Elly Yates-Roberts |
Philippines-based company The Gokongwei Group, which comprises JG Summit Holdings, Robinsons Retail Holdings and Summit Media, completed its migration to the cloud with the help of partners ePLDT, Infosys and Microsoft at the end of 2021.
The transition, which was orchestrated through Microsoft Azure, began in 2018 and was accelerated in 2019 when the company partnered with Infosys and Microsoft.
During the midst of the pandemic, The Gokongwei Group used Microsoft 365 to enable hybrid working, which improved employee collaboration and productivity.
“The Gokongwei Group has been a part of the Philippines’ history since our founding in 1957,” said Carlos Santos, vice president of shared services at JG Summit Holdings. “We’ve served our community for many years, and we endeavour to continue doing so well into the future. We knew that achieving that requires an entrepreneurial mindset, and our ambition needed to be on a foundation of integrity. Which is why when it came to digitalising the organisation, across all companies, we knew it needed to be Microsoft, the industry’s most trusted and comprehensive cloud offering.”
The Gokongwei Group has saved between 30 and 40 per cent infrastructure costs by moving its systems onto Microsoft Azure and expects to increase the productivity of its workforce by 30 to 40 per cent with the completion of the digital move.
Infosys, a global provider of next-generation digital and consulting services, played a vital part in formulating and executing the transformation strategy.
“We are delighted to collaborate with the Gokongwei Group in their digital transformation journey,” said Karmesg Vaswani, executive vice president and global head consumers for retail and logistics at Infosys. “Our expertise in digital technologies backed by decades of experience in navigating the business landscape will definitely bring in a lot of synergy, that will help them realise their vision of long-term digital transformation. We are proud to help the Gokongwei Group enhance their business journey as they seek to positively impact more consumers across the Asia-Pacific region in the future.”
Now, 99 per cent of The Gokongwei Group’s systems have been migrated to Microsoft’s digital platforms.
“The Gokongwei Group and their industry-defining transformation has elevated them into an enterprise of tomorrow, which is crucial as the digital and traditional economy continue to be on a growth trajectory,” said Sandy Gupta, vice president of sales, marketing and operations at Microsoft Asia Pacific. “Together, Gokongwei Group and Microsoft are empowering every person and every organisation in the Philippines, through innovation and digital transformation to build an inclusive, economic society. Our customers can trust that we will never compete against them. We’re not a search company; we’re not a retailer. We are an enterprise technology company.”
Following this digitisation of The Gokongwei Group, the company will move to developing its use of artificial intelligence to monitor and operate control, further increasing productivity in the coming years.