经济学人18:走在后台服务的前沿

 　　Business.

　　商业。
　　Business-process outsourcing
　　业务流程外包
　　At the front of the back office
　　走在后台服务的前沿
　　How the Philippines beat India in call centres
　　菲律宾的呼叫中心是怎样打败印度的
　　IT'S midnight in Manila, and the capital is just waking up to the start of another working day. At the Worldwide Corporate 1 Centre office block, thousands of young Filipinos are crowding into endless open-plan offices. Once seated, they quickly start answering the questions and calming the frustrations 2 of vexed 3 American consumers beginning their own day on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
　　在马尼拉（菲律宾首都）的午夜12点，这座首都城市正慢慢步入第二天工作日。此时世界管理中心的办公大楼里，数千名菲律宾年轻人涌入无数的开放式办公室。一坐下，他们就迅速开始工作，对太平洋彼岸正开始新的一天的愤怒的美国消费者提出的咨询做出回答，并安抚他们的情绪。
　　These Filipinos are call-centre workers. To outsiders it is hardly a glamorous 4 profession, yet despite the antisocial hours these men and women have every reason to be as well-motivated and cheerful as they seem. They are well paid and know that they work at the heart of their country's most dynamic industry.
　　这些菲律宾人都是呼叫中心的员工。在外人看来，这不算是一个光鲜的职业，然而，尽管他们工作时间错乱，这些男男女女也有充分的理由可以像他们看上去的那么积极乐观。因为他们有很好的收入，并且知道他们在自己国家最有活力的行业中心工作。
　　The rise of what is known as business-process outsourcing (BPO) in the Philippines has been nothing short of phenomenal. The very first calls were taken in 1997; today the sector 5 employs 638,000 people and enjoys revenues of $11 billion, about 5% of the country's GDP. Last year the Philippines even overtook India, long the biggest call-centre operator in the world, in "voice-related services". The country now employs about 400,000 people at call centres, India only 350,000.
　　在菲律宾，业务流程外包的这一行业的崛起已经成为一种现象了。首次出现是在1997年；现在这个行业员工达到638,000人，营业总额达到110亿美元，约占全国GDP的5%。去年，菲律宾人在话务服务上，超越了长期以来全球最大的印度呼叫运营机构。现在，菲律宾呼叫中心有400,000名雇员，而印度只有350,000名。
　　The South-East Asian upstart (population 101m) is unlikely ever to surpass the South Asian behemoth (1.2 billion) across the entire range of outsourcing offerings, which also include all kinds of information-technology services. Yet given the extraordinary growth so far it is hard to gainsay 6 the Philippines' own projection 7 that its BPO industry could add another 700,000 or so jobs by 2016 and generate revenues of $25 billion. At that point, the industry would make up nearly a tenth of GDP and be bigger in value than the remittances 8 from the 10m Filipinos working overseas.
　　虽然，东南亚菲律宾的新贵（人数达到101,000,000）可能永远不能通过提供包括各种信息技术服务在内的全方位外包服务超过南亚的印度巨头（12亿）。然而，鉴于到目前为止的非凡增长，很难否认菲律宾对业务流程外包行业的规划，预计在2016年再增加700,000个工作岗位，收入达到250亿美元。到那时，整个行业的营业额将占全国GDP的十分之一，产值将超过来自1千万菲律宾海外工作者的汇款。
　　As in the call-centre business so far, some of these new jobs will come at the expense of India. Yet India's relationship with the Philippines in back-office work is more complex than the numbers suggest.
　　到目前为止，呼叫中心的一些新的就业机会是和印度竞争得来的。而印度和菲律宾在后台业务工作上的关系也不仅仅只是数量上的对比这么简单。
　　The main reason for the success of the Philippine call centres is that workers speak English with a neutral accent and are familiar with American idioms—which is exactly what their American customers want. Of these, many have taken to complaining bitterly about Indian accents (which no amount of "voice neutralisation" coaching seems to have overcome). As a result, the Indian firms themselves have been helping 9 to move jobs to the Philippines by setting up call centres in Manila and other parts of the country. Infosys and Wipro, as well as scores of other Indian firms, now have substantial operations there. And they aren't drawn 10 to Manila by cheap labour. Wages in the Philippines are slightly higher than in India since the Filipino accent commands a premium 11.
　　菲律宾呼叫中心成功的主要原因是它的工作人员能说不带地方口音的英文还能使用类似的美国习语——这恰恰是美国客户需要的。对于这些问题，很多人曾痛苦的抱怨印度口音（无论开展多少次"去除口音"训练，都没法克服印度口音）。结果，印度公司因为他们自己的不足使得他们把工作机会给了菲律宾马尼拉以及其他地区设立的呼叫中心。现在印孚瑟斯（Infosys）和威普罗（Wipro），以及其他同等级的印度公司，也有大量的业务在那。而且他们并不是被马尼拉的廉价劳动力吸引过去的。在菲律宾，因为员工的口音要求，需要支付额外的费用，他们的工资比印度人还要高一些。
　　It also helps that the country has a big pool of well-educated workers. The million or so Filipinos who graduate every year have few other options to choose from, besides emigrating. And working in a call centre is considered a middle-class job (new recruits start at $470 a month).
　　它还为一大批受过良好教育的菲律宾工作者提供了就业机会。每年有大约一百万的菲律宾毕业生除了移民没有什么可以选择的工作。而且在呼叫中心提供的是相当于中等阶层的工作（新员工一开始每月有470美元的收入）。
　　The big question is whether the Philippine BPO industry, having conquered the call-centre market, can now move up the value chain. To keep growing rapidly-and profitably-it needs to capture some of the more sophisticated back-office jobs, such as those processing insurance claims and conducting due diligence. In these businesses, called knowledge-process outsourcing and legal-process outsourcing, India still rules supreme 12.
　　菲律宾业务流程外包行业已经征服了呼叫中心市场，现在的大问题是它是否能提升企业价值链。要保持快速并且有利的增长，它需要抓住一些更复杂的后台业务，例如一些保险索赔和尽职调查。这些业务被称为知识流程外包和法律流程外包，在这方面印度仍处于领先地位。
　　Integreon offers a glimpse of what the future may hold. The firm occupies just a few discreet 13, very secure offices. It employs 300 people in Manila, 40 of them lawyers who help multinational 14 law firms with litigation. Familiarity with America helps. "It makes it very easy for us to do legal research for American firms," says Benjamin Romualdez, the firm's country manager.
　　让我们看看Integreon公司将会发生些什么。这个公司仅仅只占用了几个不起眼的安全的办公室。他在马尼拉有300名雇员，其中40人是律师，帮助跨国的律师事务所进行诉讼。精通美国诉讼。"它让我们能够轻松的对美国的公司进行法律研究，"该公司的区域经理Benjamin Romualdez说。
　　This sort of operation is new in Manila, but Mr Romualdez expects that he can find the skilled workers to double his workforce 15 over five years. Western banks have also discovered the Philippines. JPMorgan Chase now has over 25,000 workers on its own payroll 16 in the country, many of whom do much more than answering phones. The Philippines is set to compete with India across the BPO board.
　　这类机构在马尼拉还是新事物，但是Romualdez先生希望他能找到技术熟练的员工在未来的五年加倍努力。西方银行也发现了菲律宾。现在，摩根大通已经有25,000名这个国家的雇员，他们中的许多人不仅仅只是负责接电话的工作。菲律宾将在BPO峰会上与印度竞争。