RP startup exploring online backup service

INFOTECH - INFOTECH

August 01, 2006 Updated 00:09:35 (Mla time) Erwin Oliva INQ7.net A PHILIPPINE start-up firm says it is exploring the business of offering online backup services. Run by a small team in Makati City, Xackup is currently at the early stages of developing the online service, according to founder Terence Pua, who is also behind the development of Friendster Philippines. As the cost of storage technology and bandwidth plummets, Pua believes there is a market for online backup services. "We want to be at the crosshairs of that collision specializing in 'vertical' backups. We don't want to compete with other generic backup providers but want to create an integrated 'one-button' backup plus restore solution to different products," the executive wrote in the startup's blog. He said Xackup will focus initially on providing online backup services for e-mail, dubbed Xackmail and music, called Xacktunes. The startup is inviting people to test its services.

http://services.inq7.net/express/06/08/01/html_output/xmlhtml/20060731-12732-xml.html

'Net cafe group to offer cheaper alternative to MS Office

INFOTECH - INFOTECH

August 01, 2006 Updated 08:31:22 (Mla time) Alexander Villafania INQ7.net IN AN effort to help struggling Internet café chain operators, the Internet Café Association of the Philippines (ICAP) has teamed up with the local distributor of Ability Software to distribute a suite of applications similar to Microsoft Office but significantly cheaper. Ability Office has alternatives to each application of the industry-standard Microsoft Office suite: Ability Write as an alternative to MS Word; Spreadsheet as an alternative to MS Excel; Presentation for MS PowerPoint; and Database for MS Access. In addition, Ability Suite also comes with a basic alternative to the Adobe Photoshop image editor, which it calls Photopaint, as well as photo album software. ICAP vice-president (not president as first posted) Mario Munoz said in an interview that the partnership will give Internet café owners a way around having to obtain copies of MS Office, which many Internet cafe operators find expensive despite discounted rates available to them. Munoz said Microsoft offers its Office Standard and Professional suites at 10,000 pesos and 15,000 respectively to cafe operators. But Ability Office costs 2,950 pesos for the Standard Edition and 4,960 pesos for the Professional Edition. Munoz said Ability Office will be initially offered to ICAP members for free for one year. By then, ICAP and the local distributor would already have come up with a discount plan that will have users pay a much lower license fee to continue using the suite. ICAP currently has about 1,600 Internet café chain members nationwide. "Some of our members have been struggling with the high cost of starting up and operating their business and much of their expenses go to acquiring MS Office. ICAP wants its members to move to a cheaper alternative that offers nearly the same features as the more expensive one [MS Office]," Munoz said.

http://services.inq7.net/express/06/08/01/html_output/xmlhtml/20060731-12731-xml.html

Internet café on Samal Island connects with P5 coin

Tuesday, August 01, 2006 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES

News

BY CARMELITO Q. FRANCISCO, Correspondent

 

BABAK, ISLAND GARDEN CITY OF SAMAL -- Thanks to an enterprising computer buff, the island boasts of an Internet café that functions like a public telephone station: its PCs accept P5 coins for 10 minutes of Internet surfing.

PC with the coin slot

One afternoon, an old woman went into the Internet café under the Internet Terminal Machines Services, Inc., put a P5 coin into a slot in the computer, then talked with her daughter working in Singapore as domestic helper. Minutes later, the old woman started wiping her face as she cried while talking with her daughter on the other end.

"This is a usual scenario. That is what pushed me to come up with this idea of an Internet café," said Oliver Curato, company head.

Mr. Curato could have stayed at home and just monitor his Internet café as he has set up an intranet service with cameras. But that day, he decided to go to the café for this interview.

The idea, he said, was a product of a two-year experiment and piloting that ended when he decided to set up for one month a similar Internet café in Matina Balusong in Davao City. When he thought business was slow, he decided to pull out the machines and started to operate in Babak. "I thought that I cannot compete there because Davao City is already saturated [with Internet cafés]. Besides, the idea is for the rural setting," said the 36-year-old entrepreneur.

Unlike most of the Internet cafés in urban centers which are dependent on the telephone system, Mr. Curato's establishment runs on wireless fidelity system since there is no telephone line here.

