Bayad and PitakaMo Relaunches Partnership, Strengthening Its One Stop Shop Bills Payment Solution

Tweet

CIS Bayad Center Inc. (Bayad), the largest multi-channel payment platform in the Philippines relaunches partnership with PitakaMo IT Solutions and Marketing Corporation (PitakaMo), a digital payment service provider of its franchisor brand AllEn One Grocery and Payment Center (AllEn One).

In photo (L-R): Lawrence Y. Ferrer – Bayad President and CEO, Dennis S. Gatuslao – Bayad Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer, Alexander Charles Mascenon – PitakaMo IT Solutions and Marketing Corporation VP for Operations, and Alexander Benedict Mascenon – PitakaMo IT Solutions and Marketing Corporation President and CEO

Gaining foothold in the retail industry, AllEn One has already established over 47 store branches nationwide in just a span of 2 years. As the company thrives through expansion, it continues to offer value added services including a one stop shop bills payment solution, enabled by Bayad’s upgraded system integration with PitakaMo.

Today, AllEn One customers can expect seamless payment transactions with various billers covering services like electric and water utility, cable & internet, government contributions, loan payments, school tuition fees, online shopping, insurance, and many others.

To top it off, most of these billers offer real-time payment posting allowing customers to pay their bills instantaneously, without delay, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Bayad President and CEO, Lawrence Y. Ferrer shared, “We and PitakaMo share the same goal of providing convenient financial services. Together, we’ve enhanced a one stop shop bills payment solution as we respond to the various needs of the customers that we both serve, especially those who are always on the go. Ultimately, we stand with PitakaMo in shaping the future of fintech as we help make payment transactions frictionless, secured, and more accessible to Filipinos.”

PitakaMo President and CEO, Alexander Benedict Mascenon added “Our partnership with Bayad Center is vital in providing essential services through our AllEn One Grocery, Pharmacy & Payment Centers nationwide.”

For financial institutions and businesses like PitakaMo that are interested to be part of Bayad’s extensive channel network, you may send an email to partnerships@bayad.com. Bayad enables partners to attain nationwide presence and provides end-to-end support services for efficient payment and collection processing.

-------------------

About Bayad

Bayad is the pioneer and trusted brand in the outsourced payment collection service in the Philippines, aggregating a multitude of billers into a robust system that is now being used by more than 100,000 physical touchpoints and leading digital and mobile platforms across the country. Formerly known as Bayad Center, it continues trailblaze the industry as it evolves from an over-the-counter payment center into a full-service fintech service company, offering a whole suite of financial products & services available to both consumers and businesses.

----------------------

About PitakaMo

PitakaMo IT Solutions and Marketing Corp offers AllEn One Grocery, Pharmacy & Payment Center. It is an affordable “all-en-one” franchised business that uses technology and innovations to better serve the needs of its community and expand its customer reach. Perfect for first-time entrepreneurs. It is a branded convenience store, with pharmaceuticals, money transfer, bills payment, e-loads, insurance, travel & tours, and ATM services. It comes with an ALLEN ONE Retailer App for the wholesale part of your business.

How Philippines businesses can tighten up software supply chain against cyber attacks

Tweet

by Dean Vaughan, Vice President of Asia Pacific, Azul

In September 2022, Philippines Airlines lost the personal data of frequent flyers when its IT provider was hacked, adding yet another example of supply chain attacks that have bedeviled businesses globally in the past year.

The cyberattack on a third-party IT provider for the airline caused the names, birth dates, nationality, gender and points balance, among other details to be stolen.

Although it is unclear how the malicious actors managed to get into the victim’s systems, the incident once again reinforces the need to tighten up security against supply chain attacks.

For many of today’s IT systems, using third-party software in one form or another is inevitable, such is the interconnectedness of the Internet and the complexity of digital infrastructure.

An estimated 40% to 80% of the lines of code in software come from third parties such as libraries, components and software development kits. Unfortunately, they are one reason for the increased vulnerability of third-party production code that goes into digital services.

By 2025, 45% of organizations worldwide will have experienced attacks on their software supply chains, a three-fold increase from 2021, according to research firm Gartner.

Dean Vaughan, Vice President of Asia Pacific, Azul

A lack of visibility hampers defense

This is a problem facing any digital economy and the Philippines is no different as it delivers more services over digital channels in the years ahead. The way forward has to involve better detection of such vulnerabilities without impacting performance.

To begin, you can only defend against something if you know what you are up against. Since many organizations do not peer into the nuts and bolts of the many third-party programs they use, they often are working on the hope that the code is free from vulnerabilities.

Even with a vulnerability detection tool in place, many organizations fail to act on a threat, because alerts are often too general or unable to differentiate between production and non-production code. This means the work required to clean up an infected or vulnerable system is too broad to be undertaken by already beleaguered security and application teams.

Today, organizations continue to grapple with Log4Shell, a critical vulnerability found in a widely used Java-based logging component (Log4j). This loophole enables threat actors to run code on a victim’s system and take control. It has impacted countless servers and applications that used Java software because Java software is used widely in today’s modern IT infrastructure.

Yet, when the threat first emerged last year, few organizations had the ability to quickly find the exact location of the vulnerability in their IT systems because Java was used so extensively. The challenge was knowing where to look even when the dashboard lit up with a warning.

