PH Contact Center Industry Lauded by Government

Thursday, September 30, 2021

A tough and brazen partner in economic recovery, the local contact center industry was praised by the Philippine government for its efforts in making sure business is moving and for being resilient during the pandemic.



The Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry says "We have seen your work despite the huge challenges of COVID-19, the third quarter of this year shows IT-BPM's recovery. It had posted moderate growth and is steadily rising in the last few months." This was mentioned during the Contact Islands '21 session on "Government and Private Partnership: Road to Recovery".

IATF Karlo Nograles also attests on how the IT-BPM industry has continued to lead in employment generation even on the countryside. He also mentions how Filipino IT-BPM workers have remained competitive and remain to be a crucial part of how we could transition to the new normal. CCAP Chair Benedict Hernandez reiterated how it is crucial for IT-BPM firms to have backing from the government as the industry was classified to be essential during these times and keep support intact for clients and keep their employees employed too. CCAP President Jojo Uligan on the other hand thanks the government for listening to the sector so they could remain in operation and complete procedures on protocols in work from home arrangements, so it would stay safe during these times. Lopez also said that the contact center and IT BPM industry continue to implement programs and reforms to continue the drive towards economic recovery. He's also keen this would create more opportunities and satisfy patrons even if needs are changing locally and internationally.




COW

Signed for Stardom: The New Faces at GMA Artist Center



It's so nice to see new faces, fresh, and really talented bunch when we talked to them at the Signed for Stardom Blogcon this afternoon. Some of them you're very familiar with, some of them come from showbiz families, some from social media, and some are really talented singers and theater actors. Seeing them in one place is encouraging, which means those programs you love will get spruced up with new talented individuals which GMA has always been known for.

We had the opportunity of talking to Hannah Arguelles, Kirsten Gonzales, Saviour Ramos, Jamir Zabarte, Ashley Alcayde, Sandro Muhlach, Gab Yabut, Rain Matienzo, Tanya Ramos, Matt Lozano, Coleen Paz, Alexandra Yap, Jeff Moses, Lala Vinzon, Sheemme Buenaobra, Levince Sotto, Lime Aranya, Carlo San Juan, Gabrielle Hahn, Seb Pajarillo, Shanelle Agustin, Julia Pascual and Briana. Now they could have rode in their relatives or popularity, but when I saw them, they all had that star factor and we can't wait to see them in different shows in the network. Here's part of the interview we had with them that afternoon.



You're going to see more of them soon!
COW

realme Offers This Payday Sale

Hey, I know you've been looking for a good phone and laptop this payday sale so I'll cut to the chase. Our friends from realme are offering a lot OFF their phones, specifically the new realme GT Master Edition and their realme book. Their goal has always been to disrupt, and when they do not joke around when they say they're giving discounts because they're giving up to Php 8,000 OFF on the devices just for today (September 30).





I've been using the realme 6 for coverage, photos and video blogs and I've been pretty satisfied with it. The GT Master Edition though is on another league. They did this with Naoto Fukasawa (design) and utilizes a Snapdragon 778G 5G processor, 120Hz Super AMOLED display, a huge 65W SuperDart Charge feature and a 64MP primary camera on the back which takes crazy clear photos. You should check out the 8+ 128GB and 8+256GB versions on Lazada or Shopee's Payday Sale. It costs Php 17,490 and Php 19,990 respectively.

The realme Book on the other hand comes in i3 and i5 variety. With a 2K Full Vision Display and 11th Gen Intel Core Processor, a huge 54Wh battery and sound by Harman, you can't really go wrong with it. It's offered at Php 29,990 and Php 41,990 respectively.

You can get them here plus a lot of other realme phones and iot devices which they also offered at very low prices, I'm not even joking. You can start here https://shp.ee/err8njh for Shopee or on the Lazada app.https://shp.ee/err8njhhttps://shp.ee/err8njh

COW

LENOVO Unleashes Yoga Slim 7 Pro OLED Display and Lenovo Go Accessories


They've been getting feedback from their users for years and this time, they're putting it to good use as they launch the new YOGA Slim 7 Pro and their very own Lenovo GO Accessories in the Philippines. 
 
