Telco giant PLDT is looking at the possibility of outsourcing its back-office information technology (IT) operations to tech titan IBM to save at least P7 billion within the next five years.
PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company is seeking to sign a memorandum of agreement with IBM by the end of June this year.
Around 1,000 employees may be affected by the outsourcing move of the telco firm.
“Just IT [employees]. And not all of the IT people will move to IBM. Some will be retained. We have to retain the so-called brains of the IT organization,” Pangilinan said in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of PLDT?s annual stockholders meeting on Tuesday, June 13, in Makati City.
?The cost reduction will be substantial in manpower, processes and applications will be less expensive for us,? he added.
PLDT will also reduce unnecessary expenses such as travels and attendance to seminars and symposia abroad, freeze on salary increases, etc. to cut on its operating costs.
?Everybody is pitching in terms of helping to reduce opex (operating expenses),? according to Pangilinan, adding that PLDT is eyeing to sell its remaining stake in Beacon Electric Assets Holdings Inc. within the year.
PLDT owns a 25 percent stake in Beacon after selling 25 percent to Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC). Beacon, in turn, owns 35 percent of Meralco.
PLDT?s net income in 2016 reached P27.9 billion, declining by 21 percent from P35.2 billion in 2015. Its revenues likewise fell to P165.26 billion in 2016, from P171.10 billion in 2015. Its expenses jumped to P140.56 billion in 2016, from P139.27 billion in 2015. — Aerol B. Patena, PNA
