Eugene Ho (Deloitte Consulting)
Heightened customer demand for migrating workloads from on-premises to Oracle Cloud has been cited as a leading factor in Deloitte’s recent acquisition of Focus IT, a boutique service provider based in the Philippines.
The decision to strengthen Oracle consulting capabilities across Southeast Asia - revealed by Channel Asia in early February - comes amid an “aggressive” market shift in technology investment as end-users kick-start COVID-19 recovery plans.
“We’re seeing a growing demand for our technology offerings with strong growth in Southeast Asia and our Oracle offering is one of them,” said Eugene Ho, regional managing director of Southeast Asia at Deloitte Consulting. “There’s also an increase in demand for cloud-based and industry specific solutions that helps drive business decisions.
“As the economy goes into post COVID-19 recovery mode, our clients are aggressively investing in technology as part of the shift to new ways of working.”
In response, Ho said enterprise customers are now prioritising building a “more resilient and flexible” business model, which includes digitalisation and the adoption of “scalable technology solutions” such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) via the cloud.
“The Focus IT team’s expertise in Oracle services supplements our Oracle offering with a larger pool of professionals and industry experience,” Ho added. “We are collectively supporting our clients’ transformation journeys, especially those transiting from Oracle On-Premise to Oracle Cloud.”
As reported by Channel Asia, the transaction - which remains confidential from a financial standpoint - resulted in the Metro Manila-based specialist joining the consulting arm of Deloitte to enhance offerings specific to Oracle On-Premise and cloud implementation across the region.
Founded in 2010, Focus IT provides consulting and managed services across the Oracle portfolio, operating as a Gold Partner with deep expertise in relation to business analytics, cloud and ERP solutions among others.
“We are always keeping our finger on the pulse, monitoring opportunities across our markets that would help position Deloitte to be one step ahead,” Ho stated. “In the Philippines, Focus IT has been a leading boutique Oracle service provider and they are known to deliver quality work to their clients.”
As outlined by Ho, plans are now underway for Focus IT to be fully integrated into the Deloitte Consulting practice across Southeast Asia, jointly serving customers across the region in the process.
“We are always in the market for the best talent, not just for Oracle, but also across our numerous offerings that would help position Deloitte to be one step ahead,” Ho said. “Having the best talent is one way we can drive value for our clients.”
One such talent is Grace Ogena - founder of Focus IT - who has now joined Deloitte as a consulting executive director, with her team of 20 professionals based in the Philippines.
“We have always thought of scaling our business and with Deloitte’s industry depth and global reach, we decided that they were the right partner for us,” Ogena outlined. “With this union, we can now serve clients beyond the shores of the Philippines and allow our consultants to be exposed to regional projects and deepen their professional growth. Our clients would similarly be provided with a wider range of services and access to global subject matter experts.”
In addition, Ogena cited the importance of achieving a “good culture match” between both parties, acknowledging this was a “key consideration” when embarking on the acquisition process with Deloitte.
“Our deep understanding of our clients’ business and industry, coupled with a dedicated delivery team is what differentiates us in the market and we continue to work with many of our long-term clients,” Ogena added.
Hyperscale cloud opportunities beckon in the Philippines
The acquisition comes amid a ripe time for Philippine-based vendors and partners to team up with hyperscale cloud providers, as the country’s cloud market races towards a major surge in spending.
As reported by Channel Asia, enterprise spending on cloud services in the Philippines is expected grow from US$1.8 billion in 2020 to US$2.6 billion in 2024, according to industry analysis firm GlobalData.
New data by the firm suggests that the cloud boom goes well beyond the enterprise segment, with cloud-based service usage soaring in the consumer segment and streaming mobile video users, which are set to grow from 53 million in 2020 to 80 million in 2024.
Moreover, mobile social media users will grow from 75 million to 80 million over the same period. This is in addition to broad industry trends both driving and supporting cloud usage in the country, including digital transformation and growing international connectivity.
International connectivity can be an important factor in building a local cloud-hub, given that it can offer redundant connectivity options to global data centres to ensure resilience of operations. And providers in the Philippines have been making good progress on this front.
“Operators across the country have built more than a dozen carrier neutral data centres and increasing international carriage capacity to and from the nation by developing undersea cable projects with global partners,” GlobalData technology senior analyst Malcolm Rogers said.
For Rogers, the Philippines in the future may prove to be a valuable cloud region as the country’s growing digital economy is driving increased cloud usage.
“For example, the Philippines is one of the fastest IT business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) markets in the region with BPO companies using cloud-based services to support their operations,” he added.
