Hot Joe Online 8-2

december 2011

volume

CARS, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, AND ALL THINGS SPEEDY

PLUSHTRACK

PLDT ALPHA Enterprise goes Luxe

Jovy Hernandez lays out an ALPHA vision

LET ME START YOUR ENGINE

Eric Alberto’s Decade-long blueprint

GIMME MORE10Black VELVET

32 DECEMBER 2011 DECEMBER 2011

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 HernandezEditor

Gerrard FabieContributing Editor

Markus JentesCreative Director

Andrew BatiduanArt Director

Rissa GollosoEmily ReyesIrene Dungo

Cheska VillanuevaEditorial Coordinators

Maciej “Mac” LubaczewskiMichal Perez de Tagle

Paula VenturinaEditorial Contributors

Vickie Perez de TagleExecutive Producer

The Making of a MastheadBehind 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 snap-shots of the lighter moments behind the shooting, the steps on that journey towards the final cover photo.

LETTER from the

Editor

Jovy hernandezEditor

5DECEMBER 2011

Disaster Recovery

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 TIMAlabang 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.

We could have not done this without your all-out support especially Ed andCharlie (Vasnet) who worked with us practically until the early morning ofSaturday.

Again, your support is very much appreciated!!!

William Brillantes of UCPB

Unforgettable Track Day

Dear Eric,

I would like to thank you and every-one involved with PLDT ALPHA for an unforgettable Track Day Friday 15 April.

The organization and conduct of the day’s events were excellent, as was the lunch catering and dinner.

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.

Wishing you and all at PLDT ALPHA every continued success.

Yours faithfully,MultiRational CorporationGraham Gulliver, CEO

No Internet Downtime!

Hi Yse,

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. In deed it was another success for our clients as there was no internet downtime encountered.

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.

Best Regards,Ronan IgnacioAMADEUS MARKETING PHILS INC.

Great event today. Very successful and unique. Kudos to you Jay. Thank you for inviting us to experience the Track Day. Cheers.

-Raffy Andrada of Meralco

Hi Jay. Had a great time yesterday. Wished I could have finished the whole event. Thanks for inviting me and some friends. Congratulations too.

-From Noel Andrada, BDO

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!

-Oye Fores, Araneta Group

Hi Jay, many thanks for the invitation. It was very well organized.

-Randy Abello of HSBC

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 popular-ize 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.

Attorney Fely Arroyo

Via SMS

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Letter from the EditorJovy Hernandez on the evolution of PLDT CBG into PLDT ALPHA Enterprise.

Client CallClients from all walks of life write to us about their extraordinary experiences with PLDT.

Main WindowHot 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.

PLDT InsiderEric R. Alberto gives his view on PLDT’s next ten years.

Partner PeekPLDT partner IBM plans to change the world.

Were You ThereALPHA Enterprise events – always a guarantee for good food, good company, and good minds. Were you there?

Track Day (p. 22-27)Cebu Launch (p. 28-31)ALPHA Bites (p. 32-33)ALPHA Barks (p. 34-35)

SolvedSMART Enterprise unveils two brand-new, state-of-the-art M2M business solutions – the PINpoint solutions.

Caught on Page PLDT closes contracts with Ateneo de Manila, Cubinet Interactive, Wenphil, Stellar Philippines, Shangri-laMactan, and the Provincial Government of Northern Samar.

Coming + GoingChange 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.

Sleeper HitUnified Communications is promising to be a complete game-changer in the business world.

The ALPHA BitsBits of knowledge any ALPHA should know.

The Last SayEric R. Alberto ends the issue with a look back on the end of the decade.

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were you there

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Jovy Hernandez

ALPHA Enterprise events

Cebu Launch 14 PLDT insiderThe Next 10 Years

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MainWindow

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.

He’s Going the Distance... He’s taking us toJOVY HERNANDEZ

ALPHA “Winning = Speed + Precision + Passion + Teamwork + Integrity”.