Thinking that P30 is expensive for an hour of surfing, Mr. Curato said he had devised a mechanism where P25 will allow the client to surf for an hour, but also gives him the option to surf for 10 minutes for only P5. "We can do a lot of surfing and sending e-mails with P5," he said.

The computers are designed to run using 12-volt car batteries, making the café self-sufficient, especially in areas where brownouts are frequent.

Mr. Curato also built the computers so power consumption would be about one-fourth of the usual level. "They can even run on solar panels," he said, noting he will also set up solar panels for his Internet café.

"I learned from the experience of my brother [who has an Internet café in Cebu] that the biggest overhead expenses [in this business] are in power bills. So I decided to find ways to reduce it. Now, my computers are running at a much lower power consumption," he said.

Mr. Curato also reduced the computers' heating emission, "so the air-conditioning unit will only be intended for the people in the café, not the computers." The platforms where the computers were set up can be detached so that at any given time, Mr. Curato can reduce or add more computers even without a carpenter. Also, two computers share a box for their mother boards.

Mr. Curato also bought flat-bed monitors which, although more expensive than the conventional ones, are lower in power consumption and space efficient.

Mr. Curato, now 36, has always been fascinated with electronics since he was a kid, helping in the family business, the Davao Communications, Inc., a retailer of two-radios and other electronics spare parts and equipment.

He opened the café in June with six computers. But by the end of the month, eight more were added. He will add another six computers to accommodate customers who line up especially in the afternoons and evenings. "Our target is to open 100 stations within the year. By then we will be break even with our investments," he said.

As of this writing, he was set to open a branch in Peñaplata, also in this city, and will soon start setting up in other rural areas, particularly in Davao Oriental.

"We already have our maps of areas where similar Internet cafés will be set up," Mr. Curato said.

http://www.itmatters.com.ph/news.php?id=080106b

Global IT outsourcing giant enters RP

The Philippine Star 07/30/2006

A global information technology (IT) outsourcing giant belonging to the Fortune 500 has quietly entered the Philippines by initially putting up a call center in Makati City that provides customer and help desk support services to major US airlines and other large clients in the travel industry.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, a promoter of the country’s technology-empowered services industry, said the Dallas, Texas-based and New York Stock Exchange-listed Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) would soon build up its budding operations in the country to include other back-office jobs.

"We obtained information that ACS is already looking to engage 250 call center agents in the months ahead to add to its initial staff here of 50," Santiago, a former chief of the National Telecommunications Commission, said.

ACS is engaging fluent English-speaking and computer proficient college graduates of tourism, hotel and restaurant management and related fields to brace the company’s nascent operations here, according to Santiago.

The company supports most major airlines not just in the US, but also in global markets, as well as related services in the travel and transportation industry such as online booking and reservations.

"ACS is starting here with a small center. However, we understand the firm is set to expand service offerings to include claims processing, software applications support and other client support services," Santiago added.

ACS has 700 offices and more than 55,000 employees in over 100 countries, and posted $5.2 billion in 2005 revenues. The company has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion.

ACS ranked No. 1 in the "Top 50 Best-Managed Global Outsourcing Vendors" in the 2006 survey of The Blackbook of Outsourcing and The Brown-Wilson Group.

The firm provides outsourcing and IT solutions to large commercial and government clients. The company’s services include administration, human resources and related consulting, finance and accounting, customer care and payment services.

ACS focuses on transaction processing and program management services. In the US, the firm handles the processing of child support payments and traffic violations, welfare and community services and electronic toll collection.

The company typically starts with a minimal presence in a new location, and then develops local management teams and expands operations. In Fiji, for instance, the firm began with a small team that has since grown to a staff of 400. In Ghana, the company started with a modest center that today has nearly 2,000 personnel.

