Road Warriors Armed With Next Generation Technology
Unilever Gets PLDT-Enabled

MANILA, Philippines / MAY 19, 2006: Unilever Philippines is stepping up to the high-technology plate. The giant consumer packaged products conglomerate thinks it’s high time to upgrade its sprawling local operations.
 
“We want to enable our most distant networks with new technology,” says Maita Cabinian, Country Head of IT for Unilever. “We serve almost every part of the Philippines…PLDT Shops.work  is definitely more cost-efficient for our smaller remote offices.”
 
PLDT Shops.work is a responsive telco innovation that allows business owners to monitor and control remote operations in real-time. Among other things it allows managers to effectively track inventory movement as well as up-to-date sales figures. It also allows video monitoring of their satellite offices through the use of online webcams.
 
In addition, Unilever employees that are continuously in the field can now connect to the Internet or their office LAN thanks to the award-winning PLDT WeRoam solution in their laptops. “We have a big distribution network in remote areas where wireless solutions can be deployed fastest. Before, the only other option was radio,” Cabinian also said.
 
“We’re broadbanding the whole country,” said PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno, “the reason (broadband) can be rolled out faster by the PLDT Group, even in remote stations is because of the strength of Smart’s 99% cellular site coverage and PLDT’s self-healing digital fiber optic network that cuts through the whole archipelago.”
 
After realizing the value of reliable cost effective mobility for their sales people, top management at Unilever decided that it was time to adopt this innovative technology. The Unilever sales force can now connect with their head office anywhere they are in the field, increasing their productivity and efficiency several times over.
 
“Unilever has empowered its marketing team and sales force with PLDT WeRoam. We are very delighted to have enabled their road warriors with this award-winning solution, beyond fixed or wireless voice and data services already entrusted to the PLDT-Smart Group,” said PLDT SVP and Head of the Corporate Business Group Eric R. Alberto.
 
According to Unilever officials, they had become aware of a number of other multinationals who are realizing the value of PLDT WeRoam. They felt that it was time that they looked into its advantages as well for their own operations. 
 
Howard Belton, Chairman and CEO of Unilever Philippines added that “In our constant effort to improve our customer service, we know we need to partner with other equally innovative companies like PLDT.”
 
Unilever has made the commitment to race into the future and PLDT innovations will be with them every step of the way. Beyond offering them the latest solutions and products, PLDT puts the spirit of innovation in everything else including after-sales and customer support. Clearly, it’s innovation in every dimension.