Businesses like real estate urged to digitize against virus impact

BUSINESSES, by and large, have no other choice than to go digital to solve the crisis brought about by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, according to a conglomerate’s top executive.

“We realized that there were tremendous number of products and services that were going to have to ride obviously on a digital infrastructure,” Ayala Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said during the recent online Pilipinas Conference organized by Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute.

When the pandemic hit, the whole world absolutely had no choice but to embrace the so-called new normal. 

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The implementation of lockdowns in Metro Manila and other areas in the country has restricted the peoples’ movement and resulted to the rise of the online setup, whether in the education, business and corporate sectors.

“Customers, if you’re focused on them, were thinking about keeping themselves safe and were accessing services and products in completely different ways. That transformation just moved up to a whole other degree,” he noted.

Zobel de Ayala emphasized the big role of digital technology in the real-estate industry that has been affected among the many industries by the ensuing health crisis.

For instance, he cited how it helps developers in selling properties even without the prospective client’s actual tour of the site. 

“We are now able to close a transaction on a piece of property, looking at it visually, exchanging notes virtually, and then signing documents electronically,” noted the chairman and CEO of Ayala Corp. 

“This whole cycle can be done without someone visiting a site and has been an extraordinary transformation in what has been traditionally a brick-and-mortar oriented company,” he added, while recognizing the significant contribution of telecommunications companies that keep Filipinos still connected amid the pandemic.

Publicly listed firm Ayala Corp. is the holding company of the Ayala Group of Companies, with principal interests in various businesses, including real estate and hotels, as well as telco, among others. 

It’s affiliate, Ayala Land Inc. the largest property developer in the country, involved in the planning and development of large scale, integrated estates having a mix of use for the sale of residential lots and buildings, office buildings and commercial and industrial lots, leasing of commercial and office spaces and the development, operation and management of hotels and resorts. 

Also, it develops commercial and industrial parks and is also engaged in property management, construction and other businesses like retail and health care.

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Among its subsidiaries are Alveo Land Corp., Avida Land Corp., Ayala Property Management Corp., Makati Development Corp., North Triangle Depot Commercial Corp., Laguna Technopark Inc., and Ten Knots Philippines Inc.

Its telco arm, Globe Telecom Inc., provides digital wireless communication services nationwide, as well as domestic and international long distance communication services or carrier services.

The company has already built 700 new cell sites and upgraded 8,036 existing ones as of October 2020, with 600 more to be finished by end of the year.

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Article and Photo originally posted by Business Mirror last January 6, 2021 and written by Roderick Abad. Minor edits have been made by REBPH to cater to its own readers.

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