An executive of a US-based software company advises Filipino businesses to transform and adapt to change to sustain growth in the era of digital transformation.
Benjamin Wong, the newly appointed managing director for Asia of Progress, says companies should be able to transform and adapt to changes. “If they don’t transform and adapt to the digital world, no one’s gonna do business with them,” Wong says.
He says companies should consider the digital transformation as a business strategy. “In order to become a truly digital business, leaders need to change their mindset and consider digital transformation as a business strategy. Digital innovation should be integrated within all business units like sales, marketing, finance and IT,” he says.
The software executive says companies should consider taking a holistic approach. “Embarking on a digital journey does not only mean leveraging technology innovation,” he says.
“A holistic approach, rather than ad-hoc implementation of digital tools and solutions, will not only help organizations improve customer experience and operational efficiency, but also provide new opportunities for growth and success,” he says.
He cites the support of the Philippine government for third platform technology, following the establishment of the Department of Information and Communication Technology.
Wong is also optimistic about President Rodrigo Duterte’s announcement about the government’s commitment to develop a national broadband to accelerate the deployment of fiber optics and wireless technologies to improve internet speed in the country.
“Government initiatives to improve the infrastructure will definitely support the digital growth of enterprises in the Philippines,” Wong says.
He says at present, companies in the Philippines lag behind its peers from other countries in terms of transforming into the digital era of technology. “To be honest, it is a bit behind simply because I guess a lot of businesses are fairly manual. So because of that, there is not a lot of complexity in the business at the moment,” Wong says.
Wong says the Philippine market is vital to Progress, as a lot of their partner companies are doing business with local government units. “Our Philippine business throughout the years are very much with the LGUs. A lot of our applications are built on our platform. We have a telecommunications partner like PLDT,” Wong says.
“New partners are coming on board. And these companies are also wanting application. The thing in the Philippines is cost. They don’t have the budget to be able to implement the systems that they want,” he says.
Progress vice president for sales Matthew Gharegozlou says the company is developing products that will be cost-friendly to help companies transform. “[We are working on] model that reduces the initial investments that will help the company,” Gharegozlou says.
“Having said that, We are seeing more companies willing to spend more money and we are figuring out what is the fair value in the Philippines to see how they can penetrate the market better,” Wong says.
“With [our] solutions and initiatives, Progress is in an excellent position to enable companies to digitally transform themselves and respond to the digital ultimatum,” he says.
