BlackVelVet - PLDT ALPHA

volume
december 2011
Black Velvet
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise goes Luxe
10
gimme
more
Eric Alberto’s Decade-long blueprint
Let me start
YOUR ENGINE
plush
track
Jovy Hernandez lays out
an ALPHA vision
cars, beautiful women,
and all things speedy
4
December 2011
December 2011
5
LETTER from the
Editor
Jovy Hernandez
Editor
Gerrard Fabie
Contributing Editor
Markus Jentes
Creative Director
Andrew Batiduan
Art Director
Rissa Golloso
Emily Reyes
Irene Dungo
Cheska Villanueva
Editorial Coordinators
Maciej “Mac” Lubaczewski
Michal Perez de Tagle
Paula Venturina
Editorial Contributors
Vickie Perez de Tagle
Executive Producer
The Making of a Masthead
Behind the scenes at
Hot Joe’s photo shoot
For this issue of Hot Joe, the staff
spent an afternoon at a private studio
in Makati, where photographer Markus
Jentes climbed tables, aimed lights,
and posed people in order to obtain the
perfect shot. Seen here are some snapshots of the lighter moments behind
the shooting, the steps on that journey
towards the final cover photo.
business, change represents
both challenge and
opportunity. In the PLDT
Corporate Business Group,
this reality takes on even
more urgency and acquires
more dimensions. PLDT
CBG has always striven to
deliver greater efficiency and
productivity to business,
by anticipating trends, and
relentlessly innovating in the
face of perpetual, some say
even relentless, change.
But it was time for an even more
thorough, more game-changing paradigm
shift.
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise marks a
transformed PLDT Corporate Business
Group, and is part of an organization-wide
reformation built on the distinctive way
PLDT works with top clients. Recognizing
these clients’ ALPHA status, PLDT CBG
dedicates service and innovation more in
tune with their expectations. The result
was PLDT ALPHA Enterprise – ALPHA
performance is absolutely required to meet
ALPHA requirements.
PLDT is set to become even more of
a customer-focused organization, one that
delivers real enterprise benefits and synergies.
We look at total solutions and not just
individual products and services for each of
your specific business needs. These bespoke
solutions may even perhaps reveal new
verticals in the process.
In Page 8 of this edition, I explain
a little about what it’s like to be head of
ALPHA Enterprise, and those people who
support me in this endeavor. Mr. Eric R.
Alberto shares with us his vision of the
next ten years for PLDT on Page 14. Of
course PLDT ALPHA has always been
and will always be built on the pillar of our
relationships with our customers, and this
is well explained in Partner Peek, Page 18
where we examine the relationship between
IBM and PLDT. Recent events designed to
showcase ALPHA to the Philippine business
world such as Track Day in Subic and the
ALPHA Night in Black and White at Cebu
will be covered on Page 22.
A new name, a new magazine design,
and a whole new approach to how PLDT
interacts with its top corporate clients - it’s
the dawning of a new age – the age of
ALPHA.
Jovy hernandez
Editor
December 2011
7
Calls
CLIENT
volume
slow
december 2011
05
36
Letter from the Editor
Jovy Hernandez on the evolution of PLDT CBG into
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise.
07
SMART Enterprise unveils two brand-new, state-of-theart M2M business solutions – the PINpoint solutions.
40
Client Call
Clients from all walks of life write to us about their
extraordinary experiences with PLDT.
08
Main Window
PLDT Insider
Eric R. Alberto gives his view on PLDT’s next ten years.
18
42
49
50
Were You There
8
(p. 22-27)
(p. 28-31)
(p. 32-33)
(p. 34-35)
54
We would like to sincerely thank you
very much for the support that you
extended us during the transfer of
our Disaster Recovery site from TIM
Alabang to Aurora QC. We not
only were able to transfer the site
successfully, but also we did it 18
hours ahead of the scheduled target.
Dear Eric,
Hi Yse,
I would like to thank you and everyone involved with PLDT ALPHA for
an unforgettable Track Day Friday
15 April.
In behalf of AMADEUS I would
like to say THANK YOU for all the
support extended to us during the 3
days event @ SMX MoA.
The organization and conduct of the
day’s events were excellent, as was the
lunch catering and dinner.
In deed it was another success for
our clients as there was no internet
downtime encountered.
I want to especially thank Jovy, Precy,
Rome and the entire ALPHA team
for all their additional effort to make
the event a success for their guests.
They all worked so hard on the day to
keep us all entertained and to ensure
we had everything taken care of and
the most enjoyable day possible.
Thank you very much and now
that TTE 2011 is over I am looking
forward for another success in
TTE 2012 with PLDT as our Major
Business Partner.
We could have not done this without
your all-out support especially Ed and
Charlie (Vasnet) who worked with us
practically until the early morning of
Saturday.
Again, your support is very much
appreciated!!!
William Brillantes of UCPB
Sleeper Hit
Unified Communications is promising to be a complete
game-changer in the business world.
Wishing you and all at PLDT
ALPHA every continued success.
The ALPHA Bits
Yours faithfully,
MultiRational Corporation
Graham Gulliver, CEO
The Last Say
Eric R. Alberto ends the issue with a look back on the
end of the decade.
22
were you there
ALPHA Enterprise
events
Main Window
Jovy Hernandez
28
were you there
Cebu Launch
8
No Internet Downtime!
Bits of knowledge any ALPHA should know.
ALPHA Enterprise events – always a guarantee for good
food, good company, and good minds. Were you there?
Track Day Cebu Launch ALPHA Bites ALPHA Barks Coming + Going
Change is constant, and Hot Joe gives you the scoop
on the latest ones: what’s in, what’s out, and what is not
quite either.
Partner Peek
PLDT partner IBM plans to change the world.
22
Caught on Page
PLDT closes contracts with Ateneo de Manila, Cubinet
Interactive, Wenphil, Stellar Philippines, ShangrilaMactan, and the Provincial Government of Northern
Samar.
Hot Joe explores the more personal side of ALPHA
Enterprise’s head of operations – from model-car expert
and rocker to telecom executive and devoted father, Jovy
Hernandez displays his multi-faceted life.
14
Solved
Disaster Recovery
Unforgettable Track Day
December 2011
14
Via SMS
Great event today. Very successful
and unique. Kudos to you Jay. Thank
you for inviting us to experience the
Track Day. Cheers.
Pare thanks again for inviting me to
that great event, it was a lot of fun
and I got to my dinner in Tagaytay
by 6!
-Raffy Andrada of Meralco
-Oye Fores, Araneta Group
Hi Jay, many thanks for the invitation.
It was very well organized.
Hi Jay. Had a great time yesterday.
Wished I could have finished the
whole event. Thanks for inviting me
and some friends. Congratulations too.
-Randy Abello of HSBC
PLDT insider
The Next
10 Years
Best Regards,
Ronan Ignacio
AMADEUS MARKETING
PHILS INC.
Jay, this is long overdue; but we just
got back from an extended break.
Thank you for introducing me to
F2H. It is remarkable! And Ronnie
has been most accommodating of
our almost always urgent calls for
assists. And I am most proud that
you are leading the efforts to popularize public access to this service. I am
hoping that the cost is not prohibitive
so the public can avail themselves of
this facility.
Thank you.
-From Noel Andrada, BDO
Attorney Fely Arroyo
December 2011
9
Window
Main
jovy Hernandez
He’s Going the Distance... He’s taking us to
ALPHA
10
December 2011
On
a blazingly hot Clark Speedway it was born. A new partner was unveiled to a highly
enthusiastic top corporate ICT market, pining for a provider of equal panache and
distinction. This was the day the PLDT Corporate Business Group was re-launched as PLDT
ALPHA Enterprise. Lining one particularly tricky curve just before the homestretch,
a series of banners spelled out a persuasive equation for winning in business.
“Winning = Speed + Precision + Passion + Teamwork + Integrity”.
December 2011
11
mAIN WINDOW
MAIN
Aspiring to be ALPHA was
actually something PLDT CBG
was trying to do all these years
Nearly a year later, Jovy Hernandez is
living (and winning) with every element of
that same equation. For him, “Being ALPHA
means being excellent.”
Youthful memories are still fresh to
the 38-year old motor sports aficionado, a
self-confessed gear-head even early on in
his childhood. “Believe it or not, I was into
Tamiya,” he tells us. Hobbyists and specialists of the Japanese model kit maker are
usually regarded as the best in the world,
and even back then Jovy was making a mark.
“I was competing heavily in malls. First it
was simple assembly and then on to speed
events, as fast as you could go on 2 AA batteries.” He reflects amusedly on whether his
7-second record still stands.
Setting ever higher records soon became
a trademark of a career trajectory traversing many surprising paths. In high school
he already earned a Don Bosco degree in
Computer Science in the “DOS days before
Windows,” as he puts it. A banking career
with HSBC ensued, followed with a Master’s
at AIM, all while raising his newborn son,
now 18 years old.
Today, Jovy’s growing family is close to
spanning 2 generations with a daughter at
7, a new 1 year-old baby boy, and firm plans
for a fourth. By all accounts, the kids share
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December 2011
the same musical gifts and the open-eyed inquisitiveness of their father. “Even my baby
listens and watches YouTube lullaby videos
before he sleeps,” he shares while acknowledging the growth of new media. As he
talks, you get the sense that a direct relation
to business is never far behind.
Jovy is now at a steady and determined
equilibrium, it seems. But back then in college raising a young family, how did he juggle
it all? The answer for Jovy back then as now,
lay in attention as well as correctly channeled
energy.
For Jovy, there is a definite advantage
to being young and yet so responsible. It all
centers on vigor yes, but also on mindfulness
for the gifts of mentorship.
“In some organizations, some may think
that being relatively young is a disadvantage.
But it is a definite advantage, with caveats.
Momentum is on your side as long as you’re
aware that there is always something new
to learn, usually from my boss. My success
depends on my boss.” According to Jovy,
that capable boss or superior he’s had the
privilege to know at every stage of his career
added to a lifetime treasure of lessons.
By saying this, Jovy arrives at the core of
mentorship. It is learned, cherished, passed
on—a veritable company heirloom. As Jovy
becomes an even bigger boss, at the helm of
the premier ICT corporate business group in
the country, mentorship comes full circle.
“Eric is like a second dad to me,” he
says unabashedly of Eric R. Alberto EVP
and Head of Enterprise and International
& Carrier Business. Entering the corporate
market, Jovy had to learn a new regime. “I
didn’t even know how to dress up, thanks to
being a rocker in my younger days.” Jovy had
long ago eschewed the musician road and
its requisite trappings—long hair, torn jeans
and boots. He now sports Alberto’s trademark sharp elegance of natty suits and accouterments. Although the one time singer/
drummer still oversees a remarkably talented
PLDT CBG band.
Beyond a new wardrobe, Jovy appreciated Eric’s concentration, integrity and premium on genuinely cultivated relationships. In
business they have to be cordial if not warm
but also more importantly, absolutely fair to
both parties. Such relationships are never
cloying with mirages of everlasting rapport,
but are instead honest and direct. They are
actually refreshing to clients weary of the old
song and dance —and generate true respect
both ways. Dealing on this premise also saves
a lot of time in negotiations because what
you see is unfailingly what you get. It is true
1
2
4
3
5
partnership at work.
Mentorship continues to pay off for
Jovy, the ardent observer but also the careful
emulator who is now a newly minted mentor
himself.
“Aspiring to be ALPHA was actually
something PLDT CBG was trying to do all
these years,” he says. The difference today is
that there is a name, brand and signet everyone visibly rallies around.
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise signals a
first, a beginning, a living and breathing
movement care of its always-youthful and
energetic leader. It’s the latest challenge to be
met, and to date the greatest mark Jovy Hernandez is set to make.