More precision needed

What is needed is greater precision, which can only be possible with improved visibility over existing solutions. Application scans in CI/CD, application agents, or application inventories (SBOMs) are valuable approaches as part of a comprehensive security strategy. However, these approaches also have drawbacks, including false positives which waste time via alert fatigue as well as a performance impact which adds burden to Java teams and their applications.

Take Azul Vulnerability Detection, a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product that continuously detects known security vulnerabilities that exist in Java applications. By eliminating false positives and with no performance impact, it is ideal for in-production use and addresses the rapidly increasing enterprise risk around software supply chain attacks.

Azul Vulnerability Detection uniquely identifies code run using sophisticated, highly granular techniques inside Azul JVMs (Java virtual machines) and maps against a curated Java-specific database of common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs). This produces more accurate results, even for custom code and shaded components, so IT teams can get to a vulnerability and remediate the issue quickly and efficiently.

Gaining agility while beefing up security

To be sure, vulnerability detection tools are not new. Unfortunately, some end up providing the added security at the expense of performance. This means business agility suffers, because one’s security tool is slowing down transactions and requiring more computing resources and cost to run.

Organizations need to find a way to overcome the software supply chain problem. They need smarter tools that can beef up the security without adding overheads and dragging back performance.

When it comes to security in Java applications, what’s different with Azul Vulnerability Detection is its use of Azul Java virtual machines (JVM), which provide highly accurate runtime-level visibility into what code is actually running and whether it is vulnerable. This enables faster remediation of vulnerabilities with significantly less operational overhead.

Additionally, because the tool is agentless, it avoids the performance penalty commonly associated with other security tools that require teams to install and maintain a separate piece of software. Taken together, Azul Vulnerability Detection makes security a byproduct of simply running Java software.

Fighting a winnable battle

Security has to be baked in from the start instead of an add-on feature in a connected world. In other words, it has to be built into a piece of software or part of a technology stack that is then used to build other digital services. Unfortunately, supply chain attacks against trusted vendors and third-party code pose substantial enterprise risk.

The key to winning battles against increasingly sophisticated threats is to be armed with the right tools that deliver a solid defense while retaining the agility that organizations need today. Even as cyber threats evolve, they have to believe they can keep out the bad guys over time and continue delivering the trusted digital services and experiences to their users.

Creating a brighter outlook for your workforce amidst COVID-19

Tweet

The pandemic has forced organizations to be flexible and caused HR professionals to rethink their approach in sustaining the workplace amid the crisis. Now, more than ever, the role that HR plays in implementing the transition is crucial. From emphasizing new values in the company culture to leveraging the digital tools at their disposal, there are many ways businesses can emerge stronger from the pandemic.

This challenge was addressed in a recent webinar entitled “The Bright Outlook: New Ways of Working in the New Normal” hosted by Sun Life Asia Service Centre-Philippines (ASCP), where Sun Life key opinion leaders gathered to discuss the different ways to create a brighter outlook for your workforce amidst COVID-19.

Innovate for a flexible workplace

Sun Life Canada Vice President for Talent Acquisition and Development Helen Peng shared that in a time of disruption, businesses making proactive decisions in building a flexible workforce will see lasting impact on the success of their brand.

Enabling and supporting a modern, flexible workforce will mean introducing the right tools for a cutting-edge approach to HR. This is imperative for keeping workers engaged and connected, regardless of where they are.

For instance, Sun Life Canada proactively built their talent pipeline through a new digital platform called Candidate Relationship Management or CRM, which acts as a database for all talent. By leveraging the platform; they can tag, share, nurture and engage talent very easily.

“Through the CRM tool, we can effectively identify high quality talent and nurture them until they convert into the role we need. Talent segments allow us to proactively source talents based on skills over roles providing deeper poles of talent for our most critical areas that align with our strategic priorities such as digital enterprise and diversity equity and inclusion” according to Peng.

Ensure digital connectivity

An assortment of remote workers does not necessarily add up to a digital workplace. It’s not about where you work, it’s about how you work. According to Sun Life ASCP Head for HR and Communications May Sunega, the key is empowering employees with resources and data for more effective collaboration in the workplace.

“As we change in this new way of working, we need to have the agility and efficiency of a robot. We need to be present, we need to be there, but our heart should remain the same and that will preserve the humanity of our craft.”

At Sun Life ASCP, the organization created a single source of truth – a central hub called Work Day – where aligned and critical information can be housed. This tool along with Zoom and Workplace, resulted in better collaboration and new ways of communicating and working.

Measuring performance efficiency

Sun Life Indonesia President Elin Waty shared that assessing and measuring your employees' performance and productivity gives a unique opportunity for employees to understand what is expected of them.

Waty shared that they measure using the key results that are set on an annual basis and use “grade” for the measurement. This is to ensure a proper alignment of achieving individual goals that are aligned with organization’s goals. She also recommends being cognizant of the personal lives of your employees before establishing what performance would entail for your business today.

“I remind the managers that they need to be disciplined. They need to remember and know that their staff is actually at home; they have families and they have their own lives.”

