Siemens Inc., a wholly owned Philippine unit of Siemens AG, is currently eyeing an IT outsourcing deal with a bank based in the U.S., president and CEO Tertius Vermeulen said in an interview with Computerworld Philippines.
Vermeulen said the deal would involve third-party programming work that can be outsourced to the Philippines.
Under the global Siemens Business Services unit, Siemens Inc. operates a call center facility in the Philippines that provides third-party help desk services. The facility currently employs some 400 agents.
In the region, Siemens also has a call center in Singapore that primarily serves the internal requirements of the business. The company also operates similar centers in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Canada, and Turkey.
Siemens is looking to expand its call center workforce in the Philippines to 2,000 people in the near-term, Vermeulen said. The company opened its outsourcing division in the Philippines last January and follows other global players like IBM that also have business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in the country.
'There is room for everybody and I believe there are differences in the kind of services we offer compared to IBM or, say, Infosys of India. We are focused on the high-end part of the (outsourcing) business,' Vermeulen said.
Dr. Klaus Wucherer, a member of the corporate executive committee of Siemens AG, said the Philippines produces some 80,000 IT engineers every year, which is a lot more than most countries in the region.
'The Philippines is in a much better position economically than ten years ago,' said Wucherer, who is currently conducting visits in selected countries including the Philippines, India, and China.
Vermeulen added, 'The skill sets are there but we need to push IT more.'