The COVID-19 crisis has caused years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions to do business in just a few months. Consumers have shifted dramatically toward online channels during the pandemic, and businesses and industries have responded in kind. The results of the survey confirm the rapid shift toward interacting with customers via digital channels.
According to the survey conducted in mid-2020, 55% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines reported being in the “very early stages of digital transformation,” and more than eight out of ten (86%) identified digital technology adoption as a way to improve business processes, particularly customer experience. Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents have begun the digital transformation journey, which has primarily focused on marketing and sales, as well as customer interaction and service aspects of their businesses.
” During these pandemic times, I would say that the IT industry has been one of the blessed industries compared to other industries. There has been a surge in demand for notebooks, tablets, and smartphones but of course, there’s also problems of shortage due to those demands. Many things have really changed. Zoom meetings have become part of a day-to-day routine. And for companies to survive the current pandemic crisis, a company needs to accept the digital transformation and they must adapt to change or be obsolete.”
Those were the opening words of Philippine’s ICT leader, President and CEO, to panellists and attendees at the recently concluded press briefing for the announcement of the partnership between the leading ICT company and cloud-native, the company behind the leading open-source distributed SQL database.
“We are happy to partner with our cloud-based company to bring the next-generation cloud-native database to the Philippine market. I am confident that this partnership will allow us to unlock the full potential of digital execution of enterprises and start-ups in the Philippines and drive more business impact for our partners in creating value for their customers.”, added the CEO of the ICT company. The partnership aims to drive impact in different sectors and communities, making it easier for consumers to implement and use to improve productivity.
The mission of the cloud company is to become the default database for cloud-native applications in a multi-cloud world. It recently announced the opening of new business operations in the EMEA and APAC regions, expanding its global footprint. The company’s international expansion is being fuelled by global demand for the open-source distributed SQL database and related products and services.
The COVID-19 has literally led a company’s digital transformation more than anyone else. The pandemic has significantly accelerated the digitisation of customer interactions. In terms of adapting to the digital way of life, there is also an increase in digital payments, with 38.88 million people in the Philippines making digitally enabled payment transactions as of January 2021.
It is also asserted that the leading ICT company has a track record of successfully introducing emerging technologies to the Philippine market. The VST partnership will accelerate the cloud company’s adoption among the Philippines channel community, allowing them to better support their customers’ digital execution for one of the most critical pieces of the enterprise technology stack.
When asked about the open-source trend in the Philippines’ growing digital market, it is stated that it is open-source that truly powers a company’s technologies. He also mentioned that open source is more secure and up to date in terms of vulnerability management. While people are witnessing unprecedented growth in digital technology adoption due to the pandemic, the challenge for businesses now is how to make these work in the medium to long term, given the issues with change management, culture change, and the integration of all the new digital technologies. Companies have been forced to pursue digital transformation strategies as a knee-jerk reaction, rather than as a cohesive and integrated strategic action.