Lenovo's Consumer Business Lead Mr. Joey Nocom says "Our latest and newest products are in the country. These are made with smarter technology with a purpose for all in mind. We are accelerating PC's to be mobile, more powerful. We aim to help efficiency, for more productivity. The Yoga OLED devices, and Lenovo GO accessories does that."

Yoga Slim 7 Pro

Consumer 4P Manager for Lenovo JB Aquino explained to us what the YOGA devices are and why it's some of the most premium devices by Lenovo. "We pursue integration, do AI, better performance and security when and where its needed. With the YOGA lineup, you can see why it is made of premium materials. You often see this in YOGA's built and design this year. Right now, we're making more premium colors availbale in Lenovo devices. Lenovo YOGA is built tough, for recreation, for play too. The Lenovo YOGA Slim 7/7i Pro OLED has hybrid parts, built to be used at home or at work. It enables users do things according to their lifestyle. One will come with an intel processor, the other comes in AMD. The AMD variant, you'll get a Ryzen 9 processor, manage a higher CPU and GPU so you get a lot of performance out of it. It's made of metal chassis, aluminum. The other has really good display, 12 hours battery life, thunderbolt ports, has intel EVO certification. OLED 2.8K display at 90Hz, 400 nits, dolby HDS Trueblack display makes sure your content looks phenomenal while editing and after uploading it on your video host/social channels. Better batteries, more performance, can do more when plugged in. It also uses AI machine learning, can manage power for CPU and GPU, drives CPU with more power. It has adequate cooling despite its thin body. The 16:10 OLED display can do 10 bit color and Dolby vision, 1ms response time which is 25% faster than ordinary LCD or 60Hz displays of laptops these days. It's catered for content creation, you can do browsing, word processing, video editing, and is ultra bright with its resolution. You also get great color reproduction, something you have to experience yourself first hand. I hope you can experience this in the coming months too. The Yoga Slim 7 Pro on the other hand has faster RAM, 2.8K OLED display, impressive in all areas. We'll bring this to the market with 16GB RAM, and a price of 64,999+++. The YOGA Slim 7 Pro will come with premium care warranty."


Lenovo Services

Lenovo Premium Care comes three years when you purchase a device. Tech will help diagnose through calls, should there be a need, do onsite repairs.

The Lenovo Smart Performance software removes malware, improves overall laptop performance in the process.

Lenovo Accidental Damage Protection (2 Years of accidental damage protection due to spills, drops, normally an add on for 3-4K pesos. They will introduce this in the models arriving soon.

Lenovo GO Accessories 
 
Work from home is being normalized and now we have a small office space at home. It's all about flexibility, whether we are in school or at the office, everything should be mobile. Remote work sometimes fall short, everyone has work standards, like a quiet space, ergonomic chair, a good table that can handle all. Accessories are needed for this. With the noisy environment and all that trouble, productivity suffers so we need something that would solve that. This is why LENOVO GO was created.
 
The Lenovo GO accessories make it better together. Capable to adapt, it completes power, audio and input for your work at home setup. The Lenovo Go USBC Wireless Mouse costs Php 2,495. The Lenovo GO Wireless Multi Device Mouse on the other hand costs Php 3,495. The Lenovo Go Wireless Vertical Mouse, Wireless Keyboard, Wireless Numeric Keypad, USBC ANC In Ear Headphones, Wired Speakerphones, Wired ANC Headset, USB C 20K mAh Power banks, Wireless Charging Kit will be coming soon. Their goal is to give Filipinos more access for more smarter technology, and I think they're bound to accomplish that. Why? because they're Lenovo!


COW

What Does It Take to Have a #WorldWithoutWaste?