 

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200607300704.htm

From 250 dollars to 2.1 billion: India's Infosys story

INQ7 BREAKING NEWS - INFOTECH

July 30, 2006 Updated 13:53:46 (Mla time) Agence France-Presse BANGALORE, India--Twenty-five years ago, with an investment of just 250 dollars, a tiny software company took shape in a one-bedroom apartment in the western India city of Pune. Today Infosys Technologies has revenues of 2.1 billion dollars and employs 58,000 people in more than two dozen countries, ranking as India's second largest software exporter. Last financial year to March 2006, 1.4 million applicants applied for jobs of whom 21,600 were hired. The company's market capitalization is about 20 billion dollars. Infosys, a pioneer of off-shore software outsourcing, is one of the great success stories of India's burgeoning tech sector. But as the company prepared to celebrate its quarter-century on Sunday, founder and chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy revealed how red tape and archaic laws almost made him give up on his dream. "We had run this company for nine years (from 1981). In 1990 there were stifling conditions in the country. Everything was so difficult," the firm's bespectacled 'chief mentor' told Agence France-Presse. "It was very difficult to set up data communication lines and even phone lines. It took two years to process a computer application. We considered an offer from an Indian firm for about a million dollars. "But better sense pervailed," said Murthy, who turns 60 in August. "I got that 250 dollars from my wife who is a constant source of support." Murthy, who will resign from the Infosys board on August 20, hailed 1991 reforms by then finance minister and current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Basically Infosys is a shining example of all the good that came out of liberalization. The real message (of the Infosys success story) is that the only way we can solve poverty is by creating more and more jobs," he said. "There are a few good entrepreneurs and for them to succeed they require an incentive. That is the Infosys lesson," Murthy added. The government provided tax holidays, export subsidies and duty-free hardware imports in the initial stages of reforms for software export firms and many state governments today lure these companies with tax concessions. Murthy, in the early 1970s, traveled to Europe to learn more about communism but later realised only capitalism could solve India's problems. "I was a strong socialist. By the end of 1970 I got to the conclusion that leftism is just bogus. Socialism in India is meaningless. Creation of jobs requires entrepreneurship," the soft-spoken Murthy said. As one of eight children of a rural schoolteacher who earned 175 rupees (3.8 dollars) a month, there was no money in the family to pay for Murthy's higher education. "But the value-systems I incorporated in Infosys were taught to me by my parents. My father had clear ideas of honesty, decency and work ethics. My mother taught me how to sacrifice (time and money) for others," he said. When Murthy signed the firm's first contract, he traveled to the meeting riding pillion on a motorcycle. Until 2002 he travelled by bus "at least once in a week" to his company's headquarters here, and queues up alongside employees at the food stall. In a nation where more than 300 million people live on less than a dollar a day, a person owning more than 6,500 Infosys shares today, is worth more than 10 million rupees (222,222 dollars). Based on the Infosys 2006 annual report, that works out as more than 2,000 people. Murthy said sharing the company's wealth with shareholders and employees is an overwhelming passion. "No leader can succeed in isolation. If that is so then it is only fair that everybody receives a reward for their sacrifices. The ultimate reward is part-ownership of the company. I believe in that," he said, adding that the company still had a long way to go. "The Infosys journey of 25 years has been a symphonic marathon... It is a marathon since we have a long way to go before we hit the tape."

http://services.inq7.net/express/06/07/30/html_output/xmlhtml/20060730-12538-xml.html

Google launches own online payment system in US

Friday, June 30, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO: Google launched a much-anticipated online payment system in the United States on Wednesday, in a move that could break PayPal’s stranglehold on the market. The US Internet juggernaut touted Google Checkout as a way to make online shopping “faster, more convenient and more secure.” “By integrating the checkout process with search and advertising, we’re helping our users complete the cycle of searching, finding and buying,” Salar Kamangar, Vice President of Product Management at Google, said in a release. “Many shoppers decide what they want to buy by using search, but in the end they often don’t complete the transaction online because they find the checkout experience complex, inconvenient and uncertain.” Checkout simplified online payment transactions for customers and merchants, according to Kamangar. Shoppers can create password-protected Checkout accounts containing contact information, shipping address and payment preferences, and then use the accounts to shortcut the online buying process at participating websites. Checkout logos will be placed on AdWords advertisements and on sites of participating merchants, the company said. The payment system tracks what people buy and provides purchase history summaries that include details of orders and shipping status, according to Google. Checkout offers security features that let people consummate deals without merchants learning their credit card numbers or e-mail addresses, the Mountain View, California, company said. Google offered an incentive to AdWords advertisers, allowing all or portions of their sales free of charge. The service was launched in the US market late Wednesday and Google was working to roll it out to merchants internationally, the company said. Industry analysts contended that Checkout was a frontal assault on reigning online payment system PayPal, owned by Silicon Valley’s eBay. Some had even dubbed Checkout a “PayPal killer.” “It could be quite a big deal if it is something that gets adopted by merchants and consumers,” said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence in the San Francisco Bay area. EBay stock price suffered as rumor of Google’s pending launch of a payment system ricocheted about the Internet early this week. --AFP

