MANILA, Philippines--IBM believes local businesses are mature enough in their use of information technology to appreciate the value of outsourcing.

In an interview with INQUIRER.net, James Velasquez, IBM Philippines country manager, said the company now wants to market its services business to local customers.

IBM currently has around 7,000 workers in the Philippines, most of whom are doing business process outsourcing (BPO) work for global IBM customers.

IBM's local delivery centers provide customer support, finance and accounting and applications maintenance.

"Having that global service delivery capability that you can harness for domestic clients is certainly a plus factor for our local clients," Velasquez said.

But are Philippines companies ready for outsourcing? IBM's top local executive believes so.

Velasquez believes local companies now see the benefits of outsourcing, which he also refers to as "out-tasking," literally to mean hiring a service provider to take care of certain company tasks or processes.

"Local companies need to compete on a global scale as well. A lot of them are seeing IT as a driver for innovation," he said.

"A lot of them realize that innovation is something that can be established or enhanced through technology whether it's allowing collaboration among employees or between suppliers, partners and the like," he explained.

Locally, he said IBM is already providing services such as applications outsourcing to customers. "Services is one of the fastest growing segments in the local market today," he noted.