Due to the precariousness of the English language, in recent years’ companies in the Contact Center & BPO sector have decided to close thousands of jobs in the region and relocate their investments to other markets where they have no difficulty in recruiting qualified personnel.
Reports at a global level show that the command of English is one of the weaknesses at a Central American level.
Up to June 2019, companies providing call center services in El Salvador reported revenues of $188 million, a figure 11% higher than that reported in the first half of 2018.
Data from the Central Reserve Bank detail that between the first semester of 2018 and the same period of 2019, revenues from call center services went from $169 million to $188 million.
The Salvadoran government has announced the implementation of a new telephone consultation system, where questions can be raised related to the entry of goods.
The Presidential Commissioner for Border Affairs, Carlos de Jesús Pozo, explained that through the service "... now the person will be able to arrive with their complete documentation, in the case of customs, for example, with their payments already done. The mechanism will allow institutions to get closer to the user."
After declaring the first tender process void, the Panamanian government is calling for a new tender for maintenance of the SUME 911 technology platform.
After declaring void, onJanuary 17 of this year, thetenderfor the "renewal and maintenance service of the technological platform for the unique 9-1-1 emergency management system for a period of 60 months" a new call has been made with the following details:
Twenty IT companies and more than 80 call centers and outsourcing services centers are operating in the country, seven of which entered the market in 2015.
Details from the Promoter Agency for Export and Investment El Salvador (Proesa) indicate that in 2015 there were seven companies that entered the Distance Business Services sectors (SED as it is known in Spanish), which brings together both companies dedicated to providing customer services and support and information technology.
On October 7th call center and shared services companies will meet to discuss issues related to the sector and review El Salvador's strategy for attracting foreign investment to this industry.
From a statement issued by the Export Promotion and Investment El Salvador (PROESA):
The Government of El Salvador, through the Agency for Export and Investment Promoter of El Salvador (PROESA), will be holding on the 7th of October a forum on business services at a distance (SED by its initials in Spanish), which will be a place where trends of this sector in the Americas in general and our country in particular are analyzed. This event will be a platform to spread ideas on El Salvador's backing of SED's, in which the results of the development strategy and roadmap of the sector for business services at a distance will be discussed.
The prepaid solutions firm Blackhawk Network is to invest $3 million in a customer services center in San Salvador.
The company Blackhawk Network, dedicated to digital commerce, gift certificates and prepaid products in the United States and 20 other countries, will install a call center in the country and plans to hire up to 450 employees by 2018.
In 2012 $1.3 billion was registered in sales of services in the country, mainly from maquilas and call centers.
According to the executive director of the Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments of El Salvador (Proesa), Giovanni Berti, despite the contribution to trade this is a sector that is not given much attention. Services, inside of the export category, are a very dynamic item, said Berti.
From January to September this year the Salvadoran textile and clothing sector exported $792.4 million, 6.7% less than in the same period in 2011.
Elsalvador.com reports that "The production of textiles and clothing lost momentum in growth between January and September compared to the same period last year due to a slowdown in the U.S. economy and the fiscal crisis in Europe .
The company, which won the contract to upgrade the 911 service in El Salvador, is starting operations in the country.
With an investment of nearly one million dollars, the company opened its offices in the Torre Futura in San Salvador, where it employs 15 executives.
The project to modernize the 911 service, at a cost of $ 14 million," is the first step for Cable & Wireless to reach its goal of providing other services in El Salvador and at the same time transform it into its platform for expansion to other markets", reported Elmundo.com.sv
With the growing demand for bilingual staff, private organizations and government agencies have created a program entitled "English Training for Call Centers".
The project, by nature public / private, aims to bring some 400 new employees who are bilingual in English / Spanish into the job market .
The growth of the call center industry has been maintained since 2005 at a rate of 29% per annum despite the lack of qualified bilingual staff.
In the past six years the call center sector grew by 29%.
According to the Agency for Promotion of Exports and Investments (Proesa), the call center industry accounts for 60% of GDP, and is one of those responsible for injecting the most dynamism into the economy.
Companies that already operate in the country, El Salvador Sykes, Teleperformance and Stream Global Services, are now joined by U.S.
Transactel continues to grow. It is currently looking for a new building outside San Salvador, and has advertised for 250 vacancies to be filled, predicting that at the end the year they will have a total of 2,300 employees.
Guillermo Valiente, director of Transactel El Salvador, said that one potential site for the new headquarters is in the Northern Zone, but "the most important thing is whether the human resources will be there."
Cable & Wireless has been awarded the $14 million contract to modernize the country's emergency telephone service.
Four companies had submitted bids for the 911 emergency number modernization project.
The project's requirements included the installation and integration of a call center, 50 security cameras for San Salvador, the capital city, and the fitting of a global positioning system (GPS) to the entire fleet of El Salvador's police (PNC) vehicles to enable their exact location to be pinpointed as they attend emergencies.
Transactel is the only Central American capital corporation providing Business Process Outsourcing Services / Contact Center (BPO).
It currently has 1.700 employees and expects to hire a total of 2.000 by the first three months of 2011.
The company continues with a steady growth since creation in 2007, when it provided jobs to 30 people. During 2009 it grew 180% from 600 to 1.700 employees.
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