1) Resplendent in PLDT red-andwhite, Jovy suits up for some heavyduty go-karting adventures.
2) Jovy Hernandez in his younger
days, rocking the musician look with
his bandmates.
3) The Hernandez family enjoying a
free day at home.
4) Showing that he hasn’t completely
left the rockstar life behind, Jovy
drums out a beat.
5) Jovy surveys the track at Pattaya,
Thailand, as a member of Philippine
Team A.
December 2011
13
The
next
PLDT Insider
Years
Insider
PLDT
What do you think were the
last decade’s key milestones in
PLDT’s continuing mission to enable
Philippine corporate business
through ICT?
PLDT laid out the
infrastructure and network,
the fertile groundwork
for Philippine-based
industries to grow, flourish
and dominate in this most
dynamic region of the
world. We did it with our
considerable investments in
our self-healing Domestic
Fiber Optic Network
or DFON, that now
circumnavigate the country,
capable of handling 1.2
Terabits per second of
voice and data traffic,
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December 2011
December 2011
15
PLDT Insider
complemented with a combined 225Gbps of
unparalleled international capacities. Today,
it has continued to expand at the level of
quality, capacity, diversity, redundancy, and
other specifications that will allow businesses
to fully exploit their growth momentum.
PLDT was also instrumental in
pioneering and enabling modern data
communication services in the Philippines;
we are a country now at par with our
international peers in terms of technology,
capabilities, robustness, and seamless
interconnectivity. Everything started with the
first and biggest Cisco-powered ATM/IP
network we introduced in the late 90’s; with
our BRAINS (Broad and Robust ATM/IP
Networking Solutions) to support growing
business data connectivity needs. Right after
that came our ambitious and aggressive
push towards a Next Generation Network
or NGN, the natural evolutionary path for
telcos, to modernize and transform our
network for better, faster and more powerful
services. Last year, PLDT became the first
local carrier to be certified with MEF 9
and 14 titles by the Metro Ethernet Forum.
This testifies to the compliance of PLDT’s
infrastructure in terms of delivering key
Carrier Ethernet features and functionalities,
while matching MEF-set standards and
reliability requirements specific to quality of
service. To this day, PLDT has never looked
back and continues to survey and deliver the
best and latest that ICT has to offer.
The last decade witnessed PLDT’s
relentless pursuit to innovate and present
many firsts:
• The first retailing and franchising
managed network service - Shops.Work
• The first commercial mobile Internet
service in the Philippine market - WeRoam
• The first mobile-terminal based solution
that enabled wireless card and point of sale
transactions - Shops.Work Unplugged
(SWUP).
• The first telco-enabled cloud computing
portfolio of business applications – AppFarm.
WeRoam
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December 2011
PLDT Insider
PLDT was also instrumental in
pioneering and enabling modern
data communication services in the
Philippines; we are a country now
at par with our international peers
in terms of technology, capabilities,
robustness, and seamless
interconnectivity.
Over the past six years, we also put
together numerous international road-shows
in tandem with government agencies such as
the DTI, BOI and CICT, BPA/P and CCAP
at considerable expense investments on our
part, in promoting intensive “Philippines
1st” selling missions. During these many
missions, we articulated the robust telco
capabilities and the growingly multiple
built-in redundancies so vital in securing
the needed competitive edge among the
international business locators and prospects
whom we persuaded to invest in the
Philippines.
What PLDT solutions or initiatives
were the most relevant or successful? Can
you cite some examples?
The first one that comes to mind is
WeRoam, which we launched in 2005;
it signaled our first step in offering true
convergence, which really was basic
convergence for the corporate market. Our
customers experienced a service continuum
even outside the office. We have access to
the office and its communications, files, and
processes - anytime, anywhere. WeRoam
was truly revolutionary-- it paved the way
towards the further development of efficient
applications and solutions. We’re talking
Thinking Globally.
EVP and Head of
Enterprise and International
& Carrier Business Eric
Alberto talks about the
premier telco’s milestones
for the past decade and its
goals in the years to come.
about content application solutions that
enabled corporate customers to run their
business more efficiently and effectively. A
good example would be a company sales
force or other road warriors tracking and
generating sales reports to the head office in
a much more efficient way than ever before,
and they’re doing this out in the field. They
don’t need to be in the office to do traditional
form filling, reports, job and service orders,
or product orders. Their laptops, tablets
and other similar mobile devices are fully
functional extensions of the head office.
Soon after, even documentary processing
was possible even at the point of sale itself,
facilitating and increasing revenue events for
companies.
Another game-changing PLDT solution
is Shops.work, and its wireless cousin Shops.
work Unplugged. I’ve found the adoption
itself of Shops.work by many corporate
sectors an unqualified success -- a testament
to its relevance for enterprise customers.
Companies have achieved real time inventory
management, production management, as
well as sales monitoring and analysis. Shops.
work Unplugged or SWUP really allowed
for similar services, but with further reach,
serving corporate operations beyond the
scope of our copper or fiber fixed line
capabilities in PLDT. Dramatic examples
SWUP POS
of SWUP benefits include points of sale
where, for both credit cards and debit cards,
transactions can now be facilitated even with
the absence of traditional fixed telephone
data lines. These are “green field areas”,
where business establishments have sprouted
but there are still no fixed line facilities.
This is where SWUP-enabled commerce
can still operate business-as-usual. SWUP
was also the ideal solution for the banking
system, enabling a more pervasive rollout
of E-banking. There are now more ATM
machines running on SWUP, deployed not
only by the large local commercial banks,
but also by the smaller rural banks in the
countryside. So that’s quite revolutionary,
banks can now serve people outside the
fringes of the metropolis, even in the far
reaches of the archipelago with the same
e-banking platform and services that city
clients enjoy.
These are the two most pervasive and
highest revenue solution product offerings to
date, both in fixed and wireless version.
How do you think Philippine
corporate business itself is going to
change in the next decade?
If we are to consider the many forecasts
done by different sectors on this subject, I
would say that off-shoring and outsourcing
would be a very vital, if not the most vital,
industry this country’s going to see in the
next 5 to 10 years. The BPAP’s five year
study on the performance of the outsourcing
industry in this country indicate that the
potential upside for the next five years is
about 2.5x growth, from today’s level of
about $10 billion to $25 billion by the end
of 2016. The studies and forecasts for the
Philippines as a leading global outsourcing
destination will only be limited by our ability
to meet the demand for appropriate human
resources. Ultimately, it’s all about human
capital, and it will take a laser-like focus and
cooperation by government together with the
private sector to fully exploit it. This way the
outsourcing boom in our country could very
well last 10 years, and perhaps even beyond.
That is not to say that other active
markets will not continue to be prominent
as well. Technology as expressed in terms
of semi-conductor electronics will continue
to witness a revival, particularly with
the revolution and massive adoption of
affordable personal devices worldwide. I
think the chipsets that power these myriad
devices will be in high demand, with a good
number of them being sourced through
Philippine assembly operations.
The continued relevance of overseas
Filipino workers and their inbound
remittances to the Philippine economy will
also ensure that the retail and manufacturing
trade in the Philippines will continue its
healthy momentum for the medium and long
term horizons.
I would also say that banking aspirations
to further deploy e-banking platforms and
services would be prominent as well in our
future economy. Our natural geographical
tropical advantage when it comes to natural
resources and tourists spots, coupled with a
renewed government focus on supporting
December 2011
17
PLDT Insider
or presenting the Philippines as a premier
tourism destination for the world, will
finally elevate tourism as a critical--and more
substantial --business segment.
Corporations’ increasing reliance on
their Information Technology, which itself is
becoming more broad and complex, means
that data centers have become essential in
today’s corporate world. Data centers allow
corporations the option to outsource and
virtualize their IT in order to focus more on
their core competencies; offering business
continuity and data protection services; and
so much more. PLDT’s VITRO Data Center
was built to anticipate and then exceed
those requirements, with ISO certification
world. PLDT International is committed to
forging stronger partnerships with foreign
carriers by establishing more offices in other
countries. We will continue to serve Filipino
tourists and OFWs alike, as well as foreigners
with linkages to the Philippines with globally
competitive and attractively priced telco
products and services.
Can you elaborate a bit more on what
these changes will entail?
As we look at the active markets and
segments that I mentioned, those that will
define the transformation of Philippines
business over the next decade, a common
O & Os, in particular, critically require this
“globality” and connectivity.
Let’s go further into semiconductors
and electronics. They source various raw
material components required for assembly
of chipsets which are at the heart of all
electronic devices; every step of their
assembly requires close coordination with
their foreign clients and mother companies,
which in turn requires seamless global
and robust connectivity. So do e-banking
platforms. Banking in itself would require
an awful lot of local connectivity, given that
we’re archipelagic as a country. But nowadays,
international connectivity is just as important,
particularly in respect to international
keen and constant
“ Aconsciousness
over responsibility
and accountability for your
company’s shareholders and your
customers is the only right path
towards business sustainability
for the long haul.
“
for its Environmental Management
Systems, Quality Management Systems, and
Information Security Systems. The VITRO
Data Center building has raised floors for
cable management, with enough generators
to equal the output of a power plant for
continuous operations in the event of an
outage.
Finally, we believe that international
investments and other such forces shall
play a larger role in the Philippines in the
years to come, given a shrinking world due
to globalization. The role of our OFWs
is also a matter of increasing importance.
Therefore, PLDT International is gearing up
by offering connectivity at competitive rates
between the Philippines and the rest of the
18
December 2011
strategy among them is that they embrace
a higher level of global interaction and
connectivity. So these changes impact PLDT
in a direct way because to a large extent, we
not only have obvious commercial interest
but also the underlying socioeconomic
responsibility as the country’s leading telco
to ensure that these industries do succeed.
Make no mistake about it, these industries
will define what Philippine business and
what the Philippine economy is going to be
for the medium and long term. Our mission
and duty is crucial to provide the appropriate
level of global access networks, appropriate
products, services and solutions to all these
players. This will make them not only locally
competitive, but also globally relevant.
One of the benefits of technology
is said to be transparency and
accountability along with increased
efficiency. Do you agree or disagree with
this statement? What do you think will
be the result or change for Philippine
corporate business?
You’ve probably heard me say the same
thing many times over various meetings, that
we should not deploy technology just for
the sheer elegance of it. As we enable ICT
to the market, we must be reminded that we
are responsible enablers to a number of key
parties. A keen and constant consciousness
over responsibility and accountability for
your company’s shareholders and your
customers is the only right path towards
business sustainability for the long haul.
One key party is our shareholders. The
networks, technologies and IT platforms
that we invest in must be state of the art,
best of breed, and future-proofed. As
investing in technologies require heavy
capital expenditures, we should ascertain to
our shareholders that investments in these
technologies are attuned to what the market
is ready to absorb, attuned to what the
market is ready to embrace, and - last but not
least - attuned to what the market is ready
and willing to pay for.
We are also responsible to our
customers, to ensure that all we are providing
them in terms of products, services, and
solutions are globally relevant, globally
competitive and attractively priced. Our
value proposition as an organization is
that technology is an enabler. We are the
enterprise market enabler of efficiencies,
for them to generate higher revenues, cost
efficiencies, and better profits. We are also
the enabler of a digital lifestyle for our
consumers, providing them convenience
and ease of access to communication,
information, knowledge and entertainment.
Finally we are responsible and
accountable, to ourselves and our profession,
to deliver on the values and promises of our
products, services and solutions exactly as we
advertise them.
With the challenging times, and the
complexities of the challenges that lie
ahead for your business in PLDT, for the
industry and for the Philippine economy
at large, and your role as enabler to
Philippine Business in PLDT, what
keeps you awake at night?
