The Loop

Message from the President
2010 - An Auspicious Year for IP-Converge!
Most notably, December 9, 2010 will be long remembered as that special day when IP-Converge went Public; when our
Chairman, Enrique Y. Gonzalez, rang the bell at the Trading Floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange. IP-Converge became the
first and only Internet Data Center company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange that day (PSE Symbol: ‘CLOUD’). It was
the culmination of 5 years of financial successes through the efforts of the men and women of IPC, and support of the senior
management, board of directors, and stakeholders.
Congratulations to IP-Converge for its successful IPO!
We have accomplished many things that very few companies may have achieved in a year, namely: the ISO 9001:2008
Certification, an upgrade from our previous 9001:2000 Quality Certification; awarded by Salesforce.com with the highest
Customer Satisfaction rating among Partners in other ASEAN countries; appointed as the first Google Enterprise Partner for
Google Apps and Messaging services in the Philippines; and we have reinforced the competitive advantage of our products
and services with the introduction of the first “virtual” Disaster Recovery Services in partnership with Sybase Data Replication
Services.
All these accomplishments were further accentuated by our impressive 2010 financial performance, breaking previous records;
our gross profit increased by 7% from 2009; gross margin was 32% of Revenues compared to 29% in 2009; and EBITDA was
a record breaking 17% of Revenues. We expect to hit Php70M in Net Income After Tax in 2010, against Php35M last year. All
these are attributed to the hard work and dedication of our most important asset, the men and women of IP-Converge, who
toiled through the difficult challenges and operating conditions, not giving up despite the odds. To you all, job well done, and
thank you.
As our public listing is a manifestation of teamwork and perseverance among IP-Converge employees over the years, this same
endeavor allows employees to be personally invested in the growth of this company as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our valued clients and partners for their unwavering support and confidence
in IP-Converge. Your continued patronage is truly appreciated, and we view our alliances as integral to the success we have
achieved.
2011 will be a year of new opportunities and exciting
challenges, particularly the expansion of our data
center capacity, new Cloud-based products and
services, and expanded market presence. Now, being a
public company, we are required to operate at a higher
level of expectations, a sharper focus on meeting
quarterly commitments and strict adherence to good
corporate governance and fiscal responsibility.
Our vision is to be the leading provider of products
that are truly based on Cloud Computing, and become
the preferred Cloud Computing Services provider in
the Philippines and across the Region. Indeed, the
beginning of a new and exciting journey.
On behalf of IP Converge Data Center Inc., I wish you all
a Prosperous 2011!
Reynaldo Huergas
President
IP Converge Data Center, Inc.
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 3
cover story
Internet Data Center goes public, declares dividends
IP Converge Data Center, Inc. (PSE: CLOUD), the information
technology and telecommunications subsidiary of publicly
listed conglomerate IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP), will be the
country’s first and only Internet Data Center to be publicly
listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), after listing its
shares today at the PSE.
The Company has set the price for its IPO at Php4.20 per
share, and is expected to generate gross proceeds of P190.9
million. The offer price translates to a post-offer price-toearnings (P/E) ratio of under 10 times. IP-Converge is offering
45,466,667 common shares for the IPO, and the offer period
ran from November 25 to December 2, 2010.
“The IPO will further
position IP-Converge
for regional growth
opportunities..”
- Enrique Y. Gonzalez
IP-Converge has assigned BDO Capital and
Investments Corp. as lead underwriter and
issue manager, and UniCapital Inc. as co-lead
underwriter and financial advisor.
The offer proceeds will fund several of IPConverge’s new projects, which include
the data center and network expansion in
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig and Cebu City.
IP-Converge Chairman and IPVG Chief Executive Officer
Enrique Y. Gonzalez says: “The listing of IP-Converge is a
significant event for the Company and for IPVG. The IPO will
further position IP-Converge for regional growth opportunities
as well as cementing our
market leadership in the
Philippines. We believe that
our stable and predictable
business model will provide
investors with a solid
investment opportunity.”
The Company also announced
that its board approved up
to 50% of free cash flow
to equity to be declared as
dividends, after setting aside
the necessary amounts to
fund its expansion projects.
This reinforces IP-Converge’s commitment as a dividend
annuity stock, of which the first dividend payout will be based
on stockholders on record as of Dec. 31, 2010.
IP-Converge
is
an
information
technology
and
telecommunications company that provides a wide array
of managed data services and business solutions at
international standards. An ISO 9001:2008 certified company,
the foundation of the company’s business is centered on
customer satisfaction through high-quality on-time delivery,
the implementation of best business practices, and a
personalized, “boutique” approach to clients.
staffbox
Vision
Shaping the IP landscape for the communities we serve
EDITOR/WRITER
Mika Prado
Mission
Our corporate mission is directed to the specific
communities that we serve.
•Enable better business practices for our customers
•Promote mutual growth among partners
•Ensure career fulfilment for employees
•Ensure maximum value on shareholders investments
•Corporate Social Responsibility: Provide opportunities to
develop ICT expertise for qualified marginalized youth.
PAGE DESIGNER
4 |Brian Casorla
IP-Converge operates a telco-grade Internet data center
facility in the Philippines that connects to the world through
the company’s international PoP (point of presence) in Hong
Kong. IP-Converge upholds its carrier and vendor-neutrality by
peering with all major Internet exchanges in the Philippines
and the Asia Pacific region, and by partnering with the
world’s leading hardware and software providers. Through
its robust international network infrastructure and business
relationships with global industry giants, IP-Converge is able
to offer world-class IP-based solutions and services in the
region.
IP-Converge generated Php 247.8 Mn in net revenues for
the first half of 2010, while earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) reached Php 33.9
Mn.
