Some markets in the Caribbean region, namely the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago are considered some of the more attractive destinations for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

These markets have been identified for their competitive pricing (low labour and operational costs), well-educated and multilingual workforce, flexible regulatory framework, modern cost effective infrastructure, connectivity, cultural affinity, time-zone advantages and close geographic proximity to North America, its key source market.

To date, the Caribbean region has attracted more than 20 new foreign-owned call centres during the past three years, with a total investment value of US$170 million, creating close to 15,000 new job opportunities.

Large investors include Open Mobile, Health Centre Benefits, Convergys and Acquire BPO (Dominican Republic), Qualfon and Teleperformance (Guyana), DHL, Xerox, IBEX Global Solutions, Cimpress (Vistaprint) and Cable and Wireless worldwide (Jamaica).

Today, the region is expanding its offering into new BPO segments, including Finance & Accounting Outsourcing, Human Resources Outsourcing and Legal Process Outsourcing in the Bahamas, Barbados. Belize, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, respectively.

Trinidad & Tobago has attracted investments from the banking sector, with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Scotiabank operating their customer services from the island. Canadian Imperial Bank has been offshoring parts of their operations to Barbados since 2006. Trinidad & Tobago also has the highest per-capita population of accountants in the world, consequently, Scotiabank opted to establish a shared services and processing centre in Port of Spain.

BPO and other professional services generated over US$2 billion in revenue in 2014. In 2015, there were more than 200 delivery centres and 74,000 agents.

Dominican Republic and Jamaica take the lead with 53,000 agents employed. Over five years, there has been an increase of 44,700 workers and the industry has grown at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent.

Calculations show that companies in the region generate close to US$25 million in revenue for every 1,000 agents. The level of profit is around 7 per cent for call centres and close to 15 per cent for non-voice, back-office shared services.

There is also an emerging global trend presently, where BPO clients are now shifting their focus from cost savings to more high-quality services, and this is likely to boost further investment opportunities in the region.

In May 2019, during the recent Outsource to the Caribbean Conference in Curacao, two significant achievements and milestones took place. Firstly, memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed between Caribbean Export, Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA), the Caribbean Association of Telecommunications Organizations (CANTO) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Caribbean to demonstrate a strong commitment to work together to continue supporting the growth and development of the Caribbean’s BPO sector.

There was also the hosting of the first Caribbean BPO of the Year Awards, which sought to celebrate the accomplishments of Caribbean BPO firms over the period 2017-2018, with a focus on jobs created, investment and innovation in service delivery. itelBPO of Jamaica and The Bahamas copped the coveted award.

Qualfon of Guyana won the Caribbean BPO Investor and Caribbean BPO Innovators of the Year Awards.

In conclusion, one can attest to the fact that in 2019 and beyond the BPO industry will experience accelerated growth as a result of growing competitiveness from new outsourcing destinations and pressure on existing business to become more efficient and cost conscious.

According to a report from global property firm Cushman & Wakefield, while businesses in this industry will have no alternative but to cut costs, the industry will continue to grow by 6 per cent annually for the next six years.

There will be increased transparency in global outsourcing policies, increased investments in robotic automation, improvements in education and start-ups will play more of a critical role in the outsourcing sector. Overall, the global outsourcing industry is predicting to achieve market growth of US$332.4 billion by 2025.

Paula Marcelle-Irish is ACCA head of business development and members.