World peace and my Jack Russell Terrier
guard dog, Potato.
banking and commerce, most particularly as
regards OFW inward remittances. Last but
not least, obviously as we attract tourism
traffic from all over the world, we would
require higher connectivity standards. There
are many players in the tourism industry,
particularly small and medium resorts, hotels,
inns, and lodges which we should enable
with ICT in order for them to be truly
competitive with the larger, international
hotel chains. A first step would be for us to
assist them in getting to the Internet with a
web presence. By doing so, potential tourists
all over the world will be able to have access
and information on tourism options and
alternatives here in the Philippines.
December 2011
19
Peek
Partner
IBM
out to make the
world
work better
All
around the world, droves of conscientious individuals, corporate, government and
non-profit organizations have come together on a mission: to create or discover new
sustainable ways to improve the quality of life on the planet. From business practices, to
national policies and daily norms, the imperative to find such improvements has never
been so challenged. At the point in our history where many consider miraculous
technological breakthroughs have flourished, historic basic human needs
remain unfulfilled. The high tech enlightenment of this new millennium is still haunted by poverty, social inequity, and
the threat of widespread ignorance.
20
December 2011
Old dogmas are questioned or even
discarded by tech-powered civil movements around the world. How, therefore, will technology become a more
responsible partner for positive human
change? The search for this answer has
never been pursued more stridently
than by IBM.
Leading the charge in developing
and utilizing technology towards what
they call a “Smarter Planet”, the global
technology giant has achieved a name
synonymous to innovation and excellent products. Today, Big Blue is driving
towards, as they put it, finding opportunity in change, and reacting not just to
problems, but to possibilities, recognizing that the planet is organic, a system
of complex systems.
One of its movements in creating
smarter, integrated systems is championing cloud computing – leveraging
the growing power of the internet for
ubiquitous remote data and application
access. Also an advocate of cloud computing is the Philippine Long Distance
Telephone Company, a staple data
provider and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) provider
whom IBM shares a mutual partnership with, providing the former with
Smarter Systems for their ICT solutions.
Their work today lays the foundation of
tomorrow’s world.
Hot Joe: IBM is in its centennial
year and is a pioneer in several fields
of cutting edge technology. What new
innovations can Philippine companies
expect this year?
IBM: We are marking our 100th
year milestone globally on June 16, 2011
and are also a year away from our 75th
anniversary here in the Philippines.
IBM’s Centennial is about making
the world work better. It is grounded
in a core set of ideas, exploring three
important dimensions of what IBM has
always been about 1) Reinventing the
Modern Corporation, 2) Pioneering the
Science of Information and 3)Making
the World Work Better.
HJ: How far do businesses in the
Philippines fare in terms of utilization
From oil to security to food to cities – IBM is taking a closer look at every facet of modern life to see how
technology can be used in order to improve processes all across the board. An ambitious goal, but one Big
Blue is ready to adopt.
of information technology solutions
and virtualization?
IBM: Analysts are predicting a
five-fold growth for data in the next
four years. To effectively manage this
swift growth in data, organizations must
adjust to changes in their business, from
their customers, and in the world.
We see that local companies are
slowly seeing the reality that smart
computing is the way to go. Nothing is
changing more than Information Technology - the way it’s accessed, the way
it’s applied, and the way it’s architected.
But the opportunities for innovation
have never been greater. Enterprises
in every industry can leverage breakthroughs in technology to create new
business models, new ways of delivering
technology based services and generate
new insights from IT to fuel innovation
and dramatically improve the Economics of IT.
In New York City,
His Excellency Benigno
“Noynoy” Aquino III, President,
The Philippines, delivered a
speech to 700 leaders from
world government, business, academia and science
at IBM’s THINK Forum held
at Lincoln Center. As part of
IBM’s 100-year anniversary,
the Forum examined the implications of leadership on organizations and societies and
the deep structural changes
required to drive progress.
December 2011
21
PARTNER PEEK
HJ: IBM refers to the term Dynamic
Infrastructure. How is this manifested in the
business systems of the local landscape?
IBM: Having a Dynamic Infrastructure means having an aligned business and
IT assets which improve service, reduce
cost and manage risk. It is a single dimension in terms of the things that IBM is
doing. It’s just one of many attributes.
Green computing in terms of energy
optimization is an attribute. The dynamic
capabilities which you get through IBM
Systems Director tool are attributes. Moving forward, there will be less emphasis on
the dynamic infrastructure term and more
emphasis on Smarter Systems or Systems
for a Smarter planet.
HJ: This Smarter Planet seems to be
the prevalent theme the company stresses
upon. Can you talk about the changes in
the world that illustrate this, as well as
the events and issues that call for these
changes? How does IBM play a part in all
this?
IBM: Building Smarter Cities towards
a Smarter Planet is about outfitting physical systems with digital technology, and
harnessing the resulting data to improve
capacity, efficiency, and quality of life. It is
about seeing cities as the complex systems
they are, and using that complexity to uncover opportunity. It is a systems integration challenge.
IBM brings a century’s worth of
systems thinking to this challenge. We
are experts in systems integration. And
for nearly 100 years, we have analyzed
and addressed some of the world’s most
complex challenges, from Social Security
to putting a man on the moon.
Today we are working with dozens
of municipalities, instrumentalizing and
integrating everything from roads to sewer
lines, analyzing real-time information, and
returning measurable value to stakeholders. We have a suite of tools to address
the exact issues that are facing cities today.
And we have proven strategies that deliver
quick and recurring returns.
Becoming a Smarter City may take
years to accomplish. The process must last
through the economic swings, disruptive
technologies, and election cycles. But it’s
a process that yields benefits at each stage
22
December 2011
PARTNER PEEK
AT IBM Philippines,
President and General Manager James Velasquez takes
charge in ensuring that a truly
competitive Filipino workforce
will contribute in achieving the
“Smarter Planet”.
of the journey
HJ: There is great emphasis placed
on cloud computing – the diminishing of
physical systems, today. Where are we in
terms of progress in this direction? Are
there any foreseeable barriers?
IBM: The power of the cloud model
comes from better harnessing vast stores
of under-utilized technology with highly
efficient management, consumer-style user
interfaces and the advent of ubiquitous
broadband. It represents a shift from a
“client/server” model based on islands
of infrastructure, applications and data
dedicated to individual people and departments, to a more shared and self-service
oriented model.
The implications of the cloud go far
beyond IT. The way services are delivered
in a multitude of industries, ranging from
healthcare to banking, mobile communications and government, will be changed.
A good example would be in Healthcare where electronic healthcare records
have existed for over a decade. But they
have not fully taken hold without the platform on which the cost could be shared
across the industry and innovation could
take off, allowing both large & small institutions to both lower costs of healthcare
delivery and differentiate their service.
In the public sector, another key industry in every country, government agencies struggle with tremendous overhead
and complexity of administrating laborintensive services to citizens. Particularly
at the state and local levels, hundreds
of agencies with similar missions are
constantly re-inventing the wheel with
increasingly stretched taxpayer money
and there is little information sharing that
would help drive quality and encourage
innovation. With common cloud-based
platforms, agencies could spend more
resources helping people and less administrating the services.
In terms of foreseeable barriers Cloud raises new challenges and demands
new innovation in the areas of privacy,
security and governance that will enable
accountability and trust. Advanced security is needed when companies are dealing
with sensitive data such as patient records,
and bank accounts. IBM is uniquely able
to extend the capabilities of a smarter
planet with secure, cloud environments.
IBM also offers a wide range of security
consulting services, security software and
appliances and managed security services
to help clients protect their cloud environments.
Security concerns are real – and
organizations have a right to be concerned. With millions of different end
points (PCs, iPhones, handheld devices)
connecting to networks to access data
and applications, organizations need to be
accountable for the security of their infrastructure. Security cannot be assumed;
customers will expect enterprises to leverage the potential of a centrally managed
cloud to improve the level of security
they have today, as well as make careful
decisions on where to have various data
reside. They should evaluate their cloud
providers in terms of security.
IBM has a proven track record
helping enterprise clients integrate and
validate new IT models and emerging
technologies -- and with our capabilities
in IBM Research and the X-Force, IBM
has been a clear leader in the development
and implementation of cloud environments for years. This combination of
deep security expertise combined with
cloud expertise, uniquely positions IBM
in this area.
We’ve been watching and working
on cloud for years, and we’re now seeing
an inflection point in businesses adopting cloud. Businesses are excited about
cloud as a way to reach new markets and
extend their capabilities to new clients. A
one-size-fits-all approach to cloud won’t
work for them. To take advantage of the
model, they’re seeking partners with deep
industry expertise and vertical solutions
that support the characteristics and requirements of their specific industries.
However, Cloud adoption in the Philippines is still in the infancy stage. Most
if not all companies are in the getting-
to-know-you or evaluating stage. This
is usually the case in the country when
significant ‘new technologies’ arise.
HJ: IBM has a rich history, as far
back as before the age of electronic computing, and continues to grow strong today. What challenges and difficulties have
IBM faced and continue to overcome?
IBM: We continue to provide innovative solutions to address our client’s business needs and wants. Throughout IBM’s
100-year history, we have weathered
countless business cycles, product revolutions, and recessions. More importantly,
across a century of existence, our company has played a lead role in transforming the organization of work, the tools of
work and the societal impact of work.
One of the reasons why we, as a
corporation, have been able to reinvent,
transform and effect such change within
business and society is because of our
company’s long-term view of leadership
development and talent management.
Our founder Thomas Watson, Sr. saw
that in the emerging economy of the new
century, the most valuable asset a company could possess would be the minds of
its employees – intellectual capital rather
than money, or muscle or raw materials.
HJ: On that note, we’d like to end by
giving attention to the domestic setting.
Since the early 2000’s, IBM began aggressively hiring college graduates all over the
country, matching contact centers and
other BPOs nationwide. How has the
Filipino workforce fared and what makes
them distinct from others around the
globe?
IBM: We continue to ensure that
there is a healthy talent pipeline to sustain
our own manpower needs and the industry as well. IBM aims to develop a more
competitive workforce by advocacy and
assistance in addressing the skills needs
of businesses here in the Philippines and
around the globe.
The Filipino workforce are top notch
and IBM realizes that by continuing to
invest in the country, there will be more
opportunities for Filipinos to showcase
their world-class IT and business skills.
Smarter Tech for a Smarter Planet
Technology and nature are often
viewed as enemies or as polar
opposites, but IBM is hoping to use
advanced technology in order to help
the planet – using the data collected
to help develop better, more efficient
and eco-friendly ways of doing, well,
everything.
December 2011
23
Y
Were OU
There
Here
We
O
.
G
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise
takes off with a roaring start
A
t the Clark Speedway,
the race-prepped
Ford Focuses of the
Tuason Racing School, trackaggressive BMW 135i’s, and
Z4’s were revving and whining
at the starting line. They were
rumbling steel horses, biting
at their bits, throaty exhausts
shrill in anticipation of burning
rubber on tarmac. But behind
each steering wheel were hardly
the typical boy racers in their
over-accessorized rice rockets.
24
December 2011
In fact, inside every car, was a top
CEO of a premier corporate institution.
The racing schedule read like an A-List of
“ALPHA Executives” in their chosen fields
of business and industries. Needless to say,
these guys will never take any competition
lightly—and they were here to prove once
again that they were the best.
This was the spirit with which the PLDT
Corporate Business Group was reborn as
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise, to ably serve
as an end-to-end ICT partner to “ALPHA
Achieving” enterprise customers. The Best
deserves The Best. In order to be a true
and effective partner to ALPHA customers,
PLDT must be the Alpha carrier and
solutions provider of choice.
