Asian Quality

Industry-wide Certification affirms CBRE’s commitment to superior quality of its services to customers

CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Philippines Asset Services Group recently obtained the prestigious International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Certification 9001:2000 from Certification International Philippines, Inc.

According to CBRE Chairman Rick M. Santos, the company undertook the intense process required to achieve the certification to demonstrate its commitment to delivering superior real estate services to clients and ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.

“We’re very proud of our team and of achieving this industry benchmark, which validates our global mission to deliver superior results by always putting clients first,” Santos said.  “It reinforces our core values of Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence by enabling us to guarantee a very high level of service in every instance.” Obtaining the certification involved an audit of CBRE services delivered to all its property end users to confirm compliance with ISO standards.

ISO standardization involves procedures, documentation, policies, communications, personnel and infrastructure, and is meant to ensure efficient and orderly execution of business processes.

According to Quality Management Systems Manager James Escano, standardization of business processes has helped CBRE’s teams in Property Management, Facilities Management, Technical Services, Asset Management, and Project Management reduce costs by eliminating redundancy and errors. “These processes reinforce and ensure CBRE’s trademark attention to detail and commitment to excellence,” said Escano. “Even new employees will are finding that ISO standardization facilitates learning and delivery of the ‘CBRE brand’ of service.”

CBRE’s Asset Services Group is also undertaking ISO certification, and is working towards obtaining the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Certification 18001:1999. The Group expects to undergo a third-party audit in the second quarter of 2009.

Manila, Philippines, January 19, 2009–High-value business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider StarTek, Inc. (NYSE: SRT) inaugurated its Makati facility today with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and 80 senior industry officials attending the formal ceremony. StarTek began operations in the facility, which delivers services for Fortune 1000 corporations in the United States, in September last year. Beginning operations with approximately 50 pioneer managers and agents in September, StarTek is on its way to expanding that number to its total capacity for the facility of 1,100. “We have experienced tremendous response from our recruitment efforts in the first few months of operation,” said Larry Jones, StarTek president and CEO. “And our clients are impressed with the quality and dedication of our agents here in the Philippines.”

StarTek provides customer care, sales support, complex order processing, accounts receivable management, technical, and industry-specific services, and also specializes in high-value, non-voice customer care and provisioning services. The StarTek facility in Makati is the company’s first facility outside the United States and Canada. It has 19 sites in North America.

The formal launch of the StarTek facility followed projections by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and independent analysts that 2009 will see significant growth in the Philippine BPO industry despite a general global economic downturn. A recent survey conducted by BPA/P and Outsource2Philippines revealed that 70% of BPO executive respondents in the Philippines believe that the global financial crisis will have either a neutral or positive impact on their Philippine operations.

In 2008, the Philippine BPO industry generated approximately US$7 billion in revenue according to the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT). CICT expects 2009 industry revenues to increase by as much as 35%. Firms looking for ways to lower costs and increase service quality achieve those objectives by outsourcing services to providers in countries such as the Philippines. By 2010, a BPA/P forecast projects industry revenues of between $12 billion and $13 billion.

Much of that growth will be in high value-added services such as those provided by StarTek. “The complex support services we provide our clients are integral to our clients’ operations and their relationships with their customers. Our proven capability to deliver high-quality, high-value services has consistently made us the number one services provider for our clients; but more importantly among our clients’ clients,” said Jones.

“HR: Shaping the Future” was the theme of the recently concluded World HRD Congress held in Taj Lands End, Mumbai, India last February 5 to 7.

There were 81 speakers including keynote speakers Tad Waddington, director for Performance Measure of Accenture, president and principal Lynne Morton of Performance Improvement (PI) Solutions, Inc., and Deepak Malkani, Talent and Organization Performance partner of Accenture India in the three plenary sessions.

Prof. Noel Tichy ran the workshop “Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls and its Impact on HR in one day. Some of the key topics were “The Return on Investment in Talent Development,” “Tough Times for Talent,” “Getting it Right! Using the Power of Data and Analytics to Boost your Return on Talent Investment,” “Managing Talent to Build the Leadership Brand,” and “Managing Talent in a Difficult Economy.” The event had six master classes and 17 concurrent sessions.

Aside from the sessions, three awards were presented at the night of each event date—Recruiting and Staffing Best in Class Awards (RASBIC) (February 5), Global HR Excellence Awards (February 6), and Employer Branding Awards (February 7).

Venue: Prince Hotel & Residence, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Date: March 11-12, 2009 Organizer: Marcus Evans

HR Congress is a not-to-be missed event as it will address the hottest issues, strategies and ideas in the HR arena in the region across all industries. It is especially designed for HR professionals whom international dimension represent a new element in their work.

Visit: www.marcusevans.com for more information.

As the implementation of IT Service Management systems becomes more apparent and in-demand among companies in Malaysia, the need to fully understand its effectiveness and overall functionality becomes imperative as well. The recent establishment of the Malaysian Chapter of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) is one big bold step towards the realization of this goal. The group, officiated in July last year, is strongly supported by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) – Malaysia’s IT arm – vendors and corporate users.

“With the growth of itSMF, Service Management now has a home in Malaysia,” said Michael Kum president and founder of itSMF Malaysia. The objective, he added is to bring best practice guidance and international know-how to the ‘local’ vendors and users.

This will be delivered through general awareness programs and events organization, among others. Last October, itSMF conducted its ‘inaugural annual conference’ which circled around the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The event got the attention of about 170 visitors, 11 regional VIPs and two guests from itSMF United Kingdom. Members from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands were also present.

One of the conference highlights is the open panel discussion which tackled “life before and after ITIL”, which featured local subject matter experts.

itSMF believes that the IT Service Management, which has been around in Malaysia for the last seven years, has a huge potential. This, however, remained untapped due to the deficiency in awareness campaign initiatives.

The conference served as a ‘trigger’ to jumpstart the collaboration among concerned sectors to create an international community that particularly caters to ITSM. “Malaysia truly likes ITSM, and hopes to impart its brand for the use of domestic Government-linked companies, SMEs and propose to assist like-minded countries around the region.”

Kum added the goal of Service Management is to design, deliver, and maintain services and operations; whether it’s IT or Business Alignment, at an agreed level of Quality, in support of Customer activity. “The people who share this passion – all are in the itSMF Malaysia Chapter,” he noted. As part of its goal, the chapter will also recognize individuals and organizations who are making significant contributions to the advancement of best practice, standards and professionalism in the IT Service Management field.

“Like all other NPO International societies, we want to grow and have the best minds from both vendors and users – to create awareness, and de-mystify the current conception of ITIL; so that we have win-win for all,” Kum said.