 

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/june/30/yehey/business/20060630bus14.html

Ayala unit buys 11% of eTelecare for P800M

By Zinnia B. Dela Peña
The Philippine Star 06/30/2006

LiveIT Solutions Inc., a newly incorporated subsidiary of Ayala Corp., has purchased 11 percent of eTelecare Global Solutions Inc. for P800 million.

The acquisition was made through LiveIT's wholly-owned special purpose vehicle, New Bridge International Investment Ltd.

LiveIT a 100-percent owned subsidiary of conglomerate Ayala Corp., is the holding company for the group's investments in the rapidly growing business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

In a statement, Ayala Corp. said eTelecare will be LiveIT's primary investment in the fast-growing call center industry.

eTelecare was started in 2000 and is one of the leading call center companies in Asia, serving large global clients in the telecommunications, electronics, financial and travel industries.

With over 7,000 employees in 12 call centers in the Philippines and the United States, the company reported $41 million in revenues and $3.3 million in operating income for the first quarter of 2006.

LiveIT seeks to invest in companies that provide complex non-voice outsourced services, in areas such as research and analytics, legal, financial and healthcare industries. It plans to focus on BPO companies in the US, the Philippines and India that have well-developed customer relationships in the international markets and the potential to leverage the Philippines' large pool of skilled professionals.

"We are very positive about this foray into the BPO sector. This is an area where the Philippines has a strong competitive advantage given our wealth of talent, strong communications skills, and well-developed telecom infrastructure. We are actively seeking additional opportunities that will enable us to provide high value added services," said Ayala chairman and chief executive officer Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala.

Alfredo I. Ayala has been appointed as CEO of LiveIT to spearhead the group's initiatives in the BPO sector. He was formerly CEO of eTelecare and chairman of SPI Technologies, one of the country's leading non-voice BPO companies. He is currently non-executive chairman of eTelecare.

"We believe Mr. Ayala's experience in helping to build world-class BPO companies will be of great value to our efforts,"Zobel said.

The conglomerate is carving a niche in the build-to-suit office building segment as it addresses the growing demand from call centers and BPO firms. It has completed two new buildings which increased the company's office portfolio by 43 percent to about 100,000 square meters.

Property unit Ayala Land Inc. has earmarked P500 million this year for the establishment of its so-called BPO campuses in Metro Manila. The BPO campuses will be located in the northern and southern parts of Metro Manila. The project would entail a development period of five years, starting this year.

The call-center business is the fastest-growing segment of the BPO industry and a major source of job growth in the Philippines. Government data indicate that from just 3,500 seats in 2001, the business has grown to 20,000 seats in 2003 and was estimated to have reached 40,000 last year.

The government is targeting 60,000 seats this year. Each call-center seat is equivalent to around two jobs.

 

http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200606300701.htm

Call centers dangle fatter paychecks for skilled few

By Ronnel Domingo
Inquirer
Last updated 04:32am (Mla time) 06/30/2006

CALL CENTERS are turning more and more to gimmicks and gadgets -- aside from offering higher wages -- to reel in the few skilled workers still looking for jobs, an industry official said.

About 120 business outsourcing process (BPO) outfits are tapping the same talent pool that is not getting any deeper, and human resource directors are feeling the pressure, said Raffy David, a director of the Call Center Association of the Philippines.

For every 20 job applicants who get accepted, only one shows up for work, David said in an interview.

