The latest entrant on the Legal Process Outsourcing horizon is the Southeast Asian archipelago nation of Philippines. The outsourcing industry in the country has seen an exponential growth over the past five years. As of today it is the second largest outsourcing destination in Asia, with first being India.

The Philippines outsourcing industry has, as seen with other outsourcing destinations in the past, has been tracking a definitive growth path, and which may be roughly simplified as follows:

Beginning as small experimentation projects testing waters, the industry has moved on to newer and niche areas such as legal outsourcing. The markets have matured and are now in the stage two, where ‘low value’ work has grown significantly in volume and new niche areas such as legal outsourcing are gaining foothold.

LPO industry in Philippines is growing being the preferred destinations by clients worldwide due to several reasons:

• Cost Arbitrage – As with all other outsourcing projects, LPOs in Philippines also tap into the advantage of differential pricing. The relative cost advantage of using transactional support services in Philippines are too enormous to be ignored.
• Timing Advantage – Once again, as with most other outsourcing verticals, LPOs also have the advantage of working at diametrically opposite hours from their US counterparts. This is invaluable from a business continuity perspective.
• Language – Unlike some other Asian nations, Philippines has a very strong English speaking population. English being the language of law in most outsourcing countries (predominantly US and UK), this acts as a major advantage for Philippines.

Legal work outsourced to Philippines as of now, primarily comprises of:

• legal data entry work,
• immigration paper work,
• litigation support,
• legal coding,
• court reporting,
• legal research, and
• legal transcription.

The work of legal transcription can further be seen as:

• trials transcription,
• wire tap transcription,
• general correspondence transcription,
• legal letter transcription, and
• verbatim transcription.

Another key area which drives legal outsourcing is Intellectual property related research and documentation. While the research includes various Intellectual Properties (IP) laws, reforms amendments etc. The major clients could either be the firms or corporations looking to increase cost efficiency in processes.

As stated earlier, being in the stage two of the growth curve, the legal outsourcing is still in the very early stage and is yet to mature for Philippines. Most of the work is still volume driven although there is a gradual shift towards more complex work.

Some of the dominant players as of now are¹ :

• ACT Litigation Services
• Adec Solutions
• OfficeTiger
• SPi
• Managed Outsource
• LPO Manila Inc.
• Integreon

The dominant cities home to outsourcing are-

1. The capital city of Manila is the first and the most favored destination, owing to infrastructure and other resourcing advantages.
2. Close on the heels to this are the other smaller towns such as Cebu, Davao and Clark.

LPO s in Philippines- A PEST Analysis²

Political: Having put behind the years of political turbulence, Philippines has seen good years of political stability. The newly industrialized nation has already established a good track record as a country favorable to businesses. Being a business support function and integral for business continuity – a stable political scenario is essential for successful LPO destination. Under the leadership of President Gloria Arroyo, Philippines has been successful in providing a positive political atmosphere.

Economic: The economy of Philippines ranks 47th in the world. A strong positive point for outsourcing is the move rapidly shifting away from agriculture towards service industry. It is a member organization to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. It is also home to the head quarters of the Asian Development Bank.

Supported by a population well versed in English, the economic condition is almost ideal for outsourcing.

Social: Philippines is the 12th most populous nation in the world. The Philippine Constitution recognizes English, along with the native Filipino, as the official language. The gradual shift from agriculture to the service sector is a welcome change and an indication towards economic development. Collectively, all these factors serve as facilitating agents for the LPO industry.

Technological: Outsourcing of services has been possible only because of the tremendous advancements in telecommunication technology over the years. Just like its neighbor Taiwan, Philippines has a strong IT infrastructure and support. This technological supports forms the very backbone of the now booming outsourcing industry.

The LPO industry in Philippines is poised on the threshold of maturity. Having already proved its mettle in various other services outsourcing models, the future looks bright for LPO players in Philippines. While India is the other prominent Asian player in the market, the growth of the two players would be complimentary as the market is yet to mature. All positive actions, as well as negative, in either of the markets would benefit or harm the entire market for legal outsourcing as a whole.

About KPO Consultants

KPO Consultants is the pioneer consulting company which provides business solutions exclusively to the LPO industry. We work with the established and aspiring LPOs to set up their LPO ventures and overcome their complicated business problems and also help management make big decisions affecting top line growth of their company. KPO Consultants offers consulting in areas of strategy, operations, technology, marketing and sales, human resources, and strategic alliances. We also provide end-to-end support across entire business lifecycle; building business synergies from the scratch till realization of its benefits and ongoing developments. We have served several clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Philippines, Mauritius, India, Canada, Australia, and many more countries.

For more information, please visit our website www.kpoconsultants.com or write to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

¹ The list is indicative and not exhaustive.
² PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEST_analysis