has also been a great contribution in the local government’s goal of strengthening the IT capacity of the country year after year. With many companies to work for, IT professionals and other Virtual Assistants would have more opportunities to enhance their talents since they are operating on international standards, and this is also a good way of promoting Filipino’s IT literacy to the rest of the world.

Some of the most popular non-voice tasks in the country recently are: Data entry, Web development, Web design, SEO, and Content Writing.

Non-voice Services Are Growing More Popular In Philippine BPO Companies is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Essentials for Online Start-up Businesses

Kathy Mateo — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:38:19 +0000

Most start-up online businesses find themselves wandering in a directionless path. There are too many options available, which complicate things further. There is also a long list of competitors that have already established themselves in the online realm. All these should not be seen as threats by the start-up business though, but instead as their starting point. Competitor and market research can be done to simplify things for the company, and to eventually give them the right direction that will work perfectly for their business. A business always has to start with the basics, before they can join the rest of their competitors in the game.

For online businesses, a website is a must. This is the best way of establishing an online presence. With the high availability of virtual assistants having a website is no longer as expensive and tedious as it used to be. Hiring web developers and designers as virtual assistants will make this first crucial step easier for the business.
However, to strengthen the online presence, a start-up business should not only stop at having a website. Being new in the online community, they also need to exert extra efforts to be noticed amidst the many business websites crammed in the cyberspace. This is where strategic internet marketing comes in. Some of the most common ways of marketing your business online is through pay per click advertising, article marketing, and search engine optimization. But the priority for businesses that are dealing with their new web sites is to conduct a thorough keyword research, in order to have the most accurate keywords phrases for the business. These marketing efforts usually take a month or more to create an impact, and it can usually be very tiresome if the tasks are not delegated properly.

Lastly and more importantly, the secret of successful online businesses is to be clear and certain enough with the product or services that they want to market, because any marketing effort is futile if the company itself is not certain of what it really wants to market. It is also important that the rest of the marketing members of the company whether they are working offshore or in-house fully understands the goals and image of the business they are working for.

Essentials for Online Start-up Businesses is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Virtual Personal Assistant for your Maximum Productivity

Kathy Mateo — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:14:06 +0000

The main reason why people opted to settle for your online business, aside from the guarantee of huge profit, is the flexible working time and place. Thus, when you are like most of these trendy money-makers these days, who work anywhere except in the office, and who switches the working schedule from time to time hiring a personal assistant or secretary to help you out with all your business processes is definitely not a very practical idea. One day, you may just work inside your own bedroom, then the next day you might decide to take your work to a resort or a coffee shop. Your PA cannot be as mobile as you are. Fortunately, this mobility of the assistance that you badly need for your business operations can be achieved if you hire a Virtual Personal Assistant. To give you a clearer picture, below are the many advantages that a Virtual PA can offer:

They work even if you don’t – most of these Virtual PAs are located in places with different time zone from yours. With this, you are assured that someone is still watching over your business even if your are sleeping.
Affordable Rates – when you hire an in-house secretary, there may be more expenses that you still need to shoulder like their transportation, their telephone bills, and even their food. But for a Virtual Assistant, you only have to pay a fix, and relatively cheap rate for all the help he or she can give you mainly because of the cheaper cost of living in their country.
Easier Communication – the internet has it all. There are already so many available collaboration tools that you can use to be updated with the progress of your VA. These tools are also useful in giving prompt notifications to your VA.
Proper Documentation – since all instructions and outputs are basically done online, then it will be easier for you to track all your transactions with your VA.
Diversity in Perspectives - this is probably the most overlooked advantage of hiring someone offshore. Since you and your assistant come from different environments you have the benefit of a fresh perspective (from your VA) that you might just need to speed up the growth of your business.

Some of the many tasks that a Virtual PA can do are: E-mail management, Customer Support, Calendar Management, Encoding, Report Creation, and other Administrative Tasks.

Virtual Personal Assistant for your Maximum Productivity is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

NDcastro — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 04:04:53 +0000

In today’s fast-paced life, virtual assistants have become increasingly necessary in processing business transactions. A lot of people have availed of their services recently, but if you’re new to this kind of thing, you may wonder what a virtual assistant is. As obvious as the answer may be, it’s good to know exactly the kind of person you’re going to hire, as well as your role expectations from him/her.

A virtual assistant,by definition, is someone who gives professional services, and their most common work involves business process outsourcing. VAs usually do transactions through Skype and email, enabling employers to contact them whenever they are needed.

Additionally, virtual assistants can work at a relatively good pace. Philippine virtual assistants, for instance, are well-known for their great work ethic, since they place an emphasis on customer satisfaction above everything else.
The offices that VAs work in also vary wildly from each other. Some of them work in outsourcing companies, while others prefer to work independently at home. There’s not really much difference in output when it comes to workplace, especially if you’re lucky enough to employ one who has a good track record.