The association expects the number of call center workers to grow 60 percent to about 179,000 by yearend and reach 506,000 by 2010.

Job opening advertisements in newspapers, online job sites and job fairs still attract applicants, but more and more call centers are using TV commercial spots on television and radio, magazine advertisements, streamers and even billboards to attract jobseekers, David said.

“Some try out party-like events, like ClientLogic, which organizes events and bring in [musicians] to attract potential employees,” he said.

Another BPO company, TRG, held a speech and image-modeling contest with $1,000 at stake, he said.

“Others offer freebies such as sign-in bonuses, travel benefits, and free gadgets like mobile phones and MP3 players to (get people),” said David, an officer of the call center company Pilipinas Teleserve Inc.

He said one of the most effective means of recruitment was still “word of mouth” -- a referral system in which companies that offer incentives to employees who recommend possible recruits.

The call center companies eTelecare and PeopleSupport, for example, offer something between P1,500 and P5,000 for every successful hire, he said.

“One of them claims that about a quarter of its workforce was signed up through this referral program,” he said.

David cited one firm’s “audacious tactic” of putting up “a team in a basketball league.”

“TeleTech says it costs less to maintain a basketball team -- the TeleTech Titans in the Philippine Basketball League,” a well-followed amateur leag – “than buying weekly full-page newspaper ads,” he said.

A call for unionization in the sector is being sounded, but market-driven salary and benefits systems still prevail,” the association official said.

He said the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU -- May First Movement] had referred to call centers as “air-conditioned hubs for exploiting workers,” while the party-list group Kabataan [Youth] described the work as “degrading and fit for prisoners or summer interns.”

David said a poll conducted by the University of the Philippines’ School of Labor and Industrial Relations indicated that “more respondents are open to join unions to better negotiate for salaries.”

“Interestingly, unionization can help stem attrition and job-hopping since members are given a bargaining power and are provided a forum to resolve work-related issues,” David said. “Ironically, the apparent transient nature of the job is hampering efforts to organize unions.”

He also said that, since salaries and benefits adjustments are market-driven, workers are less motivated to organize unions. With INQ7.net

http://business.inq7.net/money/topstories/view_article.php?article_id=7363

Empowerment through transfer of technology

COMMENTARY

By Ernesto Ordoñez
Inquirer
Last updated 04:32am (Mla time) 06/30/2006

Published on Page B5 of the June 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

TWO days ago, I asked one of the world's leading mango experts, Dr. Hernani Golez, what his newest project was. He gave an unexpected answer.

"Empowerment," Golez said. "I am helping empower farmers through technology transfer."

Golez is the agricultural center chief of the National Mango Research and Development Center, Department of Agriculture (DA). He has been invited to many countries for his unique knowledge of mangoes.

He laments the fact that the 2006 budget approved by Congress for the Department of Agriculture is only P15 billion. This is less than half the P32 billion mandated by the Agriculture Fisheries and Modernization Act (Afma). Because of this, technology transfer through regular government channels has been quite limited.

Take a case in point. Ten years ago, Emma Santa Ana and members of her Kababaihang Barangay sa San Miguel, Bulacan (KBB -- Village Women in San Miguel, Bulacan) launched a greening program that would not only help the environment, but also provide additional income for farmers. Today, they have more than 1 million mango trees in San Miguel alone.

Better variety

But their income could have been much higher if the mangoes they planted were of a better variety. Today, if a KBB member wants to get a better mango seedling variety, the nearest place she can go to is the DA's Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) office in Manila, where she can get a maximum of only 100 seedlings.

Golez's new project is to empower KBB women in mango production through technology transfer.

"This particular model is not yet implemented in our country," Golez said. "It may therefore be a model to follow for other high value fruits such as durian, rambutan, guava and jackfruit."

Here is how it works: The technology must be transferred to an organized group of farmers. This way, the technology transfer is not given to just one farmer at a time, but to several farmers who can, in turn, spread it to their respective subgroups.

The KBB is such a group. It won a United Nations award for best women's rural development project in Asia in 1984, and again in 1989. Today, the KBB has 18,000 mango seedlings and 100,000 seeds. All of these will use the grafting technology transferred by Golez so that they will all be of consistently high quality.

