Help SMEs sell online, industry urged

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=interactive01_oct31_2005

Help SMEs sell online, industry urged
By Chin Wong

A leading supporter of information technology last week urged theindustry to prepare a detailed guide to electronic commerce that small-and medium-scale enterprises can use to begin selling their productsonline.

At a trade show last week, Senator Mar Roxas told board members of thePhilippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) they need to help moresmall- and medium-sized companies sell their products in cyberspace,whether this is on locally developed networks or on internationalportals such as e-Bay. "Internet commerce is not a goal in itself, it's a tool," Roxas said ata break during last week's 4th National E-Commerce Congress. "You guys are focusing on Internet commerce per se. I want to get these SMEs tocome into this space. Whether it is 'Philippine space' or foreign spaceis irrelevant to them because their job is to sell their pili nuts." Roxas urged the PICS to produce an informative and easy-to-followflowchart that SMEs can use to get started.

"What I want from you is a to-do menu that I can give to an SME so thatwhen I go around, I can show it to Mila's Pili or Ormoc PrincessPineapple or Kapitan Herbs in Tagaytay," Roxas said. The flowchart would specify what options are available, where SMEs cango depending on their size, what they can do to promote their productsonline, and how much they can expect to pay and be paid, the senatorsaid. Roxas said the e-commerce guide for SMEs should include anecdotal information showing what approaches work or do not work.

For her part, Mary Anne Tolentino, PICS president, committed tocompleting the guidelines by January 2006. At the same meeting, Roxas also asked PICS members to check ife-government initiatives, particularly at the Department of Trade andIndustry, were really useful to companies. "Visit the DTI Web site and try to register a business. Let's look atthese e-government initiatives and see which ones have the most impact.Those that don't, maybe we can set aside first," Roxas said.

On the other hand, those that really help companies improve theirbusinesses should get priority to funding, he added. Roxas expressed impatience over the inability of the DTI and theSecurities and Exchange Commission to work using a common database ofcompanies.

At the same meeting, Commission on Information and TechnologyCommissioner Dondi Mapa said this was the goal of the PhilippineBusiness Registry Project that recently received P200 million infunding. Roxas, however, said the government didn't need to wait for thecompletion of the registry project to make this happen. "This is just a complicated mail merge," Roxas said. "Is it a realproblem, or is it a turf problem?"

SME IT Excellence Award

For the third straight year, PICS also handed out awards to small- andmedium-sized companies that used IT and the Internet to improve theirbusiness operations and realized gains in profits, efficiency, andcustomer and supplier relationships.

A cosmetics company, VMV Hypoallergenics, won the SME IT ExcellenceAward, besting 30 nominees. At the ceremony, Laura Verallo de Bertotto, said for most SMEs, IT canbe intimidating but this doesn't have to be the case. "We've chosen things that may not be so fancy or advanced, but it'sreally not that intimidating if you get something off-the-shelf that'stried and trusted," she said, noting that her company runs on a network of Apple Macintosh computers.

Other winners were: Asia Pacific College, for outstanding IT SME ininnovation and learning and outstanding IT SME in effectiveness andefficiency in internal processes; and Load.com.ph, for outstanding ITSME in financial measurements. VMV also won an award for outstanding customer orientation and online orelectronic service.

A week in Singapore for business and more

Had been here in Singapore since Monday to attend the Safety and Security exhibtion at the Singapore Expo grounds since for the first time, the product I am distributing in the Phils, will be joining such an event. All the Asian distributors arrived to provide support (China, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia).

The Philippine Delegation, four of us, all stayed at Carlton Hotel at the financial district of Singapore.

It was actually a bad time for me for I had been having a bad asthma attack before I left Manila. I was not able to take my meal in the plane for I just slept through the trip. As usual it was very warm in Singapore and I guess what worsened my asthmatic condition was our walking around the hotel under the heat of the sun. We couldnt check in immediately since our rooms were still being made.

We wanted to take lunch and buy some food supplies so bernadette and kenneth wanted to walk around. If it were up to me I would have just stayed inside the hotel.