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 special-ists 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 bat-teries.” He reflects amusedly on whether his 7-second record still stands.

Setting ever higher records soon became a trademark of a career trajectory travers-ing 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

the same musical gifts and the open-eyed in-quisitiveness of their father. “Even my baby listens and watches YouTube lullaby videos before he sleeps,” he shares while acknowl-edging 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 col-lege 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 trade-mark sharp elegance of natty suits and ac-couterments. Although the one time singer/drummer still oversees a remarkably talented PLDT CBG band.

Beyond a new wardrobe, Jovy appreciat-ed Eric’s concentration, integrity and premi-um 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) Resplendent in PLDT red-and-white, Jovy suits up for some heavy-duty 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.

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MAIN WINDOW

Aspiring to be ALPHA was actually something PLDT CBG was trying to do all these years

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 every-one 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 Her-nandez is set to make.

MAIN WINDOW

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PLDT INSIDERPLDTInsider

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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PLDT INSIDERPLDT INSIDER

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

WeRoam

SWUP POS


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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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PLDT INSIDER

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.

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17DECEMBER 201116 DECEMBER 2011

Old dogmas are questioned or even discarded by tech-powered civil move-ments around the world. How, there-fore, 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 excel-lent products. Today, Big Blue is driving towards, as they put it, finding opportu-nity in change, and reacting not just to problems, but to possibilities, recogniz-ing that the planet is organic, a system of complex systems.

One of its movements in creating smarter, integrated systems is cham-pioning cloud computing – leveraging the growing power of the internet for ubiquitous remote data and application access. Also an advocate of cloud com-puting is the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, a staple data provider and Information and Com-munications Technology (ICT) provider whom IBM shares a mutual partner-ship 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

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 Tech-nology - 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 break-throughs 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 Econom-ics of IT.

PartnerPeek

In New York City, His Excellency Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, President, The Philippines, delivered a speech to 700 leaders from world government, busi-ness, academia and science at IBM’s THINK Forum held at Lincoln Center. As part of IBM’s 100-year anniversary, the Forum examined the im-plications of leadership on or-ganizations and societies and the deep structural changes required to drive progress.

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.


IBMWORLDOUT TO MAKE THE

WORK BETTERALL 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 mil-lennium is still haunted by poverty, social inequity, and

the threat of widespread ignorance.

HJ: IBM refers to the term Dynamic Infrastructure. How is this manifested in the business systems of the local landscape?

IBM: Having a Dynamic Infrastruc-ture means having an aligned business and IT assets which improve service, reduce cost and manage risk. It is a single dimen-sion 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. Mov-ing 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 physi-cal 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 un-cover opportunity. It is a systems integra-tion 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 stakehold-ers. 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

of the journeyHJ: 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 depart-ments, 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 communica-tions and government, will be changed.

A good example would be in Health-care where electronic healthcare records

have existed for over a decade. But they have not fully taken hold without the plat-form on which the cost could be shared across the industry and innovation could take off, allowing both large & small insti-tutions to both lower costs of healthcare delivery and differentiate their service.

In the public sector, another key in-dustry in every country, government agen-cies struggle with tremendous overhead and complexity of administrating labor-intensive 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 adminis-trating the services.

In terms of foreseeable barriers - Cloud raises new challenges and demands

AT IBM Philippines,President and General Man-ager James Velasquez takes charge in ensuring that a truly competitive Filipino workforce will contribute in achieving the “Smarter Planet”.

new innovation in the areas of privacy, security and governance that will enable accountability and trust. Advanced secu-rity 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 envi-ronments.

Security concerns are real – and organizations have a right to be con-cerned. 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 in-frastructure. Security cannot be assumed; customers will expect enterprises to lever-age 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 environ-ments 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 adopt-ing 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 re-quirements of their specific industries.

However, Cloud adoption in the Phil-ippines 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 com-puting, and continues to grow strong to-day. What challenges and difficulties have IBM faced and continue to overcome?

