Telecom and digital services provider PLDT Inc. plans to make 2017 the best year for its enterprise business unit as it continues to post double-digit growth, on the back of the growing appetite of businesses and the government for data and digital services.
PLDT said enterprise revenues grew 11 percent in the first half to P16.8 billion, powered largely by data and ICT revenues which increased 18 percent to P10.9 billion. As a result, the share of data and ICT revenues improved to 65 percent of the total from 61 percent a year ago.
The enterprise group has organized itself according to industry verticals. PLDT said the key verticals that provided the most robust growth in the first half were the banking and financial services, the outsourcing industry, the IT and gaming sector, the public sector and regional businesses and SMEs.
“We are growing at a rapid pace and in the right places. First, we are growing at rates much faster than competition, and at higher levels vis-a-vis the key industries we are serving. This means we are increasing our overall market share. Second, our largest areas of growth are in data and ICT services, which are truly business enabling, and favor us with stronger and stickier engagements across all our corporate segments, whether large enterprise or SMEs,” said PLDT executive vice president and chief revenue officer Ernesto Alberto.
The enterprise group’s solid lead in the space is attributable to undertaking its digital pivot early on when it started to offer digital and mobile solutions bundled with robust data connectivity services.
It strengthened that effort by building the country’s most extensive and largest-capacity data center network through its subsidiary, ePLDT.
This has enabled PLDT to become the partner of choice of global providers to deliver cloud solutions that companies are increasingly relying upon. In the first half of 2017, PLDT partnered with global IT leader Cisco to offer next-generation business solutions, starting with intelligent WiFi connectivity for enterprises.
“This transformation is focused not only on technology. More importantly, we continue to upskill our people in order to build expertise and establish world class ICT practices. This enables us to fulfill our role of being the enabler and trusted partner of our customers,” said Juan Victor Hernandez, senior vice president and head of PLDT and Smart Enterprise.