After checking in, I really needed to rest. I was supposed to meet Chow Boon, another Singaporean colleague but I guess bernadette had difficulty waking me up. I had no sleep prior to this day for I had to pack after a major event at mega mall.

The following day, I felt a bit better and we motored all the way to the expo for the opening. The following day I didnt attend for I preferred to rest. I kept coughing the day before, after all the actitivities - US Embassy sponsored cocktails and a meeting with Tyron principals.

Its past 4am right now, just woke up to repack my luggage. Will post again the continuation when I reach manila.

Snippets from the recently concluded eCommerce Congress

We just finished our major annual event this week, the 4th National eCommerce Congress and Exhibit. After several sleepless nights, nerve-wracking incidents and tense situations, it turned out quite a success - ballroom was so full the waiters had to bring in extra chairs and all the booths were sold out that our event organizer had to sell tables (booths will no longer fit).

We started late since we had to wait for our keynote speaker, Congressman Simeon Kintanar who also happens to be the chairperson for ICT in the House of Representatives. CICT Commssioner Mapa came on time but didnt have breakfast yet rushing to the Intercon ballroom so I had to accompany him to the coffeeshop while waiting for our other guest.

Fortunately, the guest everyone was waiting for arrived at past 11am as he promised, Sen Mar Roxas. He went around the booths first since Atty. Claro Parlade (Lalen) was still presenting. I signalled Lalen to wrap up then went on stage to introduce the senator.

As he was about to step inside the ballroom, all the lights went out! Obviously all his security men surrounded him. Such drama! That was the time of the metro wide brownout!

To top it all, while I was on the podium asking the people to wait for the mystery guest, I heard a thud and i said to myself that must be a human being! It was and it turned out Winthrop lost his balance and fell down! Well obviously the hotel was liable for that having no emergency light!

We were in total darkness for around 15 mins. Mon and Teddy though were great entertainers and kept the crowd still while waiting for the lights to open.

Sen. Roxas shared a mouthful but that will be the subject of another post. After the q and a, we thanked him and led him outside.Little did I know that he wanted to talk to us more. He tried looking for a good place to talk and decided on the Businessworld booth. He stayed for more than an hour and gave us some assignments to do for the community and the filipino people at large.

As to what we discussed - I would rather wait for the write up to appear on Manila Standard Tonight on monday. Little did I know that the business editor was standing behind us and took down everything :) He texted me saying he will publish this on monday so if in case it appears on the online edition, I will just copy that here.

In the meantime, just to give you a glimpse of what transpired, below are more photos:

My Welcome address:




Ribbon cutting led by Congressman Simeon Kintanar (ICT Committee Chairperson in the House of Representatives) and CICT Commissioner Damian Mapa with the PICS board.




Congressman Kintanar in his talk asked the audience to raise the hands of those who will be supporting some of the bills he has lined up.



Congressman Kintanar, Atty Parlade and moi listening to Comm Dondi Mapa's presentation:



Some of the PICS board together with Dennis Valdes, PDI director and CEO Print Town welcomed Senator Mar Roxas right at the hotel entrance.










After giving his message to the delegates and answering a few questions, we escorted him outside but all of a sudden he wanted to sit down and meet with us and he found the businessworld booth convenient.





Saying goodbye and thanking the senator at the exhibition area on the second floor



Our very own Wilson Ng gave one of the most inspiring talks during the second day of the conference. Here he is straight from the airport waiting for his turn near the stage.



Panel on Payment Infra concerns :

Updates on my Multiply site

Well folks, its not that I have forsaken blogging. I rather just update another site, please check out http://maandt.multiply.com .

Though I have lots to share daily, whenever I get home late at night, which is often, I usually lack the mental energy to write. Also, as you notice I prefer sharing via photos most often.

Multily allows you to write journals, reviews etc and most important of all, upload tons of photos. I wouldnt like to use a pure photo website such as webshots, shutterfly, fotki or ofoto. I believe Multiply combines the good features of these plus other blogging sites.