“Alpha comes from álpho, and alpháno,”
said EVP and Head of Enterprise and
International & Carrier Business Eric
Alberto. “Their meanings include ‘to gain, to
yield, to produce, to invent’. PLDT is here
today to step up to a transformed enterprise
market that is more savvy and more
discriminating in its choice of technology
partner. PLDT ALPHA Enterprise certainly
has the network, the technology, and the
people to undertake a “Relationships First”
strategy for every enterprise requirement or
aspiration.”
For his part PLDT Vice President
and Head of ALPHA Enterprise Jovy
Hernandez agreed that the time for PLDT
to lead Philippine enterprise into the age of
business virtualization and cloud computing
was now. “We take off from our legacy of
providing you with the most innovative
bespoke solutions, towards enabling your
way into full business virtualization. We will
bring to Philippine enterprises the quantum
improvements in efficiency and productivity,
and we commit to do it with speed and
precision,” he said.
And so, our ALPHA Enterprise
customers strapped themselves in the many
sports-tuned premier rides to perform
several racing events and demonstrations
organized by PLDT. These included a
Dynamic Taxi Ride, a seat in special high
performance cars: Audi A4 Quattro and
Q5, Mercedes Benz E300 and C200,
Mini Cooper S and Countryman, Porsche
Panamera, Subaru WRX STI and Legacy
GT—all driven by the country’s top pro
racers. There were also the hotly contested
timed drag runs; and the Drive-WhatYou’ve-Brung event where eager CEOs
got to try out their own sports cars on the
Clark Speedway, the country’s premier racing
course.
In the evening they were treated to
more of Chef Billy King’s award-winning
cuisine and wine selections at the Mimosa
Country Club’s Hilltop Room, overlooking
the sprawling golf estate. Next came special
musical performances by noted composer
and musician Mel Villena and the famous
session recording artists of the AMP Jazz
Nonet. For the first time, the audience was
treated to a live big-band performance of
the especially composed “ALPHA Enterprise
Theme”. Alpha customers and PLDT
ALPHA Enterprise were now united as one.
As special prizes were awarded and the
atmosphere wound down into the goodnatured and warm experience characteristic
of any PLDT event, the question on every
Alpha CEO and executive soon became a
familiar one: SO, WHO’S GOING TO WIN
NEXT YEAR?
December 2011
25
2
9
8
1
7
3
4
10
11
5
6
12
1. Tuason race cars on final checks.
6. The Virtual Circuit
10. A red BMW z4 idles in the shade.
2. On a hot day at Clark, Eric Alberto takes
media duty.
7. All set for the Drive-What-You’ve-Brung event.
11. Kevin Limjoco of C! Magazine with Alpha clients
8. Louie Ysmael, JP Tuason, Emy Arcilla,
and Bobby Horrigan
12. Jojo Uligan and Raffy David, Mark Galutera, Ray-
3. Executives flash the Alpha sign.
4. Conversing in front of the events giant LCD screen.
5. A prestigious line-up of high-powered machines.
26
December 2011
13
9. Alpha winner Mitch Locsin on stage with Eric
Alberto ushered by one of the Alpha Girls.
mond Lacdao, Eric Puno, Joey Qua, Buddy Madrigal,
Mike Aquino
13. Eric Alberto’s black V10 powered BMW M5.
December 2011
27
14
16
18
17
20
15
22
23
19
14. Interested on-lookers inspect one of the racecars.
21. PLDT’s A-Team pose for a photo under the
16. Graham Gulliver
Subic sun. From L-R: Jimmy Chua, Anton Lim,
Jovy Hernandez, Precy Katigbak, Dick Perez,
Boy Castaneda, Jay Lagdameo, Vic Tria, Ben
Melasa and Jeff Mendoza.
17. Ken Kralik and Tep Misa
22. Riding in style - an executive-class convoy.
18. This Mercedes E-Class heads a line of ALPHA cars.
23. Gerrard Fabie poses for admirers.
19. Sign-carrying ALPHA girls.
24. A Porsche Cayman gleaming in the sun.
15. A Tuazon race car preparing to tackle a tricky S-curve.
21
20. A BMW purrs through the race-course, moving like a
real-life version of a TV commercial.
24
28
December 2011
December 2011
29
WERE YOU THERE
WERE YOU THERE
CEBU
steps up to
ALPHA
PLDT ALPHA
Enterprise joins
Cebu in the celebration
of Business Beyond
Boundaries.
30
December 2011
C
ebu has always been a center of
great beginnings, as revealed in its
rich history. This long narrow island
was where the country’s first victories were
won—where Lapu-Lapu and his men defeated
Magellan, and where the Catholic Church was
first founded in the Philippines. Historical
accounts also tell how Cebu has been an active
hub of trade and commerce for centuries. To
this day, the region continues to push forward
to become one of the key players in the highly
competitive global business arena. It is in this
light that Cebu celebrated its Business Month
highlighting “Business Beyond Boundaries”.
Cebu’s first ALPHA
As the first hero of the
Philippines, Lapu-lapu
continues to hold an honored
place in the hearts of not only
Cebuanos, but all inhabitants
of the Philippine Islands.
Likewise, Cebu continues to
be one of the most important
regions of the Philippines, and
as such a prime location for
ALPHA Enterprise to launch
operations.
Cebu: Evolving With Changing Times
Cebu aims to evolve in its own dynamic
and energetic fashion. This city is retooling
for one of the fast emerging industries of
today—the Business Process Outsourcing
(BPO) sector. The Cebu ICT-BPO Conference recently discussed the “Current Labor
Pool Needs and Demands of the Outsourcing Industry”, focusing mainly on the talent
development for regional BPOs.
Key speakers from leading BPOs Accenture, JP Morgan, and Convergys were
invited to head the talks. PLDT ALPHA
Enterprise, as the right solutions provider to
the best-in-class outsourcing companies, also
participated in the discussions. Representing
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise was an empathetic VP and Head of Corporate Relationship
Management Albert Mitchell Locsin, who
himself has years of expertise in the BPO
industry.
Locsin spoke about the unique role of
PLDT. “We are not just a Telco provider.
We are an innovative solutions partner to the
BPO industry. PLDT does not only provide
connectivity, but total solutions that pave the
way for this industry’s growth,” he said. True
enough; today’s multinational companies
are able to conveniently support their ICT
requirements with single-point providers like
PLDT.
A Salute to Cebuano Business Leaders
This year’s Cebu Business Month also
celebrates the triumphs of Cebuano entrepreneurs through the Grand Chamber
Awards Night. Held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, this prestigious event gathered more than
a hundred Cebuano businessmen across
diverse industries. Due recognition was given
to top Cebuano business leaders as catalysts
in the leap achieving renewed economic
prosperity for Cebu— ultimately making it
the best city in the Asia Pacific region.
“These people did not start big, but
their big dreams have made big leaps for
Cebu,” said CCCI president Samuel Chioson in his welcome speech. “They went out
of their shells and innovated in the same
direction CCCI has been pushing—beyond
boundaries. We salute them for their success;
for bringing honor to Cebu.”
Cokaliong Shipping Lines Inc. founder
and CEO Chester Cokaliong was given the
December 2011
31
WERE YOU THERE
Entrepreneur of the Year award. Three Sixty
Pharmacy owner Antonio Yap was recognized as the Emerging Entrepreneur of the
Year.
Other awardees were Ramon L. Chiu of
Coastal Highpoint Ventures, Inc. as Socially
Responsible Entrepreneur; Diane Rose U.
Ang of What A Girl Wants as Young Entrepreneur; Rolito Villo of Lolo Tinong’s Bakery as Countryside Entrepreneur; and Mary
Sy of Cebu La Fortuna Bakery as Small
Business Entrepreneur.
The Grand Chamber Beyond Boundaries Awards were given to Ambassador
Francisco L. Benedicto for Foreign Service,
Rodrigo Rivera, Sr. for International Industry and Henry Sy, Sr. of SM Group of
Companies for Grand Chamber Award of
Distinction.
Cebu ALPHA Night in
BLACK and WHITE
In line with the celebration of the Cebu
Business Month, PLDT ALPHA Enterprise launched in Cebu in the glamorous
ALPHA Night in Black and White event.
The evening kicked off at the Waterfront
Hotel Cebu following a well-attended forum
hosted by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (CCCI).
Top Cebu business leaders were treated
to cocktails and a sumptuous dinner. Later
on in the evening, famous conductor Mel
Villena led the AMP Jazz Nonet as they took
the stage with Big Band bravura.
This was how PLDT ALPHA Enterprise was formally introduced to its valued
Cebu Enterprise customers, the top-notch
clients who inspired PLDT’s ALPHA position. As businesses increasingly capitalize
on technology, it has become inevitable
that enterprise customers have also become
more discerning and savvy. Upon realizing
these higher demands for quality and performance, PLDT stepped up in the game as
the premier business ICT partner that Cebu
Enterprises can absolutely depend on.
PLDT VP and Head of Corporate Business Group and SMART Enterprise Sales
and Marketing Head Jovy Hernandez said,
“PLDT ALPHA Enterprise is about making
your business win. More than ever, you need
a dedicated team committed to your specific
needs. Our collective vision is to be more
customer-focused, to be even more sensitive
to your needs and aspirations. Together with
32
December 2011
PLDT ALPHA
Enterprise is about
making your business
win. More than ever,
you need a dedicated
team committed to your
specific needs. Our
collective vision is to be
more customer-focused,
to be even more sensitive
to your needs and
aspirations.
you, we will be more pro-active rather than
reactive.”
Cebu Business Community Chair Nonoy Espleta expressed his utmost appreciation
for PLDT’s efforts in pushing for business
innovation and collaboration, “In behalf of
the Cebu Chamber of Commerce, I would
like to express our gratitude towards PLDT
for always supporting us. We will continue
partnering with PLDT in changing lives.
Let’s build and renew friendships tonight.”
PLDT Head of VisMin Corporate Relationship Business Jimmy Chua, on the other
hand, underscored the innate Cebuano traits
of industriousness, ingenuity, and dedication
for business. He expressed further gratitude
for the partnership that Cebu businesses
have endowed on PLDT. “We thank you
for the opportunity to be your host on this
important night as we recommit to you our
unwavering support in uncovering the next
well of business opportunities. These are the
new opportunities that Cebu is on the verge
of profiting from. To be able to do so, you
will need ICT partnerships more than ever
in the new digital age.”
Moving on, Hernandez introduced the
“A-Team”, PLDT’s Relationship Managers
whose commitment is mainly to support
Cebu businesses’ requirements for groundbreaking enterprise solutions. Plaques of
Appreciation were then awarded to the honored guests of the evening, Cebu Governor
Gwen Garcia, Consul Samuel Chioson, and
Bob Cobarrubias.
Together, PLDT ALPHA Enterprise
and top Cebu businesses begin new deeper
relationships in the Visayas region. Undoubtedly more Cebuano business triumphs
will emerge, as Cebu has met the ALPHA
partner they truly deserve.
2
1
3
4
1. At the ALPHA Night, guests
enjoyed the special dinner
while Mel Villena and the band
filled the ballroom with Jazz.
2. Jovy Hernandez awards
the Plaque of Appreciation to
Consul Samuel Chioson.
5
6
3. A Toast to becoming
ALPHA: (L-R) Teng Tanael,
Mitch Locsin, Consul Samuel
Chioson, Jovy Hernandez,
Bob Cobarrubias, Gov. Gwen
Garcia, Nonoy Espleta, Renato Castañeda, Jimmy Chua,
Precy Katigbak, Vic Tria, and
Jay Lagdameo
4. At the ALPHA Night, guests
enjoyed the special dinner
while Mel Villena and the band
filled the ballroom with Jazz.