Navigating the pandemic has highlighted the importance of creating a workplace which is able to adapt and react immediately to changes in circumstances to meet the evolving needs, desires and safety of employees, while ensuring that business continuity is maintained.

Through Sun Life ASCP's webinar, HR practitioners were able to learn how to adapt and embrace innovation in the workplace amidst COVID 19. Furthermore, Sun Life ASCP also aimed to help jobseekers in creating a brighter outlook despite uncertainties through an online job fair held together with the webinar where they offered a wide array of opportunities within the organization.

For more information about Sun Life ASCP, visit https://www.sunlife.com/asc/en/.

About Sun Life Asia Service Centre

Sun Life Asia Service Centre-Philippines (ASCP) provides Business Processing, IT, and Knowledge Service to Sun Life's global businesses. ASC Philippines is part of Sun Life Asia Service Centres and together with ASC India, support Clients through all stages of client and software life cycle for Sun Life in Canada, the US, and Asia. Over the years, the ASC has achieved scale and operational maturity by integrating closely with Sun Life’s corporate functions. ASCP enables Sun Life business through technology, building new capabilities, and keeping their focus on Client For Life moments. For more information, connect with us through:

Website: https://www.sunlife.com/asc/en/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunlifeascp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sun-life-financial

Microsoft PH employees to get enhanced leave benefits

Tweet

Multinational company rolls out new leave policies for parents and family caregivers

Microsoft Philippines has introduced a new suite of enhanced leave benefits for its employees, including a minimum of 20-weeks paid leave for birth mothers and a minimum of six-weeks paid leave for new fathers.

“We believe in fostering a healthy work-life balance. And at times, your personal commitments and responsibilities outside the office deserve all your focus. This is something Microsoft fully understands and supports,” described Karrie Ilagan, Microsoft Philippines Managing Director.

The company’s enhanced leave benefits also cover adoptive parents and parents who choose to have a child via surrogacy.

Likewise, the Information Technology leader has leave policies for family caregivers—allowing employees to take a four-week full-paid leave to care for immediate family members with serious health conditions.

“Our employees bring their best to work everyday to support our mission, strategy, and culture. In return, we want to bring the best to them as well by continually providing them world-class benefits to ensure they have the time they need to take care of those that matter the most in their lives,” concluded Ilagan.

About Microsoft

Microsoft  (@microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Microsoft Philippines, the local subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, has been constantly bringing innovation and making its technology available to Filipino businesses and individuals since 1995. As a committed and trusted partner in nation-building, Microsoft Philippines has made it its mission to fuel growth and healthy communities, as well as transform locally-based businesses and empower them to compete in the global economy.

DepEd provides 184 SHS with IT equipment to support K to 12 implementation

Tweet

The Department of Education (DepEd) is set to deliver information technology (IT) equipment to stand-alone Senior High Schools (SHS) nationwide to support the implementation of the K to12 Program.

Education Secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC said, “What we need is to bring technology into the classroom and not be fully dependent on a textbook or the teacher. Computers will never replace teachers. Technology should allow teachers to spend more time to those who need it more.”

Each Senior High School will receive an IT equipment package which consists of 7 host personal computers (PCs), 42 terminals, 2 laptops, 2 projectors, 7 uninterruptible power supplies, 7 automatic voltage regulators and other network accessories.

In line with this, DepEd has conducted a demonstration on installation and configuration of the actual IT equipment at Pateros National High School. The event was attended by Education Secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC and UNDP Country Director Mr. Titon Mitra.

 

“What you are seeing are digitized modules for grade 11. I’ve always dreamt that our schools should not be textbook dependent,” Luistro added.

DepEd partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to procure and deliver the IT equipment package for the schools. With its global experience and track record in co-implementing programs with governments, including implementation of Government projects using Government funds, UNDP delivers the highest standards of transparency and achieves cost efficiency and timely delivery of project outputs through more flexible procurement procedures. 

“What you’re seeing now is the fastest procurement of IT packages in a government agency. UNDP came to us as an answer to our prayer,” Luistro said.

This partnership enables DepEd to have access to its global network of service providers and experts and use available corporate and regional long-term framework agreements, which can facilitate and shorten the procurement process. 

With just 3 months of procurement, UNDP was able to award contracts for the provision of 184 ICT packages to SHS stand-alone schools within the budget provided by DepEd.

 

DepEd has started the roll out of SHS nationwide beginning with Grade 11 this school year and Grade 12 next year to complete the 12-year basic education cycle under the K to 12 Program.

Some 11, 000 public and private senior high schools nationwide opened their doors to the pioneering batch of Grade 11 students.

PLDT through PLDT SME Nation partner with Microsoft launched Digital Campus Suite

Tweet

The nation’s leading telecommunication and multi-media service provider Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), through its business unit PLDT SME Nation, and partnered with Global IT giant Microsoft Philippines, had launched the "Digital Campus Suite" a new service package that will enable students, academe and even their parents access to online learning programs and to earn  Information Technology certification for critical IT skills that are now in demand in today’s digitally driven industries.

Through the Digital Campus Suite, schools and universities will have high-speed connectivity with PLDT myDSL Biz or iGate, an online access to training courses of the Microsoft IT Academy Program.

PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan

Last Wednesday, August 26, 2015, during the Digital Campus Suite launched held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel, PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan shared “We at PLDT are confident that this partnership can significantly contribute to enriching the digital content of Philippine education. By enabling schools through these programs, we are helping them, both educator and student, to gain new critical skills and lean IT courses with globally competitive technology programs that have become essential in today’s digital workplace.”

Though the Digital Campus Suite, schools will have high-speed connectivity with PLDT myDSL Biz or iGate and online access to training courses of the Microsoft IT Academy Program. 

Schools will receive licenses to Microsoft Office 365 to help students and teachers interact and teach using Cloud tools and platforms.

Educators and students will have access to the digital curriculum and earn IT certifications in the Microsoft IT Academy Program for fundamental technology skills, as well as courses that enable students to become more competitive for employment.

The suite also includes laptops, tablets, and WiFi access points in campus to enhance the overall digital education experience.

PLDT SME Nation, Microsoft and COCOPEA have joined forces for a digital innovation that will help change the landscape of Philippine education. In photo, from left, are: PLDT EVP and ePLDT President and CEO Eric Alberto, PLDT Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, COCOPEA Chair Bro. Jun Erguiza, FSC, Ed. D, Microsoft Philippines Country Manager Karrie Ilagan, PLDT President and CEO Napoleon L. Nazareno, PLDT SME Nation FVP and Head of SME Business Kat Luna-Abelarde and APAC Education Partner Director Rani Burchmore.

A study conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC) revealed that increased spending on IT cloud services will open up an estimated 14-million new jobs worldwide. The same report also noted that there was an apparent “widening ICT professional skills gap” and a “shortage of skills” in the Asia-Pacific region.

PLDT is very active in partnering with schools and learning institutions to built their technology and connectivity resources in support of the education sector’s need to improve ICT learning among the students and academe.

Kat Luna-Abelarde

PLDT FVP and head of SME Business Kat Luna-Abelarde said “This initiative fully aligns with PLDT SME Nation’s efforts to empower the future generation with an ICT-enabled education system. ICT skills are no longer just added value to employment but are now necessities in today’s business and entrepreneurial landscape.” 

“An educated population is what we need to build a progressive Philippine economy, but we can’t educate tomorrow’s leaders with tools from the past. The increasingly competitive workplace is being driven by technology and digital literacy, and the Digital Campus Suite gives educators and students access to tools that will build their capability to excel in that environment. Our partnership with PLDT SME Nation helps us create a bigger impact on all aspects of education,” said Microsoft Philippines General Manager Karrie Ilagan.

Photos: Arts & Travel Magazine

Brother signs up University of Southern Philippines Foundation for Toner Management Program

Tweet

One of the leading providers of home and business IT peripherals, Brother International Philippines Corporation (Brother Philippines), has recently signed up the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF), a private university in Cebu City, for its Toner Management Program.

Brother Philippines’ Toner Management Program is the company’s innovative solution for its institutional or corporate customers. Through the program, customers who sign a two-year toner supply agreement with Brother can avail of its multi-function centres without upfront payment. The program also gives customers the convenience of having the experts take care of the maintenance of the machines, and the replenishment of their printer consumables.

In photo after the signing of the Brother Color Toner Management Program agreement between Brother Philippines and the University of Southern Philippines Foundation are (left to right): Tekzone Computer Sales and Services Sales Coordinator, Brenna Vito; Brother Philippines President, Glen Hocson; USPF Director of Finance, Rosalina Jereza Sepulveda; USPF President, Dr. Alicia P. Cabatingan; Brother Philippines Deputy General Manager for Sales and Marketing, Masao Kasagi; USPF Chief Information Officer, Lester Gastala; and Tekzone Computer Sales and Services Accounting Supervisor, Zesprela Bingil.

This will provide offices a more cost effective way to acquire and operate multi-function centres (printers with other functions like faxing, scanning and copying) in the office. 

USPF Finance Director Rosalina J. Sepulveda has initially conducted the research on the total printing costs of the university and found out that over the years, USPF’s printing costs soared high without the benefit of statistical data to support the investment. 

USPF Chief Information Officer Lester Gastala said, “To address our printing cost concerns, we need to partner with a firm that not only delivers reliable technology and supports infrastructure duly tested by the country’s top international schools and local universities, but also one that provides value for investment.”

“Moreso, a balance deployment strategy should be in place,” he added.

USPF President Dr. Alicia P. Cabatingan said, “Private universities like us have to find ways to cut down on operating costs to be able to offer reasonable tuition fees while not compromising the quality of our education. This is why we thank Brother Philippines for introducing its Toner Management Program because it allows us to maintain our printing costs at manageable levels.” 

Brother Philippines President Glenn P. Hocson said, “Our toner management program will definitely make our products more attractive as they are now more affordable to broader segments of businesses. It aims to help offices like that of the University of Southern Philippines Foundation concentrate on their core operations by allowing Brother to handle their printing needs.” 

Hocson adds, “The program signals our readiness to take on more responsibilities for our corporate customers. It is also our way of challenging ourselves to keep on growing as we come up with more and more innovative solutions, especially for our corporate customers.”

