With the massive economic impact of COVID-19 across the region, many locators in the country’s economic zones are looking for more processes and transactions to digitalize and cope with the severe effects of the pandemic.
BPI Head of Corporate Banking John-C Syquia believes that digitalizing will give Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) locators and companies the competitive advantage to survive the effects of this pandemic, and even thrive and capture the opportunities that the new business environment offers.
“While much of our country’s economic activity is centered in the capital, the lockdowns have brought the importance of businesses and manufacturing bases in our special economic zones in sharp focus,” Syquia said.
“Now, digital capabilities can open new frontiers for business and level up clients’ and partners’ customer experience. Embrace it quickly and fully, to reap its tremendous benefits and stay ahead of the pack,” he added.
For BPI, digital banking is crucial to PEZA locators given the current travel restrictions and limited workforce for most locators, especially those with large operations. Since some of the locators are still operating during the pandemic, the main concern is how the usual transactions can be done at home.
The bank also observed that the demand for digital banking transactions have increased for industries dependent on high-tech such as BPO, manufacturing, and aviation training during the community quarantine period.
“Some locators are operating on work-from-home arrangements, shifting schedules, and with 50-70% of the workforce onsite. Concerns include getting bank transactions done with minimal visibility and having available funds to bridge payments to suppliers and employees’ salaries while waiting for collections disrupted by the pandemic,” explained Ana Sison, Head for BPI Transaction Services Division.
In fact, Sison said there was an increase in inquiries about BizLink since the start of the lockdown, as clients found the need for it in this situation. “Customer inquiries for digital disbursement solutions have increased since the start of ECQ and have resulted to a high success ratio of enrollments,” she said.
BizLink is BPI’s internet banking platform for business and corporate clients that offers technology and financial management solutions for their needs. It aims to ease companies’ transactions during these times by providing a wider scope of digital solutions—from account balance and transaction inquiries, funds transfers and bills payments, to cash management services such as payroll uploading, government payments, and supplier payments.
Syquia said BizLink reinforces BPI’s “phygital” strategy, which is a combination of physical branches and digital banking.
“In the new normal, we understand that businesses have their transactions in the branches. But with our ‘phygital’ strategy, we want our clients to have an omni-channel experience. We want them to start one transaction in the branches, and finish it off via BizLink or our digital solutions. We want to provide the same level of quality and convenience for them,” he said.
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