IP-Converge entered into strategic partnerships with
several big entities early this year. Just recently, IP-Converge
announced it has become a Google Enterprise Partner,
the largest in the country, providing Google Apps™ suite of
communication and collaboration tools, and Google message
archiving and security services to Philippine enterprise. IPConverge also recently announced a partnership with Sybase,
a global industry leader in delivering enterprise and mobile
software, to offer data replication services locally as a new
disaster recovery program. Early this year, the company’s
partnership with Cebu-based connectivity provider ComPoint
Networks Inc. marked the initial steps of IP-Converge’s
business expansion towards Metro Cebu. The Medical City
(TMC), one of the Philippines’ leading, world-class tertiarycare hospitals, also signed with IP-Converge for the provision
of remote back-up facilities for mission-critical applications
and data as part of its disaster preparedness program.
The company ended the first half of 2010 by receiving the
Customer Satisfaction Award for 2009 – ASEAN, by enterprise
cloud computing and customer relationship management
global leader Salesforce.com during the latter’s Asia Pacific
Partner Summit at the Millennium Resort Patong in Phuket,
Thailand last May 2010. IP-Converge is the Philippine’s first
and only Salesforce.com Select Consulting Partner, able
to provide configuration and customization services to
Salesforce.com users in the country and in the region.
For comments and/or suggestions, email [email protected]
Editor in Chief
Niño Valmonte
CONTRIBUTORS
Newsbytes.ph
Voltaire Wycoco
“The entire IP-Converge team is very excited about this
remarkable step that the company is taking,” says IP-Converge
President Reynaldo R. Huergas. “We have grown to be one of
the strongest subsidiaries of the IPVG Group and we stick by
our commitment to be there for our clients as they grow their
business. This is only the beginning of an incredible journey
that IP-Converge is about to embark on, and we look forward
to what the future holds for us.”
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
Quality Policy
Our commitment to our Quality Management
System as a Managed Data Services & Business
Solutions provider is to ensure Customer
Satisfaction and develop long term partnerships
through our distinct “boutique” approach.
With a keen understanding of our Customers,
precision alignment of resources, and effective
design and provisioning of solutions, we
empower our Customers in the IP landscape.
headline
IP-Converge partners with Japan telco to build data center in Tokyo
From left: Vanessa Beldia, Director - Regional Carrier Relations, IP-Converge; Rene Huergas, President, IP-Converge;
Koji Miyashita, President & CEO, IPS, Inc.; Kaname Shikata, Head - Telecommunications Division, IPS, Inc.
Publicly-listed Internet Data Center operator IP Converge
Data Center Inc. (PSE: CLOUD) announced recently that
it has signed an agreement with Tokyo-based Type I
telecommunications carrier IPS Inc. for the two-way
resellership of solutions and services to local and Japanbased customers.
To kick off the partnership, IPS also signed contract for an
International Private Line Circuit (IPLC) subscription with
IP-Converge, at STM-4 capacity. This translates to 620Mbps
of dedicated bandwidth for their customers requiring highspeed Internet connectivity from the Philippines to Japan
and vice versa.
“This partnership is the first step towards establishing a
deeper business relationship with IPS.”, says IP-Converge
President Reynaldo R. Huergas. ”We look forward to
strengthening ties through this resellership arrangement
and eventually penetrate Japan’s data center market jointly
in the future.”
“South East Asian nations, particularly the Philippines, make
up the main clients of IPS Inc. and there is a high potential for
growth as trends indicate the number of foreign residents in
Japan will continue to increase in the coming years,” says Koji
Miyashita, President and CEO of IPS Inc. “IP-Converge, being
our connectivity services provider, is a strong partner and
their experience and proven background in sales will ensure
that this data center project will be a profitable venture.”
IPS owns and operates a data center facility located in
Fukagawa, Tokyo. According to Huergas, the two companies
are in the planning stages of enhancing this facility and will
soon see IP-Converge as its operator. The facility will feature
the latest in network infrastructure equipment using global
industry compliant, and up-to-date design and methods.
”The Japan data center is part of our commitment to building
an extensive data center network with similar projects
in Cebu and the Fort Global City,” says Huergas. “We see
opportunities arising in this region and this partnership
puts us in a prime position to be the preferred data services
provider and one of the biggest in Asia.”
IP-Converge Senior Vice President for Managed Data Services Percival C. de los
Reyes (left) shakes hands with IPS, Inc. President and CEO Koji Miyashita at a
contract signing event held at The Hexagon Lounge, RCBC Plaza in Makati City
The joint undertaking is expected to commence during
the first quarter of 2011 and is proposed to yield 440
square meters of data center space with a capacity for
approximately 135 racks. The IPS Inc. data center will give
IP-Converge its third Asian Point-of-Presence outside the
Philippines.
“We see
opportunities
arising in this
region and this
partnership puts
us in a prime
position to be the
preferred data
services provider
and one of the
biggest in Asia.”
- Reynaldo R. Huergas
Since its inception in 1991 as an international
telecommunications services company, IPS Inc. (formerly
Teleglobe Japan) has diversified its business adding print,
marketing services, caregiver training, broadcasting services,
and soon financial services and IPTV to its portfolio.
IP-Converge is the first and only Philippine Data Center to
be listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange. The company
operates a telco-grade Internet Data Center in Makati City,
as well as network facilities in Hong Kong. Through strategic
alliances with major internet exchanges, the company
boasts of a resilient, high-speed network with multiple
routes out of the Philippines and to major network hubs
in Asia, allowing them to provide continuous service in the
event of a disaster.
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 5
feature
They’ve All Gone Google!