5. Jovy Hernandez awards
the Plaque of Appreciation to
Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia.
6. Former CICT Commissioner
Mon Ibrahim
December 2011
33
WERE YOU THERE
1
2
3
The Business of Surviving
ALPHA Bites kicks off
with an eye-opener
on business
disaster survival.
F
irst the inconvenient truth:
hardly any Philippine
business is truly prepared
for a major disaster. At the first
ALPHA Bites workshop held at
the Shangri-La Makati, former
TELUS International VP for
Global Information Technology
Operations, ex-US marine, and
now business disaster survival
expert Rick Lowe presented
a catalogue of catastrophe,
decidedly more jolting than the
morning’s coffee. “When people
ask me what I do, I tell them
I’m in the business of doom,”
he pleasantly intones with the
gentlest hint of a Southern drawl.
34
December 2011
And as doom is certain, the
question with disasters is not if
they’ll happen but when.
On the other hand we have this
precious comfort: we are not entirely
helpless. Catastrophic events such as the
9/11 bombing in the US, the tsunami in
Indonesia, the earthquake in Japan, and
typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines are
devastating. But if they are well prepared for,
we can survive and most importantly, there
doesn’t need to be a disruption in the flow
of business and revenues.
This first ALPHA Bites mainly had
C-level banking executives in attendance with
more than one set of ears pricked up at the
dark insights Lowe shared with them. The
message across his 70-slide deck was simple
enough. A lack of preparation can cost
businesses more than any amount spent in
strategizing their business disaster recovery.
And at the center of every company’s
survival should be implementing a realistic
Business Continuity Plan (BCP).
Sharing noteworthy insights on the
subject were the members of the panel—
experts in their respective fields: Director
Raymond Estioko, Head of Bangko Sentral
Core IT Group; and Vic Tria, PLDT
ALPHA Enterprise VP and Head of
Corporate Business Solutions.
Lowe’s list of unappetizing disasters
includes earthquakes, typhoons, floods,
civil disruptions, electrical issues, cyber
threats, and even pandemics. “Manila is long
overdue for a 7.2 magnitude earthquake,” he
says. Interestingly according to him, higher
buildings in the 30 to 60-storey range have
more survivability due to the fact that they
were built to stricter standards. Also: Manila
and the NCR will increasingly suffer due
to a chronic 300mw electrical deficit; and
about 90% of cyber threats emanate from
within organizations. For these gems of
information alone, it was worth getting up
early in the morning to listen to a litany of
things that will most likely go wrong.
But perhaps the biggest beneficial
takeaways for the audience were Lowe’s
systematic and commonsense methods
for data-backup, employee safety, and
workflow continuity management. Although
not entirely cheap or simple, he describes
effective backup and preparation as a
continuing work in progress that needs to be
periodically re-evaluated.
He was also impressed with the fact
that PLDT’s Metro Ethernet and MPLS
Domestic Network Facility now enable
multiple alternate sites for businesses
throughout the country. Essentially, you can
switch off a location during a disaster, move
to an alternate site in say, Cebu, and switch
it on there with virtually no disruption in
business or revenue. But there’s only so
much that “Tier 1 carriers like PLDT” can
do. Lowe said that having complete and
effective BCP is still an internal issue for
any organization. There is a social issue
for banks since in a disaster, it is the banks
where everybody rushes to. Who can forget
the desperate masses lining up at bank
ATMs during Ondoy, only to view offline or
completely black screens?
Lowe was also encouraged by the fact
that there is now an unprecedented move
towards real coordination on BCP from
regulatory authorities. The Bangko Sentral
ng Pilipinas now initiates the implementation
of serious regulations and coordination in
compliance with global standards of business
disaster preparedness. Raymond Estioko
briefed the audience on government’s
extensive efforts. “One of the supervisory
key objectives of the Bangko Sentral is for
banks to have a Business Continuity Plan,”
said Estioko. “Innovation and technology
pose a great challenge because it requires
constant updates and a backup plan to
ensure the continuity of business despite
disruptions. We are all aware that most
innovations today are in technology.”
When it comes to choosing the right
end-to-end ICT provider for businesses,
Lowe said that PLDT ALPHA Enterprise
is a trusted partner. Again however, real
effective BCP is an entirely internal issue
for organizations, coming down to the “last
mile” of their linkages.
4
1. Rick Lowe is the CEO
of RLowe Services Inc.,
(www.rloweservices.com)
a full service IT, Business
Continuity and Disaster
Recovery Corporation.
PLDT ALPHA Enterprises
commits to building bigger
and stronger relationships with businesses
across industries through
the ALPHA Barks and
ALPHA Bites series. For
more information on their
next installments, call
88-ALPHA.
2. Jovy Hernandez:
“Business Continuity
and Disaster Recovery
preparedness has been
a dominant buzz word. If
we want our businesses
to survive and prosper,
we have to recognize the
landscape we operate in
and adapt, anticipate, and
prepare.”
3. Vic Tria: “PLDT takes
the necessary steps to
attain robustness, the
capacity to deliver the
market’s needs; reach, to
attain maximum coverage;
and of course, resiliency,
to enable reliable telecommunication services. PLDT
offers solutions that are
complimentary to your
BCP/DRP.”
4. The guests were introduced to several practical
methods in preparing
businesses for disasters.
December 2011
35
WERE YOU THERE
WERE YOU THERE
1
Unify
The Conversation
ALPHA BARKS’ first
event centers on how
corporations can — and
must — keep pace with
the dizzying changes in
how the world talks to
each other.
36
December 2011
O
n July 20th 2011,
executive businessmen
from all over the world
converged at the Dusit Thani
Hotel in Makati for the chance
to listen to a talk from Mr. Dirk
Dumortier, Vice President of
Asia Pacific Region—an area
of responsibility including
Japan, Australia, and all of
Southeast Asia—for AlcatelLucent. Belgian native Mr.
Dumortier is one of the
region’s most knowledgeable
speakers about communications
technology—a topic of interest
for most companies—and so
the presentation promised to
furnish the executives with a
good amount of material to
consider in regards to their own
operations.
Organized by the prestigious Asia CEO
Forum, Mr. Dumortier’s talk—entitled
“Unified Communications”—was part of
the ALPHA BARKS series: a summit series
among executives of the top businesses
in the country. The talk centered on the
technology-driven, radical change from passive
communications towards more interactive
forms, and how companies need to adjust
their operations towards this paradigm shift.
It included case studies of specific companies
all over the world and their adaptations and a
discussion of new technologies such as cloudbased computing, virtualization, and mobile
applications.
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise, Asia CEO
Forum’s major sponsor, was cited by many
of the attendees as an important partner in
the new communications paradigm that Mr.
Dumortier predicted as essential to corporate
success. According to Mr. Dumortier, as
companies begin the move to cloud-based
operations and enabling an increasingly
mobile workforce, PLDT will have to begin
assembling the infrastructure and platforms
these companies will require. PLDT ALPHA
Enterprise offerings such as PLDT UNO – a
unified communications solution - are a good
first step, to be followed by more innovations
and infrastructure updates.
2
3
4
5
1. Richard Mills gave a warm
welcome, introducing executives in
attendance of this months’s ALPHA
BARKS: Asia CEO Forum.
2. Dirk Dumortier congratulates
one of the raffle prize winners at
the event.
3. Respected enterprise leaders
were invited to raise their questions
regarding technological revolution
in business.
4. NorthGate Arinso ountry Manager Hans Montenegro, PLDT VP and
Head of Corporate Business Group
and SMART Enterprise Sales and
Marketing Head Jovy Hernandez,
Alcatel-Lucent VP of Asia Pacific
Region Dirk Dumortier, PLDT AVP
and Head of Corporate Relationship Business Sandy Roque, Chalre
Associates Chairman Richard Mills,
and PLDT VP and Head of Corporate Business Solutions Vic Tria
5. Dirk Dumortier led multinational
C-level executives through the
discourse on Unified Communications - a call to take the first steps
to innovating global enterprises.
December 2011
37
Solved
What Business Needs,
Exactly
Two new insightful solutions cement
SMART’s premier M2M position
The
much-anticipated SMART Enterprise launch, held
at the Makati Ballroom of the Makati Shangri-la,
unveiled two new mobile business solutions aimed at more
efficiency and productivity for the retail and merchandising
sectors. Both solutions are bannered under the PINpoint
solutions suite, promising more accurate business information
reporting in near real-time.
38
December 2011
December 2011
39
solved
Ever since SMART Enterprise relaunched itself as a leader in M2M (machine-to-machine) and P2M (people-tomachine) mobile business solutions a
few months ago, industry watchers had
been pining for the slightest peek of its
new line-up. Clearly, the wait for these
first practical solutions was worth it.
PINpoint Merchandising helps retail
merchandisers by automating what was
once largely a pen-and-paper process.
Previously, updates to shelf inventories in supermarkets and stores had to
be manually written down, typed and
faxed to a central warehouse for encoding and reconciliation. PINpoint Merchandising now equips merchandisers
with a mobile phone for his or her
access, giving them the ability to enter
stock levels for top-level view reporting
to central headquarters. This allows for
quicker reaction and decision times for
managers, providing opportunities for
increased sales and profits.
PINpoint Rewards is a ready-made
customer loyalty program that can
stand alone or easily integrate with
most existing retail business systems.
It saves tremendous amounts of time
and money by giving managers an
easy-to-run bundled solution without
additional investments on expensive
equipment. All member details can
be saved in a unique barcode on each
customer’s mobile phone as an MMS.
This barcode is scanned quickly by the
store’s main input device, such as any
Android tablet, for input of current
points earned, account inquiry, and
rewards redemption. All this updated
customer information and buying history is then available online.
Both solutions easily fit in with most
customer operational requirements
and deliver information in near-real
time, generating secure online views
for management once they log-in.
These were ably demonstrated on stage
by SMART Enterprise Head of Wireless
Marketing Chet Alviz, and Product Development Specialist Gio Abaquin.
The solutions’ ease of use and potential for streamlining business was
40
December 2011
solved
made readily apparent to the enthusiastic audience. PINpoint Merchandising and PINpoint Rewards use readily
available entry-level cellphones and
devices, and are bundled with easy to
use software and interfaces.
“The value in SMART Enterprise’s
leadership in M2M and P2M mobile
solutions enjoys a multiplier effect in
that these solutions are delivered on
our nationwide network,” says Jovy
Hernandez, Vice President & Head of
PLDT Corporate Business and Head of
SMART Enterprise Sales & Marketing.
“They deliver more productivity and
efficiency to businesses in more geographic areas and will be more relevant
to our large number of subscribers.”
Judging from the response and interest of the audience, and the crowded
demo areas following the presentation,
PINpoint solutions have struck quite a
chord with Filipino businesses. SMART
Enterprise will continue to roll out new
cutting-edge solutions, of which PINpoint is merely one of many.
1. Guests enjoy a delicious
brunch while host, SMART
Enterprise Product Development Specialist Gio Abaquin,
raffles off a plethora of
PINpoint-enabled devices and
other PLDT items.
2. SMART Relationship Manager Ann Turao, PLDT VP and
Head of Corporate Business
Group and SMART Enterprise
Sales and Marketing Head
Jovy Hernandez, Pfizer Philippines Systems Analyst Juvy
Austria, E-Science Technology
President Ricky Dagelet, Pfizer
Philippines Senior Customer
Development Manager Candy
Lapan, Pfizer Philippines Business Technology Head Allan
Caceres, and PLDT Senior
Manager and Head of Corporate Relationship Business Jeff
Mendoza.
3. PLDT VP and Head of Corporate Business Group and
SMART Enterprise Sales and
Marketing Head Jovy Hernandez answering questions from
the media.
