Computerworld Philippines :: Executive Briefings

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KNOWLEDGE CENTER

Looking Beyond Communication

By Vernadette Joven
February 1, 2008

After listening to the presentations at the recent Computerworld Philippines Executive Briefing on Managing Mobility, some participants expressed their interest on integrating wireless technologies in their respective operations while others suggested a more in-depth discussion on unified communications and other mobile applications.
According to delegates Computerworld Philippines interviewed, they are looking for applications that will be used not just as a means of communication but rather to monitor critical mission data; interconnect branch offices and remote agents; and add more features and function to mobile devices, which in return can benefit not only the company but its clients as well.
The following are the stories of some of the delegates from various industries who shared with Computerworld their views, concerns, and plans for a mobile enterprise.

Aboitiz Jebsen
For a manning agency and ship management company like Aboitiz Jebsen, communications plays a major role in their operations and so mobile wireless applications are heavily relied upon.
The company uses Blackberry and PDAs for e-mail while SMS is utilized for the recruitment operations, ship maintenance scheduling, and for touching base with the ship crew’s families.
Since none of their shipping applications can currently run on mobile devices, the company is looking for applications that can be used with Blackberry. “Primarily, we use mobile devices for communications, but we are also doing regular consultations on whether these devices can already support some of our applications, although the need is not that urgent,” shares Edwin Dinog, IT manager of Aboitiz Jebsen.

Airlift Asia
Airlift Asia’s mobile enterprise is a combination of traditional and non-traditional sources since not all service areas can be covered in wireless, especially those located outside of Metro Manila. “Wireless solution works in Manila but it would be very difficult to have one outside [Metro Manila] so traditional means remains a viable option,” says Arsenio Gaetos, chief information officer of Air Lift Asia.
Currently, the company is already 70% established in terms of connectivity with its mobile phones and laptops. Henry Parcon, applications development manager of Airlift Asia, explains that they only use wireless in critical monitoring operations. “In GPRS, there is what you call real-time and support mission settings that varies depending on the plan that you availed. For us, if an operation is not that critical we set it every five to ten minutes instead of real-time.”

Ginebra San Miguel
Connectivity has been part of the company set-up of Ginebra San Miguel Inc. and through their SAP system they were able to interconnect their Mandaluyong, Laguna, Pangasinan, and Cebu manufacturing plants. However, since they have warehouse outlets and sales agents nationwide, not all can be connected to SAP and so they need a wireless solution to address their sales department’s requirements.
“Our plan is very simple actually and that is to look for a certain way on how we can manage the sales department with regards to locating our sales people and their agents to maximize communication,” Anthony Benipayo, IT analyst of Ginebra San Miguel Inc. discloses.
Benipayo also expressed interest in Globe’s Text Connect service to allow agents to manage their own inventory. “The company is also focused on putting up an independent system or a simple application that can store information [even if it’s not connected to the SAP] for our manufacturing and wholesale distribution inventory.”

Security Bank
Daniel Yu, chief information officer of Security Bank, got a lot of ideas from the briefing regarding Blackberry applications that will allow managers and customers to connect to their system.
“My first focus is internal—how to make people more productive; and next is external, which is for the customers—to offer more services like mobile banking such as balance inquiry via SMS. So it’s really a matter of adding more functions,” Yu explains.

Suzuki Phils.
At Suzuki Philippines Inc., automating the sales force is currently the priority. But Edwin Patricio, manager of the information systems department of Suzuki, admits that they are not yet sure whether the application is going to be a mobile solution or not.
“Though we have no mobile solution for the company, we are looking to automate some of the processes in sales, one of which is to get the sales and retail information. Another is to get the inventory then connecting it with the corporate application,” Patricio says.
With almost 900 dealers nationwide, the company’s major considerations for a mobile infrastructure include availability of coverage, lifespan, and compatibility of the applications with the corporate system.

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