IBM: We continue to provide innova-tive solutions to address our client’s busi-ness needs and wants. Throughout IBM’s 100-year history, we have weathered countless business cycles, product revolu-tions, and recessions. More importantly, across a century of existence, our com-pany has played a lead role in transform-ing 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 compa-ny 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 aggres-sively 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 indus-try 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.


PARTNER PEEK PARTNER PEEK

A t the Clark Speedway, the race-prepped Ford Focuses of the

Tuason Racing School, track-aggressive 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.

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

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PLDT ALPHA Enterprisetakes off with a roaring start

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-What-You’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 good-natured 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?

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121. Tuason race cars on final checks.

2. On a hot day at Clark, Eric Alberto takes media duty.

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.

6. The Virtual Circuit

7. All set for the Drive-What-You’ve-Brung event.

8. Louie Ysmael, JP Tuason, Emy Arcilla, and Bobby Horrigan

9. Alpha winner Mitch Locsin on stage with Eric Alberto ushered by one of the Alpha Girls.

10. A red BMW z4 idles in the shade.

11. Kevin Limjoco of C! Magazine with Alpha clients

12. Jojo Uligan and Raffy David, Mark Galutera, Ray-mond Lacdao, Eric Puno, Joey Qua, Buddy Madrigal, Mike Aquino

13. Eric Alberto’s black V10 powered BMW M5.

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14. Interested on-lookers inspect one of the racecars.

15. A Tuazon race car preparing to tackle a tricky S-curve.

16. Graham Gulliver

17. Ken Kralik and Tep Misa

18. This Mercedes E-Class heads a line of ALPHA cars.

19. Sign-carrying ALPHA girls.

20. A BMW purrs through the race-course, moving like a real-life version of a TV commercial.

21. PLDT’s A-Team pose for a photo under the 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.

22. Riding in style - an executive-class convoy.

23. Gerrard Fabie poses for admirers.

24. A Porsche Cayman gleaming in the sun.

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Cebu: Evolving With Changing TimesCebu 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 Confer-ence recently discussed the “Current Labor Pool Needs and Demands of the Outsourc-ing Industry”, focusing mainly on the talent development for regional BPOs.

Key speakers from leading BPOs Ac-centure, 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 empathet-ic 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 LeadersThis year’s Cebu Business Month also

celebrates the triumphs of Cebuano en-trepreneurs through the Grand Chamber

Awards Night. Held at the Radisson Blu Ho-tel, 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 Chio-son 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

Cebu’s first ALPHAAs 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.

PLDT ALPHA Enterprise joinsCebu in the celebration of Business Beyond Boundaries.

CEBUALPHA

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”.

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Entrepreneur of the Year award. Three Sixty Pharmacy owner Antonio Yap was recog-nized 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 Entre-preneur; Rolito Villo of Lolo Tinong’s Bak-ery as Countryside Entrepreneur; and Mary Sy of Cebu La Fortuna Bakery as Small Business Entrepreneur.

The Grand Chamber Beyond Bound-aries Awards were given to Ambassador Francisco L. Benedicto for Foreign Service, Rodrigo Rivera, Sr. for International In-dustry 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 Enter-prise 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 Enter-prise was formally introduced to its valued Cebu Enterprise customers, the top-notch clients who inspired PLDT’s ALPHA posi-tion. 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 per-formance, 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 Busi-ness 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

you, we will be more pro-active rather than reactive.”

Cebu Business Community Chair Non-oy 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 Rela-tionship 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 ground-breaking enterprise solutions. Plaques of Appreciation were then awarded to the hon-ored 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. Un-doubtedly more Cebuano business triumphs will emerge, as Cebu has met the ALPHA partner they truly deserve.

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.

3. A Toast to becoming ALPHA: (L-R) Teng Tanael, Mitch Locsin, Consul Samuel Chioson, Jovy Hernandez, Bob Cobarrubias, Gov. Gwen Garcia, Nonoy Espleta, Re-nato 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

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.

