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Happy Friday, and welcome to the week's wrap up in call center outsourcing happenings.

According to a BBC article this week, the Philippines overtook India last year as the world's call center outsourcing capital. About 600,000 call center workers report to call centers each day, many of them on night shifts: when your customers are on the other side of the earth, a 24/7 contact center schedule is critical. Technology played an important role in the boom of the Philippines contact center industry, as well. Thanks to IP telephony, it's just as easy to locate a call center on the other side of the world as it is to locate it across town, at least from a telecom perspective.

Call center outsourcing is a practice that is more popular than ever in today's global landscape. Companies no longer have to rely on in-house call service personnel to manage customer inquiries, feedback and complaints. They can hire outside agencies or even cheaper labor from other countries to do this work while their staff concentrates on services related to products.

Recently, Bank of America revealed it will be moving its call center outsourcing services to the Philippines. In a still shaky economy, some American workers are feeling as if they have once again been left behind by Wall Street as BoA joins other “Too Big To Fail” banks in shipping call center jobs overseas to the Philippines – a country now touted as the most popular destination for outsourcing in the world. Some other U.S. banks that now have their call center outsourcing facilities in the Asia-Pacific region include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Wells Fargo (News - Alert) & Co.

Recently, Reportlinker.com revealed to the public that a new market research report titled, “Analysis of the Latin American Call Center Outsourcing Services Market” is now available as part of its portfolio. This new study examines the increasingly popular trends in the call center outsourcing markets in Latin American and forecasts the market demand in the near future. It also provides extensive coverage of the services delivered to the overall Latin American market and the offerings provided to offshore markets.

Call center outsourcing is a very important strategy that all types of companies can implement to reduce costs significantly, in addition to streamlining operations and cutting the time it takes to assist customer’s complaints and problems. Costa Rica is a preferred destination for outsourcing, where multiple companies handle both service and support. However, what would the potential impact if unpaid workers infiltrated the country to assist customers?

That's all for this week in call center outsourcing. See you next week!