Asticom Technology, Inc., the shared services arm of the Globe Group, is targeting conglomerates with operations spanning multiple industries as it works to broaden its enterprise technology client base.

While the company is also pursuing clients in the retail and financial sectors, it is prioritizing diversified business groups over individual industry verticals. The approach reflects the structure of the Philippine economy, where major conglomerates typically operate across retail, banking, property, telecommunications, and utilities under a single corporate umbrella, making them natural customers for integrated technology platforms.

"The industries that we're tapping into includes retail, the conglomerates, and as well as the financial institutions," Asticom President and Chief Executive Officer Mharicar Castillo-Reyes said on the sidelines of the National Retail Conference and Expo last week.

Castillo-Reyes emphasized that Asticom is focusing on companies with operations across several industries, though it is also exploring sectors such as real estate.

"Mostly on the conglomerate side, the ones that have multiple industries under them. That's why the conglomerate is the strategy rather than just the vertical," she said.

The strategy builds on Asticom's partnership with Workday, Inc., a provider of artificial intelligence-powered human capital management and enterprise resource planning platforms. Through the partnership, Asticom will offer Workday's platforms to Philippine companies seeking to modernize their financial and workforce management systems, including organizations still relying on fragmented legacy platforms. The push comes as Philippine enterprises face growing pressure to digitize operations amid labor market shifts and increasing competition from technology-native entrants.

Asticom's technology portfolio also includes solutions from DocuSign, Inc. and Apple, Inc. The company has maintained a partnership with DocuSign for three years, offering its AI-enabled intelligent agreement management and contract lifecycle platforms. Asticom is additionally a premium business-to-business (B2B) partner of Apple.

"Those are the three major solutions we're carrying, and they're mostly number in the market, [with] Workday as the latest," Castillo-Reyes said.

Separately, Asticom is leveraging its engineering unit to deploy technology from Transcelestial, a Singapore-based provider of wireless laser communications systems, in areas where fiber-optic cables cannot be installed. The deployment is being carried out in phases as part of efforts to address connectivity gaps across the Philippines, where terrain and geography have historically posed challenges to extending fixed-line infrastructure to remote and island communities. Asticom did not disclose the rollout's locations, scale, timetable, or cost.

The company also indicated it is on track to exceed its 2026 targets based on its first-half performance, though it did not provide specific figures.

"We're actually very much on track in exceeding the targets for 2026," Castillo-Reyes said.

— Juliana Chloe A. Gonzales