When one thinks of Google, there are several things that
come to mind - ultra-fast and instant search via Google.
com, the next generation email application in GMail,
finding your way and location search via Google Maps and
Google Earth, everyone’s new favorite browser, Google
Chrome, and very soon... devices powered by Chrome OS.
Few people know that these are just the tip of the Google
virtual iceberg. The web giant is constantly expanding its
product line - ranging from its web-based solutions to
desktop and mobile products. One product that’s been
making waves all over the world and has been changing
how things work within companies and schools in the past
couple of years is Google Apps.
Google Apps is a collection of productivity tools that range
from word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, calendar and
even a web page creator - all accessible online via web
browser. To date, over three million businesses worldwide
are using Google Apps for Business, with thousands
more signing up each day. From the Philippines to Alaska,
companies and even schools all over the world are going
Google. The beauty of Google Apps is that it provides
efficient communication, improved collaboration and huge
savings.
For only US$50 per user per year, users get 25GB of email
storage space (you’ll probably never have to delete another
email again!), ultra fast email search via Gmail, no spam, no
viruses, and the ability to access their email & documents
from anywhere with an Internet connection via PCs and
even mobile devices. They also get the ability for their
internal folks to create collaborative intranet sites using
Google Sites (even creating and hosting their own public
site), and storage of documents and collaboration in the
cloud via Google Docs. Best of all, they don’t need to worry
about downtime and missing data, Google Apps takes care
of all of that because of its 99.9% Service Level Agreement
(SLA). With ever expanding operations, customers can add
more users and pay as they grow.
IP-Converge recently became a Google Enterprise Partner
providing Google Apps for Business, giving Philippine
companies the chance to experience the efficiency that the
Google Apps Suite promises. IP-Converge has introduced
Google Apps to companies from different industries and of
all sizes and making the switch has proven to be one of the
best choices they’ve made.
6 |
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
American Orient Capital Partners, Inc. (A.O.Capital), an
investment and financial advisory services firm covering
the Asia Pacific region, has gone Google after experiencing
issues like limited mailbox space and virtually no controls
on spam. With this switch, A.O.Capital no longer worries
about anything like that happening again. From the
insurance industry, both life and non-life, AXA Philippines
and MAPFRE Insular have also decided to go Google.
AXA Phillippines, a major player of the industry, has
decided to equip the majority of their Customer Service
Representatives with Google Apps messaging, collaboration
and communications tools to better serve their current and
prospective customers. MAPFRE Insular, one of the highestranked and most stable non-life insurance companies in
the country, relied on an older albeit more popular email
system, this said system failed to fulfill its commitments
to them due extended downtime periods resulting in zero
email communications. Once their email was up & running
again, they were only able to recover only a few months’
worth of user inbox data. It was with this incident in mind
that MAPFRE Insular decided to search for a robust email,
collaboration and communications solution which was still
affordable - they decided to go Google.
Diamond Auto Group, a major dealer of Mitsubishi and
Hyundai automobiles has also gone Google. With over 100
employees scattered around their different offices in Metro
Manila and dealerships around the country, they needed
a way to allow their mobile workforce to still have access
to email, without this access the downtime led to lost
productivity. With Google Apps, problems like these became
history for Diamond Auto Group.
With the Philippine aviation industry becoming increasingly
competitive, AirPhilExpress needed to find a way to
overcome their dependency on their antiquated email
system to keep up with their competition. With presence
in all major Philippine airports and a number of offices
abroad, the very limited mailbox space, frequent spam
and virus attacks crippled their operations. AirPhilExpress
searched for a solution that would allow them to access
their emails, documents and collaborate wherever they
are, 24/7 all year round, with just a browser and a low-cost
internet connection - they found Google Apps. This allowed
for their internal IT staff to devote more time and resources
in managing and operating their core applications such as
ticketing, reservations and loyalty programs.
A big reason why Google Apps is becoming so popular is that
it lets non-IT companies focus more on their core business.
Like in the case of Enlin Steel, a Rosario, Cavite-based steel
manufacturer, who has also gone Google. Their old email
system did not have sufficient spam protection that they
eventually experienced a steady decrease in productivity,
employees would spend more time deleting spam mail
rather than actually working. By going Google, Enlin Steel
bid all these problems goodbye.
Another company that has decided to go Google is Bonifacio
Gas, the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipeline operator
of the Fort Bonifacio Development Corporation (FBDC)
provides customers with LPG using a state-of-the-art, direct
to property piped gas system. Bonifacio Gas is the first
member of the FBDC group to make the switch, after fighting
a losing battle with spam mail, they have decided to migrate
to Google Apps.
continued on page 20
Newsbytes.ph : Cutting Edge, No Holds Barred Philippine I.T. News
IDC: Asian businesses to fuel ICT transformation in 2011
Recovery and transformation were the
two overarching themes in the annual
IDC Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)
Top 10 predictions for 2010. 2011 is
projected to be a natural extension of
these themes.
In the coming year, IDC said it expects the Asian business and
ICT space to be defined by sustainable growth, and in some
cases, high growth. The healthy economy, in turn, will fuel
ICT transformation, triggering it to go “mainstream”.
“Although the Asian markets were not as badly hit by the
financial crisis as compared to North America and Western
Europe, the failing economy did have a lasting impact on
the market dynamics in the region. As growth became an
uncertainty at the end of 2008, most companies in the
region started increasing their focus on capturing a larger
wallet share in their existing markets rather than expanding
into new ones,” said Claus Mortensen, principal for emerging
technology research, practice group at IDC Asia Pacific.
“As a result, competition in the region has intensified after
the crisis has passed and even after organic and inorganic
market expansions are back on the agenda. Most companies
across all sectors are now faced with increased competition
for their products and services and IDC expects the trend
to continue in the next few years. IDC also believes that
customer centricity initiatives will become a priority in
emerging markets in 2011 and beyond,” Mortensen said.