Of course, many virtual assistants are also fluent in the English language, which is, admittedly, one of the most used languages in the world besides Chinese. Transactions with employers overseas are made easier because of this.

So now that you know what virtual assistants are and what they’re capable of, consider hiring one to do your projects if you have your hands tied with work. They’ll be a big help to you and your business, and you would be rewarded greatly with more income if they do their work properly. You’d still have to supervise and direct their work from time to time, but at least they can give you more time to do whatever activities that you choose to pursue.

What Is A Virtual Assistant? is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Reasons to Outsource Your SEO Tasks

NDcastro — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:35:47 +0000

Search engine optimization is important in making your online businesses popular. Because of this, people employ SEO specialists to do the dirty job for them, and this can involve outsourcing from another company altogether. While it’s not a difficult job compared to other IT jobs in the field, it takes quite a lot of time and effort to be successful at it. So is this enough reason to outsource your SEO tasks? Let’s find out.

SEO is time-consuming. While you can do SEO yourself, it is quite taxing, since you have to know everything about it. If you’re the type of person or company who doesn’t want to waste a lot of time constantly researching popular keywords, generating new content and fixing your website up, then it would be best to hire someone else so you can focus on other more important tasks and be free from the hassle of the trade.

It’s cheaper to outsource. While you may have a team of specialists under your wing, it’s cheaper to outsource especially if you’re strapped for cash. This means that you can save up to 70% of costs by hiring a company that can do this job for you.

Virtual assistants are becoming more and more adept at SEO. Don’t worry about getting poor results from outsourcing –most outsourcing companies today have a large pool of talents waiting for that next job, and with their extensive experience, your website is going to enjoy online traffic more and more when done right. And what’s more, there’s less chance of you messing up the work.

While this may equate to more spending on your part, outsourcing your SEO work is really a viable option for you. It keeps you from getting your hands tied, it’s cheaper to do so, and you can be assured that it’s going to be done right. What more could you possibly ask for?

Reasons to Outsource Your SEO Tasks is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Clicking the Right Social Networking Sites for Business Promotions

bvillarosa — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:18:45 +0000

The Internet has a global sphere of about seven billion users. Minus the population who does not have Internet access, there is still a considerable number who engages in social networking sites to keep in touch with their family, friends, or make new acquaintances that share their common interests. These are the very people who can become potential customers to your online business especially if you have a market oniche in mind. But if you really want to maximize your business online presence, joining in the business oriented social networking sites is a viable option for your business promotions.

There are many helpful sites for your business promotion online. Facebook and Twitter can be of help although they are more socially oriented sites that focus more in social interaction and communication. Your business promotion can be limited to word-of-mouth or recommendations advertising in this type of social networks so it is encouraged to invest more in the business-oriented social networking sites. Popular business social networking sites like LinkedIn, PartnerUp, Ryze and same others can help you greatly in expanding your business contacts, promoting your products and services online, and aids in enhancing websites ratings and page rankings in search engines like Google.

Much like their socially-inclined counterparts, their signing up process is the same and all you need is your email address. They have business features in their profile pages like job hiring alerts, links to business resources, and other related business data base. They help you in telling other companies and professionals about your products and services and even share tricks of the trade with people from the same industry that you are in. Your business networking is expected to highly improve clicking the right social networking sites for your business promotions that consequently add hefty amounts to your profit.

Clicking the Right Social Networking Sites for Business Promotions is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

The Role of Search Engines in Internet Marketing

NDcastro — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:29:28 +0000

The nature of businesses have stayed relatively the same over the course of human civilization. Business owners provide some supplies in order to satisfy unmet demands. This is the basic, underlying economic principle that pervades every transaction in this capitalistic world. And to be an effective and profitable business in this day and age, advertising is key, and this is where search engines come in.

So we’ve all heard the terms SEO countless times before, but thinking about it, why should you care? Let’s say that you make enough profit running your own business without the help of Internet marketing, and that your clientele is stable enough to sustain your venture for at least a few years. This is especially true for small and medium enterprises, which usually targets local customers. But if you want to expand your businesses and transform it into something much more than that, you’re going to need the help of the World Wide Web.

It may be a bit sad to admit this, but in this decade, search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing are gods –people turn to them for the answer to their plaguing questions. The surprising thing about it is that they often hold the answers. Now let’s say that they’re looking for a certain product or service, and that they’re too tired to go downtown themselves to find what they’re looking for. What they would do is sit down in front of a computer, log in, and go to search engines to find what they want.

Think about it from the customer’s perspective –if what they want comes up at the first page of any search engine results page, then they would tend to ignore the rest of the results on the next pages, whether they’re completely good sites or not. Imagine if your website is one of the lucky ones to land in the first page. The end result would be that you’d attract more buyers into your site, and simply put, more buyers equal to more profit.

