MANILA, Philippines?The business process outsourcing sector should start consolidating soon, as the need to take advantage of economies of scale increases and clients? desire to deal with just one firm grows.

Scott Murray, chair and chief executive of BPO service provider Stream Global Services Inc., said bigger companies would gobble up smaller players?something that was already happening in the industry.

?Companies want to deal with larger (BPO) companies. Companies are looking for one-stop shops that provide consistent work and that have long-term employees.?

To take advantage of the consolidation trend, Murray said his company was on the lookout for new acquisitions, both here and in other countries.

Stream Global completed late last year its consolidation with eTelecare Global Solutions Inc., which gave it a total of 11,000 seats spread among eight sites in the Philippines.

Murray said Stream Global was poised to further expand its Philippine operations in 2010, starting with the hiring of 1,500 individuals in the next 60 days and the establishment of one or two new sites within the first half.

While companies such as Stream and a number of others believe in the Philippines enough to invest significant amount of resources here, Trestle Group chief executive Ralph Shonenbach said the country had to step up its marketing efforts if it wanted to maintain its edge over other BPO locations.

?There are a lot of good companies here, but what we?re missing is these companies telling others how good the Philippines is at BPO,? he said.