PLDT sees enterprise business growing double digits

MANILA, Philippines — Telco and digital services provider PLDT Inc. expects to achieve double-digit growth in revenues from the enterprise business this year as it rolls out new managed data services and as more business clients adopt technology.

PLDT chief revenue officer Eric Alberto told reporters during the Philippine Digital Convention yesterday the firm has set an 11 percent growth target for revenues from the enterprise business this year.

“That’s the target guidance this year, but we are tracking nine percent and a half. You know, it’s a build up. You are trying to build your pipeline. We’re still very optimistic that hopefully, business cycles are not that terrible that we are not able to meet that. We are still tracking and hopeful that we will be able to do at least double-digit (growth),” he said.

Last year, revenues from PLDT’s enterprise business grew by 11 percent to P34.1 billion.

Alberto said while the bulk, or more than 60 percent of the revenues of the enterprise business is generated from mainstream voice services, more and more clients are availing of PLDT’s data and information communications technology (ICT) solutions and services.

“We’re actually steadily shifting our revenue sources from mainstream voice services and moreover to data and ICT as more and more enterprises actually become fearless and adopt technology in the way they do their businesses,” he said.

While voice services are expected to remain relevant for enterprise clients, Alberto said demand for data services is expected to grow in the future to enable businesses to relate more with their customers.

With more enterprises seen to embrace technology to allow them to improve the way they do business, PLDT is also hopeful the launch of the software-defined wide-area network technology (SD-WAN) or next generation of managed data services, would contribute to revenues this year.

SD-WAN interconnects enterprise networks, data centers, and the cloud with each other to allow a customer to be agile despite geographical distances via a powerful and secure platform.

“We are very excited to introduce SD-WAN technology to the Philippine market. Local enterprises are always looking for ways to easily scale their business requirements up or down, and this will allow them to do so in real-time making for simpler, more efficient management of resources,” Jovy Hernandez, senior vice president and head of PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. enterprise business groups said.