Challenges of small call center business like talent recruitment, high attrition rate, government incentives and rising cost of power and utilities were talked about during the SME panel discussion at the Contact Center Association of the Philippines conference. Due to the high labor cost and high power rates, small and Medium Call Center companies ask for the assistance of the government to give them additional tax incentives so that they will be able to compete with the large companies.

There are more than 300 small and medium enterprises call center firms in the BPO industry. Small companies have 1,000 and below employees, medium has 1,000 to 5,000 and large with 5,000 and above. According to Beaver Lopez Jr., chief executive officer (CEO) of Pacific Hub, the enticement for SME must be different from that of the large companies. As a general rule, tax and holiday incentives is given in the first five years of operations whether large or small companies. Edith Reilly, president of TrecPacific Corp., stated that the government incentives for the SMEs are not sufficient because the cost of doing business in the Philippines has been growing. The foreign exchange rate had changed from P50 down to P 43. Majority of their clients are SMEs in the United States. [via malaya.com.ph]