IDC expects the Asian market to enjoy another solid year
of strong growth. China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and
the Philippines are projected to generate the strongest IT
spending rise in 2011.
The following are IDC’s top 10 ICT predictions in 2011.
These trends are what IDC believes will have the biggest
commercial impact on the APEJ ICT market.
1. Socialytic Applications Will Transform
the Collaboration Market
IDC predicts that 2011 will be the year where the trend of
combining social media with business analytics will make
its mark across most of the key enterprise applications
in use today. Applications are beginning to be embedded
with unified communications and social features today
and IDC expects virtually all types of business applications
to undergo a fundamental transformation in functional
structure by fusing traditional business applications with
both social/collaboration software and analytics in 2011 and
beyond.
2. Mobilution — Mobility Will Make A
Leap Into IT
IDC is seeing what we could call a “perfect storm” created
by the evolution of different areas of technology combining
to create a revolution in mobility. Tablets, media tablets
like iPads and large-screen smartphones can now run
almost fully functional versions of all enterprise software
and services. With the move towards cloud computing, we
are now seeing many of these IT systems being delivered
in virtualized environments minimizing the importance
of device-based computing power. It truly is “everything”
going mobile and IDC believes 2011 will be the catalyst year
for this.
3. ‘Less for Less’ — Self-Service
Customer Portals Will Spearhead LowCost Customer Centricity
Market competition in Asia, regardless of industry, is
expected to intensify in the next three to five years. As a
result, many businesses will face the ever greater task
of finding the unique competitive differentiation in the
marketplace. IDC predicts that customer centricity – the
adaptation of products and services to match changing
markets — will become the single most important driver
for most, if not all organizations. At the same time, we are
also seeing the rising influence of Gen Y in corporate world.
With these two forces at work, the role of self-service (via
the web) will become significant. The notion of “less for less”
refers to spending less on service delivery with what appears
to the customer as a less complex, easy to use customercare environment. ICT will clearly play a critical role in a “less
for less” self-service customer centricity environment.
4. Analytics Will Accelerate the Chase
For Asian Consumption
Competition is expected to intensify in Asia in the next three
to five years with more businesses entering into the region
given its growth potential. As a result of its ability to improve
decision-making and drive revenue growth, business
analytics is predicted to take center stage for CIOs in 2011
as the technology is increasingly viewed as an enabler for
organizations to compete more effectively.
5. Apple’s iPad Will Catalyze Interest in
Client Virtualization
With the hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone and more recently
the iPad in 2010, CIOs are now being approached by C-level
executives wanting their Apple products to be connected
to the corporate infrastructure and accessing confidential
data, despite potential fears that CIOs may have about the
risks. One possible solution is the use of client virtualization.
Creating virtualized sessions would not only allow access to
applications regardless of the operating system, but it could
also provide the assurance that CIOs need in knowing that
their corporate data is secure. It will likely take a number
of years, but IDC expects widespread deployments of client
virtualization to eventually occur.
6. Services and Federation Will Lead
‘Enterprise-Class’ Cloud Deployments
The take-up of private cloud technologies and services in
medium- and large- enterprise will accelerate further in
2011 due to lingering concerns about security, reliability and
performance of public cloud services. IDC foresees that the
ability to integrate applications or services from the cloud
with apps or services from an in-house IT environment or
with services from another cloud service provider will be
a key enabler or inhibitor for enterprise cloud adoption.
Given that the Asian enterprise will adopt cloud services
as targeted solutions for specific needs rather than in a
“rip and replace” manner, it is imperative that existing apps
and cloud apps are integrated. Without this integration, it
will be difficult to achieve ROI targets and siloed apps will
again frustrate business users. Whether or not cloud will get
the foothold that we predict within Asian enterprises will
depend on how well cloud infrastructure providers, cloud
integrators and public and virtual private cloud providers
manage to enable a cloud federation.
continued on page 20
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 7
product feature
product feature: Google message discovery & security
Google Message Discovery
Complete email security and archiving in one package
ABOUT GOOGLE SECURITY AND ARCHIVING,
POWERED BY POSTINI
Google security and archiving products, powered by
Postini, make email systems more secure, compliant
and productive by blocking spam and other
intrusions before they reach your network, and
by providing encryption and archiving to help you
meet compliance requirements. Google’s hosted
model leverages the “network effect” created by
billions of daily email connections to detect and
block threats in real time, without requiring onsite
updates. Economies of scale in storage, along with
simple deployment and maintenance-free service,
drive a low total cost of ownership.
For more information, visit
www.google.com/postini
Make your email servers more secure, compliant, and productive. Block email threats before
they reach your organization. Create a secure and searchable email archive without making a
significant infrastructure investment by storing messages in the cloud. Locate pertinent messages
quickly and comprehensively even as your email volumes and compliance requirements grow.
Leverage cloud services to reduce maintenance, protect bandwidth, and free up resources to work
on strategic business initiatives.
Product Summary
Google Message Discovery, powered by Postini, is a secure, hosted service that provides
enterprise-grade spam and virus protection as well as comprehensive email archiving for
organizations looking for cost-effective email management and significant advantages
over onsite server or media-based email archiving. Google Message Discovery lets you:
• create a centralized and searchable email repository for your organization
• quickly search across the archive to find emails and save result sets
• secure your email from spam, viruses, phishing, and other email-borne requirements
Google Message Discovery is hosted in the cloud and built on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model,
so there’s no need to forecast or plan for future storage needs. Google’s secure and redundant data
centers keep your messages fully protected and backed up, removing the risk of loss due to onsite
server failure. Data ownership remains with your organization so you retain the control over your
information.
