Acme is seeking an experienced Customer Service agent to support a B2B program operating in Singapore. The ideal candidate will be a customer-focused individual with 1-2 years experience in Customer Service and have at least 6 months of recent experience Singapore engaging with Singaporean nationals.

Requirements:

• 1-2 years of customer service experience.
• Additional sales experience is a plus.
• Internet and computer savy.
• Singapore contact center experience.

Expectations:

• Self-directed.
• Comfortable communicating written and spoken English.
• Comfortable working with CRM or Help Desk application.

About Acme BPO
Acme BPO Consulting works with organizations to simplify and economize the process of offshoring BPO as well as Contact and Call Center work to the Philippines. We think that outsourcing needn’t be complicated, nor compromise quality and efficiency. We help entities from bootstrappers to enterprise business units develop and deploy pragmatic solutions for process delivery in a flat world. Read more at http://acmebpo.com/
Email us at: over@acmebpo.com with your resume and relevant information.

Acme BPO

Acme is seeking an experienced Data Encoder to support its data entry and management operations in Makati Manila, Philippines. The ideal candidate will be a detail oriented individual with 1-2 years experience. Applicants with management (team-level) experience.

Requirements:

• 1-2 years of experience with data management
• Internet and computer savy
• 60-70 WPM

Expectations:

• Self-directed
• Strict confidentiality of business operations
• Comfortable with written and spoken English

About Acme BPO
Acme BPO Consulting works with organizations to simplify and economize the process of offshoring BPO as well as Contact and Call Center work to the Philippines. We think that outsourcing needn’t be complicated, nor compromise quality and efficiency. We help entities from bootstrappers to enterprise business units develop and deploy pragmatic solutions for process delivery in a flat world. Read more at http://acmebpo.com/

Email us at: over@acmebpo.com with your resume and relevant information.

Acme BPO

Acme BPO is currently looking for entry level WordPress developer to join our team. The relentless pursuit of perfection should be one of your personality traits. Here are some more things about you:

If you know the difference between an array and an object and you’re passionate about building well-conceived and well-constructed responsive web sites for our customers, email us at: over@acmebpo.com with your resume and relevant information.

About Acme BPO
Acme BPO Consulting works with organizations to simplify and economize the process of offshoring BPO as well as Contact and Call Center work to the Philippines. We think that outsourcing needn’t be complicated, nor compromise quality and efficiency. We help entities from bootstrappers to enterprise business units develop and deploy pragmatic solutions for process delivery in a flat world. Read more at http://acmebpo.com/

Acme BPO

We spend a lot of time thinking about call center agent productivity. Depending on the project, you might look at leads to increase contact ratios, increase the pacing of your predictive dailer to speed the call arrival (to the agent desktop), improve learning to enhance product knowledge and thereby reduce talk time. As a relatively small organization, we strive to maximize each agent’s time since each process (queue) we manage on behalf of clients offshoring to the Philippines is correspondingly small (5-15 agents) and subject to greater scrutiny because our work output has a direct impact on our clients’ operations.
One way we improve performance is to configure and deploy a CRM for each campaign rather than on a hosted dialer Asterisk. Many of our projects have associated workflows that lend themselves well to Capsule CRM. Here’s why:

Manage Your Workflow
Major tasks can be collected into “Tracks” or To Do lists, which are completed in sequence. These lists can be used to manage processes (fulfillment, for example) or to manage financially significant milestones.

Milestones can then be used to manage the project pipeline to create accountability for performance tied back to the financial expectations of the client.

Follow-up on Task Assignments
While Tracks structure workflow and tasks are assigned and managed based on the status, additional Tasks may be assigned as required and likewise managed by the Project Team Leader.

Monetize Your Data
Capsule’s Pipeline view provides a flexible way to monetize BPO activity by allowing Administrators to assign a percentage value to Milestones defined on configuration. By defining financial weights to Milestones, Team Leaders and Program Managers can gage team performance based on experience or program targets.

Integrate With Other Cloud-based Apps
Out-of-the-box, Capsule works with some applications, however with Zapier it integrates with a host of applications like Stripe and Mailchimp. We use Zapier for prototyping data movement between applications and then integrate through the API.

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Acme BPO

Acme assisted a U.S.-based service company with a local relocation from a managed facility to help them operate independently at reduced cost. Because the client had already selected a location; Acme was tasked with the procurement, build-out and migration duties. The specifics of the project include:

• Deployment timeframe 45 days.
• 30 personnel growing to 50 within 12 months.
• Cubicles and structured cabling.
• 24×7 Operations.
• Technology procurement: CCTV, networking gear, biometric access.