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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.

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.

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

ALPHA Bites kicks off with an eye-opener on business disaster survival.

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 relation-ships 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 telecom-munication services. PLDT offers solutions that are complimentary to your BCP/DRP.”

4. The guests were intro-duced to several practical methods in preparing businesses for disasters.

The Business of Surviving

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On 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 Alcatel-Lucent. 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 cloud-based 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.

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.

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 Manag-er 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 Relation-ship Business Sandy Roque, Chalre Associates Chairman Richard Mills, and PLDT VP and Head of Corpo-rate Business Solutions Vic Tria

5. Dirk Dumortier led multinational C-level executives through the discourse on Unified Communica-tions - a call to take the first steps to innovating global enterprises.

UNIFYCONVERSATIONThe

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Two new insightful solutions cement SMART’s premier M2M position

What Business Needs,

ExactlyThe 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.

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Ever since SMART Enterprise re-launched itself as a leader in M2M (ma-chine-to-machine) and P2M (people-to-machine) 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 invento-ries in supermarkets and stores had to be manually written down, typed and faxed to a central warehouse for encod-ing and reconciliation. PINpoint Mer-chandising 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 his-tory 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 De-velopment Specialist Gio Abaquin.

The solutions’ ease of use and po-tential for streamlining business was

made readily apparent to the enthusi-astic audience. PINpoint Merchandis-ing 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 geo-graphic areas and will be more relevant to our large number of subscribers.”

Judging from the response and in-terest 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 PIN-point is merely one of many.

1. Guests enjoy a delicious brunch while host, SMART Enterprise Product Develop-ment Specialist Gio Abaquin, raffles off a plethora of PINpoint-enabled devices and other PLDT items.

2. SMART Relationship Man-ager Ann Turao, PLDT VP and Head of Corporate Business Group and SMART Enterprise Sales and Marketing Head Jovy Hernandez, Pfizer Philip-pines Systems Analyst Juvy Austria, E-Science Technology President Ricky Dagelet, Pfizer Philippines Senior Customer Development Manager Candy Lapan, Pfizer Philippines Busi-ness Technology Head Allan Caceres, and PLDT Senior Manager and Head of Corpo-rate Relationship Business Jeff Mendoza.

3. PLDT VP and Head of Cor-porate Business Group and SMART Enterprise Sales and Marketing Head Jovy Hernan-dez answering questions from the media.

4. SMART Enterprise Wire-less 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.

6. PLDT VP and Head of Corporate Relationship Man-agement Mitch Locsin, Wrigley Philippines IT Specialist Joel Casapao, and Wrigley Philip-pines South Asia IT Manager Edward Castillo

7. SMART Enterprise cus-tomers experience the new PINpoint services through an interactive demo.

8. PLDT Relationship Man-ager 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 Relation-ship Business Dick Perez, and PLDT Relationship Manager Jon Faustino

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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.

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 mu-nicipalities and 569 Barangays with its capital is Catarman located at the northern portion Samar island. Bor-dering 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 vi-sionaries would undoubtedly benefit from training and other livelihood programs in Northern Samar. 2G, a flagship corporate social respon-sibility (CSR) project of the PLDT-Smart Foundation (PSF) and PLDT Managers’Club, has six core pillars: 1) scholarships for deserving education students, 2) training programs for teachers, 3) broadbanding and com-puterization of schools, 4) livelihood programs, 5) affordable housing, and 6) tribute cards for discounts at 2G partner-establishments.

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 off-shore 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.

PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE FORGES PARTNERSHIP DEALS WITH SHANGRI-LA’S MACTAN RESORT & SPA

PLDT SEALS PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS WITH THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF NORTHERN SAMAR

PLDT ALPHA Enterprise provides Wenphil Corporation its exclusive new deliv-ery hotline number, 8-WENDYS, to further boost Wendy’s delivery sales, as well as top-of-mind recall for its markets.