This expansion of Brother Philippines through its corporate business portfolio is aligned with the Brother Group’s strategy to reinforce solutions offering as a pillar of growth. Starting as a sewing machine repair shop in Japan over a hundred years ago, the Brother Group has evolved and grown, and now has manufacturing and sales facilities in over 44 countries and regions worldwide.

Brother Color Inkjet MFCs: Value and reliability for every printing, imaging need

Tweet

The wide variety of printers and multi-function centers in the market today makes it harder for people to choose which ones to buy. It is thus best to know which brands can be trusted and which models best suit one’s needs.

Brother International Philippines Corporation (Brother Philippines), a leading provider of home and business IT peripherals here in the Philippines, is one of Filipinos’ most trusted brands for over a decade now. Throughout the years, Brother has brought to Filipino homes and offices reliable and value-for-money machines with the different printing and imaging needs of consumers in mind. For one, Brother introduced to the Philippine market Color Inkjet Multi-function Centers with a wide range of business features, while at the same time offering users greater versatility.

If you are looking to buy a color inkjet printer for either your home or office, the following key information on Brother’s wide array of Inkjet printers and multi-function centres can serve as your guide.

Super High Yield Inkjet Models

Students and other budget-conscious consumers can print photos or presentation charts in Brother’s Inkjet color printers such as the DCP-J200 which has wireless printing and fax functions.

Brother’s entry-level Inkjet multi-function centres (MFCs) that are perfect for students have super high-yield printing and additional functionalities that students can really make use of to excel in their projects.

This range includes the DCP-J100, the DCP-J105 and the MFC-J200 InkBenefit series models that can be had at affordable costs starting at P4,950. 

MFCs combine the functions of a printer, fax machine, scanner, and copier in one powerful device, thereby enabling users to do away with several bulky machines, and instead have a one-stop shop for their printing and imaging needs. Users will definitely get superb value for their money with these Inkjet models’ low unit costs and 2,400 page yield based on standard ISO print speed. Not to mention additional functionalities such as scanning, copying, and wireless connectivity. Brother Philippines President Glenn P. Hocson said, “Brother offers machines that suit the needs and budgets of our consumers, as we understand that they prefer practical functionality when it comes to printing and imaging solutions.”

Refill Tank System series for high-volume printing

Brother’s Refill Tank System MFCs like the DCP-T700W is ideal for personal users, or business users printing from small office home office (SOHO) who seek bigger savings. The DCP-T700W has an ADF which can scan and copy legal documents.

Brother’s comprehensive line of Inkjet printers and multi-function centers also got a boost with the recent addition of the revolutionary Refill Tank System MFCs.

The Refill Tank System MFCs that include the DCP-T300, DCP-T500W (with wireless networking capability) as well as DCP-T700W (with wireless networking and ADF for legal size documents) and MFC-T800W (with fax, wireless networking and ADF features) models are ideal for personal users, or business users printing from small office home office (SOHO) who seek bigger savings.

The new Brother Refill Tank System series has low-cost ink bottles with 6,000 page-yield (A4) for black ink, and 5,000 page-yield for the three color ink bottles for only P390. Brother Refill Tank System’s fast print speeds of up to 11 monochrome and 6 color images per minute (based on ISO/IEC 24734), is almost double that of competition’s, and is suited for high print volume users who value efficiency.

Moreover, with paper of up to 100-sheet capacity, users avoid consuming additional time in replenishing paper. Brother Refill Tank System’s smart design also takes the hassle out of ink refilling by simplifying the process while minimizing ink wastage. The new range’s built-in refill tank’s see-through cover at the front also makes it easy for users to check how much ink is left, while freeing up precious desktop space. Ink calibration time with the Brother Refill Tank System is also the fastest in the industry at seven minutes.

“We at Brother always try our best to provide our customers quality printing, while keeping running costs low for them,” said Hocson, “Our new series provides our customers with greater value, reliability and convenience that all translate to generous savings for them.”

All these models are available at Brother’s authorized dealers nationwide. What’s more, they come with a one-year standard warranty, plus a one-year extended warranty (or 30,000 pages, whichever comes first, for the Refill Tank System). All machines are supported as well by Brother Philippines’ Customer Service Center located at the ground floor of Marajo Tower in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

New CyberPress officers to be inducted on December 19

Tweet

The Information and Communications Technology Journalists Association of the Philippines, also known as CyperPress, are set to induct the newly elected officers on December 19, Friday, to be held in Makati City. 

As in the previous years, DOST undersecretary and ICT Office executive director Louis Casambre will administer the induction ceremony.

Elected officers for the year 2015 are Timothy James Dimacali, science and technology section editor of GMA News Online (President), Alma Anonas-Carpio, technology editor of Philippines Graphic (Vice-President for Externals), Jing Garcia, Infotek section editor of InterAksyon.com (Vice-President for Internals). Jason Domantay, segment producer of Asian Food Channel and mynameisbella.com (Secretary), Verns Joven, digital editor of the Philippine Star (Treasurer).

Also elected are Marlon Magtira, editor of Newsbytes.PH and techTV.ph (Membership Committee Head) and Melvin Calimag, executive editor of Newsbytes.PH (Constitutional Amendments Head).

Appointed as sectoral representatives are Raffy Pedrajita, editor of technology blog DigitalSpidey.com (for new media) and Paolo Luis Montecillo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (for traditional media).