You can archive mail without worrying about disk space, and can eliminate storage quota
headaches by giving users easy access to archived email. What’s more, by removing aged mail from
your servers, you can decrease both backup windows and recovery times.
Google Message Discovery also includes a complete set of email security features, so you can
provide the highest levels of security for your email systems – without installing expensive
hardware or software. This lets you block spam, viruses, and other external threats before they
reach your organization and ensure proprietary information that must remain confidential stays
within your organization.
Key Features
• Secure and redundant Ensure availability and redundancy by leveraging Google’s network of
secure, energy-efficient data centers. Minimize costly on-premise infrastructure and reduce IT
maintenance
• Scalable Unlimited capacity without additional administration and contracts
• Easy access and findability Quickly pinpoint specific email without having to search multiple
data sources
• Export result sets Quickly export messages or message sets into PST and MBOX formats
• Manage retention policies Reduce risks by implementing auditable email retention policies
and preserve message sets beyond the retention period when required
• End user archive access Allow end users to access their own personal archive through a webbased interface or an MS Outlook toolbar, without IT assistance
• Archive activity reports View log reports of all archive activity including searches and exports
from the archive for compliance needs
• Spam and virus protection Provide market-leading email security including real-time spam
and virus protection and content filtering for inbound and outbound email
• Domain-to-domain encryption Transmit secure messages with policy-based Transport Layer
Security protocols
• Intelligent routing Easily route email traffic to de-centralized data center locations
Google Message Discovery enables you to manage, protect, and
access needed archival messages by providing:
1. Comprehensive message capture: Messages are
routed in real time to Google’s secure data centers via
the common envelope journaling capability on your
email server. Alternatively, inbound and outbound
email can be archived as part of the overall processing
Google performs during our real-time threat analysis.
2. “Always on, always current” Message Security:
Routing messages through Google’s market-leading
Message Security functionality provides real-time
threat protection, virus detection, content-based
filtering, and policy-enforced TLS encryption.
3. Secure hosted archiving: Messages and their
attachments are stored and indexed in a central
repository. Retention policy management enables
IT to set policies at the user or organization to
meet internal and external retention requirements.
4. Search
and
extraction:
Permission-based
access
provides
authorized
individuals
with
advanced tools to quickly and easily search, place
holds on results, and extract relevant email.
5. Extensive Reporting: Usage and audit reporting
provides the information necessary to monitor all
activities that occur within the company archive.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Google Message Discovery supports the following
mail servers:
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Standard or
Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard or
Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Small Business Server with Exchange
Server 2000 or 2003 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
• Lotus Domino 6.5-7x
To use the journaling option with Exchange Server
Standard Edition, you need at least two of these
servers on your network, with one server used
exclusively for receiving journaled messages. The
server cannot contain any user mailboxes.
Check out Google Message Securty on pages 18-19
8 |
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 9
IPVG NEWS
WikiPricing
THE PLAYER (Re-published from The Philippine Star, Business Life)
By Enrique Y. Gonzalez
I read in the papers that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
was arrested in the UK under charges of sex crimes. It is a
very suspicious but an obvious way for the mean kids to
shut up the little tattletale.
For those still in a Wii Tennis-induced coma, WikiLeaks is the
highly controversial website that publishes explosive stories
submitted by anonymous whistleblowers. The WikiLeaks
staff study, check and agree with one another which leak is
authentic enough to be published on the site, from what goes
down in Guantanamo to Sarah Palin’s inbox to a US military
chopper studding people aimlessly with bullets … it’s all
there. A bulletin board for silenced journalists encouraged
to just keep on looking for weapons of mass destruction.
What’s a nation with a massive PR problem to do?
“I realized that
the wiki and
the market
work on similar
principles.”
In reality, people drive markets, and people are far
from perfect. Markets then tend to react emotionally or
irrationally. This creates inefficient markets, a situation
where the price of a current stock is not reflective of its
true value. These inefficiencies create opportunities for
traders and investors to buy an undervalued stock until the
collective mass of the market realizes the imperfect pricing,
at which time they swoop in to buy the shares and drive the
price up to or beyond the point of its true value. This creates
selling pressure until such a point that the price corrects to
or below its true value. The process or cycle repeats itself.
Sex. It pays for every crime.
It is the classic struggle for perfection and living with the
tension of an imperfect reality.
It seems the 39-year-old Australian Assange (his name
even sounds like it belongs in the movies) met two women
in Sweden over the summer, which led to a “dispute over
consensual but unprotected sex.” And this is how it went
down for the world’s biggest whistleblower. Of course, we
all know that even as big companies like PayPal, Amazon,
Visa and MasterCard have withdrawn their services, it is not
going to end there.
When seeking Alpha (Alpha is defined as excess returns, or
above-market returns) I particularly like dividend-paying
companies. These high-yielding stocks deliver a yield higher
than government securities, yet allow investors to enjoy
significant upside and appreciation based on the ability
of the company to achieve future earnings. Most laymen
investors are fixated on P/E and tsismis as the criteria for
deciding whether or not they buy a stock.
The struggle between national security and freedom of
speech is the fodder for blockbuster movies. You’ve got
to have balls to take on the US government. You need to
look like Harrison Ford, talk like Russell Crowe and kick like
Angelina Jolie to make it happen. For commercially oriented
folks like me, we prefer to take center stage with deals, and
watch from the sidelines when taking on sovereign interests.
I’m not sure social media will have any success in protecting
Assange from prosecution.
A very simple and straightforward method of determining
which company is the best place to invest your money can
revolve around several data points that are easy enough to
track:
• Market Capitalization: P1 billion and above
• Price to Earnings Ratio: 15x and below
• Dividend Yield (historical): At least three percent.