Thinking 'outside the box'

Imagine the difference it will make for a KBB member -- she need not go all the way to Manila to get 100 seedlings, but head straight for San Miguel town in Bulacan province, just north of Manila, where she has access to 118,000 seedlings. The KBB will not only increase its income, it may also become a source of high-quality seedlings in the main Philippine island of Luzon.

In terms of price, a typical mango seedling whose quality may not be guaranteed costs P80. But a seedling with guaranteed quality goes for an average of P175. The consumers will also benefit. Mango quality will be consistently higher and, because of the plentiful supply, prices may go down.

In this age of rapid trade liberalization where cheap unfairly subsidized imported agricultural imports threaten the livelihood of our farmers, we must discard our traditional practices and think "out of the box." The "government dole-out" mentality must be replaced by Golez's model of empowerment through technology transfer.

There is a need to reengineer our agricultural service delivery system that will allow the government to steer, rather than row. In the mango example, Golez said, the BPI usually does the grafting and offers superior seedling to farmers. In some instances, when the meager budget resources permit, they transfer technology to a few lucky individuals.

But since this is often done on a one-on-one basis and implemented as a corrective measure, the impact is severely limited.

Far-reaching

Golez's empowerment project has two distinctions:

• Technology goes to an organized group that has the capability of imparting the technology to a much wider population; and,

• The technology transfer does not occur in the middle of the process to correct a current practice; instead, it takes a systems approach that starts at the very beginning.

This way, potential inefficiencies in a multi-part system are avoided, and productive synergies are attained.

Empowerment is often considered in political terms. But as Golez's example shows, economic empowerment may be even more far reaching.

The transfer of technology from one to another, which is often the case, is of very limited value. It is recommended that all technology transfer programs should require an empowerment dimension. This means that due importance should be given to social organizations, which will be empowered to transfer technology. Then, we will have a multiplier effect, which is badly needed in our liberalized trade environment with extremely scarce agricultural budget support.

For more information on this model, please call Golez at +633 2371319 or KBB chairperson Tinding Manuzon at +6344 7640200 or 6780609.

The author is Agriwatch chairman; former Cabinet secretary for Presidential Flagship Programs and Projects, former undersecretary of agriculture, and former undersecretary of trade and industry. For inquiries and suggestions, email agriwatchphil@yahoo.com or call or fax +632 8522112.

http://business.inq7.net/money/topstories/view_article.php?article_id=7366

HP allots funds to bridge Philippines' digital divide

Thursday, June 29, 2006

HEWLETT-Packard Philippines plans to spend P2 billion on a thousand high schools across the country to bridge the digital divide. “Establishing the Philippines as an Asian IT [information technology] hub is not a good objective, because there is not much e-commerce in the country. “The people must be oriented to IT first,” Nilo Cruz, HP’s country managing director, said. HP plans to reach 40,000 high schools, and spend P10 billion for the program to cover 500,000 students, Cruz said. Part of the P2 billion, or around P2.5 million, will be spent for the program content. Another P13 million would be spent for purchasing and distributing hard ware, Cruz said. “The question is not when we could address this gap, but how much would be needed to bridge the divide between our people and technology,” he said. Besides concentrating on the schools, HP is also partnering with local governments to establish the delivery system program. “Others are not part of the delivery system that’s why we are putting service centers in LGUs and HP is also training 400 teachers across the country,” Cruz said, adding that the company could add money next year for the program. The company recently inaugurated its new service center in Makati, doubling the number of front agents. “We believe that to win customer loyalty one has to extend a comprehensive approach to provide innovative solutions, technology and services beyond the point of procurement. Postsales is as important to us as presales and we need to continue making the experience better for our customers,” Cruz said. The new HP service center is one of the company’s two sites, including an after-sales network support system in Cebu. The company has 45 authorized service providers. HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions, offering IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters that ended in April 2006, HP reported posting $88.9 billion in revenues. --Angelo S. Samonte

 

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/june/29/yehey/business/20060629bus8.html