PLDT unit eyes sustained revenues

MANILA, Philippines - A unit of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) sees a sustained strong growth in revenues as it eyes additional customers for its new services.

IP Converge Data Services Inc. president Reynaldo Huergas said in an interview with reporters that the company expects to sustain or even surpass the 28 percent growth in revenues booked last year.

The company’s revenues reached P700 million last year with about 280 customers.

“We hope to sustain or even surpass that. We have been profitable over the years and we have been growing despite market setbacks,” Huergas said.

According to him, the company that is venturing as a full-fledged information technology firm instead of a telecommunications provider is set to diversify further into financial services especially banks, business process outsourcing (BPO), among others.

IP-Converge is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ePLDT Inc. and was acquired by PLDT for P700 million to P800 million in October last year.

IP-Converge owns and operates two Internet data centers in the country and provides enterprises with managed data services and cloud-based business solutions across a wide range of industries including IT solutions providers, gaming companies, e-learning and healthcare.

It is the country’s first and only Salesforce.com Cloud Alliance Partner providing Salesforce (customer relations management) CRM licenses and consulting services to businesses.

The company is also the country’s premier Google Enterprise Partner, allowing local organizations to adopt a cloud computing mindset and to ThinkOutCloud™.

Last July, ePLDT raised P4.257 billion after it sold its 27-percent stake covering 397.892 million shares in gaming concern Philweb Corp. of former trade minister Roberto Ongpin.

IP-Converge has tied up with Symantec to launch IPC Backup Cloud, the Philippines’ first and only cloud-based enterprise data backup service powered by Symantec NetBackup.

The backup-as-a-service (BaaS) product enables businesses to ensure data availability through periodic data transfers to the IPC BackupCloud system hosted in IP-Converge’s state-of-the-art data center facility over a dedicated Internet connection.

“We are proud to be the first provider in the country to introduce this unique product to small and medium enterprises locally. As a pioneer in the cloud computing space in the Philippines, we at IP-Converge are committed to developing new ways for Filipino businesses to enjoy the many benefits of the cloud, through alliances with global leaders such as Symantec,” Huergas added.

Niño Valmonte, marketing director of IP-Converge, said the IPC BackupCloud system ensures that customers’ data is kept in-country, which results in better network latency between system and customer, more so if the latter’s data storage is also co-located in IP-Converge’s data center facility.