Wenphil Corporation is the exclusive Philippine Franchisee of Wendy’s Inter-national, owner and operator of Wendy’s restaurants in the Philippines. The company was founded in 1983 and is based in Muntin-lupa City.

PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE’s Memorandum of Agree-ment with Cubinet Interactive Philippines Corporation pro-vides 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 cli-ents. PHIX is a PLDT facility where Philippine Internet services providers can interconnect and exchange IP traffic.

Cubinet publishes an impressive roster of successful Mas-sively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) world-wide. 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.

Ateneo De Manila University confi-dently 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 ap-plications over single network.

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 Relation-ship Management Renato Castañeda; PLDT VP & Head of Corporate Business Group Jovy Hernandez; Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa Gen-eral Manager Joachim Schutte; Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa IT Manager Wilson Camacho and PLDT Relationship Manager Mariebeth Villaflor.

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.

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 PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH STELLAR PHILS.INC.

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 ALPHA ENTERPRISE FORGES AGREEMENT WITH ATENEO

In the photo above are, seated from right:

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.

PLDT ALPHA ENTERPRISE AFFIRMS PARTNERSHIP WITH CUBINET

Present during the contract signing are, seated 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.

Standing, from left; 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 AGREEMENT WITH WENPHIL CORP.

Caught onPage


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All major electronics manu-facturers have their own versions of home 3D TV, cashing in on the latest love affair with cinema 3D. However, these beautiful, technologi-cally 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 de-signed for gamers who just can’t wait another minute. There’s also a bonus special feature: stereoscopic multi-player display, for two-player games – each player wearing 3D lenses will see a different display on the same screen, eliminating the need for split-screen display. The lowered price and the small footprint of the 24-inch display is clearly intended to make So-ny’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.

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 auto-mobile 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 Chal-lenger 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 expen-sive pansy imports—we’re talking about the likes of BMW, Audi and Porsche.

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, corset-type, 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.

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 trea-sured 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 advan-tages 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 of-fer a much wider variety of teas than in the past. In short, it is a good time to be a tea enthusiast now.

With our ever-increasing reli-ance 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.

1 Sony 3D Display

2 Muscle Cars

3 Waistcoats

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.

GOING&Coming COMING

4 Solar Chargers 5 Tea

42 OCTOBER 2011 OCTOBER 2011

45

Ever since the iPad’s highly publi-cized emergence, tablet computers have been the must-have darlings of the tech world. These touchscreen devices are per-fect for lightweight browsing, gaming and media consumption. PLDT, noticing this trend, developed their own tablet com-puter 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 In-ternet, (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 tele-phone. No more scrambling for pen and scraps of paper!

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 tri-umphant. But finally, the iconic light-bulb is being phased out in favor of more energy-efficient, longer-lasting alterna-tives. 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 consump-tion 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 descen-dants of Edison’s original light-bulb.

With the health benefits and increasingly gourmet appeal of seafood, it is no wonder that con-sumption 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 Phil-ippine Islands face devastating dam-age to our fishing industries (Can-ada 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 rec-ommendations for seafood to avoid and seafood to freely enjoy. Seafood in their green list means it is ecologi-cally sustainable and abundant. Some fish on this list include: Dungeness - Kona and Stone Crab – Tilapia – Mahi Mahi – Pink Shrimp – Sword-fish – and Arctic Char.

Say it isn’t so! The trim-for-its-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 multi-functionality of its touchscreen-equipped counterparts, the iPod’s once-revolutionary clickwheel and smaller screen seem old-fashioned and obsolete. Rumors of discontinu-ing 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.

6 Sustainable Seafood

7 PLDT Telpad

1 Ipod Classic

2 Incandescent Lightbulbs


COMING GOING

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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 electron-ics 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 sup-port of our network-centric platform strategy," - in short, they were shut-ting down their consumer sections and focusing on enterprise offerings, their specialty. The Flip Video is of-ficially 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 domi-nance, 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.

