HONG KONG – United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) is looking at expanding its back-office operations in the Philippines as it sees the country as an important part of its operations in the region, top company officials said.

“We have a lot of administrative jobs in the Philippines and we continue to look at putting more administrative jobs in the Philippines,” UPS International president Daniel Brutto told reporters in a press conference held here late Wednesday.

Derek Woodward, UPS president for the Asia Pacific region, said in the same event that the firm is looking to expand its back office operations and maintain its presence in the Philippines as it considers the country to be one of its important markets.

He said that its business in the Philippines has continued to grow even after the firm’s intra-Asia hub was moved to Shenzen in China from Clark, Pampanga in 2010 to reduce shipment transit lines for its customers.

“Business is growing well in the Philippines… We’ve been there for several years and we expect that to continue,” he said.

He noted that UPS saw its workforce rise in the Philippines even after the old intra-Asia hub in Clark was converted to perform back-office operations.

Brutto said the firm also intends to maintain its presence in the Philippines by expanding administrative or back-office operations, which includes call centers, billing and brokerage, given the country’s competencies.

He noted that the country’s advantage at present is in performing administrative functions.

“We look at the education of the people, the language skills, the ability for folks to understand technology and we feel that the Philippines has a good work force, has young people who are educated, and speak English very well. Right now the Philippines can serve the need of many different countries in a very efficient way,” he said.

Woodward said that apart from expanding UPS’ back-office operations in the Philippines, the firm also intends to launch its new technology solutions to serve customers in the country.

He said the firm has plans of rolling out the delivery information acquisition device (DIAD) V, a handheld mobile device carried by UPS drivers to facilitate online customer tracking requests, in the Philippines.

Curt Rosseau, UPS vice president for information technology for the Asia Pacific region said in the same event that the DIAD V will be deployed in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and Vietnam this year, while the worldwide roll out is slated for 2013.

Source: By Louella D. Desiderio (The Philippine Star) Updated March 03, 2012 12:00 AM