How to find the Top Outsourcers in the Philippines
So, you’ve decided to explore the world of Offshore Outsourcing and are not sure where to start. A logical choice might be to jump onto Google and search for the “Best Offshore Outsourcing Businesses in the Philippines”, or “Top 10 IT Outsourcers Philippines”, or ‘’Top accounting outsourcers Philippines’’, thinking you’ll find some good independent reviews.
Instead, you’ll find your search returns diverse articles, each one listing and ranking completely different companies, and a closer inspection reveals these articles are just marketing tools. Many offshore firms write their own “Best Companies for Outsourcing” articles, unsurprisingly ranking themselves at number 1. This is an unpleasant side effect of every vendor’s aspiration to be seen as the number 1 outsourcing provider, and it happens across many industries.
Writing a “top 10” article that lists Yempo as number 1 goes against our values. It wouldn’t be genuine or honest, and we don’t want to engage in tactics that might mislead a potential client. So instead, if you’re searching for a high-quality offshore firm, we’ve listed the key elements that might influence your judgement, or an independent body’s judgement, into what might make it into the ‘outsourcing to the Philippines top 10’.
Top IT and accounting outsourcers – checklist
- Scale (size matters)
Often clients believe that the bigger the firm, the better. If 200 companies have entrusted a business to host their resources and their headcount exceeds 2,000, they must be doing something right. Right? Well, not necessarily. Company size can be artificially boosted in a range of ways that give the impression of success, that may not align with reality. Here’s how.
Many companies have bloated back-office teams. With a total headcount of 500 pax, a company with an administration team of 100 is extraordinary, but not uncommon. It’s a sign of inefficiency, of unsuitable systems and processes, and a trend to just throw low-cost staff at a problem to fix the symptoms, not the root cause. At Yempo, we’ve consistently had a back-office team that’s below 10% of our workforce, and recently we invested in additional staff for our Process Automation Team to implement new technologies to curb our admin team growth. We don’t want our support team expanding at the same rate as our client facing teams; we aspire that 10% to further fall as a ratio, as our headcount total grows. We also hire mature professionals to get the job done right first time, instead of hordes of still struggling junior staff.
Another tactic is for the company owner to use the offshore outsourcing firm for their own other ventures. A team of 500 that has 50 staff performing customer service for the owner’s e-commerce business, and another 20 working on building an app for their latest venture, and another 20 focused on outbound sales for all the owner’s businesses, skews the numbers.
Finally, many offshore outsourcing firms also operate as Call Centres. Running a call centre is a great way to bulk up quickly, but the workforce is transient and high maintenance and drives a particular culture within the business. Yempo has never been a call centre, and we are proud of our very low attrition of both employees and clients, and our culture that enables us to attract top talent.
- Scale – again (good things come in small packages)
Another consideration for the importance of size when selecting an offshore outsourcing partner, is what you need from them. A large business with thousands of employees and hundreds of clients is not as agile as a smaller firm. They can’t tailor their solutions, adjust processes and policies or even respond to queries in a fast and efficient way. If you are considering opening 100 vacancies offshore, this may not be so important. But if you’re a small player and expect a quality service from your offshore partner for your 2 offshore resources, a huge firm might not be the right fit. We were particularly proud of the testimonial given by Ron M, from one of our Australian clients, who said “They get the job done. Yempo provides the whole package. Even billing is simple and transparent. There are no hidden fees.”
Actual can also be hard to uncover. Looking at Linked In to see how many employees a company has won’t yield an accurate result. Most of Yempo’s resources for example list their client as their employer, on the client’s request. Yempo is a small and agile business with hundreds of employees and tens of clients, offering both a consistent and customized experience.
- Maturity (wisdom vs enthusiasm)
How long an offshore outsourcing business has been operating is another element often used in ranking analysis articles and, like Scale, needs to be considered in the context of your requirements.
We agree that a company that has been operating for a decade is going to be better equipped with well developed, fit-for-purpose systems and processes and represents a lower risk to your business. Their employee policies have been ironed out, they’ve had a scuffle or two with a disgruntled employee so have solid legal representation, and they have client references and testimonials for you to validate. Yempo celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025, and we have learned a lot in that period. We have the maturity and experience to tackle any problem that arises and a highly regarded culture of professionalism, responsiveness and kindness.
But the second client we ever signed – a prestigious IT company based in Melbourne, Australia chose us for different reasons. They wanted to work with a firm that was still in the formation phase of their business operation so they could influence the culture, the processes and even the financial model. 10 years later, they are still a client, and some of their Yempo resources celebrate their 10th anniversary with us in 2025 so they clearly made a great decision in choosing a young, enthusiastic and malleable firm. And along the way, we learned which elements of our business are appropriate for a client to influence, and which we should push back on.
- Industry certifications (external validation)
Selecting a business that has invested in getting certified in areas that are important to you is another good indicator that it would make any Top 10 list that was independently written. Yempo is pleased to join the ranks of companies with ISO9001 certification after completing the audit process in January 2025 and will achieve ISO 27001 certification later in 2025.
We regularly review other certifications that give clients or potential clients assurance that they’ve partnered with a reputable firm, but we reject those that are easily manipulated or come with an exorbitant price tag for very little meaningful return.
On Glassdoor for example, we have a rating of X and X and X, and on Jobstreet, X and X and X. These ratings and comments provide genuine insight into company operations from employees, former employees and candidates.
- Referrals (trusted validation)
Far more reliable than a spurious list of companies with a vested interest in the rankings are referrals from friends, former colleagues or other trusted sources. You may be able to find contacts you know from the website of an Offshore Outsourcing company, but not all companies agree to be mentioned on a website. A lack of named-reference sites or genuine testimonials isn’t a red flag, but a request from a company for references that is declined, is. You may be told that the business can’t disclose its clients due to confidentiality agreements, but most clients of an offshore business who are delighted with the experience are happy to chat in a confidential setting. At Yempo, many of our clients not only agreed to have their name, their company name and their photo on our website, they are happy to connect to potential clients to share their positive experience.
Ask questions, get started
After ten years of success, I know how to help businesses get the most from outsourcing to the Philippines. So, quiz me! Ask away. What are your objectives? What are your concerns? What support do you need? Just book a convenient slot in my diary and we can jump on a call.
We look forward to aiding the success of your business…as we’ve done and do for many others.
Kind regards!
Michelle
Book a quick chat with Michelle today, to know more about our best practices in providing offshore accounting and IT staff from the Philippines – or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We are happy to answer your questions!
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