MANILA, Philippines—Local business conglomerates are now more inclined to spend on information technology infrastructure and services, knowing that such investments will have huge returns for them in the future, according to IT multinational EMC.

EMC Philippines country manager Ronnie Latinazo said the company was now conducting “roadmap assessments” for local conglomerates, to determine the best IT processes for their specific needs.

“Local companies now see the need to do this. They want to have a clear roadmap that they can adopt,” he said in a briefing Friday. “We’re now in talks with a number of local conglomerates who are in the process of choosing their technology and service providers.”

He declined to name the conglomerates EMC Philippines was in discussions with, saying only that they were all involved in “highly diverse” businesses.

“The local conglomerates are talking to us about building their own private cloud, or a private computing environment that can serve their internal needs. A lot of them are now doing an inventory of what they already have. They’re thinking of what to do with what they have and how they can add to that,” he said.

“Companies will not throw away what they have and spend good money on new things. They want to know what they can keep and what else they need to enhance their businesses. This won’t be a one-shot deal for them. This will be a journey,” he added.

EMC started operating in the country in 2000, initially focused on storage offerings. After 10 years, the company had expanded to provide a full range of products and services for its local clients.

Latinazo said the company grew by 10 percent in the second quarter, fueled by its leadership positions in the mid-range, high end, and overall external storage markets here.

Just in the first half, he said the company was able to secure 14 new customers across the enterprise and commercial segments.

“The first half was good for us. We experienced growth despite the election uncertainty and a global economy that has yet to totally rebound,” he said.

For the remainder of the year, he said EMC Philippines aimed to further boost its market share, introduce new products and services, and expand its partnerships with distributors and resellers.