A couple years ago, Coca Cola launched a global campaign with a very bold and ambitious goal. The aim was to collect and recycle a bottle or can of what the company sells by 2030. Year after year, they stepped up, become successful, and that also included the Philippines. Their movement in the country has spawned different models including this NGO called Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI). A component of what they did in 2019 called Blastik made use of recycling centers that is funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation. In it, they learned to spread awareness about environmental efforts, earn and provide for themselves, and recycle a lot of plastic. As you may know, a lot of companies make products with packaging and these efforts would hopefully make a dent on that challenge. Coca-Cola currently is recycling over 93% of their waste in bottling plants and now utilize plant based renewable material called PlantBottle.


Blastik's success as a pilot project continued in a partnership wtih PeacePond Farmers Organization based in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental. Farmers from this organization have empowered their community and provided environmental education so they would learn waste segregation, recycling and putting up livelihood projects via workshops, webinars which they host in a regular basis. The Blastik Project taught them how collecting, recycling used and clean plastic bottles would be beneficial and create opportunities for townsfolk so they could earn from re-using plastics in projects, so they could feed their families. Beneficiary Jo Guanco (who's a 53yo farmer from the same place) says "The Blastic Project showed us how important it is to teach our neighbors about segregation and recycling. We are also working with other communities these days so they too can coordinate and schedule collection of plastic bottles in towns, nearby areas and offices, of which some personally call us so we could collect it for them. We continue to be Blastic Eco Rangers til now."

The movement has gone to other communities like Bakyas Community in Oringao, Kabankalan Negros Occidental, Elite Ads Corp in Paranaque City, and Elite Ads Corporation in Carmona Cavite. They also have active partnerships with Seda Hotel in Bacolod City plus Southland College in Kabankalan also. During the pandemic, they continue to process almost 17 tons worth more or less of mixed bottles, bottle caps, plastic sachets and labels too. As of now, Coca-Cola Foundation is supporting over 40 zero waste communities around the countries, and are continuing to grow more in the next few months. Ms. Cecile Alcantara puts this as Blastik's initial success, and says "we are really happy and excited about it."

If you want to know more about their initiatives, just head on to coca-colacompany.com/reports/business-environmental-scoal-governance-report-2020 or their social channels and be part of that change, make the #WorldWithoutWaste possible today! 



COW


Discussing Digital Energy, Low Carbon Times with Huawei

Wednesday, September 29, 2021


Tech giant Huawei just recently hosted an energy summit in Shenzen China last September 23 via Huawei Connect 2021. In it, they made headway with the theme "Digital Energy, Powering the Low Carbon Era" to learn best practices in new tech so they could implement carbon neutrality. They also released a white paper about Global Energy Transition and Zero Carbon Development since they are part of the Paris agreement in 2015.

This is all to take action and address climate change which people are understanding even more. Right now, they want to achieve this without interruption by hastening green and low carbon development, economic development and security + continuity of energy supply. This was reiterated by David Sun the VP of Huawei Enterprise BG and Global Energy Business Unit President. They want to help industries manage carbon assets so they could go from low carbon to zero. Aside from that, they will also help in energy production, make it more reliable and efficient, to make it optimized and integrated to one. They also want to transform information based entities to digital, then intelligent, a step that would likely happen in the next few years.

This is part of their efforts to have a digital transformation and development in the energy industry.


COW

Viral Star MADAM INUTZ Outs Debut Single "INUTIL"


Oh yes, looks like life is getting better for Daisy Lopez. Known for her crazy antics as the ultra viral online seller "Madam Inutz", she's taking the newly found fame and success even further by pursuing one of her passions... which is music. She just released the official music video of her single "Inutil", something that she and her management has been working on for a while now. It's now up on her official YouTube channel and was published last September 23, that's last Thursday.   

Madam Inutz has impressed, to say the least, the netizens who have been eagerly waiting for this to happen. I could liken it to something that Korean rap star Jessi would do. The production value of this video, is absolutely nuts!

