Nurturing and enabling the untapped “Aspirational” market

SMEs are considered the backbone of our economy due to their sheer volume – of the 630,000 actively registered businesses, 99% of these are SMEs. Moreover, they employ 70% of the total labor force and contribute 1/3 of our nation’s GDP.

Entrepreneurship therefore is the Philippines’ ticket to greater advancement, and PLDT will act as its key technological enabler. It is our vision for SMEs to become globally competitive by way of PLDT’s ICT platforms.

However, considering the challenges of volume, geography, and the SMEs lack of IT expertise and know-how, where do we begin?

We will engage the SME communities in each locality in close collaborations with key SME organizations, through pervasive Education and Awareness Campaigns akin to their respective industries, and will offer end-to-end solutions which are simple but scalable, nurturing and enabling.

The group will mobilize simultaneous daily events covering not just the key cities but even the country side, through positive experiential engagements via our Mobile Innovation Laboratories, or what we will call Inno-Port, a portable version of INNOLAB, evangelizing the theme “Turning Technology into Profit”.

Beyond providing access services we will bundle and upsell business-enabling devices such as computers, wireless access points, wireless card payment terminals , software applications and content such as sales inventory management software & on-line website builders.

Hence, PLDT’s services are transformed from cost items into wise investments that can bring immediate tangible cost savings and revenue enhancing benefits for the SMEs.

The SME Group will continue to develop creative ways to entrench ourselves and our solutions in every SME community.