Siemens Philippines sees growth opportunities in digitalization

SIEMENS, INC. Philippines remains bullish on its growth prospects in the coming years as it sees a growing market for digital transformation among industrial companies.

During the launch of its cloud-based, open operating system called Mindsphere, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens AG said it expects its revenues to grow in the next five years as more companies invest in what is known as industrial Internet of Things (IoT) in order to stay competitive.

Joseph Jorel B. Nuyda, president and CEO of Siemens Inc. Philippines, said the company’s growth prospects look “promising” as it rides on the country’s economic growth trajectory, as well as the government’s aggressive infrastructure buildup, which could boost the performance of industrial companies — Siemens’ core market.  

“We are growing [in terms of revenues]. For [fiscal year] 2016, we hit P12 billion on the international business that we have here. For the whole group, we have been increasing [in revenues] tremendously. For the past three years, we have improved maybe around 40% [in terms of revenues],” Mr. Nuyda said.

Siemens, which has been operating in the Philippines since 1894, has been catering to major players in the power generation, construction, and healthcare sectors, among others. With the launch of its flagship cloud offering, Mindsphere, Siemens is positioning itself as a maker of fully digitized factories with Internet of Things at its core.

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is being driven by billions of intelligent devices generating massive volumes of data, and turning these into value is a critical success factor,” explained Dr. Armin Bruck, Siemens regional CEO. “We at Siemens have found a way to harness data — the global economy’s most essential ‘raw material’. Unlike most raw materials on our planet, data does not diminish instead, it continually multiplies and it is imperative that we not only know how to collect it, but most importantly to utilize it to our advantage,” he added.

Designed as an open platform that enables industrial companies to develop and manage applications, MindSphere promises to reduce downtime, increase production output, and utilize resources proficiently. For instance, machine factories can use the platform to monitor machine fleets for service purposes. It can also be used in the preventive maintenance of critical infrastructure such as railways, which Siemens said Mindsphere can help predict engine problems, thereby reducing failures.     

Mr. Bruck said the time was ripe to bring Mindsphere to the Philippines, given the “astonishing” digital transformation of local industrial companies’ the likes of Meralco and Maynilad, which he said, are already reaping the benefits of investing early in digital transformation.

He added that while in the past, Siemens’ margins were driven largely by the power sector, now the company is performing well across all verticals. Describing the performance of Siemens’ core businesses in the country, he said: “Energy management solutions has grown double-digits. We also gained more customers in cement industry, which is really growing strong in the Philippines. We have now also a [growing] building technology market, thanks to a booming construction industry. We are also addressing now the market for mobility — the train market.”

“All of these verticals are growing, luckily, in our books, not only in the market. It’s really the right time to be here,” Mr. Bruck added.