By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
March 1, 2009

What better way of gaining IT users’ trust than to provide them with better solutions?

For Rolando “Buddy” Garcia Jr., president of local IT distributor company NCPI Enterprises, the action would be the perfect attitude for all IT companies.

“I believe the main attitude of an IT company is to provide better solutions to users,” Garcia says. “IT firms should provide products that will not only make users more efficient and productive but also save cost in running their business.”

Debuting in the Philippines only in 2007, Garcia says NCPI (NComputing Philippines, Inc.) was established for the distribution of NComputing devices—the low-cost virtual PC networking devices and solution produced by NComputing Inc., based in Redwood, California.

He says NCPI’s challenge at present is to make known to the local IT industry the wonders of what NComputing products can do, particularly in desktop virtualization, maximizing the advanced capacities of today’s PCs so they can accommodate more users.

Garcia says NCPI in 2007 absorbed the distributor appointment of NComputing to Linksys Computer and Services owner Benjie Javier, now NCPI vice president. NCPI’s other directors include Nonong Araneta, chairman; Arwen Barrios, treasurer; and Manolette Santiago as secretary.

“Our mission is to make everyone realize that there is a more affordable way to get access to computers,” Garcia says, adding NComputing products enable a single computer to be shared by up to 30 users simultaneously.

“The approach makes very good sense,” he claims, noting computers nowadays are getting more powerful while most users use the same applications from years back.

Garcia explains what NComputing products do is that they utilize the idle capacity of the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) and distribute this for other users to use.

“Computers today have become a necessity in everyday life and it is our vision that all are given the opportunity and access to use computers. If possible, we aim to provide all students on both private and public schools access to computers,” he says.

MISSION VIRTUALIZATION
As a newbie in the local IT scene, NCPI has only been operating for a year and with only 25 employees. Yet the company feels that its status could skyrocket anytime being confident of virtualization adoption in the Philippines.

Garcia says NCPI has already sold NComputing products in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and its list of clients is getting longer by the week.

“Slowly but surely, we are able to make our presence felt as more and more people experience the benefits of our NComputing products,” he says.

In fact, Garcia says NCPI’s greatest achievement so far is that it has exposed itself to a lot of schools and corporations in the country having deployed NComputing products to several top companies and big universities.

Some of the notable NComputing customers in the Philippines today are the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Adamson University, Perkins Elmer, V. Luna Hospital and fast food franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

Garcia says NCPI is confident with the durability of its products, claiming all NComputing hardware items are solid state and without moving parts.

“This is the reason why we give one year outright replacement warranty if anything goes wrong,” he notes.

ON THE MOVE
Only recently, NCPI has been active in promoting the company’s two latest products lines—the NComputing L-series and NComputing X-series—two networking devices that promise to provide more computer access at lower costs.

NComputing’s vice president in Asia-Pacific Manish Sharma even paid a visit to the Philippines to help promote both the L-series and X-series. The executive said the former uses standard Ethernet infrastructure and has effectively no distance limitations between the shared PC and the user while the latter provides more multimedia performance.

Sharma explains a basic PC can support 30 added users and a high-end server can support over 100. The L-Series delivers web-quality multimedia and includes the vSpace virtualization software.

The X-series, however, in providing more multimedia performance, uses direct-connect cables (up to 10 meters long) between the shared PC and the users. An X-series kit includes a PCI card that installs into a slot in the shared PC and three or five access devices but it depends on the model.

“With two [X-series] kits in one PC, you get up to 11 users on one PC. So why buy 10 PCs per user when you can only use one?” Sharma says.

The NComputing executive explains the product’s vSpace virtualization software shares the excess processing power of a computer (PC or server) and transmits the signals between the shared computer and each user. He says each user’s monitor, keyboard and peripherals connect to a small NComputing access device that then connects to the shared computer. The device has no CPU, memory, or moving parts.

Sharma describes the usage of the L-Series and X-Series as the “smarter way of deploying PCs.” He reports that over a million NComputing systems have been deployed by organizations in more than 100 countries to cut their computing costs as much as 70% and electric consumption by 90%.

EXPANSION PLANS
Although solely distributing NComputing products, Garcia shares NCPI also plans to become a reseller of other IT products and the company is now in discussions with several makers of branded computers.

Being a distributor of a new technology, he says they encounter a lot of reluctance. And in addressing this challenge, Garcia says they remain optimistic that NComputing’s technology would serve as the convincing factor itself.

“We are confident that once these prospective clients see our products working, it will be on top of their minds when computer requirements arise because of the huge benefits the products can provide,” he says. “We would like users to trust our products and that we will be there to give support.”

Garcia says NCPI would like to reach out to all sectors that use computers. They intend to inform users that a more affordable alternative in gaining access to computers exist.

“Our goal is to inform people that computers are very powerful and that NComputing is here, a technology within your means that allows a single computer to be used by several,” he says, adding the company has been joining IT trade exhibits to showcase its products.

Garcia says NCPI’s immediate plan is to expand its operations nationwide. It provides 24/7 technical support to clients. They also intend to get partner resellers outside Metro Manila as part of its expansion moves.

The executive believes NCPI can capture major sectors in the Philippines to use its low-cost virtual PC networking devices and solution as NComputing targets projects in Philippine government, schools, rural areas, including private businesses such as call centers, business process outsourcing (BPO), and small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

Garcia says NComputing firmly believes that the said sectors are strong areas for low-cost virtual desktop computing in the country as well in other developing nations.

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