MANILA, Philippines -- Accenture sees long-term prospects for its system integration business in the Philippines to fulfill growth areas like software-as-a-service (SaaS) and service-oriented architecture.
Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology architect, noted that the company’s long-time presence in the Philippines has already created expertise in areas like support for SAP and Oracle customers.
With roughly around 15,000 workers, the Philippines ranks only behind India and the US in terms of size in Accenture’s global network of delivery centers. Locally, Accenture operates seven delivery centers located in Metro Manila and Cebu.
Half of that workforce is engaged in offshore support services for Accenture’s customers. In recent years, though, Accenture has ramped up its call center business. Last year, the local office formed a Technology Architecture group, intended to consolidate expertise.
“We realized there has been a lot of expertise like Java programming, for example, present in many units within the company,” said Annbel Tierro, systems integration and technology lead for Accenture Philippines.
Daugherty, meanwhile, stressed that there is a lot of room for growth in Accenture’s system integration business in the Philippines. During the briefing, he discussed industry trends that provide potential markets for Accenture's services.
“We see a diverse set of services that we can focus on,” he said, asked how Accenture’s local operations fit into the overall strategy. “We have built a sizable SAP and Oracle expertise here and also a very good base of programmers doing work on Java.”
Accenture last year announced it is investing around $450 million in building SOA (service oriented architecture) expertise, eyeing a lucrative market for end-users rolling out SOA.
“The Philippines is also in a good position to provide SOA-related services as well,” Daugherty added.
Accenture reported $19.7 billion in total revenues last year and currently employs more than 65,000 workers globally. Its three major businesses are management and consulting, system integration and business process outsourcing (BPO).