The cool kids have him by Interpol.
How is this all relevant to our lives, an archipelago in a
land so far away? Wikis have actually changed how we see
information.
A wiki is defined as a “web application that allows anyone
visiting a website to edit content on it.” Just as Facebook
revolutionized social interaction online, the wiki changed
how people exchanged and canonize information. The wiki is
for research, as Google is for search. Wikipedia operates on
the theory of participative truth. Through the participation
of many educated and responsible users, Wikipedia becomes
a reference point and publishing mechanism for verified
and factual information. It is perceived truth or reality
that becomes the standard. In other words, the people
have spoken. We are either collectively right or collectively
wrong, but the notion of a collective understanding forms
the basis of our reflection.
Where do I stand when it comes to the wiki?
I realized that the wiki and the market work on similar
principles. The market theory of efficient pricing means
that the price arrived at for a particular stock as a result of
many buyers and many sellers represents its proper price
or value at the time based on all the available information.
It is a collective and conscious price or value. In a perfect
world, share prices of all companies across all markets would
reflect the correct value of each of those companies at that
10 |
point in time. The prices would then change based on the
availability of new information.
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
Setting a market capitalization minimum sets the standard.
Following the underbelly of the “too big to fail” mentality,
the belief here is that bigger companies are safer and less
risky than small ones.
Setting a maximum threshold for P/E ratios means you
eliminate companies that are priced “out of market” or too
expensively.
Looking at the historical dividend yield (previous year,
average of the last three to five years) is a good reference
point for predicting future dividend payout and yields.
By comparing companies to these criteria, the easy and
simple logic is the company with the highest dividend yield
but lowest P/E ratio is probably the best place to put your
money relative to the other companies in that basket. It is
important to dig deeper and understand the company’s
financials, but for people who like cursory type analysis, this
is a simple and straightforward approach.
Dividends also signify that the company takes its
responsibility to shareholders seriously, and rewards
stakeholders by up-streaming profits. More likely than not,
companies that declare dividends on a regular basis are
safer havens for investment.
I hope this helps you seek your alpha. If you catch an
undervalued dividend play out there, you may just buy it in
time before the wikis come in and correct the pricing. Enjoy
the ride!
ipvg news
i-PCV Launches Premyo Sa Resibo Cards
Premyo sa Resibo or PSR is a national raffle-based program undertaken by the
Bureau of Internal Revenue to increase the country’s tax collection by encouraging
consumers to ask for official receipts when they purchase goods or services from
establishments.
The 20 Php PSR Scratch & Match Card program (PSR Card) shall encourage more
consumers to participate in the PSR by giving them seven chances of winning:
• Scratch and match cash prize, win up to P1,000,000 instantly
• Two (2) instant raffle prizes such as celphones, celphone load or P5000 cash
• Two (2) weekly entries for a chance to win P25,000
• Two (2) chances to win P1,000,000 at the grand raffle draw
The PSR Cards are available initially in 10,000 retail outlets scattered in 10 key
areas such as Quezon City, Tarlac ,Pampanga, Bataan – Zambales, Bulacan,
Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon province and Bicol.
The BIR’s Premyo Sa Resibo program is endorsed by TV personality, Boy Abunda.
During a recent press conference, BIR Assistant Commissioner Aida Simborio (far
right) and Philweb’s Vice President for Sports and Mobile Gaming Antonio Garcia
(far left), look on as Alejandro James Chiongbian, President of i-PCV (second from
left), and Boy Abunda seal their joint advocacy for the BIR program.
i-Pay Commerce Ventures, Inc. (IPCV), through Remittance and Lending Partners,
Inc. (RLPI), a Western Union Subagent of IPCV, launches wellness stations along
LRT, in partnership with Unilab. Now customers of the LRT can buy quality overthe-counter medicines at LRT-IPCV Western Union locations.
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 17
product feature
product feature: Google message discovery & security
Google Message Security
Protect your email infrastructure from spam and viruses;
easily set and manage usage policies
ABOUT GOOGLE SECURITY AND ARCHIVING,
POWERED BY POSTINI
Google security and archiving products, powered by
Postini, make email systems more secure, compliant
and productive by blocking spam and other
intrusions before they reach your network, and
by providing encryption and archiving to help you
meet compliance requirements. Google’s hosted
model leverages the “network effect” created by
billions of daily email connections to detect and
block threats in real time, without requiring onsite
updates. Economies of scale in storage, along with
simple deployment and maintenance-free service,
drive a low total cost of ownership.
For more information, visit
www.google.com/postini
Make your email servers more secure, compliant, and productive. Block email threats before
they reach your organization. Ensure proprietary information that must remain confidential stays
where it’s safe. Eliminate the need for the ongoing patching and updates required by appliance
or software solutions. Leverage cloud services to reduce maintenance, conserve bandwidth, and
improve the performance of your existing email infrastructure.
Product Summary
Google Message Security, powered by Postini, is a secure, hosted service that provides enterprisegrade spam and virus protection and email content filtering, delivering cost-e₃ective email
management. Google Message Security lets you:
• secure your inbound and outbound email from spam, viruses, phishing, and other emailborne threats
• set central email policies to manage content and compliance requirements
• receive email messages even if your email server goes down
Google Message Security automatically enforces your email security policies to help assure legal
and regulatory compliance for both inbound and outbound email across your organization. The
service also provides a convenient web console for administration, enabling real-time configuration
and policy modifications, monitoring, and alerting, as well as comprehensive reporting for
administrators. Define users in the console, or integrate Google Message Security with your
organization directory for easy user synchronization.