Albeit the song is a bit of on the novelty side, her raspy voice fits it perfectly. She's in tune, she's got that angst, I might even say she fits this like a glove. Definitely gives me that rock vibe that Aegis does, quite explosive, fun, with frank lyrics, dang she's good! Madam Inutz says she's inspired with the music of Miley Cyrus. She's wearing the recording artist hat like a champ, they prepared for this, and it turned out great. As you can also see, whoever is styling her must be given a raise because they didn't make her look alien from usual things she wears. They just prepared well, made more of her personality come out... as if she even needs that, right?

The song "Inutil" was composed by Ryan Soto. Think of it as a song that was made exactly for her. He included all the things that Madam Inutz would always mention in her livestreams. Terms like "Inutil, gunggong, oh jiiieva!" were something that they made sure to be included in the lyrics. Aside from that, this tells the story of her struggles, how she ended up making a living selling clothes, things online. Add to that, her experiences living in communities like Tondo and Cavite. She just like the rest of us is trying to earn a living, and in her case, she's also paying for the care of her Mom as she's still ill and needs support for her medical treatment. It inspired her to work hard which she hopes would also be something that other people could relate to. She also wishes that they learn from her life story, because no matter what it would look like to her detractors, she's triumphed over a lot of challenges. She's one tough cookie.




She's over the moon about the things she's enjoying today. She's very THANKFUL for the help she's had especially to her manager, Mr. Wilbert Tolentino who took her under his wings during one of the toughest times of her life. The kind philanthropist, businessman and entertainment mogul still has a lot of plans for Madam Inutz and hopes they continue their partnership and friendship. Under his tutelage, he's planning to have Madam Inutz take entrepreneurship lessons so she would be armed with the right knowledge in order to continue and grow her business. Aside from that, he's going to guide her with her career choices and show her the ropes in growing her YouTube channel, and other social media accounts. Isn't it wonderful to have an angel by your side to help you? Madam Inutz is certainly going places!

Her single "Inutil"by the way is now available for download and streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Youtube Music and other digital stores/streaming platforms. Make sure you also watch the video above and subscriber to her YouTube channel because they plan to upload more out there soon.


COW

Amaia Steps Pasig Offers 4th Midrise Building CLARA

Tuesday, September 28, 2021


G
etting bigger year on year, that's what Amaia Steps Pasig is doing. Nestled in Vico's backyard, Pasig used to be an industrial town that is now becoming a fast rising cosmopolitan city - which is now full of huge malls, hotels, restaurants, schools, and booming businesses at the Ortigas Center district.

Amaia Steps Pasig already has existing mid rise condominiums in a sprawling 4.5 hectare development in Barangay San Miguel. The three 9 storey buildings Aria, Blanca, Esperanza will have a fourth one that will be called "Clara" soon. This addition would be a good buy especially for young professionals, for those who plan to start their own family, or investors who would want to take a dive in real estate. There are studio units, deluxe and premier sizes raning from 23-45 square meters. The place already has existing amenities being enjoyed by home owners like the multi purpose hall, pool, basketball court and a playground. Soon there will be retail shops and arcade so you don't have to go out to get your essentials. It's also near Ortigas CBD, several malls and restaurants so you don't go hungry if you don't know how to cook. The nearby Kapitolyo is sprawling with foodie destinations, the most hip joints so you could hang out when everything goes back to normal. It's also near the Greenfield District, C5, major thoroughfares so you can go to and from your home to a different city.

It's a nice place to live especially if you're still in the look for a new home. You can visit AmaiaLand.com for more details of the property, or get in touch with a real estate professional to help you with getting a unit today.




COW

KIM CHIU for SHOPEE 10.10 Super Brands Festival


Looks like you're going to regret it if you don't shop this 10.10 as Shopee starts festivities for the Shopee 10.10 Super Brands Festival. What's in store for us shoppers? Well to start off, Martin Yu the Director for Operations and Business Intelligence at Shopee Philippines presented their achievements in the past 9.9 sale, and gave us a glimpse of what's about to happen in 10.10 Super Brands Festival. He also introduced Kim Chiu as the newest Shopee Ambassador for this 10.10 sale.