“For close to two decades, Cyberpress has followed the stellar -- some would say meteoric -- rise of Philippine IT, and continues to do so today even as the organization itself has seen much change over the years,” Dimacali shared with the ICT press corps.

“We look forward to 2015 with new goals and new horizons that, we hope, continue closely in step with the shifting tides of the industry we watch after,” Dimacali added.

The induction of the new Cyberpress officers, will also serve as the Christmas party of the organization.

EMC Announces Products To Speed New Application Innovation, Reduce Cost and Accelerate The Journey To The Hybrid Cloud

Tweet

“Redefine Possible” means reducing the cost of running application workloads while accelerating innovation through new application workloads.

EMC XtremIO 3.0 adds new inline data services, expands family and delivers unmatched TCO with a new XtremIO Xpect More Program. New EMC VMAX3 redefines enterprise storage with the industry’s first open enterprise data service platform – 3X performance and a 50% reduction in TCO.

EMC Corporation today announced significant new product releases across its Flash, enterprise storage and Scale-Out NAS portfolios – collectively helping today’s IT organizations “Redefine Possible” and accelerate their journey to the hybrid cloud.

Over the last few years, organizations that have harnessed the megatrends of social, cloud, mobile and big data to build new applications have been able to transform their industries. The recipe for IT transformation is conceptually simple – invest in new applications by reducing investment in the existing application estate. However, the reality is that there is 29% annual data growth in existing application workloads, a continued 58% “drag” incurred by supporting infrastructure applications on business applications, and the ever escalating need for faster performance for specific application workloads.

Organizations that successfully reduce the cost of running their existing application estate can use these efficiencies to fund new application development – building a new generation of mobile and big data applications that will redefine their business. These architected applications need a way to bridge the management of both new and existing application workloads without creating further infrastructure silos.

Today’s releases of EMC® XtremIO™, EMC VMAX3, EMC Isilon® OneFS, and the availability of EMC ViPR® 2.0, ViPR SRM 3.5, and the EMC ECS™ Appliance address the issues and many more. These solutions help IT organization “Redefine Possible” as they accelerate their journey to the hybrid cloud.

New Product Highlights

Now available, EMC ViPR 2.0 and EMC ViPR SRM software-defined storage enable customers to build a modern storage infrastructure on commodity hardware.

Breakthrough hyperscale cloud storage infrastructure – EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) Appliance – is now available. EMC has shipped the first ECS Appliance, a single system totaling three Petabytes, to The Vatican Library.

David Goulden, CEO, EMC Information Infrastructure

“Organizations harnessing the four IT megatrends of social, cloud, mobile and big data to build new applications are redefining their industries. IT must drive cost efficiencies to fund the new applications businesses are asking for. Although these new applications will be architected differently, they cannot become another IT silo. Today’s announcements deliver IT organizations with the ability to redefine possible, by dramatically reducing the TCO of existing application estates, and accelerating new application delivery on their journey to the hybrid cloud.”

Ronnie Latinazo, Managing Director, EMC Corporation Philippines

“Customers are dealing with the reality and challenges of managing a variety of workloads – while supporting new demands to build new applications, both on-premise and in the public cloud. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Today’s new innovations from EMC deliver customers the foundation needed to manage existing and new application estates and accelerate their journey to the hybrid cloud,” Ronnie Latinazo, EMC Managing Director, said.

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

Connect with #RedefinePossible. Stay engaged with EMC by following EMC Corporation on Twitter @EMCCorp and on Facebook. 

EMC, ECS, ViPR, VMAX, Isilon and XtremIO are either trademarks or registered trademark of EMC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks used are the property of their respective owners.

German company develops technology to address job mismatch

Tweet

JobMatch.pro, the latest innovation from the German IT provider- ISI Teletrade, was introduced during the press briefing held at the Dohle Haus, Makati City, June 5, 2014.

A new job search engine site created by German and Filipino web developers is offering a cool way to help you land in a job that suits your skills and at the same time, relieves employers from the stress of hunting for the right talents.

JobMatch.pro is launched simultaneously here in Manila and in Germany to address the lingering problems of job mismatch. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) pegged underemployment or those still looking for another job at 7-million while unemployment is at 2.96 million.

JobMatch.pro is the latest innovation from the German IT provider- ISI Teletrade which uses an intelligent software that recognizes suitable talents while blocking those unmatched applications.

ISI Teletrade, a member of the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI) has 35 years of experience in marketing and 'sales psychology' and founded in Bochum, Germany. It has 150 competent staff in three offices in the Netherlands, Curacao in the Venezuelan coast and now the Philippines.

Mr. Peter Steinbach, the brains behind JobMatch.pro. His company is one of the first few members of the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. GPCCI has been encouraging German SMEs to invest in the Philippines and ISI Teletrade, the mother company of JobMatch.pro, is among those who responded.

In a press briefing Thursday morning, ISI Teletrade founder and JobMatch.pro creator Peter Steinbach said the program will practically reduce by 90 per cent the effort and time of both employers looking for the right talents and applicants looking for the right jobs to match their skills.

How it works

First, employers post a job opening advertisement with content-related categories on the skills requirements.

Applicants will only need to click on keywords to fit their skills qualifications with the requirements of the job opening.