Google Message Security also:
• includes patented anti-spam technology, which examines thousands of elements of an email
message to determine safety
• delivers exceptionally low false positive rates
• leverages global “network effect” based on billions of email messages per day to identify
emerging threatsm ensuring early blocking and prevention. Quickly self-corrects for safe IP
addresses so that email flow is not interrupted
• eases IT management of policy configuration, ensuring appropriate user guidelines
• lets end users manage their own message quarantines and settings and fine-tune preferences
within IT-set policies, via an easy-to-use web interface and without additional support
• includes Transport Layer Security (TLS) support, allowing encryption of sensitive email
communications (can be automatically enforced for communications between designated
email domains)
18 |
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
Google Message Security supports the following:
Mail servers The service supports common mail servers including Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus Domino, Postfix,
Sendmail, Macintosh OS X Server, Novell Groupwise, and is also included in Google Apps Premier Edition.
Service Providers (hosted email) The service is compatible with ISPs and domain name providers that host the email for
your own domain but you must have the ability to change the MX records associated with your service.
Feature
Benefits
Spam and virus protection
Provide multi-layer threat identification including heuristic
and signature-based detection, commercial anti-virus engines,
and “zero-hour” protection from rapidly mutating viruses
Directory harvest attack/denial of service blocking
Prevents attacks with patented behavior analysis
Patented pass-through architecture
Ensures maximum privacy of your email
Content policy management
Enforces acceptable use policies and content compliance for
inbound and outbound email
Scalability
Built-in scale for dealing with any kinds of spam spikes or
targeted attacks
Web-based administration console
Allows real-time user and policy updates, configuration
changes, and reporting
Log search
Retrieve and export log information on inbound and
outbound message routing details
Email spooling
Continue to receive email messages even if your email server
goes down
Domain-to-domain encryption
Transmit secure messages with policy-enforced Transport
Layer Security protocols
Attachment filtering
Enforce policies including attachment size or file type
limitations
Intelligent routing
Easily route email tra₃c to decentralized data center locations
Robust service level agreement
100% anti-virus and 99.999% service uptime
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 19
Newsbytes.. continued from page 7
They’ve gone.. continued from page 6
7. Smart Enterprises Will Adopt
Catalog-Based IT
Net25, a free TV channel of the Eagle Broadcasting
Corporation, is Channel 25 on terrestrial TV and in major
cable operators Sky Cable (Channel 18), Home Cable (Channel
18) and Global Destiny (Channel 19), has also gone Google.
It is now emerging to be one of the most watched channels
as it is now being carried by more than 600 cable operators
nationwide. It can also be be seen in Hawaii and the US West
coast, as well as the whole of Asia and Australia, the Middle
East and parts of Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa
and South Asia. Net 25 was long dependent on their old inhouse deployed email system which had very limited storage
and access and collaboration was next to impossible with its
outdated tools. By going Google, Net25 now enjoys 25GB of
email storage and real-time collaboration, letting them keep
up with the times and focus more on their business.
As the regional economy gets back on track and growth
in businesses accelerate, users will become more
demanding for IT resources. Shorter time to market and
instant provisioning of computing resources are becoming
compulsory requirements. IT organizations will be expected
to support ad-hoc requirements, almost instantaneously.
The only way to meet these expectations is to track and
provide IT resources through a catalog-based IT. According
to IDC’s Dynamic IT Benchmark Survey in early 2010, 49%
of the 355 respondents across Asia indicated increased selfservice IT for business users as the company’s IT strategies.
As the regional economy picks up in 2011, IDC predicts that
more than 50% of mid- to large-sized Asia-based enterprises
will be building or beginning to build a catalog-based ICT in
2011.
8. Business-as-a-Service: The answer to
IT-business integration?
Business-as-a-Service is an offering that focuses on business
processes rather than on technology replacement. It is a
trend that illustrates the importance and impact on not only
the IT space but the whole business process outsourcing
space in general. Business-as-a-Service is expected to bring
to light the need to marry IT and business to become “one
entity” to compete aggressively in the “new normal” Asia
Pacific marketplace. Because of its ability to deliver business
outcomes, CIOs will be able to align or integrate IT with
business. IDC believes that this trend is increasingly critical
and will receive a lot of attention in 2011.
9. Telecom Services Providers Will
Return to IT
Cloud has been described has a once in a generation
technology that will allow telcos to dominate as it has
all the inherent advantages, especially the ownership of
networks, which essentially is what cloud is all about. IDC
believes that the majority of organizations will migrate to a
hybrid cloud model with many organizations preferring to
ring-fence their critical workloads and applications within
an on premise private cloud environment. IDC believes
that telecom providers will not turn their backs on the
opportunities of on-premises private cloud solutions. This
market is estimated to be worth close to US$752 million in
2011 and is expected to grow to US$1.8 billion in 2014.
10. Telecom Service Providers Will Look
to Cloud Computing for Operations
Apart from the traditional discussion on telcos and Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) offering consumer and enterprise
cloud computing services, there is a whole new sub-industry
emerging which revolves around the software, hardware and
services Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) serving telcos,
and the transformation of their products/technologies and
services into money-making cloud services. The type of
cloud service offered is not the “one-to-many” model that
typically comes to mind when talking about cloud services
as carriers typically are very hesitant to share the same
servers with their competitors. Instead, NEPs will be looking
at offering these services as hosted private clouds with
logical separation of infrastructure between carriers, with
a future roadmap of moving into virtually separated cloud
infrastructure as the carriers become more comfortable
with a shared-services concept.