4. SMART Enterprise Wireless Marketing Head Chet
Alviz shows how PINpoint
Merchandising can run even
on basic handsets.
5. SMART Enteprise Product
Development Specialist Gio
Abaquin presents the new
PINpoint solution.
2
1
3
4
5
6
6. PLDT VP and Head of
Corporate Relationship Management Mitch Locsin, Wrigley
Philippines IT Specialist Joel
Casapao, and Wrigley Philippines South Asia IT Manager
Edward Castillo
7. SMART Enterprise customers experience the new
PINpoint services through an
interactive demo.
8. PLDT Relationship Manager Izzi Tria, Ryan de Castillo
of Max’s, PLDT VP and Head
of Corporate Relationship
Management Jay Lagdameo,
Lerry Sangalang of Max’s,
PLDT Senior Manager and
Head of Corporate Relationship Business Dick Perez, and
PLDT Relationship Manager
Jon Faustino
7
8
December 2011
41
Page
Caught on
PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE FORGES
AGREEMENT WITH ATENEO
PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE AFFIRMS
PARTNERSHIP WITH CUBINET
In the photo above are,
seated from right:
PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE’s Memorandum of Agreement with Cubinet Interactive Philippines Corporation provides the PLDT operated PHIX (Philippine Internet Exchange)
for improved local transit services. This ensures an enhanced and
world-class gaming experience for Cubinet’s avid gaming clients. PHIX is a PLDT facility where Philippine Internet services
providers can interconnect and exchange IP traffic.
Cubinet publishes an impressive roster of successful Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) worldwide. Cubinet also offers an online point-based redemption
system (CubiBonus), casual platform games (CubiGames) and
an online comic portal (Comixo). Staffed with industry experts,
together with a strong distribution network serving a global
community, Cubinet is a compelling alternative for developers to
bring their products to the global audience.
PLDT Global Data
Business Mgmt Category
Head Nico Alcoseba,
PLDT AVP & New
Business Development
Head Precy Katigbak,
PLDT VP & Corporate
Business Group Head
Jovy Hernandez, Cubinet
Finance Director Yew Hon
Lee, Cubinet Country
Manager Beverly Garcia
and Cubinet IT Head
Lloyd Casafranca.
Standing, from left:
PLDT Product Specialist
Jake Bueno, PLDT
Capability Management
Specialists Kat Galvez &
Didi Mendoza and PLDT
Relationship Manager
Rome Guangco.
Ateneo De Manila University confidently chooses PLDT ALPHA Enterprise
for managed networking solutions. As the
university aims for increased operational
efficiency both internally and externally, this
will be accomplished by enabling new IP applications over single network.
Shown here during the signing rites are,
seated from right,
PLDT New Business Development Head Precy Katigbak,
PLDT VP & Corporate Business Group Head Jovy
Hernandez, ATENEO VP For Finance & University
Treasurer Jose Santos and ATENEO Assistant to the Vice
President Ma. Rosario Banzon.
December 2011
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise recently forged partnership deals
with Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa for reliable and managed
connectivity to the global internet. Today, the hotel is guaranteed
with its connectivity performance standards.
Shangri-La's Mactan Resort & Spa is a resort hotel owned by
Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts located at the island of Mactan,
Cebu. Equipped with 537 guest rooms and suites, it provides guests
the ultimate tropical paradise vacation experience. This idyllic
resort with its beautiful private beach offers an exciting range of
recreation activities and superb cuisine. To keep guests connected
even while on holiday, the resort offers complimentary broadband
Internet in all guest rooms and WIFI in select public areas.
Present during the
ceremonial contract
signing from left to
right were:
PLDT Head of VisMin
Corporate Relationship
Business Jimmy Chua;
PLDT VP & Head of
Corporate Relationship Management
Renato Castañeda;
PLDT VP & Head of
Corporate Business
Group Jovy Hernandez;
Shangri-La Mactan
Resort and Spa General Manager Joachim
Schutte; Shangri-La
Mactan Resort and
Spa IT Manager Wilson
Camacho and PLDT
Relationship Manager
Mariebeth Villaflor.
Standing, from right,
PLDT Capability Management Specialist Lou Lopez,
PLDT Complex Products Oprns Support Head Gene De
Guzman, PLDT Relationship Manager Mary Josephine
Clare Bautista, ATENEO Facilities Management Office
Director Jose Arnulfo Batac and ATENEO Campus
Network Group Manager Christopher Patrick Medina.
PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE FORGES AGREEMENT WITH WENPHIL CORP.
42
PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE FORGES PARTNERSHIP
DEALS WITH SHANGRI-LA’S MACTAN RESORT & SPA
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise provides
Wenphil Corporation its exclusive new delivery hotline number, 8-WENDYS, to further
boost Wendy’s delivery sales, as well as topof-mind recall for its markets.
Present during the contract signing are,
seated from left,
Wenphil Corporation is the exclusive
Philippine Franchisee of Wendy’s International, owner and operator of Wendy’s
restaurants in the Philippines. The company
was founded in 1983 and is based in Muntinlupa City.
Standing, from left;
PLDT VP & Head of Corporate Relationship Management
Jay Lagdameo, PLDT VP & Head of Corporate Business
Group Jovy Hernandez, Wenphil Corp. Chairperson
Elizabeth Pardo-Orbeta and Wenphil Corp. President
Jason John Lim.
PLDT Corporate Relationship Business Head Ben
Melasa, PLDT Relationship Manager Girlie Lee, Wenphil
Corp. MIS Manager Rio Diaz, Wenphil Corp. Marketing
Head Gervy Francisco , Wenphil Corp. Delivery Service
Manager Eldie Ferros.
PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE FORGES PARTNERSHIP
AGREEMENT WITH STELLAR PHILS.INC.
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise recently a forged partnership
agreement with Stellar Philippines Inc. for integrated voice and
data communications solutions. This will link Stellar’s expanding
Philippine outsourcing operations.
Stellar Philippines Inc. is a leading global provider of offshore call center and business process outsourcing solutions. It
is the main outsourcing facility for offshore services provided by
Stellar Asia Pacific (Australia), Stellar Canada and Stellar Relay
USA and Stellar UK (Scotland). Aside from airline and energy,
Stellar also provides services in telecommunications, insurance,
banking and entertainment industries.
Shown in top photo from
left to right are:
SMART Product Specialist
Ann Tirao; PLDT Head of
Corporate Relationship
Business Jeff Mendoza;
PLDT VP & Head of
Corporate Relationship
Management Albert
Mitchell Locsin; PLDT
VP & Head of Corporate
Business Group Jovy
Hernandez; Stellar Phils.
Inc. CEO Edmundo
Macaso; Stellar Phils.
Inc. CFO Pablito Lim ;
Stellar Phils. Inc. VP of
Information Technology
Reggie Waje and PLDT
Relationship Manager
Danielle Ticzon.
PLDT SEALS PARTNERSHIP
AGREEMENTS WITH THE
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
OF NORTHERN SAMAR
PLDT recently signed two
simultaneous partnership agreements
for the Provincial Government of
Northern Samar’s fixed wireless
connectivity as well as Gabay Guro’s
plans and programs for Northern
Samar’s teachers.
Northern Samar is located in the
Eastern Visayas region. It has 24 municipalities and 569 Barangays with
its capital is Catarman located at the
northern portion Samar island. Bordering the province to the south are
the provinces of Samar and Eastern
Samar. To the northwest, across the
San Bernardino Strait is Sorsogon; to
the east is the Philippine Sea and to
the west is Samar Sea.
In areas like Northern Samar,
as part of the government’s growth
strategy, SMART provided wireless
services.
Gabay Guro, or 2G, aims to help
young people who want to become
teachers and teachers. Such young visionaries would undoubtedly benefit
from training and other livelihood
programs in Northern Samar. 2G,
a flagship corporate social responsibility (CSR) project of the PLDTSmart Foundation (PSF) and PLDT
Managers’Club, has six core pillars: 1)
scholarships for deserving education
students, 2) training programs for
teachers, 3) broadbanding and computerization of schools, 4) livelihood
programs, 5) affordable housing, and
6) tribute cards for discounts at 2G
partner-establishments.
December 2011
43
oming
C
&
COMING
GOING
3 Waistcoats
Ever since their creation in 1666
(a fashion initiative of King Charles
II of Great Britain, who used all the
force of royal decree to ensure the
Persian-inspired garments became
an essential part of proper dress),
waistcoats have been evolving with the
times – elaborate and brightly-colored
in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, narrowing to a more
restricted palette in the 19th century,
hemlines dipping and rising, corsettype, straight-line – fading slightly in
prominence in the United States during
the 1940s, but experiencing a brief
resurgence with disco in the 1970s.
As disco’s reign ended, so too did the
waistcoat’s. However, the waistcoat
was still popular among conservative,
traditional businessmen outside of
North America. Recently, the waistcoat
has experienced another resurgence
especially in Germany. Paired with
jeans as well as the more conservative
business suits, the vest-like, sleeveless
upper-body garment is now a beloved
part of the wardrobes of fashion-savvy
men and women alike.
Sci-fi movies didn't even begin to dream of what the world would get up
to. Join Hot Joe as we cover old tech becoming obsolete, (paper and
unsustainable fishing) old tech becoming relevant again, (muscle cars and
tea) and new tech that reminds us we really are living in the future.
1 Sony 3D Display
All major electronics manufacturers have their own versions
of home 3D TV, cashing in on the
latest love affair with cinema 3D.
However, these beautiful, technologically advanced television sets tend
to cost thousands of dollars and
some may require a full acre to fully
accommodate monster screens. The
new PlayStation-branded 3D display
from Sony, designed especially for
games on their PS3 game console,
bucks that trend by costing only five
hundred dollars – a relative bargain.
To sweeten the deal, the display will
come with a six-foot HDMI cable,
one set of active-shutter 3D glasses,
and a free PlayStation 3D game designed for gamers who just can’t wait
another minute. There’s also a bonus
special feature: stereoscopic multiplayer display, for two-player games
– each player wearing 3D lenses will
see a different display on the same
screen, eliminating the need for splitscreen display. The lowered price and
the small footprint of the 24-inch
display is clearly intended to make Sony’s offering intriguing for those with
smaller rooms and budgets – college
students in dorms, people who want
a secondary TV rather than to replace
their existing large (but un3D) sets,
and so on. What makes this especially
interesting is its place as the vanguard
of a new wave of 3D displays –
smaller, budget-oriented and meant
for rooms other than the oversized
living room/entertainment center.
44
october 2011
2 Muscle Cars
Curiously, the downturn of the
economy heralded the resurgence of
the brash class of automobile called the
muscle car – the pinnacle, many have
argued, of headstrong American automobile design. No longer able to afford
refined European sports cars like BMWs
and Lamborghinis, many have turned
instead to American muscle cars for their
sheer fun factor. And the new cars are
indeed more fun and deft than what you
would normally expect. GM and Ford,
who continue to earn better ratings across
the board even as Toyota slips, have
produced high-performance 21st-century
reincarnations of their 1960s legends.
Ford’s Mustang, Chevrolet’s Camaro (you
may have seen it star in Michael Bay’s
Transformers movies as Bumblebee) and
Corvette, and Dodge’s Charger and Challenger are brawny but also decidedly more
refined than their grandpas. Reviews of
the cars have been great - a noteworthy
and welcome development considering
traditionally low ratings which American
cars had been saddled with in years past.
Serious track tests have shown them to
nimbly hold their own with more expensive pansy imports—we’re talking about
the likes of BMW, Audi and Porsche.
