Commentary
e-Services Deals
Feb 27, 2006
According to the results of surveys completed by exhibitors at the recently concluded e-Services 2006 conference and exhibition, the event set the stage for close to $23 million in new agreements. Sectors that benefited most from the flurry of deal making included technology parks, voice and data services suppliers, legal and medical transcription services providers, and software development houses.
In all, 60 suppliers said they received 1,747 firm leads worth P91 million in what the Center for International Trade Expositions & Missions (CITEM) calls domestic sales, or in-country contracts. Almost $21 million in export sales was also reported. Together, the value of these deals approaches $23 million, a very substantial increase from slightly more than $4 million last year.
e-Services is organized annually by CITEM, a promotions agency attached to the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI). It has played an important role in positioning the Philippines as a world-class center for IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) over the course of the six meetings held so far. In my view, this year was a breakthrough year, with the conference and exhibit attracting more senior executives and investments than ever.
A total of 1,700 trade visitors attended e-Services this year — including 39 senior executives from the “by-invitation” association C-Level — and spent significant time in the conference, the exhibit area, and networking and matching events. According to CITEM, 450 executives attended the CEO Forum to listen to an impressive series of presentations by international and local ITES executives, researchers, and other experts (Presentations can be downloaded at http://www.bpap.org/bpap/bpapresearch.asp.).
Foreign delegations included executives from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Singapore, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK, and the US. The Japan delegation was the largest, with 30 senior executives. Philippine software houses have become particularly popular in Japan, in part because of Filipinos’ unique capacity to rapidly learn and use foreign languages in business, but also because of their productivity and quality.
Breakout sessions on the second day of the event were also popular, and additional seats had to be brought in to accommodate participants. Among the best attended tracks were data transcription, BPO, and e-Commerce. Other tracks on animation, software development, and business venture — a matching exercise that took place for the first time this year — were also well attended.
Participant praise for the matching activity was particularly noteworthy. CITEM enlisted C-Level to help match investor demand with local talent. The 39 senior executives who visited the Philippines were here with the intent to do business, and it showed. Local participants said the matching activity also worked because: 1) It involved very senior executives on both the supply and demand side; and, 2) It was exclusive. Local firms were pre-qualified to assess their readiness for global partnerships.
C-Level executives and other participants also heard excellent testimony to the Philippines’ attractiveness as a global IT and ITES center from practioners. Siemens consultant for business services Cameron Dougherty said his firm’s contact center facility became the number one ranked center in the world for Siemens in just one month of operations. HSBC COO for Global Resourcing Susie Babini said that the quality of service in the bank’s Philippine facility is so good that operations throughout the world want to send their work here although HSBC has facilities in seven other countries.
The challenge for CITEM now will be to continue to enhance the quality of the conference and generate more business opportunity. The visibility the Philippines is attaining thanks to e-Services, other promotions efforts by government, and the successful experiences ITES providers here are providing the momentum to do so. But that’s not assured of course.
Among the major threats identified in the CEO Forum are persistent negative perceptions of the Philippines, despite its increasing popularity as an ITES center. Much work remains to be done to improve the image of brand Philippines. News of the attempted coup last week and violence in the streets is enormously detrimental to the Philippines. Clearly, the Philippine’s best interests lie in leveraging successes like e-Services. Not in calling unconstructive attention to its infirmities.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director of TeamAsia and a Manila-based author. His latest book is High Visibility: Transforming Your Personal and Professional Brand. Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).