The JobMatch.pro software program sends 'bidder flags' or the pink colored star to the employers to indicate that there are qualified applicants who have expressed interest.

The bidder flags will remain invisible to the applicants until the employers decide to contact them for additional documents such as Resume' and other requirements.

Job hunters on the other hand, can create profiles where they can indicate their skills and the job they are looking for. The program can detect if there are job openings that match the job hunter’s skills and the would-be employee will then be flagged about the match.

The JobMatch.pro program is an innovation from the out-dated job search engines where an individualized application letter is sent along with resume, certificates and documents that mostly contain errors from typos, wrong address and incomplete information.

PH as perfect market

The Philippines is a perfect market for JobMatch.pro owing to the hundreds of thousands of job openings by foreign and local investors now taking advantage of the country's emerging economy.

The latest job search innovation by JobMatch.pro also addresses the difficulty of new graduates and those who are still looking for jobs that suit their skills to find the right employment. Getting hired in a profession that suits ones skills allows both employee and the company to grow simultaneously.

Figures from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) show that there are 700,000 new college graduates every year but only 20 per cent of them actually get jobs. The rest remain unemployed or seek jobs abroad.

Vibal and HP are perfect partners now enables digital lifestyle with custom printing and technology solutions

Tweet

Perfect partners, togetherness beyond printing, Vibal Cloud Services (VCS) custom cloud technologies developed by Vibal in partnership with global brand Hewlett-Packard (HP).

(L-R) Noel Mendoza (Director of Application Services at HP Asia Pacific), Oran Sokol (General Manager-Digital Press, Asia Pacific/Japan, HP Indigo and Inkjet Web press), Agustin Ybud, President of the Printing Industries Association of the Philippines (PIAP); Kat Abelardo (PLDT SME Nation Vice President), Esther A. Vibal (Vibal Group Chair); Gaspar A. Vibal (President and CEO of Vibal Group), Toots Policarpio (DIWA executive director), Paolo Sibal (Vice President, Central Books Supply, Inc.) and Allan Hao Chin (President of Norde International Distributors).

Vibal-HP Open House and Technology Fair held at Vibal’s headquarters in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City last  presents us the printing innovations as milestone makes Vibal the country’s biggest digital publisher.

"These milestone initiatives validate Vibal’s transition into a business beyond printing. Ending the momentous event," shared by Vibal Group President and CEO Gus A. Vibal.

“Our custom cloud solutions will enable highly digital lifestyles and make everyday computing tasks simple, easy, and inter-connected, either physically, virtually, or both. Vibal offers custom cloud solutions that enable Filipinos to experience tomorrow’s technology today,” Vibal adds.

From accessible health records that verify an applicant’s medical history, store transactions that earn consumers special discounts to their favorite shops, and a national database that leads to fast, reliable disaster response efforts – cloud technology and mobile solutions will allow Filipinos to enjoy a truly 21st century lifestyle enabled by smart, mobile, and efficient solutions to everyday tasks and activities.

This is now possible with Vibal Cloud Services (VCS) custom cloud technologies developed by Vibal in partnership with global brand Hewlett-Packard (HP).

During the Vibal-HP Open House and Technology Fair held at Vibal’s headquarters in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City, Vibal Group President and CEO Gus A. Vibal explained that with cloud, government agencies and private firms can take advantage of scalable, on-demand cloud computing to better service digital lifestyle users. The 2-day event gathered government agencies, local printers and publishers, as well as foreign guests to showcase Vibal’s grand forays in digital printing and technology solutions designed for government, education, health and private enterprise.

Another major HP acquisition: the HP T230 digital printer, which is the first installation of its kind in Southeast Asia. This milestone makes Vibal the country’s biggest digital publisher with the addition of the HP T230 to its existing HP Indigo 5500 digital press.

Mr. Vibal shared that data center and IT infrastructure costs can easily surpass PhP40 million – excluding maintenance and administration costs. On the other hand, cloud services subscription (less than PhP300,000 a year) can result to significant savings by paying only for cost-effective hosting and storage services.

Vibal’s venture is made possible through a partnership with HP Enterprise division –the largest global business unit of HP that offers servers, storage, sofware and information technology services that enable enterprise and midmarket business customers to manage their current IT environments and transform them into a business enabler.

Clients can now be offered such printing innovations like high-speed variable printing; world-class, secure, fast and individualized testing systems; as well as other print-on-demand services. The HP T230 offers 400-feet printing speed per minute for mono and full-color jobs; incorporates high-speed data processing based on HP Blade Servers; and supports printing with 100% variable content at full press speed. Print job applications include books-on-demand, personalized notebooks, journals, magazines, variable test booklets, checks and ballots and credit card statements, among others. 

Vibal’s global partnership with HP now extends to both digital printing and data center hardware and cloud services that can be utilized by various government agencies and private enterprises. In partnership with other global technology providers, Vibal’s technology suite of featured solutions now include systems integration, network design and infrastructure; mobile and systems software development, cloud data centers, content digitization and distribution; encryption and digital security servers; and network equipment.

