INFORMATION technology icon IBM, also known as The Big Blue and International Business Machines, is keeping its focus on small and medium business, or SMB, which accounts for up to 70 percent of its Philippine business. Photo shows (from left) Carol Chanco, IBM channel partners manager, Erwin Chuaunsu, ibm.com sales center country manager, and Robert J. Cheng, president of Alliance Software Inc., a partner firm for IBM business software solutions, at the close of a media briefing at My Cinema in Makati City late Friday. --VICTOR SOLLORANO

INFORMATION technology icon IBM said it will still keep a big part of its global business initiative focused on small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), where the company has made substantial gains over the past few years.

Globally, the SMB segment accounts for about 20 percent of IBM’s business, reflecting a sector that is growing fast.

Here in the Philippines, the SMB sector represents about 70 percent of IBM’s core business.

However, IBM said it will not rest on its laurels. Erwin Chuaunsu, country manager of ibm.com, said that one of the top strategic priorities for IBM’s business in the Philippines is to expand its presence nationwide.

“We’d really like to capture opportunities in emerging markets around the Philippines, which is one of several strategic priorities for the company this year,” explains Chuaunsu during a briefing late Friday with journalists at My Theater in Makati City.

He cited the company’s growth in the central Philippine province of Cebu that saw a 100-percent volume increase for IBM’s business in 2005-2006. In terms of expanding its partner ecosystem in the northern side of the country, Chuaunsu said that they have already recruited around 40 partners in the north area as part of an objective to expand its presence there.

Chuaunsu also bared that aside from this, IBM will also continue to develop business solutions that would help the mid-market customers to innovate and grow their business. “We’ll also formulate solutions to help our independent software vendor (ISV) partners to help us further gain preference as a partner of choice by the mid-market,” he added.

At present, IBM has more than 400 partners in the Philippines, which Chuaunsu said will also help them as the company extends its Express Advantage solution, an end-to-end solution that covers all aspects of business operations, from financial to human resources and even point-of-sales (POS) systems.

Carol Chanco, IBM Channel Partners manager, said that IBM will still focus on companies that are “credit challenged.”

“We saw them grow considerably with the help of this (IGF) leasing program. We’re glad that many of them have availed themselves since we don’t want financing to be a hurdle to them in terms of growing their business,” she said.

In order to avail themselves of the program, Chanco said that customers need to submit necessary documentary requirements, which will then be studied by IBM for consideration. Financing really depends on the type of IBM Express Advantage solution that applicants want to avail themselves of since the program covers a wide range of solutions under the Express Advantage portfolio, she said.

HONG KONG—The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group is veering away from traditional retail voice services and is now aggressively growing an international mobile business by tapping overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs,

Basic Energy needs P1.5B for development

PUBLICLY traded Basic Energy Corp. is borrowing P1.3 to P1.5 billion to help fund the ethanol development project of newly acquired unit Zambo Norte BioEnergy Corp.

INFORMATION technology icon IBM said it will still keep a big part of its global business initiative focused on small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs), where the company has made substantial gains over the past few years.

AMID interests from at least two power-generating companies to expand one of the country’s natural gas-fired power plants or put up an additional natural gas power facility in Batangas, the government remains undecided over what to do with the San Pascual power purchase agreement (PPA), Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla told BusinessMirror on Saturday.

Philippine stocks rose Friday, posting a second week of gains, after the central bank cut a key interest rate and higher sales at US retailers eased concern a housing slump will curb spending in the world’s biggest economy.

While other real-estate companies such as MegaWorld Corp. are increasingly going into joint ventures (read: somebody provides the land and the real-estate company develops the land), Ortigas & Co. Ltd. Partnership (OCLP) prefers to go it alone because of its huge land bank.