Safeway has a proud history of providing great value, superior quality and legendary service. As one of the largest supermarket chains in North America, Safeway continuously strives to provide uniquely responsive solutions to its customers, bringing more to the table – for its customers, employees, the communities and stockholders.

When Safeway decided to build a site in Manila, it was in recognition of two things: the technical competency of Filipino IT workers and their ability to be global players, and the effectiveness of having non-US IT operations to sustain Safeway’s robust and evolving business.



Safeway Philtech Inc. was established on April 1, 2003 as one of the technology centers of Safeway. The company was initially composed of approximately sixty technical, administrative and management resources. The company was focused on providing application support services in four areas: Accounting, HR, Logistics and Midrange. From mid-2003 to end of 2006, support for the following sets of applications was taken on board: Distribution, Web, Marketing, Retail, POS, EDI and Item Sync increasing the application support team to over 150.

The company’s growth was not limited to application support, however. The company began participating in development projects and other system modifications. The company also ventured in non-application specific IT services – the Service Desk and Retail Quality Assurance teams were set up in 2003. Both teams now play a significant role in our operations for the enterprise. Access
services, desktop services and infrastructure support further expanded the company’s array of IT services.

By mid-2007, the company was ready to venture into business process
outsourcing (BPO) – setting up targeted promotions via our Card and Loyalty Marketing group.

Late in 2007, with our goal to better provide outstanding service, the team reorganized to align the application support and development groups to the onshore portfolios. This strategic move is aimed at creating the synergy that will enable the groups to deliver services consistently, maximize resources and improve domain expertise.

Safeway and Safeway Philtech recognize that “a company is only as good as its employees allow it to be”. Hence, the company has dedicated itself to continually develop the best trained, most knowledgeable employees in the industry. Various initiatives such as Talent Management, and Centers of all aimed at providing the employees the means and support to further their growth and development.

 

 
 
I started as a temporary employee at Safeway Philtech and felt very welcome since day one. I have seen real career development opportunities here and witnessed colleagues move into new positions across business groups and get trained locally and abroad at Safeway Inc USA. Now, I am a full-fledged member of the company, still quite new, yes, and yet have experienced its world class IT trainings myself, continuously molding me to become a skilled and effective Desktop Systems Specialist at Software Distribution.

It is also at Safeway Philtech where I have experienced a wellrounded working environment, balancing recreational activities for social development and serious training sessions to keep up with the fast-pacing technology and latest trends in the industry and develop confidence in dealing with international standards. As icing on the cake, the benefits and rewards here are definitely above par.

  
 
Emma Orilla