Martin Yu says "Thank you for your support for Shopee, and this Christmas season, we're celebrating 10.10 Brand Festival. We jumped 5 years forward in one year, we have up to 49% of consumers still using e-commerce after normal operations. There will be 28,000 brands available in the Shopee Mall so you can get a variety of deals, all across the region. Cocacola, Hanabishi, Starbucks, The Loop, and Beyond the Box just recently joined us. Shopee continues to help brands grow so they innovate, get lots of solutions. 780K users are now under brand membership program, we have 20K brand partners, more content publishers, cashback and coupon sites. Currently, Shopee has 4.5M unique viewers on Shopee Live, there will be super discount battles on livestream, better local content and innovations for our partners. You will see this all on the 10.10 Brands Festival. Today til October 10, you will get daily deals, up to 100,000 worth of brand vouchers. There will be 430,000 pesos worth of big brand giveaways, super brand days from your favorite brands, plus gifts for every purchase. There will also be category fairs, so mark your calendars and get these amazing deals! You can buy load, pay bills and scan to pay on Shopee Pay. You also get exclusive sales and discounts too!"

For KPOP Fans, ITZY will have a Shopee Live performance on October 10. "Shopee Guess it Right" will also roll out on this date. One of the country's top talents, Kim Chiu is their newest brand ambassador!


Kim says "Hello everybody! I hope your morning is great as you welcome me in the Shopee family! I was surprised, every month I had Shopee Shake on Showtime, but when my handler said I will be the brand ambassador, I went crazy! I am a real deal Shopee user, I just search things and it pops up, all I need to live inside my house is there. It only takes a few days to see it on your doorstep. My last purchase was a fridge organizer, it only costs 50 pesos, plus the vouchers and free shipping is just amazing! What I enjoy most about it? It's the process of checking out. Sometimes I just add to cart and when the sale happens, I hurry and check out because the deals are just so good to miss out. I often shop in the evening when I'm almost going to bed. I don't have a certain time, it's just when I need something, I go there right away and look for it. You'll be surprised that local and international brands are all there, it's that easy! I don't have to go to malls now, because even after 2 days I already get what I order without endangering myself by going out. I also do the Shopee shake regularly, I buy masks in the platform, alcohol, bags, essentials that I use everyday, plus the soap containers and air fryers. All of them are my budol finds! Thank you also Shopee for the trust, bawal lumabas, so if you need to buy something, you get it on your doorstep. I love you all! Stay safe!"

 



What are brands offering?

Deerma


Deerma VC811 Handheld Cordless Vacuum Cleaner Auto-Vertical Handheld 5500Pa for Home Car https://shp.ee/wm5viev

Deerma CM818 Handheld Dust Mite Vacuum Cleaner UV Sterilization Vacuum 13000Pa https://shp.ee/k62w3bv

65% OFF on Deerma Appliances starting October 10

P&G Beauty

Pantene Keratin Smooth Pro V3 https://shp.ee/jr9ewbd

Pantene Pro V Hair Fall Control https://shp.ee/4vtztpd

Upto 50% off on beauty must haves on 10.10

Havaianas Philippines

Havaianas Fashion Flip Flop for only Php 500 https://shp.ee/zabywwd

Get 2 Pairs Promo Havaianas for only Php 1010 https://shp.ee/epih3zd

Win Havaianas Backpacks and up to 70% OFF on items in the store


That's not all, because countless brands will be part of the huge sale. Make sure you download the app, get your Shopee Pay loaded before checking out on the 10th because definitely, these are huge deals!



COW

Contact Islands '21: Re-igniting Growith in the new Business Environment

Monday, September 27, 2021




Just got off the CCAP Contact Islands '21 virtual conference supported by PLDT Entertprise and I've learned a lot of things. The theme this year is "Re-igniting Growith in the new Business Environment. The first day discusses Customer Service in the time of COVID. True enough, we're all stuck at home covering this but things are pushing through.