So how do you take advantage of this? Through search engine optimization, of course.

The Role of Search Engines in Internet Marketing is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Busting Some Outsourcing Myths

NDcastro — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:30:40 +0000

Business process outsourcing has been around for quite some time, and it has gained even more recognition in recent years in the field of information technology. Like any industry out there, it has its own flaws, but some of what people point out are sadly misguided and are brought about by the grave misinterpretation of what it actually is. In order to fully understand and appreciate what business process outsourcing is, we have to first debunk some myths associated with it.

Sense of control lost over projects. The source of this myth is quite understandable, since outsourcing entails delegating your tasks to third-party companies that have little to no knowledge of what your work is all about. Eventually, outsourcing companies may have more control over the projects than you do. Maybe that’s true, but only up to a certain extent. Outsourcing companies need a lot of detailed input before they can proceed. While you, as the employer, may have no control over the means in which the business process is executed, you have complete freedom to direct them to achieve the desired results.

Outsourcing actually increases the rate of onshore unemployment. Again, this is not true. As the rate of technological innovation increases, the number of people involved in any business operation decreases. This inverse proportion is not brought about by outsourcing however, although it may seem so because of the great number of tasks that are being sent offshore. The phenomenon of automation is responsible for the decrease in human resource demand, with employers preferring machines to do menial tasks these days.

It is easy to blame outsourcing as the cause of some business problems, but looking at it objectively, it actually isn’t. Whatever problems there are in any business companies aren’t caused by offshoring work, but other factors as well. Take those into consideration if you’re still hesitant to outsource your charges.

Busting Some Outsourcing Myths is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Why Filipinos Make Great Outsourcing Agents

NDcastro — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:14:58 +0000

Those without prior contact with Filipinos may not know what they’re like, or why they make for great outsourcing agents. While the rest of the world indulges in a certain degree of ethnocentrism, Filipinos, by virtue of their colorful history, are engineered to be highly adaptable and flexible when it comes to tasks and encounters with Western cultures. Here are some things that you may want to know about the Philippines’ ever lovable people.

The Philippines has been a colony of three major countries over the last 400 years –namely Spain, the United States and, for a brief moment, Japan. While the Spanish colony had the most influence in terms of culture, the United States swiftly followed suit and aimed directly at educating the Filipinos in the proper use of the English language. The Japanese during the time oppressed the Filipino people, which led the latter to come to love their freedom of speech.

Of course, it would be unfair to condense four centuries of culture into one paragraph, but by that picture alone, we can imagine what kind of people the Filipinos are. They have had so many interactions with foreigners that they are completely used to it. They are highly sensitive to cultural changes and can adapt accordingly.

Furthermore, staff shortage is relatively rare in outsourcing companies, since there is a large number of Filipinos ready to be trained at any given time. Turnover rates are relatively lower than their Indian counterparts, which make them highly desirable to employers who want to outsource their work.

So from a historical and cultural perspective, we can see why Filipinos make great outsourcing agents. Of course, they can go far if they want to, but if you have some of them working for you, consider yourself really lucky. Take care of them, and you can rest assured that your company will definitely grow with them at your partners.

Why Filipinos Make Great Outsourcing Agents is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant

Avoiding Bad Outsourcing Companies

NDcastro — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:45:05 +0000

As long as people act out of their own selfish interests, the art of scamming will forever be ingrained into the human system. With this fact in mind, it is vital to choose people you can trust, especially with your tasks. If you’re a company seeking to outsource your work to third-party companies, you have to know the kind of companies that you should avoid. Here are some things you should watch out before you delegate those tasks to who-knows-where.

Consistently late. This is probably one of the worst things that could happen to any business company. You waste a lot of time and money just to get minimum output. Outsourcing companies that are consistently late with the tasks can be bad for business, and you could lose a lot more money if you don’t remind or reprimand them for this behavior. While this tardiness can be attributed to many factors, such as a faulty Internet connection or misunderstandings of the tasks, this doesn’t mean that you always have to tolerate it.

Minimal Output. Just because you outsource your work doesn’t mean that you should receive the least amount of output possible. Make sure that the virtual assistants you hire are enthusiastic about the tasks you assign, and always monitor their work to know if they’re doing well. If they still perform adversely under your meticulous watch, then maybe it’s time to switch outsourcing companies.

Outrageous Payment Modes. If the companies that you hire still insist on being paid despite their shoddy work, that’s the signal for you to bail out and look for other companies. Make sure that the rates are clear before entering any contract with them, in order to avoid getting stuck with a debt that you never wanted in the first place. Visibility is key, output essential, and payment modes fair.

Avoiding Bad Outsourcing Companies is a post from: RemoteWorkMate who service many clients worldwide ...

Philippines Virtual Assistant