VOL. 5 NO. 2 Second Quarter 2003 Fujitsu Philippines offers nationwide coverage FPI establishes a network of Regional Support Offices (RSOs) strategically located in different parts of the country with a goal to meet the increasing market demand for a service provider with a wide service coverage and a strong support structure. FPI’s Regional Support Office at Subic Bay ith improvements in technology, especially in data FPI customers. The RSO engineer acts as the first line of support for customers within the communications and in the Internet, the dream of a true This move differentiates FPI from the rest RSO territory. Additional engineers are distributed computing is now a reality. Technology enables of the ICT service providers. The RSOs dispatched temporarily to the territory W enable FPI to offer its clients a range of as needed to help the RSO engineers enterprises to transact and interact directly with their end-users - a boon service options, such as next-business- cope with peaks in their workload. The to consumers but a major management challenge for ICT infrastructure day up to two hours on-site response time Makati-based RSO coordinator takes managers. on a 24 x 7 basis. The RSOs also enable care of all operational and administrative FPI to serve its existing clients with concerns of the RSO engineers and Due to the infrastructure’s customer- provider with wide service coverage and provincial branches more effectively, these concerns are escalated to the Field oriented role, a severe and a demanding a strong support structure. increase FPI’s service coverage, and Support Group Head if necessary. support service level is appropriate to pursue new business opportunities within maximize operation’s productivity and In addition, FPI has strengthened its Cebu each service area. “Our business is to make our customer’s efficiency. Twenty-four hour service Business Unit in manpower and in facility business successful,” said Mr. Felipe R. availability, nationwide support, and a - a depot of spare parts. The Cebu City Aside from Subic, there is an RSO in Manalang, FPI President. “That is why facility for a single point-of-contact are office now provides valuable services to each of the following locations: Baguio when we say we are fanatical about needed to meet these exacting demands the growing legion of FPI customers in City, Calamba, Iloilo City, Cagayan de customer satisfaction, it is more than a for all call escalations. the Visayas and Mindanao. Only in 15% Oro City and Davao City. Each RSO is marketing exercise - it is a serious business of cases does FPI have to fly in specialists manned by an FPI technology support strategy. FPI invested to have the largest That’s why Fujitsu Philippines, Inc. has from the Metro Manila head office. engineer. These RSOs, together with our service support engineering team, the best started establishing a network of Regional existing support offices in Makati City, customer contact infrastructure, the best Support Offices (RSOs) strategically This has been replicated in the Subic Bay Parañaque and Cebu City, give FPI a total service management methodology, and located in different parts of the country. Metropolitan Authority in the Calabarzon of nine points of presence in the country. superior logistics. For we rather over- With this network, FPI aims to meet the area, and in many other geographical Additional RSOs will be established as configure our resources, so that it should increasing market demand for a service areas where there is a concentration of the need arises. always be in favor of the customer.” Research and Development Retail Services Logistics Service Banking Services Lexmark R & D making a strong Mini-Stop - Becoming the warmest LBC – Transforming into a PSBank – Aligning technology to presence in the asian region and friendliest convenience4 store multi-service company customer needs Research and Development VOL. 5 NO. 2 Second Quarter 2003 Lexmark R&D - Making a strong presence in the Asian region Filipino workforce. employees from here to the U.S. for about three to six months. I have 25 people In addition, he stressed that the Philippine there right now.” government is open for business investments and encourages open yet fair Lessons from the Philippines business practices. “In some countries, doing business is very difficult for a Working in the Philippines is such an foreign corporation like Lexmark. To interesting learning experience for Mr. operate in the local market, for instance, Combs. “It is hard to quantify. People some governments require a local partner with a different culture have different that owns about half or maybe 51 percent expectations about how to make things of the company. This is not the case in work. When I ask for something, I the Philippines. In all of the respective interpret it the way a fellow American business rules and regulations in Asian would interpret it. However, Filipinos countries, the Philippines is the most may interpret the request quite differently. flexible and straightforward.” I don’t mean from a language point of view but in view of perceptions. So it’s Aside from the Philippines having good been an interesting challenge for me.” intellectual property protection laws, LRDC is located near Lexmark’s inkjet In the final analysis, Mr. Combs manufacturing facility in Asia. quickly stressed the Philippines’ very large untapped opportunity for product “Our strategy was to start with basic software operations,” said Stan Combs, Lexmark R&D Expansion and Challenges development. “In the past, people had President and CEO. Because of numerous development perhaps thought more of doing low-cost projects and prospects, Mr. Combs said manufacturing in an export processing LRDC is set to expand its office in zone like the one in Mactan. We found exmark is one of the leading Cebu is the base of Lexmark’s R&D developers and manufacturers operations in the Asia-Pacific region. of printing solutions in Europe L “Our strategy was to start with basic and North America. With headquarters in Lexington, Kentucky, Lexmark software operations,” said Stan Combs, International, Inc. has positive growth President and CEO of LRDC. “And then prospects in the Asia-Pacific region. we worked on steadily increasing the The explosion of color printing in the complexity of the products developed corporate arena with the impact of the for both consumer and business printers Internet as a vehicle for business has distributed not only in Asia, but also increased the prospects of printing needs worldwide.” in this culturally diverse region. The current 250-member staff of mostly Although brand recognition has become programmers has been doing a lot of extremely important and challenging in studies in printer technologies for wired the region, Lexmark’s competitive edge and wireless connections like Bluetooth, is strongly founded on developing and consumer printing from the Internet, and owning the technology inside its products. total box designs in the next five years This shortens the product development that will incorporate electronic design cycle and allows the company to integrate and mechanisms. customer inputs into research, product design, and development. LRDC is the product of an extensive one- year study of potential locations in 10 As one of America’s most admired countries, including Japan, Korea, China, companies, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. There are LRDC employs Filipino programmers to develop printer drivers and network adapters for Lexmark Lexmark arrived on printers. Philippine shores in 1999 with the several reasons why Lexmark chose the establishment of Lexmark International Philippines for its R&D operations. One Philippines, Inc., an inkjet cartridge core reason is the Filipino workforce, Cebu in terms of office space and more we could go well beyond low-cost assembly plant, at the Mactan Export whom Mr. Combs described as “very development tools for its workforce, such manufacturing and we’ve been successful Processing Zone II. This 115,500 square- skilled, talented, trainable, hardworking, as computers, software, and networking doing development work here. We’re quite foot facility in Cebu, the newest addition and with a lot of potential due to a good equipment. The company also expects to satisfied in the quality of workmanship to Lexmark’s manufacturing sites in Asia, education system and a lot of degree- increase its manpower to 300 by the end that we get in this country.” supplies inkjet cartridges to the growing qualified workers.” of the year. Asian market, as well as supplementing As a final message to any investor who is the U.S. market. The second reason is more of an It partnered with Fujitsu Philippines to thinking of investing in other countries, “accidental geography,” as Mr. Combs improve its data network facility and Mr. Combs has this to say, “I would tell R&D Mission coined it. The Philippines is centrally he emphasized that the company is very them to consider the Philippines. The located and easy to access from all pleased with FPI’s quality of service. country certainly offers many business In 2001, Lexmark Research and areas in the Asia-Pacific region. “We possibilities, providing an environment Development Corporation (LRDC) was have business partners all over the place “The biggest challenge is keeping this that is conducive to successful product opened at the Cebu Business Park with – China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan – with lab tightly connected and coordinating development.” a mission to design, develop,