Bea Lim, Managing Director for TeamAsia stood as host. During the opening remarks, Jojo Uligan the President of Contact Center Association of the Philippines says "We're excited to have the Contact Islands 2021 event this year. From the CCAP members, government members, and our allies, welcome to the event. Last year, 6-700 people attende this event last year despite conditions, but this year we're going to have almost 1000 people to join us. We are celebrating our 20th year, our founding annivesary. We started in 2001, and we promise to celebrate in a big way. When we started, employee accounts to about 2000 people, but now we're close to a million employees in this industry. Now we have 20+ members, so please join us by celebrating this in 2021, we will invite all of you before the year ends. The volcanic eruption, earthquake, typhoon and the pandemic has challenged us, we're inviting industry leaders so we could learn how to navigate the business in this session. This is a whole week of exciting topics and discussions on how we could grow this industry and get through all these challenges. You can visit the sessions, look at our lobbies, talk to one another in our networking sessions, you can take advantage of who our partners are. We hope to be more interactive in Airmeet, this will also allow you to engage with other delegates and do networking. We have companies sharing their stories, best practices, showcase what they have in their company and our exhibitors to show you what they have that could help us. In behalf of CCAP, we thank you!"

Benedict Hernandez, Chairman of the Board of Contact Center Association of the Philippines says "We had a really successful conference last year and we want to take advantage of that now. The last 18 months have been challenging, it's been a period of uncertainty, confusion, frustration, but still have determination. We keep moving forward, we embody resiliency, we want to have a rebound in the contact center industry, we see growth, the Philippines is still growing faster, our ability to expand is our secret, we outpace others, we have had incredible cooperation with the government. We are an essential part of growth and continue to lead in creating more jobs and helping the Philippines to have uninterrupted year on year growth despite the things that are happening today. We are a durable sector, the global IT BPM services market has rebounded in 2021, and this is just a tipping point that we need a digital ICT industry to induce growth. We continue to have growth in the global market forecast, while others struggle. There's no one better than us. If you think about the impact of 20 years of employment growth is huge, that's 1.3 Million, in highly skilled and highly paid careers. We have size, scale, we have the ability to grow. The pandemic has devastated other industries, but we continue to lead in job generation and economic recovery. We continue to prioritize the health of our employees, coordinate with government agencies for vaccination so we get herd immunity. Our capacity to layout fiber in homes were ramped up, there's a lot more to catch up still. This enables our people to be productive at popup sites, even at home. This pandemic made customers realize the need to digitize, to do work from home. We're still learning, in a sustained manner, as a hybrid model. We have discussions on the business environment in the future sessions (on Friday) and we look forward to see that, hope you get inspired how to do a rebound, to help the Philippines get back on its feet."

 

Customer Service Management at the time of COVID

 

The IT BPM industry has bounced back from reduced productivity levels. To get you a picture of what has happened in the CXM services, data was presented by Shirley Hung of the Everest Group.

Shirley Hung, Business Process Services for the Everest Group says "We are a global market research firm focused on global trends. The global economy has shrunk 4% but the CXM Global Market has continued to grow at 4.8%, recovering by late last year. This is eyed to continue in the next few years. It shows a great bounce back, growth has been seen even this year in Contact Center Services showing resiliency in these hard times without any major incidents. They worked on AI based customer inquiries while they prepare agents for remote work. Banking, Health Care, were all set in home environments without compromising security. Companies prioritized customer experience, set changes in business models. This is called new generation services. Outsourcing are low, but gorwing fast for service providers. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, in our last report we had 40 services providers, some winners, some are losers. Some grew and expand during these times, did growth by expanding, successfully leveraging digital work at home solutions. Revenues are grown faster, enablers, growing dependents for their CXM services. Some are hit the hardest during the pandemics, losing clients, laying off agents, now they are re-calibrating for their growth in the future. There is still a long line of providers that are also losing market shares. These are being set conservatively to 3-5% on growth rather than previous 5%. Fast paced adoption from specific industries along with digital CXM and WAHA models are driving CXM market growth. The final driver has to do with streaming, gaming, fintech, CXM including vaccination and health drives. In addition there is exponential growth in the retail sector because of online sales. As the economy recovers, we will be sharing market trends in detail in the future. Over the next 3-4 years, the WAHA model would be normalized and some industries are still going to be very strict in security especially for banking and health sectors. In the coming years, there will be some who will return in offices. The number of organizations doing AI, digital transformation has doubled during this year. We are seeing fantastic cases marrying digital and personal CXM plans, to hopefully inspire you and include it in your business plans next year."