4 Solar Chargers
With our ever-increasing reliance on mobile gadgets, running
out of battery power is a bigger fear
for many of us. A dead cell phone,
tablet, laptop or music player is
something simply to be avoided at
all costs. What’s so “mobile” about
constantly worrying where you’ll get
your next charge, anyway? Enter the
solar chargers, which are designed for
compatibility with a variety of mobile
gadgets and recharge them through
energy gather via photovoltaic cells.
Generally, the more expensive the
charger, the more devices it can juice
up. However, converting solar energy
into usable battery power via ol’ Sol
is as technically complicated as ever.
This being the case, solar chargers
for Joe Public are still a technology in
adolescence. Recharging via sunlight
still takes up to eight hours, and
energy transference efficiency is low,
but these issues are clearing up as the
market welcomes more solar-friendly
devices and R&D races along.
5 Tea
It’s hot and gives you a hit of
caffeine, like the coffee so beloved
of Filipinos. But it’s soothing and
can lull you to sleep as well. It comes
in a variety of flavors and purposes
and types. The Chinese have treasured it for thousands of years. The
British have gone to war for it. The
British have paused DURING war
for it. (On D-Day, the British troops
landing on Sword Beach paused their
assault for tea – much to the dismay
of their American allies.) And now,
the world-changing beverage known
as tea has come to the Philippines, to
capture the hearts and thirsts of the
Filipinos. Capitalizing on its advantages when it comes to health and
wellness, tea (which boasts a variety
of health benefits) is growing in
consumption among Filipinos. New
tea-specialized stores are appearing in
the malls, as well as an increase in tea
offerings in the menus of cafes and
coffee shops. Grocery stores now offer a much wider variety of teas than
in the past. In short, it is a good time
to be a tea enthusiast now.
october 2011
45
COMING
GOING
6 Sustainable Seafood
With the health benefits and
increasingly gourmet appeal of
seafood, it is no wonder that consumption of seafood has exploded
in recent decades. However, that rise
in popularity has had dire effects on
the residents of the seas; overfishing
is a real and growing problem. UN
reports on the problem forecast dire,
fishless futures if the continued rate
of overfishing continues. Places like
Peru, Canada, and our very own Philippine Islands face devastating damage to our fishing industries (Canada has already issued an indefinite
moratorium on fishing off the Grand
Banks) because of sea-life population
drops. In order to combat this dire
threat, the concept of “sustainable
seafood” has been gaining traction
among various countries. Sustainable
seafood is defined as “seafood from
either fished or farmed sources that
can maintain or increase production
in the future without jeopardizing
the ecosystems from which it was
acquired.” Monterey Bay Aquarium,
one of the foremost aquariums in the
world, runs one such program called
Seafood Watch, which includes recommendations for seafood to avoid
and seafood to freely enjoy. Seafood
in their green list means it is ecologically sustainable and abundant. Some
fish on this list include: Dungeness
- Kona and Stone Crab – Tilapia –
Mahi Mahi – Pink Shrimp – Swordfish – and Arctic Char.
46
october 2011
1 Ipod Classic
7
PLDT Telpad
Ever since the iPad’s highly publicized emergence, tablet computers have
been the must-have darlings of the tech
world. These touchscreen devices are perfect for lightweight browsing, gaming and
media consumption. PLDT, noticing this
trend, developed their own tablet computer offering. Now, since PLDT’s origins
are rooted in venerable landline phone
services, they pulled out a global first in
making their tablet landline-based. There
are two versions of Telpad, the original
black AD-1000 and the newer white S7
Slim. The tablet docks with a landline
handset, which also serves to charge the
Telpad. The 7-inch tablet, running an
Android operating system with a 1Ghz
Cortex A8 processor, enables a wider
universe of Android apps (including, for
example, world-famous timewaster Angry
Birds, among other games), surf the Internet, (YouTube and Facebook included)
watch movies, listen to music and – of
course – receive and make telephone
calls. A particularly handy little feature of
the Telpad, which again hearkens back to
PLDT’s landline origins, is the notepad
application that allows you to make notes
on the screen as you talk on the telephone. No more scrambling for pen and
scraps of paper!
Say it isn’t so! The trim-forits-time little box o’ music may be
taking its curtain call. First released
in 2001, the iPod Classic was the first
big hit for a then-flailing Apple, and
heralded the beginning of an Apple
renaissance. It probably contributed
enormously to Apple eventually
being traded as the most valuable
company in the world, above Exxon
Mobile on Wall Street. Much smaller
and lighter than other mp3 players
then on the market, the iPod soon
carved out an astonishing dominance
in market share that – try as they
might – competitors never managed
to successfully assail. Its battery life,
mobility, and ability to store larger
music libraries killed other types of
portable music players, such as the
once-mighty Walkman brand and
portable CD players. And of course
there’s that unbeatable Apple Cool
Factor. Now the iPod itself seems
destined for extinction, replaced
ironically by younger cousins-- the
iPhone and the iTouch. With the
sleek user-interface and multifunctionality of its touchscreenequipped counterparts, the iPod’s
once-revolutionary clickwheel and
smaller screen seem old-fashioned
and obsolete. Rumors of discontinuing the product line have been rife in
recent years. Even if it’s not, the iPod
Classic has not had a new generation
since 2007 and it’s unlikely it will ever
regain market dominance over the
iPhone and iTouch. However, as in all
curtain calls, there’s always hope for
an encore.
2 Incandescent Lightbulbs
Ever since Thomas Edison’s first
successful test of his incandescent
lightbulb design on October 22, 1879, his
glowing creations have lit up the world.
Although many inventors before Edison
had tried their own hands at electrical
illumination, it was Edison’s long-lasting
carbon-filament design that proved triumphant. But finally, the iconic light-bulb
is being phased out in favor of more
energy-efficient, longer-lasting alternatives. The light-bulb many of us grew up
with is much cheaper to produce than the
alternatives, but it consumes much more
energy (and therefore, produces higher
energy costs) over its lifetime. According
to the book “A Revolution in Lamps”
by Kane and Sell (2001), 90% of the
energy consumed by incandescent light
bulbs is emitted as waste heat, which not
only wastes the energy sent to the bulb,
but also drives up air-conditioning costs.
Such inefficiency in energy consumption is why governments are instituting
schemes to phase the lightbulb out in
favor of alternatives such as compact
fluorescents, halogens, light-emitting
diodes and energy-saving incandescent
bulbs – the more eco-friendly descendants of Edison’s original light-bulb.
october 2011
47
GOING
GOING
3 Flip Video
When it first debuted in 2007 as
an enhanced version of a drugstore
disposable camera, the Flip Video
was a runaway success. Brainchild
of San Francisco entrepreneurs, the
Flip Video sold 2 million units in its
first two years of existence, gaining
the respect of big dogs like Kodak
and Sony (who promptly released
their own Flip-esque offerings) and
the interest of networking behemoth
Cisco, who acquired the company
in 2009 for a cool $590 million.
Cisco, which is better known for its
enterprise network services, sought to
enter the consumer retail market with
the Flip Video. Unfortunately, they
got the Flip at right about the same
time as smartphones began their rise
to the top of the consumer electronics hierarchy. (In fact, the iPhone was
born the same year as the Flip Video.)
Smartphones could do the same thing
as the Flip, and a whole lot of other
things besides. They were more likely
to be within easy reach. In a word,
they made the Flip obsolete. In April
2011, Cisco announced their new
strategy to “align operations in support of our network-centric platform
strategy," - in short, they were shutting down their consumer sections
and focusing on enterprise offerings,
their specialty. The Flip Video is officially scheduled for death, although
it is still number one on Amazon’s
video camera listings. (As it has been
since its birth in 2007.) The Flip’s
character arc - birth, rise to dominance, and fall – took place within
only four years. Like a short-lived
firecracker, it blazed brightly and then
was eclipsed by the brighter lights
of the smartphones – but it’s worth
noting the young entrepreneurs who
made the Flip did walk away almost
half a billion dollars richer, and the
story of the Flip is still regarded by
many as, ultimately, a success story.
48
october 2011
5 The Space Shuttle
4 Alarm Clocks
Like the Flip Video, alarm clocks
have been rendered more and more useless by the ubiquity of the cell-phone.
Even so-called ‘dumbphone’ models
usually have alarm clock features built-in,
and the alarm clocks for smartphones are
so feature-laden they can be astonishing.
They can come in jaw-droppingly beautiful displays; they can display the weather/
RSS feed/news ticker of your choice;
they can be customized to gradually
increase in volume, or to start off at earshattering settings; they can be scheduled
for specific days or to continue through a
week or to be a one-time-only alarm; they
can play a large range of tones, or play
one of your own tunes, or a recording;
they can even be set so you have to solve
a math problem before you can turn off
the alarm, for those chronically disposed
to hitting the snooze button until they
sleep right through their morning appointments. And – most importantly,
perhaps – the phone’s alarm, unlike an
alarm clock, is likely to be with you at all
times. However, you will lose the satisfaction of hurling a too-loud clock at the
wall in order to resume your interrupted
slumber.
Emblem of the American dreams
of space, the sky-chariot that bore the
winners of the Space Race into the
stars, the Space Shuttle was a manned
orbital rocket and spacecraft system
operated by NASA on 135 missions
from 1981. There were four vessels in
NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet: OV-102
Columbia, OV-099 Challenger, OV103 Discovery, OV-104 Atlantis, and
OV-105 Endeavour. Major missions
included launching numerous satellites
and interplanetary probes, conducting
space science experiments, and the
servicing and construction of space
stations. But in February 2003, the
Space Shuttle Columbia, re-entering
the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of
its 28th mission, suffered catastrophic
damage and disintegrated in the skies
over Texas. There were no survivors.
In the aftermath of the disaster, President Bush announced that after fulfilling its “obligations to international
partners” by completing the construction of the International Space
Station, the Space Shuttle program
would be retired by the year 2010.
That date was pushed back a year, but
on July 21, 2011, the Space Shuttle
Atlantis performed the last landing of
the program at Kennedy Space Center,
followed by wide-spread mourning for
the end of an era.
6 Non-sustainable Seafood
Thanks to comprehensive education
campaigns (and growing alarm at the
threatened collapse of the global fishing
industry – not to mention the global marine ecosystem), more and more people
are making conscious efforts to stop eating fish in danger of extinction, and opt
instead for more eco-friendly, non-endangered, easily-replenished alternatives.
It’s increasingly being considered gauche
and out-of-touch to order, for example,
Chilean sea bass. The more militant will
not even consider giving their patronage
(and money) to restaurants that offer
the “red-listed” seafood on their menus.
Other fish that are no longer considered “good eating in good conscience”
are: King crabs, blue marlin and striped
marlin, monkfish, orange roughy, red
snapper, golden tilefish, bluefin tuna, and
shark - such as the blue shark pictured
above.
october 2011
49
Going but not
GOING
GONE
7 Paper
This seems like a very bold claim to
make, considering that you are reading
these words printed on paper, the notes
for this article were taken on notepaper,
and paper was probably involved in a
hundred different ways in this magazine
from start to finish. But the claim here is
not that we will soon live in a paperless
world – what we predict is that paper,
which has traditionally been a huge part
of the modern world, will soon find its
role sharply curtailed. Instead of faxes,
postcards, letters and memos, people
trade communications via emails, cell
phone calls and texts, and other digital
avenues. Paper cash has been largely
supplanted by e-banking, credit cards and
debit, just as it supplanted precious metals as the primary medium of exchange.
Newspapers scramble to find alternate
sources of revenue as people increasingly gather their news from the Internet.
Similarly, printed books are experiencing competition in the form of e-books
to be read on the increasingly popular
e-readers and tablet computers’ e-book
software. Amazon recently announced
in May 2011 that e-books formatted for
their best-selling Kindle e-reader
outsold physical books at a ratio of
105 e-books per every 100 physical
books sold.
