FOR Globe Telecom President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu, running the country’s challenger telco firm goes beyond overseeing the monumental task of a company in the midst of holistically transforming itself, from building an entirely new mobile network and replacing its business-support system to reinventing its work culture.
The highest-ranking official of Globe works closely with the rest of its senior leaders in steering Globe Business, the corporate and information-technology segment of the company, into providing a comprehensive range of world-class, groundbreaking information and communications technology interconnectivity solutions for the country’s top industries.
In recent years, Globe Business has been a steady source of revenue growth for the entire company. For starters, Cu disclosed that Globe Business has 70 percent of the corporate mobile postpaid market. “Business has been very good for Globe Business. Revenues have been up 9 percent to 10 percent year-to-date. The trend has been very good in terms of market share and yes, our numbers are in line with expectations,” he confirmed.
He next talked about Globe Business gaining ground in the corporate data market, the large-scale equivalent of the mobile postpaid component of the service where big corporate players avail themselves of highly critical business solutions at affordable cost. He also made an inventory of its portfolio of products and services comprising of mobile, wire line, broadband, data connections, Internet, managed services and IT-enabling services, as well as cloud-computing solutions, which it pioneered in the country.
A bigger cloud
“GLOBE Business has been making a very big push into using the cloud to empower more of its customers. The cloud is a very important aspect of businesses today, given that it enables more small businesses to have access to systems, which were formerly available only to larger corporations. It enables us to share infrastructure with various companies, and they can leverage on the power of the infrastructure in our data center to run their applications,” he said, pertaining to the technology where all infrastructure and software required by clients reside in a centralized data center accessed through the Internet.
“Going into our cloud services means our clients’ data, applications, servers are actually running in that sort of environment once only reserved for the large companies of the world. While a cloud infrastructure resides in a remote location, the great difference is that companies or customers no longer need a full-blown data center, which is very expensive. They simply subscribe to the service of Globe Business,” the telco executive explained.
Cu takes great pride in the fact that Globe Telecom was first to offer cloud services to any enterprise or individual in the Philippines. “We launched the first cloud service in the Philippines about two years ago. Today our cloud facilities have been on the uptake and we are expanding. Very soon, we will have a public cloud offering very similar to Amazon, where people can just go in an application setup, a virtualized machine for themselves [meaning a server] and then run your applications, host a web site and do what you need to do. It is pre-packaged; all they have is to pay via credit card. It’s that simple,” he said.
Innovation that works
IN fact, Globe Business also recently launched new cloud capabilities featuring the first large-scale, private and public production-ready, next-generation cloud in Asia. But with every IT company seemingly getting on the proverbial cloud bandwagon, Cu confidently averred, “When Globe releases a product, we make sure it is actually working.”
Among the innovations Globe Business recently unveiled is the PayrollCloud application, an innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providing on-time and accurate payroll accounting system—from automatic calculation of salaries, standard time and attendance reports, biometric integration, online application and approval of leaves, customizable approval hierarchy and online pay-slip access.
Another is its Backup-as-a-Service platform, which allows companies to replicate and restore critical data to and from secure storage facilities in its Tier 3-compliant Globe Business data centers. By using the most advanced backup and restoration software, it enables continuous data protection, local off-site storage and managed services to industries and enterprises, as well as small and medium businesses.
Trusted brand for quality service
RECOGNIZED by Frost & Sullivan as CEO of the Year in 2012, Cu was thrilled to receive yet another distinction, this time for Globe Business as “Emerging Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS) Vendor of the Year” in 2013. The plum cited the company’s cloud service offerings, expansion of its data-center footprint and adherence to global standards. The Globe Business IaaS, the first cloud infrastructure in the country, is now becoming more relevant in addressing the needs of various enterprises.
The latest Frost & Sullivan Award is an addition to the latest string of successes Globe Business has been enjoying under Cu’s leadership. Globe Business also achieved and maintained industry-significant certifications on Quality Management and IT Service Management, including ISO 27001:2005 Information Security Management System and BS 25999 Business Continuity Management System Standards for its data centers.
Likewise, Globe Business recently achieved a rare industry double-certification as it was formally recognized with ISO accreditations on Quality Management and IT Service Management, making the industry innovation thought leader’s business practices aligned with international standards. It was also first in Asia to achieve the Metro Ethernet Forum-Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certification.
“Certifications of our tier-grade data centers are up to enterprise-grade levels, where clients are assured our data center will not fail, and that the processes followed in the data centers are up to very high international standards, especially for security. That is extremely important,” he affirmed.
Business where customer is first
TRUE to its objective of “business made better,” Cu said Globe Business will continue to help organizations elevate their work efficiencies and offer more solutions to the industry than just simply being a connectivity provider.
“While decent business-to-business revenue growth will continue in the foreseeable future, we know that the needs of our customers are evolving. If we are to remain true to our mission of understanding and solving customer pain points, we must be even more aggressive in managed services, industry vertical solutions, applications, systems integration and others.”
To achieve this, he explained that Globe Telecom’s ICT arm will continuously expand its portfolio in order to provide the best customer experience and to remain responsive to the evolving needs of its clients. “Customer satisfaction will always drive our business outcomes at Globe. This is our differentiation as a leader in the market. We put our customers first, and we will continue to provide them with the best solution where price, performance and unparalleled account servicing are all present.”
“Globe Business will continue to push the frontiers of technology forward. We are more than ready to meet the IT challenges of companies now and in the future,” Cu proclaimed.
No doubt, the top honcho of Globe Telecom is all about business.
source: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/features/marketing/16057-2013-07-07-09-51-15
