Telecoms and multimedia service provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) has announced it will invest over US$30 million to deliver Big Data services in the next three years.
The new investment is earmarked for boosting the capacity and reliability of the company’s network infrastructure so it can handle and deliver the most demanding data services or digitally transformative solutions to enterprises. Initially, the company has already spent $30-million for this initiative in the last three years.
“We will continue to invest more in Big Data to a point where we can process all our information, protect it properly and make it resilient. I think the numbers are embedded in the $39-million capital expenditures for this year,” said Winston Damarillo, Chief Strategy Officer at PLDT.
Damarillo also said the investment will enable PLDT to tap more business opportunities and can expand its average revenue per user beyond voice, data and SMS, and increasing its subscriber base as well.
New engine of growth
“We expect Big Data to become a growth area for PLDT,” Damarillo notes. “There is enough data to be processed this year.”
Described as the new engine of growth and opportunity, the PLDT’s Big Data business segment was initiated at a time the Philippines has hit a critical mass in terms of data that can be analyzed. The explosion of information is partly driven by social media and the proliferation of mobile devices where 60% of users rely on phones in making decisions.
“Big Data drives our everyday lives. Every action generates data, which become valuable insights that empower enterprises, organizations, government agencies, and even small and medium enterprises to develop more effective products, services, and programs for their target markets,” said Ernesto Alberto, PLDT’s Executive Vice President and ePLDT President and CEO.
Alberto also said that through Big Data services, PLDT enables the country’s digital economy by providing capabilities that leverage its network infrastructure and data service expertise. These services, however, need to have a robust network infrastructure for PLDT to handle Big Data processes generated by over 75-million wired and wireless subscribers.
Network of data centers
PLDT’s network of data centers can process industry-level requests and offer Big Data services including Expert Consulting, Managed Platform services, and Breakthrough Insights. These services provide the analytics infrastructure as well as the data science expertise to unlock actionable insights from data sources and to process data feeds in real time. Supported by PLDT’s robust communications and technology infrastructure, these services can develop new service offerings by exploiting the transforming consumer and business landscape.
Nerisse Ramos, ePLDT Group’s Chief Operating Officer, said PLDT’s world-class infrastructure is capable of handling the most demanding data analytics tasks. The introduction of Big Data analytics in PLDT’s portfolio reinforces its commitment to provide customers with game-changing capabilities and insights that can propel their business to the ASEAN landscape.
Target market
For its Big Data solutions, PLDT is targeting large firms and SMEs in the financial services, logistics, retail, hospitality, healthcare and utility industries. Using data processing backbone, SMEs can benefit from these services by matching business capabilities of large enterprises with a portion of the cost–something that cannot be achieved with traditional business models. Large enterprises, on the other hand, can get to know their consumers and think like an SME through insights that they receive at the individual level.
When asked how PLDT can safeguard the privacy of data, Damarillo said they will create an organization that will serve as data custodian so information will be protected. It is also important for him to be more proactive in safeguarding the data and share best practices to customers.
For Alberto, it is important to have your own lookout to preserve the data and interests of customers.
Preparing for growth
Expecting Big Data to become PLDT’s growth area, the company is now preparing for it and has been providing trainings for data scientists. It is also forming partnerships with schools to produce graduates that are ready to be trained in data analytics.
This milestone announcement follows PLDT’s recent membership in the Open Data Platform (ODP), a global consortium of Big Data global technology leaders that aims to standardize the core platform and accelerate Big Data delivery across markets.
Alberto cited that the global Big Data is now valued at $125-million, and estimated to grow beyond $200-million in five years. These data are housed and hosted in a secure environment. According to Booz and Company, it was estimated that 90% of the world’s data are generated over the last two years, and that five exabytes of data are created in two days.
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