In the face of trends such as these, it
appears obvious that the world is cutting
back on its need for paper. This is not to
say that paper no longer has a place in
this world – the vast majority of people
still have limited access to the Internet,
and other electronic paper-replacements.
Even people with e-readers, Internet access, cellular phones and so on will need
to keep hard-copy records of important
data, take notes on paper, and find a
romantic je ne se quois in handling a love
letter.
But it is likely they will be using paper far less than they used to – and every
day the world develops new ways to take
paper out of the equation and keep more
trees alive.
Sleeper HIT
Time
for Business to join the
Hummers
Launched in 1992 as civilian versions
of the American military vehicle called
the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled
Vehicle (HMMWV - also known as the
Humvee), Hummers were vehicles that
always made quite the statement. Whether
the statement was “I’m tough and ready
for anything” or “I’m a shameless wasteful
gas-guzzler,” these large, heavy truck/
SUVs were impossible to ignore when
seen on the road. Unfortunately, the
attention they garnered became mostly
negative. With poor fuel efficiency, difficulty
in driving and parking, lack of standard
safety features such as side air bags
and stability control, and with drivers of
Hummers statistically proven to be five
times more likely to receive traffic tickets
than other drivers, Hummers were soon
taken off the road permanently. In May
2010, the last Hummer was produced
in Shreveport, LA, and there have been
no new ones since, nor any plans to
reopen production. However, the ending
of production has meant the beginning of
desire; much like Amy Winehouse’s albums
or Pablo Picasso’s paintings, the death
of the source of these works of metalbound motor art has meant people eagerly
snapping them up as collector’s items.
The most prized model for collectors is
the H1 Alpha, made in 2006 with the
most powerful engine and the best fuel
efficiency.
Unified Communications engages businesses
in a conversation with their customers.
Y
our business can only
build so much on
a famous endorser
and a million-peso advertising strategy. But all it can take
is an anonymous client comment: “they have comfortable
stylish flip-flops” or “I heard
they have a snake in their basement that eats people” to twist
your fate either way. The power
of consumer opinion cannot
be taken for granted. “Word
of Mouth” is basic consumer
communication reinvented in
today’s digital age—a doubleedge sword that needs careful
handling. Like never before,
word of mouth gets unbelievable traction, goes through
multiple channels to reach a
global audience.
Consequently, the communication
aspect in business has become trickier.
Technological breakthroughs have now laid
bare an evolving market that does not only
50
october 2011
consume media but also heavily interact
with it. The 21st Century “digital native”
communicates through multi-channels such
as the Internet, social media—Facebook,
Twitter, among others—blogs, chat, SMS,
voice calls, and even video. The ordinary
landline telephone is now an artifact with
the emergence of smart phones, laptops,
and tablets—digitally tethering everyone
together 24/7.
As we grow more digitally sociable,
businesses are urged to join in the conversation, tapping on myriad communication
platforms. And the way to do it is through
Unified Communications. A more complete
and integrated version of UC is PLDT
UNO which combines utilities of several
real-time communications services such as
SMS, telephony, e-mail, conferencing, and
data sharing. Gone are the barriers between
devices; they now all act as one. Digital
consumers today can already access all communication platforms and media through
any device. UNO does allow corporate employees to take full control of their communications, but it also enables them to fully
maximize the technology in engaging with
ever more mobile and interactive customers.
PLDT ALPHA Enterprise is opening
the gateway for interactive business-client
relationships in the Philippines. This way,
businesses are using UNO to get into the
“larger conversation” with their existing
markets, or even to develop entirely new
markets altogether.
December 2011
51
ALPHABits
Bits of Alpha
Knowledge
J
ust as we’re introducing a new
look to Hot Joe, this edition
celebrates the Corporate Business
Group’s rebrand into ALPHA
Enterprise. It so happens, we’re
also introducing a new section.
For every issue from now on we’ll
be assembling a collage of facts,
figures, as well as bits of office
fable embedded in the collective
subconscious. We invite all readers
to send in your own Alpha Bits by
emailing us directly at
[email protected].
English is a language which
is, to put it mildly, confusing.
As one wag put it, “English
doesn’t borrow from other
languages. English follows
other languages down dark
alleys, knocks them over, and
goes through their pockets
for loose grammar.”
Rein / Reign
Your / You’re
A rein is a leather strap used to control horses. A reign is the time when a
monarch sits on the throne as ruler.
You’re is short for “You are”, where
the apostrophe stands for the missing “a”. To test if you are using (or,
you’re using) the correct form of
“your/you’re”, imagine inserting
“You are” into the sentence. Does it
still make sense? Then use “you’re”.
Is it nonsense? Then use “your”.
Their / There
When there is a letter “i” in the word,
it means your sentence is in some
way connected to a group of people
expressing possession of some item/
concept/philosophical ideal. When
the sentence isn’t possessive, use
“there“ - for location and presence,
for example.
Regardless is a word that exists.
Irregardless is a word that does not.
December 2011
is defined by the Merriam-Webster
dictionary as “something that is first;
the beginning”. Synonyms include
“dawn”, “genesis”, “inception”,
“start”. Antonyms include “close”,
“ending”, and “omega”.
The word has survived a journey into
modern English via Middle English,
which took it from Latin, which itself
took it from the first letter of the
Greek alphabet, which was itself derived from the Phoenician alphabet’s
first letter, “aleph”.
It is therefore the mark of a superior mind when one is able to keep
their grammar and vocabulary straight. Hot Joe has prepared a short list
of commonly confused words and a guide to using them correctly for
your usage, protecting you from unfairly ridiculed juvenile misuse.
Regardless/Irregardless.
52
ALPHA
The Aleph
Aleph is thought to be derived
from the West Semitic word
for “ox”, and the shape of
the letter derives from a
Proto-Sinaitic glyph based
on a hieroglyph depicting an
ox’s head.
You’re/Your car is here.
You are car is here.
Correct usage: Your.
Amused / Bemused.
They are not alphabetically arranged
synonyms. Amused means, “to
have found humor in something”.
Bemused on the other hand, means
“to be confused by something”. You
could be both amused and bemused
at the same time, but they would still
be different things.
December 2011
53
History Behind PLDT
1
4
6
7
The Philippines’ first telephone
system, organized by the Spanish
colonizers, was established
in Manila in 1890.
Before there was the telephone,
early civilizations use drums and
smoke signals to send messages to
neighboring tribes and groups in
distant areas.
5
The tin can telephone, also called
the “lover’s phone”, is a communication device known for centuries which uses two diaphragms
connected with a taut string or
wire.
Fiber Optics is a fairly simple and
old technology of guiding light
through refraction, which was
first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon and Jacques Babinet in Paris
in the early 1840s.
3
The first telephone operators
were male. They turned out to be
impatient and rude, and so were
replaced by women within only a
few years.
The early telephone dissected:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
8
• Says what he means and means what he
says, exactly.
on his industry.
bits of information and construct
winning strategies to take over the
business world.
Always focus on the objective. An
ALPHA’s time is valuable, he does not
fritter it away being indecisive or on
micro-managing, and he is never
unprepared for what comes his way.
• Has a long-view, big-picture perspective • Can collect seemingly unrelated ALPHA
•
In the 1910s, two types of wireless communications emerged:
the Marconi system or Morse
code, and the audio broadcasting which was known as wireless
telephony or radio-telephony.
10
54
2
A True Alpha
The Internet started way back
in the 1950s through the US
Military’s search for better communication networks. This led
to project “ARPANET” in the
late 1960s, aimed to invent new
networking technologies to enable
linkages between research centers
and universities.
9
Transmitter button
Transmitter Diaphragm
Receiver
Receiver hook
Permanent Magnet
Receiver Coil
Receiver Diaphragm
Contact Springs, which close the
circuit when the receiver is lifted
from the hook
Front carbon electrode
Rear carbon electrode
Carbon granules
The idea of Cloud Computing
started in the 1960s when
American computer scientist
John McCarthy declared that
computing will become a publicly
available service in the future.
A True Alpha
• Jumps off buildings to show the
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
pavement who’s boss.
Chews bees when he runs out of honey.
Can make grapes from wine.
Makes onions cry.
Can cut through a hot knife with butter.
Does not sleep. He waits.
Doesn’t read books. He stares them
down until he gets the information
he wants.
Does not get hit by cars. He hits cars
with his body.
Was not born, he was unleashed.
The first Smartphone was the IBM Simon, launched in 1993, which aside
from being a mobile phone, contained features such as a calendar, address
book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail client, the ability to send
and receive faxes, and games.
December 2011
December 2011
55
Say
Last
Now we’re all
Let there be light.
Insiders
Some say this new decade we’re in is
called the “One-ders” for several reasons.
The most obvious one, of course is that the
last two digits of each year from now until
the next decade will start with a one. (2011,
2012, 2013…) The other more insightful
reason is that this will be a return to idealism,
high values, and accountability—a new set of
“Wonder Years”.
The adult generation coming of
age today is said to be more conformist,
conscientious, and socially pro-active. Aging
baby boomer hippies and rebels of the last
generation have even gone so far as to label
them “dull”, and branded their emergence
as the “Revenge of Pat Boone”. I disagree.
In fact, I believe we are in the middle of
something more than just a revolution
or even a series of revolutions, but a
renaissance.
Notice the spread of revolts and
protests in the Arab world, among the last
bastions of authoritarian dictatorships and
medieval power structures. These ironclad leviathans are painfully groaning at
the swarming keystrokes on Facebook,
Twitter, BBM, and SMS. These have truly
demonstrated denied democracy in action,
an irresistible force of majority rule as it was
meant to be.
Technology’s role in this is hard to miss
or ignore. What dictators, power moguls, and
strongmen around the world are waking up
to is the enveloping din, one that has grown
from the barely noticeable chatter less than
10 years ago. The message is that old orders
of secrecy, deviousness and corruption are
finally being exposed to public disgust and
clamor for meaningful change, if not yet for
total eradication.
Accountability and transparency will not
just spread throughout general society but
most especially in business. We saw that in
the exposés in energy, finance, government
and other dark commercial collusions. We
will witness old corrupt practices, passed
off as hallowed “old boys club” traditions,
finally revealed in the light of public scrutiny
and judgment. (Think white papers and
Wikileaks)
Shareholders and stakeholders have
now become bold, vigilant and free in
examining business operations and conduct
as they happen, publicly voicing out and
broadcasting their reactions instantly on
social media and other networks.
Wikileaks and its whitepaper spin-offs
have assured that in a big way, technology
has made us all insiders. We are finally
getting to the heart of the digital revolution,
with all its glaring, uncomfortable, but
nevertheless honest revelations: inefficiency,
waste, graft, mediocrity, and all forms of
cheating. The real truth is being exposed
in real-time thanks to technologies. The
compelling question moving forward is
how do we responsibly deal with these
newfound powers? Perhaps we should take
our cue from the youth. It is their collective
ideals and actions that are now shaping and
building society’s nations and businesses.
Let there be dfon.
Eric Alberto
EVP and Head of Enterprise and
International & Carrier Business
PLDT’s Domestic Fiber Optic Network brings the light of
information to the Philippines – the information you need to keep
your business running at maximum levels - the information of
business intelligence. DFON illuminates through fast, reliable
communications, at 1.6 Tbps via 10,000 kilometers of fiber optic
cable, multiple major nodes strategically located all over the
country, and up to triple-level redundancy built into our loopconfigured, ROADM–routed network.
PLDT DFON – Let Us Light Your Way.
56
December 2011
Call 88-ALPHA (25742)
www.pldt.com.ph