PLDT gears up for M2M growth, launches new mobile biz solutions

MANILA, Philippines - Dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) through the enterprise arm of wireless giant Smart Communications Inc. is gearing up for a major boom in the machine-to-machine (M2M) business solutions industry in the Philippines.

PLDT first vice president Jovy Hernandez said the company hopes to sustain a double-digit growth in   revenues from its M2M business.

Hernandez, who is also head of the sales and marketing of Smart Enterprise, pointed out that the company’s M2M solutions benefit credit, sales, and mobile payment operations for local business particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

 â€œCompanies now need to maximize crucial operations with efficient solutions that do not pack on the cost. M2M technology has been a viable solution in digitizing manual processes that’s why PLDT is constantly investing in technology and upgrading our core network to prepare for the anticipated trend for these kinds of innovations,” he said.

Hernandez said the growth would come primarily from additional services including the recently launched Smart M2M Credit, M2M Sales, and M2M to expand its M2M offerings in the mobile platform, digitizing operations for credit investigations, sales monitoring, and wireless card payments.

He added that the new solutions augment the company’s existing services that covers pharmaceuticals, merchandising as well as loyalty solutions.

According to him, the company is launching three more business solutions within the first quarter of next year.

PLDT executive vice president and head for Enterprise, International and Carrier Business Eric Alberto said the M2M industry in the Philippines is expected to grow 20 percent.

Alberto said the company is looking at other industry for its M2M solutions that is currently focused on interconnecting banks and financial services as well as automated teller machines (ATMs).

He pointed out that the company is now testing the solutions to include wireless metering, productivity sectors, sensors as well as the healthcare industry.

 â€œAs the Smart Enterprise mission is to be the preferred M2M service provider for enterprise customers, we believe that we have ably achieved this not just by being the first to market with these revolutionary solutions, but by also adding our network reliability and reach as well as our swelling ranks of ICT experts into the mix,” he said.