Singaporean IT firm picks Cebu as growth area

CEBU, Philippines - Singapore-based multinational IT conglomerate Thakral Group has chosen Cebu and other markets in Southern Philippines as its growth area while it embarks on an intensive expansion plan here.

“Cebu and the other business districts in the region have similar levels of maturity and goals to succeed within their perspective markets. The Thakral Group recognizes the tremendous opportunities that this part of the country offers which is why we have decided to open an office dedicated to address the IT needs of businesses within Cebu and nearby cities,” said general manager Teddy Sumulong in a press interview.

According to Sumulong the Philippine market in general, have matured to a level of sophistication and understanding wherein the value and importance of IT is no longer deemed as a peripheral but a critical component in order to operate and remain competitive.

The Thakral Group, a US$1.5 billion company, is a diversified entity with business interests in distribution of IT products, provision of value-added IT services, retail, real estate, textile and manufacturing.

Thakral InfoTech is an EMC business partner dedicated in serving the large and SME sector using EMC’s world-class Unified storage, business recovery and mid-range storage solutions for the large enterprise and SME sector.

It also offers broad offerings of other IT giants such as IBM, Oracle, Lenovo, among others.

During a press briefing held in Cebu recently, Sumulong also disclosed that they are launching a two-prong campaign which include; to find strategic partner-resellers; and to hire IT professionals.

“We are looking for talents to support the continued growth in our Philippine operation. Not only on hardware skills, but also in services,” Sumulong said.

He said the Singaporean conglomerate is making sure that they will have presence in Cebu especially that the City is already a global name in the ICT and BPO sectors.

“We want to make sure that we will not be left behind,” he said adding that the company’s presence in Cebu plays a very critical role in the growth of its operations in the Philippines.

The presence of the big names and giants in the world’s IT industry in Cebu, has pushed the Thakral Group to make significant presence and investments here, Sumulong said adding “the big IT giants are here. The demand is here.”

This year, the company vowed to aid the Philippine-based market players achieve their goals.

“Philippine business owners today are more sophisticated and discerning in choosing the right IT-related service provider for their business, despite the challenge to maintain efficiency given the limited funding for IT,” said Thakral Group director for global business and technology service and Raffles Solutions chief executive officer (CEO) Bikram Singh Thakral.

“Thakral Group recognizes the world-class talents of Filipinos and the advantages of making them part of the organization—not only here in the Philippines but also in our operations overseas,” Thakral concluded.