Carrying the theme “New Points of Contact: Advancing in a Boundaryless World,” the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) five-day summit sends the message of a resurgence as the sector waded through the effects of the pandemic.

In his opening message, IBPAP chair Benedict Hernandez underscored that the sector remains to be one of the Philippines’ economic pillars. Agile and resilient, the industry navigated through major headwinds to drive recovery in 2020 with 1.32 million full-time employees and $26.7 billion in revenue.

Citing a study by the Everest Group, Hernandez shared that amid the lingering impact of the pandemic, 2021 marks a resurgence for the country’s IT-BPM sector — preserving jobs, generating new opportunities, stimulating countryside development, and creating demand for real estate.

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According to the report, Philippine IT-BPM is expected to increase between 7-8% in terms of FTEs and 8-12% in terms of revenue. This is similarly reflected in a survey conducted by IBPAP showing that 56% of companies are seeing a double-digit growth by year-end while 38% is predicting single-digit growth. Another 6% remarked that they are forecasting flat growth in 2021.

Jack Madrid, newly appointed president and CEO of IBPAP, stressed that discussions on the new points of contact (platforms, people, pillars, policies, and places) “tell us that in this disruptive world, a change of mindset is essential; accelerating digitization should be viewed as maximizing rather than replacing current workforce, workplaces, and workways. The future of work is here and will require an adaptable workforce that’s steeped in lifelong learning, and a new breed of leaders to pave the way.”

IT-BPM roadmap

“Leaders of our disruptive, brave new world will need to be curious, humble, and learning-oriented,” Madrid said. “Courage is also needed by leaders who will pursue bold, continuous experimentation without fear of making mistakes, but instead learn from them. Easier said than done, but necessary to empower the digital workforce and ignite the spirit of innovation.”

With 2021 coming to a close, IBPAP is already gearing up for the development of the much-anticipated IT-BPM Roadmap 2028 that will be the blueprint that will define the sector’s key priorities in digitization, talent, policy-shaping, infrastructure, and country branding in the next six years.

“We aim to complete this by the middle of 2022,” Madrid said. “We will take the learnings from this Summit for our Roadmap, one of which is to be prepared for more disruption. As such, the roadmap will allow real-time and mid-point reviews along the six years to calibrate for any changes to keep us on track and address any speedbumps along the way.”