20 |
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
Leekie Enterprises, an online gaming provider, is fully
licensed by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA)
and First Cagayan Leisure Resort Corporation (FCLRC)
Philippines. They have been using an internally developed
and managed email system which was outdated and was
in need of replacement. With a number of offices located
all over the world, universal access was crucial to their
operations. Even with their own email system, Leekie was
having problems with spam. Also experiencing the same
problems were J-Sys Philippines, a leading software house
competent in both the Japanese and English systems
development and programming environments, they
provide Business Application Design & Development and
IT infrastructure implementation & maintenance. Another
company faced with the same situation was PhilWeb
Corporation, the first and largest listed internet company
in the Philippines by market capitalization. PhilWeb was
running their own email system hosted in their own servers
and data centers, it became apparent that maintaining their
own system would be too expensive - making their Total
Cost of Ownership higher. All three companies eventually
made the decision to migrate to Google Apps, which also
freed up their their internal IT resources to maintain and run
their online operations - their real core business.
By going Google, all these Philippine companies now
enjoy the limitless opportunities that Google Apps offers.
Affordable, reliable, secure and fast, it provides an all-around
solution to the various email and collaboration problems
most businesses encounter. Google Apps has revolutionized
how these companies operate and may have given them that
much desired edge over their competition.
IP-Converge received training, support and deployment
services from Google, as well as access to APIs for integrating
Google Apps into customers’ business operations. And since
we retain a close relationship with our customers, we can
provide additional service and support for Google Apps.
profiles:
Voltaire C. Wycoco
Vanessa Raya A. Beldia
Volts was recently promoted to become the Senior
Compliance Officer for IP-Converge. He first joined the
company as a Public Relations Manager after working as an
Account Manager for BRIDGES@COM, a local PR company.
Volts has extensive experience in public relations and was
even a news reporter on the ABS CBN News Channel. As
Senior Compliance Officer, Volts will ensure the compliance
with the legal and regulatory requirements pertaining to the
core business of the company to prevent unethical, illegal or
improper conduct within the organization.
Vanessa is now Director for Regional Carrier Relations at IPConverge after working as a Business Development Manager
for 4 years. She joined IP-Converge after worked for Trends
& Technologies, Inc., Innove Communications, Eastern
Telecom, Universal Records, Futurekids School, and the
Home Development Mutual Fund (PAG-IBIG Fund). Vanessa
graduated from the University of the Philippines - Diliman
with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Drama. With this
promotion, Vanessa will be key in developing new business
for IP-Converge in the enterprise sector.
Glenn Warren P. Flores
Brian A. Casorla
Glenn was recently promoted to head both Customer
Support and Facilities & Infrastructure Development
departments. He was the Customer Support Manager of
IP-Converge for 3 years, leading his team in ensuring that
all the clients’ needs and concerns are attended to on time
and thoroughly. With this move, Glenn will lead the Facilities
and Infrastructure Development Team in the operation and
maintenance of the Data Center and office premises of IPVG,
and will facilitate the Data Center expansion. He brings
with him years of experience from Connectivity Unlimited
Resource Enterprise, Innove Communications, Globe
Telecom and Citibank N.A.
Brian is no new face to IP-Converge. He was the graphic
artist for IPVG for 2 and a half years and was always heavily
involved in the production of this very publication, he is now
IP-Converge’s Marketing Design Specialist. Brian brings with
him many years of experience in graphic design and website
development. He gained some of his work experience from
iWebmasters.com and Impact Information Systems, and has
also worked freelance while designing and developing many
websites for companies based both in the Philippines and
abroad. Brian took a short course on Java Progamming in UP
Diliman in 2002 and is a Certified Internet Professional from
Informatics Computer Institute.
movements
www.ip-converge.com/theloop | 21
profiles: new hires
Anna Lissa C. Pacena-Vinzon
Liezel recently joined IP-Converge as its new Human Resource Manager. She brings
with her 15 years of work experience in the human resources field and has honed her
expertise in employee and labor relations. Liezel worked for Aegis PeopleSupport, Prime
Pacific Grill Corp. (franchisee and operator of Gerry’s Grill Restaurants) and the Philippine
Tourism Authority. She graduated from the University of the Philippines - Diliman with a
Master of Industrial Relations , Major in Human Resource Development.
Michaela Noelle Z. Prado
Jeramie Carla D. Umali
Mika recently joined IP-Converge as a Marketing
Communications Specialist. She graduated from Ateneo
de Manila University with a degree in AB Communications.
Mika has extensive experience in events management,
public & media relations and has excellent writing skills. She
gained her work experience from Philam Life.
Jem joined IP-Converge as a Senior Account Manager for
Corporate Sales with extensive experience in business
development and product management. Jem is a
graduate of BA Business Management from De La Salle
University-Dasmariñas. She has worked for Blue Media
Communications, Smart Communications, CURE-űmobile
(now RED MOBILE), Wireless Services Asia, Asian Institute
of Management, and Citimotors, Inc. As a Senior Account
Manager, Jem will deal directly with clients regarding their
requirements and present to them IP-Converge’s various
products which best suits their need.
Juanito Jason D. Valmores
Jason joins IP-Converge as an Account Manager for
Emerging Solutions, bringing with him his extensive
Account Management experience. He honed this skill from
past employers American Standard Phils. Ltd. Co., Eastern
Telecom Phils., Leverage Systems Technologies, EBDI Phils.
Inc., Digicom, Malate Construction & Development Corp.,
and Northwest Airlines Inc. He is a graduate of BS Business
Administration, Major in Marketing from De La Salle
University-College of Saint Benilde.
22 |
The Official Newsletter of IP-Converge™
Maria Katrina C. Fernandez
Joining IP-Converge as Executive Assistant to the CFO is
Kat, a graduate of BS Commerce, Major in Business Systems
and Technology Management from St. Scholastica’s College
- Manila. She has worked for PLDT and RR Donnelley
Philippines. Kat is experienced in handling, motivating and
organizing people, and has excellent time management
skills.