The key considerations for this Manila Back-office deployment include Facility, Build-out, and Project Management approach.

Facility Considerations
Beyond specific location within Makati, Ortigas, Taguig, etc. and intangible considerations such as business address and your neighbors: the building should have generator back-up and aircon should be metered rather than centrally controlled. Some buildings with central air-conditioning will charge a premium for after hours service and this is typically cost prohibitive for BPO operations. Generator back-up prevents down-time on those occasions when a typhoon comes to call.

Most buildings look for a three-five year lease and will extend one-two months consideration to allow you to build. They will generally ask for three months security and three months deposit. Most will have fees associated with common areas and parking.

Build-out Considerations
Construction can cover a pretty extensive cost range. Our approach typically runs at the low end of the spectrum. We achieve this by seeking locations that are warm shell at a minimum. “Warm Shell” in Manila real-estate parlance refers to space that has been built to include electrical, ceilings and floor topping.

Occasionally one can find facilities where the previous tenant is willing to sell its lease-hold improvements. These cases are rare and subject to good-timing and a bit of luck. Permitting is usually the province of the legal team handling the municipal filings. As a practical matter this is generally not very expensive, but will depend somewhat on the level of cooperation afforded by the building. The timeframe for construction is usually 30-60 days.

Acme BPO

Philippines_Financial Services BPO Deck

Acme BPO

Acme is seeking an ambitious Finance Manager for a growing international financial services company launching in Manila, Philippines. The ideal candidate  will have a broad knowledge of finance, business management, and business operations. Experience will include success managing teams in an office environment to achieve corporate objectives as well as P&L responsibility.

Requirements:

• 3-5 years of experience with financial management
• Knowledge of A/P and A/R
• Knowledge of payroll/comp and ben
• Collections and recovery experience is a plus
• Ambition to grow operations from start-up to 100M in 3 years

Expectations:

• Financial reporting and management
• Financial modelling and cash flow forecasting
• Strict confidentiality of business operations
• Ongoing communication with international team
• Day-to-day management of loan disbursement and collections

Acme BPO

When the world’s largest manufacturer and direct marketer of corporate solutions for safety, security, productivity and performance needed help to launch in the Philippines, they came to Acme. The scope of work included a feasibility study, pilot deployment and management support, site selection, key employee hires and vendor management.

Starting with working closely with the client to provide a survey of the Manila BPO landscape, Acme assisted with planning each phase of the launch of their Philippines back-office. The deployment covered the following plan:

• Assess Manila’s feasibility for a shared service center supporting twenty-nine brands through customer support, outbound sales, inbound sales, billing support, data encoding, data/order processing, and online marketing.
• Identify and hire key employees: Facility Management, Operations Management, Information Technology, and Human Resources.
• Locate and negotiate for a facility to launch a fifty-seat pilot.
• Survey real estate for deployment and assist in final lease negotiation.
• Identify and help select vendors for services ranging from technology deployment to facility maintenance.

Acme provided financial information on indicative rents, basic salary and payroll costs as well as average fees for computer and networking equipment to help create the business case for moving to back-office operations to the Philippines. Once the business case was approved and the decision made to begin with a pilot, Acme supported its client with ongoing assistance in all phases of deploying four queues including inbound order-taking and outbound sales for three different products in North America and Europe.

With the pilot deployed, the team focused on the client’s location and build-out requirements. This work encompassed site selection, vendor selection and management as well as the final migration of operations to their new facility.

Acme BPO

Recently we’ve received a number of inquiries about moving seats to the Philippines. If your company is planning to open a back-office in Metro Manila soon, this can help you start some pro forma planning. This is based on Acme’s experience earlier this year building and deploying two back-offices and one contact center. Anyone who wants more information should feel free to contact us.

This Manila Facility Selection and Build-out Summary is quoted in Philippine Pesos (PHP) and contemplates the following assumptions:

• Space for thirty seats with contiguous space for up to 100
• Metro Manila (National Capital Region) office space
• Twenty-four by seven (24×7) BPO operations
• Access control integrated into time and attendance
• Conference room, management offices, pantry
• Structured cabling

Metro Manila Facility Lease Considerations:
Leases usually require a three-five year commitment and will include an escalation clause beginning in the second year of the lease. Our lease isn’t unusual with 6.5% escalation on the anniversary of the lease in years 3/4/5. Escalation clauses vary widely depending on the landlord and location.

There are Common Area Charges as well as the Parking fees to be considered. CAM fees can run as high as 18%. Some buildings will negotiate on the CAM charges or their Lease fees but usually not both. All this is subject to both VAT at 12% and withholding tax at 5% unless you are moving to a Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) facility and plan to apply for certification.

