Dell opens second Philippines call center

Dell opened its second call center in the Philippines on Thursday and disclosed plans to significantly increase its workforce there.

The new center in Quezon City will provide technical support and other services to Dell customers in the U.S. and will initially employ about 200 people. It includes training labs that simulate networked home and office environments, Dell said in a statement.

Its opening comes a year after Dell started up its first call center in the Philippines. The Asian nation is a favored location for call centers because of the high level of English language skills and relatively low wages.

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Dell opened its second call center in the Philippines on Thursday and disclosed plans to significantly increase its workforce there.

The new center in Quezon City will provide technical support and other services to Dell customers in the U.S. and will initially employ about 200 people. It includes training labs that simulate networked home and office environments, Dell said in a statement.

Its opening comes a year after Dell started up its first call center in the Philippines. The Asian nation is a favored location for call centers because of the high level of English language skills and relatively low wages.

The first center in Pasay already employs 1,400 people so with the addition of the Quezon City center Dell's workforce is now around 1,600 people. The company said it plans to hire a further 1,000 people to take the total number of employees in the Philippines to 2,600.

Worldwide Dell has about 25 such centers.

A ceremony to mark the opening of the call center was held Thursday with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in attendance. To coincide with the opening of the new center, Dell donated a computer lab to Quezon City High School.

Dell was ranked the world's largest PC vendor in 2006 by research company IDC. It had a 17.1 percent share of the market, just ahead of second-ranked Hewlett-Packard Co., which had a 17 percent share, said IDC. However Dell's position is under threat and in the last quarter of the year it was beaten by HP, said IDC.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.