Like the Flip Video, alarm clocks have been rendered more and more use-less 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 beauti-ful 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 ear-shattering 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 ap-pointments. 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 satisfac-tion 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, OV-103 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, Presi-dent Bush announced that after fulfill-ing its “obligations to international partners” by completing the con-struction 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.

Thanks to comprehensive education campaigns (and growing alarm at the threatened collapse of the global fishing industry – not to mention the global ma-rine ecosystem), more and more people are making conscious efforts to stop eat-ing fish in danger of extinction, and opt instead for more eco-friendly, non-en-dangered, 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 consid-ered “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.

3 Flip Video

4 Alarm Clocks

5 The Space Shuttle

6 Non-sustainable Seafood


GOINGGOING

Going but not

GONE

Y our business can only build so much on a famous endorser

and a million-peso advertis-ing strategy. But all it can take is an anonymous client com-ment: “they have comfortable stylish flip-flops” or “I heard they have a snake in their base-ment 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 double-edge sword that needs careful handling. Like never before, word of mouth gets unbeliev-able 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

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 conver-sation, 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 com-munication platforms and media through any device. UNO does allow corporate em-ployees to take full control of their commu-nications, 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.

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 metal-bound 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.

Hummers

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 met-als as the primary medium of exchange. Newspapers scramble to find alternate sources of revenue as people increas-ingly gather their news from the Internet. Similarly, printed books are experienc-ing 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 ac-cess, 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 pa-per 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.

Time HITSleeper

7 Paper

for Business to join the

Unified Communications engages businesses in a conversation with their customers.

49DECEMBER 201148 OCTOBER 2011

GOING

ALPHAis 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 de-rived from the Phoenician alphabet’s first letter, “aleph”.

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].

Bits of Alpha Knowledge

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.

Rein / Reign

Their / There

Your / You’reA rein is a leather strap used to con-trol horses. A reign is the time when a monarch sits on the throne as ruler.

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.

You’re is short for “You are”, where the apostrophe stands for the miss-ing “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”.

You’re/Your car is here.You are car is here. Correct usage: Your.

Amused / Bemused.

Regardless is a word that exists. Irregardless is a word that does not.

Regardless/Irregardless.

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.” 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.

The AlephAleph 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.A

ALPHABits


• Says what he means and means what he says, exactly. • Has a long-view, big-picture perspective on his industry.• Can collect seemingly unrelated ALPHA 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.

• 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 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.

1. Transmitter button2. Transmitter Diaphragm3. Receiver 4. Receiver hook5. Permanent Magnet6. Receiver Coil7. Receiver Diaphragm8. Contact Springs, which close the circuit when the receiver is lifted from the hook9. Front carbon electrode10. Rear carbon electrode11. Carbon granules

Fiber Optics is a fairly simple and old technology of guiding light through refraction, which was first demonstrated by Daniel Col-ladon and Jacques Babinet in Paris in the early 1840s.

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.

The tin can telephone, also called the “lover’s phone”, is a commu-nication device known for centu-ries which uses two diaphragms connected with a taut string or wire.

The early telephone dissected:

The Internet started way back in the 1950s through the US Military’s search for better com-munication networks. This led to project “ARPANET” in the late 1960s, aimed to invent new networking technologies to enable linkages between research centers and universities.

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.

In the 1910s, two types of wire-less communications emerged: the Marconi system or Morse code, and the audio broadcast-ing which was known as wireless telephony or radio-telephony.

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.

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History Behind PLDT A True Alpha

A True Alpha


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 iron-clad 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.

LastSay

Now we’re allInsiders

LET THERE BE LIGHT.LET THERE BE DFON.

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 loop-configured, ROADM–routed network.

PLDT DFON – Let Us Light Your Way. Call 88-ALPHA (25742)www.pldt.com.ph

Eric AlbertoEVP and Head of Enterprise and International & Carrier Business

54 DECEMBER 2011

Hot Joe Online 8-2

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Transcript of Hot Joe Online 8-2