By Phoebe Magdirila
December 1, 2011

In the new age of commerce, SMBs now welcome emerging technological trends as their electronic business partners. These now have come to be their best resources to efficiently provide services and increase target market share. Philippines as a free trading region, has undeniably been home to a population who has a penchant for putting up and maintaining a business. Most often than not, these entrepreneurs have this knack of utilizing all available resources to create and provide unique products and services to their consumers; reasons that more local businesses are now becoming strikingly visible on the web.

According to IDC, e-commerce adoption is now growing in the Philippines, this is seen in the increasing number of merchants that allow online transactions. Also, in a survey IDC conducted in 2010, it was found that reducing cost of IT and aligning IT to the changing business landscape are the top two priorities of local enterprises. The research firm places confidence that these key findings is an indication that companies in the country will continue to invest in IT, although cost will remain to be a key consideration.

Path to IT

But for IT firm e-Matrix Integration Solutions’ President & CEO, Jay Anthony Agosto, and Chairperson & Senior Vice-President, Rocky Santiago, IT has become their way of life. After more than 15 years of being in the IT industry, the business partners have decided to move into their own IT business venture offering an end-to-end solution and services to other enterprises. “We saw that technology is like food in the business,” Agosto relates in an interview with Computerworld Philippines. “It’s a necessity rather than a luxury.” e-Matrix’s keen analysis of the business trends allowed them to provide out-of-the box solutions to various companies’ needs in different arrays of technology such as infrastructure, software development and other business consulting solutions. “Technology is a non-stop learning experience,” he furthers as he speaks of the new trends they follow within their operations. Despite huge competitors, the company heads have been positive in achieving success in their field considering the huge market that is in dire need of IT solutions. “We don’t compete with our competitors, we collaborate with them,” Santiago shares. Operating under a partner-based model, the two professionals work with various technology companies to handin-hand provide solutions to the local clients. “The credibility is very important with clients, we are there as partners,” Agosto affirms. Like their clients, technology has been their companion in expanding their market. “Almost 90% of our clients we got from our website,” Agosto explains. Enhancing their website in search engines and utilization of social media have been their strategy to keep themselves visible to the vast clients and partners that they work with. “Our relationships [with our clients and partners] keep on growing through Facebook,” Santiago says.

Social Media

Treating clients as friends, and not only business contacts, Agosto adds that social media platforms not only help their clients know their recent events, but also gives their clients the opportunity to know them on a personal perspective. These opportunities allowed e-Matrix to grow especially in the business process outsourcing and real estate industries.

Santiago and Agosto share that 80% of their revenue comes only from the BPO and real estate clients. Considering the geographic widespread of real estate and BPO companies, even companies in the far rural areas are equipped with advanced systems. “We’re bringing in advanced technology beyond Metro Manila,” Santiago remarks. More to that, only in less than four years of operations, through their online presence, e-Matrix was able to reach the avenues that are yet untapped like the growing demand of IT enterprise solutions for logistics, education, retail, health and emerging e-commerce businesses.

Social Commerce

Also focusing on the increasing population in social media sites, recently launched Skyy Services, is most likely one of the first “social commerce” player that landed on the local scene.
Skyy Services is a full spectrum technology platform solutions provider that provides Skyy Shop an open source shopping cart platform, and linking it with Skyy Pay, e-wallet and money transfer service to B2B and B2C markets. Focusing on optimizing Facebook as a selling sphere, Skyy Services found it valuable to cater their solutions in a locality with an immense social media site audience. According to online market research firm ComScore, in their data findings in February this year, the Philippines was ranked number one in terms of Facebook population, at nearly 93% of the online population. “We try to be inside a big network like Facebook,” shares Alexander Baik, COO, Skyy Services. IDC furthermore stated that the Filipino online population is becoming comfortable with purchasing or committing to purchase online, which is seen in the increasing number of merchants that allow online transactions. Also, the availability of various payment methods is a key driver to the growing adoption of e-commerce in the country. IDC expects e-commerce spending in the Philippines to grow at 35% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in the next five years. Through this social commerce platform, Skyy Services eliminates the complexity by putting everything in one large market. “[By] having a store in Facebook itself, you can simply make the announcement, and immediately everyone’s that connected to you will be able to see it,” furthers Dolores Meek, General Manager, Skyy Services. Skyy Services deems that the first few seconds of a shopper in a site creates either a positive or negative impression. “If you have a visual aesthetics, customers will stay on your page,” explains Hazel de Vera, Sales and Marketing Manager, Skyy Services. Moreso, merchants can now slash off their independent excel spreadsheets for inventory as the platform itself includes inventory and payment tracking. De Vera emphasizes that this platform provides the sellers an edge not only in design, but to added to trust from their target market.

Securing the Shopper

The shopping cart platform is linked to Skyy Pay, wherein shoppers can securely make payments online through their locally-issued ATMs, debit cards and credit cards. However, handling financial data can be of the most challenging issues, if not the most, to businesses. And to fully protect these confidential information of their wide online population, the heads and developers made sure that no financial data will be compromised. “We don’t hold the financial information,” Baik explains. “Customers go directly to their online banking site, and we only take the authorization number.” Just before their formal launch, the company has earned the TRUSTe privacy seal for its online payment services. Not limiting themselves to critical financial data, Skyy Services practices security measures in handling these crucial data in their database. Alexander explains that they have installed more than 1000 encryptions in their database to protect personal and corporate information. He feels lucky, he said, that “[a]s the data is growing faster, all the storage and the security systems is also getting enhanced.”

Evolving with IT

More to these offerings, Skyy Services affirms their thrust to adapt to the shifting computing trends. We have to continuously adjust with how technology is changing,” Meek explains as they talk about their plans of providing mobile cloud-based applications to RIM, iOS and Android systems to merchants and shoppers. “Whenever you need you use it, when you don’t erase it, that’s the whole concept we’re getting into,” Baik adds. Being a technology solutions provider, the management itself is supporting the new trends like cloud computing and mobility. “Five years or even earlier than that, the technology landscape will radically change,” Baik underscores. “Everything is going to be mobile, even payments.”

After their formal launch last July 11, the company has already grown to more than 1000 merchants who signed up with their services. “When we saw our graph, it’s really growing up,” affirms De Vera. “We can see a big potential [for e-commerce] in the coming year. Expanding their business does not limit themselves to the local SMEs. “The goal that we have is to open the international market in the Philippines so that the untapped market can be available to the Filipino shoppers and vice versa,” Meek concludes as she shares their plans for the coming years.

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• Forecast 2012

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