PLDT, Smart tap Amdocs for better IT operations

PLDT Inc. and mobile subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. tapped US-based software and services provider Amdocs to improve information technology (IT) operations.

The telcos signed a seven-year, $300-million agreement with Amdocs for a “business-led, technology-enabled transformative program,” PLDT said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

Amdocs will modernize the IT operations of both PLDT and Smart by introducing new digital tools.

“This milestone engagement will help boost our growth, and position us to take the lead in the next wave of digital innovation brought by new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and automation technologies,” PLDT chairman, president, and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said.

“It is a partnership in real terms. And since this engagement takes the form of managed transformation services, certain manpower from our IT units would be offered career opportunities in Amdocs as regular employees,” he said.

PLDT was in talks last year to outsource its IT needs to International Business Machines (IBM), but a deal failed to materialize.

Pangilinan said last December the company plans to allot to capital expenditure “north of P50 billion” this year in preparation for the entry of a third player in the telco industry.

The Philippine telecom industry is considered a duopoly dominated by PLDT and rival Globe Telecom Inc., prompting calls for a third telco player to break the situation, improve services, and lower costs on the part of consumers. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News