Furthermore, under VCS, the widest spectrum of IT applications will be addressed, such as enterprise applications, high-performance computing (HPC) and analytics; accessible and durable storage; and cost-effective web applications. All sensitive data, applications, and other files will be hosted in a Tier-3.5 data center location – the first in-country data center facility accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), has ISO 9001:2000, ISO 27001:2005, and ISO 14001:2004 certification, and touted as the first green data center in the Philippines. 

For further details, please call 988-5800 local 359;
visit www.vibalgroup.com, and email inquire@vibalgroup.com.

VoiceBlast , a web app for effective response

Tweet

VoiceBlast is a free online service that allows every type of organization to market, sell, remind, promote, advertise, survey, ask, help and assist its clients, members, patients, students, donors, voters, constituents, and every kind of customer by way of a short voice message every now and then.

Everyone needs Voice-blasting now - for small and medium enterprises, schools and universities, politicians, government agencies, event planners and coordinators, recruitment companies, hospitals, clinics, doctors, and non-profit organizations and all! 

GoAutoDial Inc., a three-and-a-half year old Filipino I.T. company owned and managed by veterans of the BPO, IT, retail and direct selling, telecom and media industries introduced the VoiceBlast during a meetup with the technology enthusiasts held at the Zarzuela, Shangrila Plaza East Wing, Edsa last October 2 as organized by Mr. Ron Villagonzalo of Sagabay BPO.

VoiceBlast, a web app for effective customer responce,  is a free online service by GoAutoDial Inc.

Rafael “Raffy” Pekson II

“Gone are the days when you run marketing campaigns through SMS which are usually deleted by the recipient” says Rafael “Raffy” Pekson II, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of GoAutoDial Inc. 

“VoiceBlast is the next generation marketing tool that’s free to use and each answered call costs as little as 65 centavos,” adds Pekson.

He shared to us that by simply sign up for free and start configuring VoiceBlast campaign profiles "like you were fixing your Facebook profile."

VoiceBlast is responsive, unlike text (SMS) or e-mail blasting. GoAutoDial’s VoiceBlast will make more sense than blasting your customers with SMS/text messages, e-mails, tweets and other non-verbal conversations.

"When someone picks up the phone, that’s pertinent data for you. When someone stays on the line for the entire length of your voice message, that’s pertinent data. When someone presses “1″ or other key selections, that’s pertinent data. When the line is always busy, that’s pertinent data. When no one answers the call, that’s pertinent data. If the number is not available or is a terminated number, that’s pertinent data," adds Pekson.

When you want to begin VoiceBlast-ing your message to your customers, simply sign up at www.justgocloud.com, for free! After signing up, you will receive an automated message asking you to confirm your new account. With this, GoAutoDial also provides you 120 minutes of free calls to the U.S. and Canada to test-demo calls and have a feel of the web app.

Once you have configured your VoiceBlast campaign in JustGoCloud.com, prepay no less than $50 USD (or about P2,200 at $1:P44 conversion rate) via PayPal or BDO deposit. Credits are automated via PayPal while for BDO deposits, you’ll need to scan or photograph the deposit slip and e-mail that back to GoAutoDial (it sometimes takes 24 to 48 hours before the online account is updated).

To simply use the Voiceblast, just refer to the “TUTORIALS” link for all DIY materials and video tutorials via http://support.goautodial.com.

There are no long term contract requirements, no monetary deposits, no monthly subscription charges and no set up fees. 

For more information and updates visit  http://goautodial.com/voiceblast/.

With VoiceBlast, decision-making now becomes immediate because pertinent data is available right away. No waiting time. No guesses. No false observations. You know what each of your customers’ reactions are. Then, you know what to do next – correctly, precisely and immediately.

About GoAutoDial, Inc.

GoAutoDial Inc. is a Filipino information technology company that markets and sells telephony and call center-oriented products and services to the global business community needing IP- based telephony solutions for voice-based customer contact operations. GoAutoDial Inc. provides products and services that enable business to conduct sales, marketing, service and support business activities using IP-based telephony systems and technologies for voice-based customer contact operations. The GoAutoDial solution intends to simplify your information technology infrastructure, ease the use of a customer contact system, enhance the service experience of your customers, give you greater manageability and control of your business, scale up or down your operations anytime, all being done towards lowering your total cost of ownership.

The GoAutoDial solution allows blended call handling of each agent or rep, including automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), predictive dialing, call recording, and three-way conference calling. It comes bundled with dozens of pre-defined monitoring tools, reports and analytics, as well as utilities that allow you to define your own sets of reports.

Today, there more than 40,000 organizations in the world that have installed the GoAutoDial telephony software solution in their onsite servers. GoAutoDial’s cloud based version, JustGoCloud, boasts more than 5,000 global users since it was introduced in January 2012, with multiple, mirrored clouds in the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

GoAutoDial Inc.

Unit 3004, 30th Floor, Antel Global Corporate Center, 

No. 3 Julia Vargas Avenue, Ortigas Center Pasig City 1605.

Corporate website: www.goautodial.com

Blog site: http://blog.goautodial.com

VoiceBlast information: www.goautodial.com/voiceblast

All about the cloud: www.goautodial.com/cloud

JustGoCloud (where the VoiceBlast feature resides): www.justgocloud.com

VoIP service for call centers: www.justgovoip.com

Global technical forum website: www.goautodial.org