By Caesar Vallejos
Eagle News Service
Sellers and buyers will soon engage in a single platform where they could transact business from supply chain management to procurement and logistics.
Procurement and Supply Institute of Asia (PASIA) Chairman of the Board and CEO Charlie P. Villasenor said that the rise of a single electronic marketplace is one of the technology disruptions that will impact on the industry.
“This could be the next biggest story in the horizon next year because more companies are coming to us and they’re already being part of e-market place,” he said.
On the sidelines of the PASIAWORLD 2018 Supply Chain, Procurement and Logistics Educational and Networking Conference held at the Marriott Hotel last November 22-23, 2018, Villasenor said that the “e-commerce platform will differentiate the way B2B transactions with SMEs and large companies and how they conduct business with buyers.”
Strange economy
Villasenor noted that we are “living in a strange economy right now and many companies could not adopt into digitalization. They don’t have the resources, they don’t have the capital, they don’t have the know-how to do it. So, they will actually rely on available electronic market places and providers who has the know-how and the capacity to actually deliver the platform, “ he explained.
According to Villasenor, “the number of the companies that are dropping out off the list is so fast now. The smaller players are enabled and the player who has the highest value is going to disrupt.
“So there is going to be a fair level play field for everybody. So don’t be surprised when more and more companies like us in PASIA. TransProcure will soon rise because we have that domain expertise: we’re focused, we’re experienced, we’re scalable and we have the cost advantage,” Villasenor said.
He said that small and medium enterprises can work even with competitors because “the market place or the electronic market place is like a portal. So if there are more users on the portal, everybody wins. They are able to reduce their cost, they are able to make efficient, and everybody survives.”
Uberization of everything
“There’s going to be drop outs for those who don’t adapt fast but everybody is leveraging because that’s the type of economy that we work now and it’s called shared economy. It’s like Airbnb, it’s like uberization of supply chain, procurement and logistics.
The platform will cater to both services and physical products. Contractors, consultants, professionals and service providers have more opportunities here in the Philippines “but the output is being given to another client that is overseas.”
He added that “even SME companies who are very small, as long as they have a good product, will be able to compete with bigger boys because they have access through e-commerce. And this is not just about procurement we’re going to move to e-payment and e-logistics,” Villasenor announced.
Elevating the value proposition
PASIAWORLD was also attended by foreign delegates. “We were surprised about the participation of giants, big multinationals. I think they’ve found out that the Philippines is the best provider of supply chain, procurement, back office and knowledge processes,” Villasenor said.
“What we are doing is we are elevating the value preposition to the world. We cannot just remain as call centers as we are going to impact where it matters most to the business. And what matters more to their business is that “companies are going to compete on their supply chain not only on the product and services that they sell,” he said.
“So this is one strategic approach to elevate their supply chains efficiently — by making sure they know where to offshore, outsource, out task and get augmentation help to providers, and I think the Philippines has something to offer which is not easily duplicable by countries like China and India at this time,” the PASIA head said.
ASEAN trade and e-commerce
“E-commerce us not just about automating, there has to be ethics into it, and there has to be excellence on the process undertaking, ASEAN regionalization or trade is not really going to happen without e-commerce,” Villasenor said.
“So, e-commerce will become an enabler. But what’s more important is really training people in many industries whatever size of an organization that they have to be knowledgeable on supply chain because companies are not going to compete only on the product that they produced, companies are going to compete on how they execute their supply chain, procurement and logistics,” he emphasized.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS, the online business show of Eagle Broadcasting Corporation is Media Partner of PASIAWORLD 2018.
