Innovation

In a traditional setting, marketing, bookkeeping, and other administrative tasks get done within the company's premises. DSV Digital is an innovation for this setting. DSV Digital offers its services to clients worldwide while its employees work offshore from the Philippines. DSV Digital offers a deviation from the usual way of doing things for both clients and employees. The company uses modern platforms, fresh ideas, and timely strategies to help its clients achieve its goals. It also promotes a healthy working environment for its employees through company policies like full-time working from home and "Do not disturb" weekends.

DSV Digital provides services to its clients through LeadIncrease and GoVirtuals. LeadIncrease utilizes digital marketing to connect its clients to potential customers using the professional network platform, LinkedIn. Depending on the customer's needs and chosen plans, a marketer or a group of marketers will get assigned to the client. The marketers will take care of the marketing needs of their clients. Through LinkedIn, they will look for potential customers of their clients and link them with each other.

GoVirtuals breaks down the conventional way of providing support to employers by providing a wide variety of services to its worldwide clients with top-vetted Filipino Virtual Assistants.GoVirtuals is an innovation to assist clients’ day-to-day tasks virtually. We may think those office assistants should be physically present to get the work done, but GoVirtuals can deliver services while working from home in the Philippines.

DSV Digital started as an “accidental idea.” During the interview, Visperas told the story behind the company's origin. She said that the idea came up when some of her entrepreneur friends from other countries asked her if she knew anyone who could do the job for them like social media management, bookkeeping, video editing, customer support, etc. At that time, she was working as a freelance Digital Marketer. Visperas then reached out to her friends and former colleagues on maternity leave or those who quit their regular jobs to take care of their families full-time. She asked these people if they could provide services to her other friends. She became the link to both parties. With this, she thought of the idea of establishing an agency that could employ Filipino people, particularly women who chose to give up their regular jobs to take care of the kids. As she mentioned in the interview, “Employing Filipino people was the main goal before, up until now and will be in the future.”

Inspiration

While Deanna had this “accidental idea” when she linked the opportunity from her entrepreneur friends to her local friends in the Philippines, her motivation and reason for creating DSV Digital is to fulfill her vision of providing work opportunities for Filipino People. She saw the opportunity to provide services to clients across the globe, even if the employees were in the Philippines. The company work policy is working from home full time. This policy is one of their advantages, and remote working is one of the reasons for employee motivations to stay in DSV Digital. Indeed, as she reiterated, "My main goal and motivation that I had and up until now are to give more opportunities to Filipino people."

Overall impact

When we talked about the company's impact, Visperas mentioned a few things to be considered, such as DSV Digitals is providing jobs to the Filipino people. Even though the company is only considered a Small and Medium Enterprise, it still contributes to providing a livelihood that could bring food to their family's tables; another impact that we discussed is that the company considers the welfare of its employees. The company makes sure that each employee has a work-life balance by supporting the needs of its employees, particularly intellectual, mental, and emotional needs. The DSV Digital empowers women, particularly mothers, to continue pursuing a career while caring for their families at home. Due to the terrible commute in Manila, some company workers leave their homes on weekdays to avoid commuting and stay in the area near their workplace. DSV Digital employees have the convenience to work from home and spend more time with their families. In the end, because of the work from home set up, employees are not traveling, reducing air pollution from commuting. The company has a policy on reducing the employees' carbon footprint, so they print only contracts and non-disclosure agreements remaining documents are signed electronically.

Currently, the business is flourishing as the company employed more than 50 employees over the past five years, and 90% of the employees work full time. DSV revenues are increasing, and the number of their clients is expanding. The success is evident in the recent award, which is the Frontrunner Awards in the Business Process Outsourcing Category at the 2021 Go Global Awards. The International Trade Council gives the GO-Global Awards to recognize companies that innovate, strategize, and take advantage of technologies to help the economy grow and move forward. The winning of a trophy is only a part of their gain. Important is recognition and building a network to connect with other colleagues and businesses within the industry through the International Trade Council, a non-profit, non-aligned, peak body, chamber of commerce that has been engaging business leaders across 179 countries since 1956. ITC Council assists the organizations through market research, mentoring programs, education insights, networking opportunities, and government advocacy.

Beyond all this, Deanna pointed out that the most fulfilling for them in their organization are when their clients are satisfied with what they deliver, and added, "The highest point is the feeling when someone says thank you for doing a good job."

Business benefit

With the establishment of DSV Digital, the company became part of MSMEs in the Philippines. Subsequently, they contributed to the growth of the Philippines economy. According to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Philippines MSMEs accounted for almost 99% of total businesses in 2017. These MSMEs businesses produced about 62% of employment in the country.

According to a website called mybusinessacademy. ph, MSMEs play a vital role in the Philippine Economy's growth. These are giving employment to Filipinos, spearheading innovation, spreading wealth, and sharing to the world. These four ways are evident in DSV Digital. It provided an opportunity for Filipinos to earn and have a regular paying job, provide food for their families, and experience new things. Their innovations implemented the Flexi work hours and working from home set up. DSV Digital values their employees and give them trust and confidence in working independently and efficiently. As the company director says, “While most companies are starting to ask their employees to return to offices, our company is not only about the opportunities but also the trust and confidence that we do have with every one of us.” With their employment turned into income, it will create purchasing power, and people will spend in helping other businesses. Lastly, DSV Digital shares to the world the exceptional talents of Filipinos.

Social and environmental benefit

One of the things that DSV Digital is proud of is the time savings they create through the work-from-home setup. No commute means no traffic, therefore less stress and more productivity for the employees. Visperas mentioned that one of the most important considerations with their organization is the welfare of their employees, making sure taking proper care for employees. The company does not compromise salary, physical, and mental health. Happy employees work efficiently, resulting in satisfied clients. And these clients are a testament to encouraging others to work with DSV Digital. It is a win-win situation for everyone.

Even in a simple way as a small organization, DSV Digital contributes to alleviating the global effects of climate change by reducing its carbon footprint. Its company policy to work full-time remotely has benefited the employees and the environment. One of them is the reduction of emissions from the commute. According to the Transfer Project – a project run by GIZ to support developing countries to build and execute mitigation strategies in the transport sector due to climate change. In the Philippines, transport is the major contributor to air pollution and energy-related Greenhouse Gases (GHG), about 34% of total emissions in the country. Beyond this, there is a reality that commuting in Metro Manila takes hours to go to work, especially during peak times. And with the implementation of work from a home policy of DSV Digital contributed to the decrease of greenhouse gases emission in the country.

Another one is that they use less paper in their transactions. Since they communicate virtually, they do not need to print out everything. According to studies, an employee uses an estimated 10,000 sheets per year of copy paper. Going paperless means avoiding this much paper; thus, less cutting of trees, so we removed more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. At a glance, this is a simple act from the company but benefits society. As Visperas pointed out in the interview, they try to be paperless as much as possible and only print hard copies of contracts and non-disclosure agreements.

There are still other societal and environmental benefits that DSV Digital offers. But I think the crucial impact is that they give time value to people, whether clients or employees. As reiterated during the interview, DSV Digital wants its employees to have a work-life balance to work productively to satisfy the clients’ needs and have time off to focus on their personal lives and their families.

Interview

Deanna Visperas, Director