EasyCall invests P1.5B in new IT venture

EasyCall Communications Phils., Inc. (ECPI) is set to reinvent itself and is investing another P1.5 billion to become an information technology firm specializing in electronic customer relationship management (eCRM).

EasyCall’s proposed venture is a high-end type of call center operation that would specialize in customer contact and relationship management.

EasyCall will engage in most areas covered by a call center operation, from transcription, telemarketing, technical help desk and customer relationship management (CRM) applications, using multiple media-like voice, e-mail and/or fax.

ECPI was established in 1988 as a sole proprietorship firm named Francisco N. Cervantes (FNC), which secured a telecommunication franchise under RA 5964.

In August 1988, FNC engaged the services of Telecom Messagetech– a subsidiary of Matrix Telecoms Asia Ltd. to assist in its paging operations. By May 1989, FNC commenced commercial operations with the introduction of the country’s first alphanumeric paging service.

ECPI underwent a corporate reorganization in 1991 with the assignment of FNC’s telecommunications franchise to Francisco N. Cervantes Inc. (FNCI), a duly registered telecommunications company.

Consequently, the EasyCall trade name was transferred from EasyCall International Limited to FNCI.

It was during this period that the company started using the name EasyCall in order to take advantage of its strong brand recall. As a result, FNCI was renamed ECPI.

In 1992, ECPI launched its initial public offering in the Philippine Stock Exchange.

With the funds raised from the IPO, ECPI experienced growth in the succeeding years that saw its subscriber base grow from around 29,000 as of 1991 to a high of 180,000 in mid-1998.

Its net income grew from P15.3 million in 1991 to P60 million in 2000.

But with the emergence of the digital global system for mobile communications (GSM) with its short messaging services (SMS), or more popularly known as text messaging, the message handling industry, in general experienced a decline in subscriber base.

ECPI experienced a steady decline in its subscriber base to slightly over 90,000 current subscribers from its peak of 180,000.

To mitigate the losses, the firm embarked on various business strategies such as expansion of its paging subscriber base through acquisition, new business ventures and value-added services.

In 1999, ECPI ventured into call center operations. Its entry into call center operations for order-taking services was via the acquisition of Siemen’s call center which handles the phone-in delivery services of Wendy’s Hamburger.