PH small businesses lure cloud computing giants
MANILA, Philippines – Global tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon have zeroed in on the Philippines, particularly in its small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups, as a global hotspot for future cloud use.
Cloud services for enterprises have been available in the west for the better part of a decade now and have started creeping into the Philippines in the last 3 years. Now it’s really starting to take off, explained Cian O’Neill chief operating officer of Microsoft Philippines. (READ: PH climbs to 10th spot in cloud readiness rankings)
“The Philippines has a booming economy. There is a huge appetite for innovation here and the market is very open to fresh ideas. Universities are also now constantly producing a digitally capable workforce,” he said on Wednesday, September 9.
O’Neill, was speaking from the sidelines of day two of the Microsoft Big Top Cloud Festival that runs until September 14 at the Blue Leaf in Paranaque City.
The event is particularly geared toward SMEs, with over 500 scheduled to attend.
“Without, a doubt SMEs present the biggest opportunity for cloud services in the country,” O’Neill said. (READ: Cloud: The Great Leveller for SMEs)
They are quick, fast and agile, and lack the red tape that bigger firm need to go through. They the ones that can benefit the most from cloud’s ability to lower costs and be as responsive as possible to a customers needs, he explained.
The fact that the technology-driven BPO industry dominates the economy now, O’neill said, is a good indicator that in “the future of the Philippine economy will revolve around the smaller tech startups and entrepreneurs.”
SMEs account for 98% of the economy and its employees are also pre-dominantly young and mobile-centric, which makes adopting the cloud a good fit for their firms.
A recent report by global consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers showed that 41% of millennials prefer to communicate electronically at work than face to face, and 75% believe that access to technology makes them more effective at work.
In the Philippines, 83% of SME employees are spending over 20% of their working time outside the office, relying on mobile devices and online cloud-based tools for communication and productivity.
O’Neill said that, based on statistics gathered by Microsoft Philippines, SMEs that adopt the cloud are 1.7 times likelier to have more than 10% growth in terms of annual revenues compared to those that do not. This indicates that SMEs would be inclined to go on the cloud, he said.