Expect to pay anywhere from P600-1,100/month per square meter base rate in Makati depending on the quality of the building. If you are looking at Fort Bonifacio this will likely be higher, Ortigas runs less. This can be managed based on budget constraints and availability once we begin the site survey.

The generally accepted ratio of space to seat is 1 to 4. This includes your common areas such as training, conference, pantry and the seat area itself. If you plan to apply for PEZA status the ratio is higher, so plan for a much lower seat density. Buildings will generally allow one-two months consideration for the site build-out where rent is not charged.

Beyond location and quality considerations, the building should have generator back-up and air conditioning should be metered or the option should be available to install air-conditioning units on a metered basis. Some buildings with central air-conditioning will charge a premium for after-hours service and this is very cost prohibitive for BPO operations.

It’s also worth noting that the real estate market in Makati and Fort Bonifacio is highly competitive, the ability to move quickly on space as it becomes available is key to securing a desirable lease.

BPO Facility Build-out Summary:
Construction costs range dramatically. Acme’s approach typically runs at the low end of the spectrum. This section covers basic costs associated with carpeting general fit-out (carpet, paint, demolition and construction). For this section, I’m using figures derived from recent construction for thirty seats on per meter rate:

• Carpeting = ±P850/sqm  (includes materials and labor)
• Painting and basic construction = ±P850-1050/sqm (demolition is generally included in this figure)
• Structured cabling (network and electrical cabling)  = ±P4,500/station (includes materials and labor)
• Costs for the pantry and items such as window coverings would need to be estimated once a space has been located.

This above scenario does not include permitting as this is the province of the team handling municipal filings, generally. As a practical matter this is usually not very expensive, but will depend somewhat on the level of cooperation provided by the building.
The basic premise behind this cost model is that we locate a warm shell. A warm shell is a facility that has walls, flooring, air conditioning and electrical already installed. The timeframe for construction is usually 30-60 days and is likewise dependent on the level of cooperation of the building.

Network & Internet Summary:
Assumptions include network switches and routers sufficient for 30+ employees including wireless network using Cisco equipment for the network equipment with scalability to 48 employees. This section also covers cost for redundant internet connectivity as well as card swipe door access:

• Misc network gear and cabling = ±70,000 (includes patch panels, i/o ports, patch cables, etc.)
• Mini-rack for modems and switches = ±20,000
• Switches and UPS = ±250,000 (includes 2x 48 Cisco Catalyst switches POE and assumes desktop and hard phone for each employee, if employees don’t need hard phones, remove P100,000 from quote.)
• Facility access = ±31,500 (card controlled access + door lock installed)
• Computers = ±P17-27,000/depending on financing and configuration options
• Internet Capacity Primary Line 6MB = ±70,000/month and ±70,000 for installation
• Internet Capacity Secondary Line 2MB= ±35,000/month and ±35,000 for installation

Internet capacity is always dependent on the selected location for quotes and timelines. BPO’s should seek to segregate voice from data traffic based on actual capacity requirements and use two providers with different undersea routes and last mile providers. Telco deployment is always a gating item in that providers require thirty to forty-five days to install the line plus two-three days for testing.

Project Management & Procurement Summary:
Acme’s approach to a facility selection and call center build-out work engagement  is as transparent as we can make it:

• Set-up a web-based project server that captures all activity and accessible by international and local stakeholders. This site is the pivot point for the deployment discussion, estimates, approvals and the information pertinent to the project.
• Scheduled weekly calls for status updates and approvals.
• Assign a dedicated program manager who will oversee all planning, procurement, coordination and build-out/installation. Projects of this nature typically require 45-60 days from lease signing.
• Acme’s fees are structured at a flat hourly rate for management, procurement, site visits and the like plus 12% for negotiation and procurement.
• Based on comparable projects we estimate 300-340/hours/month for two months. We also budget 20-40 hours for preliminary meetings and initial scoping. We provide weekly detailed summaries of hourly program activity.

Acme BPO

We’re looking for a Traffic Coordinator to join our Makati-based online marketing team, Design Hive. You will work with freelancers, web developers, social and search marketers as well as clients to keep information flowing and bring projects in on time and on budget. If you have an eagle eye, an elephant’s memory and the poise of a jungle cat, we want you.  

You know:

• What IP, DNS, and URL mean
• How to explain difficult project details to a client
• The right thing to nudge a project along
• Project management with a light touch

• Comfortable with constant collaboration
• Web savvy beyond your years
• Able to work in a structured, deadline driven environment
• Committed to excellent work

If frictionless project delivery is your thing , apply using the link below. 

Acme BPO