Cebu-based retail chain Prince Retail Group (PRG) has been reaping the benefits of its digital transformation investments through its partnership with PLDT Group’s ICT subsidiary, ePLDT, which deployed customized solutions that covered three critical areas of digitalization such as uninterrupted customer services, a much-improved customer service delivery, and higher employee productivity.
With the deployment of Microsoft 365 and Azure API, ePLDT was able to help PRG efficiently track data and develop store-level intelligence, enabling its frontliners to provide uninterrupted services even during a crisis, deliver ‘strong operational unified commerce’, and increase their productivity by 73% — a figure even higher than Microsoft’s lofty benchmark of 53%.
PRG’s formerly manual business processes were also automated with the creation of mini-apps, automated workflows, and optimized use of SharePoint as a document collaborative platform. Additionally, Microsoft 365 also made it easier for in-store frontliners to easily collaborate online, communicate virtually, and exchange emails even at the height of the pandemic.
Its earlier decision to invest heavily in solutions that increase productivity and customer service delivery proved to be the right move not just at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but also when Super Typhoon Odette ravaged the Visayas in December 2021.
A late-2018 decision to move mission-critical servers to an ePLDT Vitro Data Center enabled PRG employees to provide uninterrupted services for their customers after the typhoon’s devastation. Although Super Typhoon Odette inflicted structural damage to some of the Group’s stores, its servers – which ran the heart of all merchandising, financial, and other operational applications – kept its integrity.
“We will continue to collaborate with PRG and support its goal of expanding and reaching more customers in the Philippines. Through a collaborative digital transformation journey, we hope to be able to help them meet the needs of their customers and deliver the best service possible through uninterrupted business operations even in the most challenging of times such as the pandemic,” Genuino said.
ePLDT President and CEO Victor S. Genuino added that the partnership with PRG is an important step for ePLDT to drive greater business value through a collaborative digital transformation journey with customers in the Visayas region.
The investment in digital solutions is part of PRG’s sabay sa buhay mantra since many of its stores, particularly in the CARAGA region, served underdeveloped communities whose access to the Internet is still quite limited. With its partnership with ePLDT, PRG was able to take a bolder and more innovative approach to reach more customers in the Philippines and fully realize its potential as a social enterprise.
“Every time we open a new store, the surrounding economy thrives,” said PRG Chief Information Office Julius Foronda at last year’s PH Digicon 2022. “We often hear, ‘Salamat sa Prince, may kutson na ako, may paninda na ako (Thanks to Prince, I now have beddings, I now have merchandise to sell).’”
Beyond saturating the market with as many physical stores as it can, it is the passion for “serving the underserved” that accurately dictates what PRG pursues as it sets its sight to expand to 100 stores across the Philippines in the next three years. Currently, it proudly operates 65 stores in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
“ePLDT has been a forerunner in bringing in new technologies to our country. It is a reliable partner in providing holistic solutions, whether in increasing connectivity through reliable Internet connections, all the way down to cloud solutions, enabling productivity and integration system solutions,” Foronda added.
The road ahead
The retail chain looks forward to its continued partnership with ePLDT to achieve greater business outcomes and leverage more on its holistic digital solutions – from connectivity improvements to digital systems such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) as well as cloud-based solutions.
“In the beginning, we asked, how could we afford this investment as a social enterprise that only puts a very low percent markup on our goods compared to our competitors? And eventually, we found out that once the systems are in place, and productivity begins to pick up, the tech ultimately pays for itself,” closed Foronda.
For more information on ePLDT’s digital solutions and how they can transform your business, visit ePLDT at https://www.epldt.com/.
