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Painting the picture of the aftermath of a cyberattack – a single cyberattack at an enterprise level can cost Php 52.4 million. The amount is Php 2.4 million more than the annual fund allocated for the implementation of the country’s Cybercrime Act (Republic Act 10175). It is with this scenario that Singapore-based field chief security officer of Palo Alto Network Inc., Ian Lim points out the need for the Philippines to stay guarded because of the high possibility of attacks on its BPO Industry – one of the country’s major revenue-generators.

Singapore envisions a transition in the industry’s role form wholesale outsourcing providers to co-developers of digital projects together with the government. GovTech Director of Procurement Yu Ling Mah recommend to companies interested in partnering to invest in upskilling their employees in various technologies and secure cyber practices to win bids.

The shift to work-from-anywhere setup which was influenced and accelerated by the pandemic has led to the rise in demand for flexible spaces. In India, the flex workplace segment has gained the position of being one of the major sellers in the office market. The country’s flexible stock in the next 3 years is expected to increase by 10-15% year-on-year from today’s 36 Mn sq. ft.

India’s liberalized guidelines for voice-based BPOs removes the differentiation between domestic and international units and permits interconnectivity among all types of other service providers (OSP) centers. This means that companies with voice-based centers in the country can now service both global and domestic customers using common telco resources. This is a shift from what before was required to have a dedicated and separate infrastructure. The simplified guidelines are meant to offer greater ease of business and clearer regulations, which mean lesser compliance burden and help for the tech industry.

The Philippine IT-BPO sector sees a potential revenue growth of $29 billion and an estimate of 160,000 more jobs by 2022 amidst the pandemic, according to an industry leader. The sector continues to show resilience and has even become a fast-growing dollar export contributor to the country’s economy even in the last year when its revenue was $26.7 billion, and it was able to add 23,000 new hires.