How is the business world doing?


Rakesh Agarwal, Partner and head of Supply Chain and Enterprise Transformation KPMG Singapore and Indonesia says "Disruption is going to be a new reality. The financial crisis, terrorist attach, market crash, they happen every two years and businesses should be more agile. COVID happened affected businesses late 2020, organizations looked at finances and see how they could conserve revenue, what they need to do in order to keep their investments. Lights should be on, customers should be served, it was challenging and CEO's have tons of stories that are interesting especially in the supply chain and how they were able to keep their production on despite challenges. They were confused, have less morale, organizations faced a lot of issues. Leadership challenges was significant. How could one manage a company remotely, but later realized it could be done. Now they need to adapt into a new business model. With the support of digital tools and collaborations, it was done. Organizations encountered management disruptions during the first few months of COVID. Working capital, workforce, loss of revenue, they also needed to understand how they would continue their operations. Companies regained balance within 6-12 months after, demand then has come back and supply chains have been ready. They might not have seen multiple waves of COVID, but they evaluate things how critical supply should be not in a distribution risk by talking to worker unions and organizations in the industry. Today they need to ensure to continue to be productive, talk about planning, results, but need to talk about supply chain risks, how they could be apt for digital transformation. Working at home posed a lot of security risk, there's also a need to reduce cost, and supply chain delays has been also an issue. Deliveries are struggling, but have since then settled. Despite that, consumer spending has normalized quite fast as what was expected. Reasons for this are fiscal assistance, working normally, supported job losses, technology also played a big role so a lot of people can work at home. There's a lot of ways businesses can leverage from. Business model and operations will have permanent changes. Growth prospects are keen in the next three years. "

Consumers want more sustainable, more climate friendly products. There's a huge demand for it. It's important to bring this when consulting organizations, on how they would be aligning with it in the next few years. Digitalization though is highly critical, businesses should go more into this. It's not about "being" but "doing". Forecast the demand, and plan ahead but talking to stakeholders ahead of time.

As organizations become more comfortable in outsourcing, companies are going to leverage that even more. Growth is seen beyond next year, and hopefully, we'll all become normal (of what is normal). What's vital in the Philippines is building resliency, having business continuity despite political, health, or other disruptions that may come up. This is key. Thank you to CCAP and PLDT Enterprise for having us in the event, I learned a lot and I hope I got to share the important things these experts shared during the first day of Contact Islands 2021.

COW

TM Bares More Plans on 20th Anniversary Celebration!

Sunday, September 26, 2021


It's been a few months already but TM isn't stopping. The celebrations for TM's 20th anniversary continues as they want to make this BIG one despite the pandemic.

They've actually been doing a lot during the second quarter of this year and true enough, they're dishing out tons of prizes weekly to those who have subscribed to their network. To add the cherry on top, TM is filling a void in entertainment by holding the BIGGEST one yet. They call it "TM Doble Dekada Piyestang Pina-Easy", a fully online but interactive event. How interactive? Well, let's just say that YOU would choose what would go on and what happens next. Think of it as a way for you to be involved, because they want you to feel that YOU ARE part of the samahang pina easy, then, now, always.

Who's going to be there? Let's just say your bae Alden Richards, viral dance princess Andrea Brillantes, loverboy Seth Fedelin, the iconic Parokya ni Edgar, world phenom SB19 and love song stricken The Juans + more. Oh and if that's not enough, they'll be announcing the winnder of two winners of 500K worth of FunKabuhayan Showcase and the grand winner of 2 Million Pesos!

If you want the chance to win the prizes, you still do it until Sept 28. Just text the keyword TMDOBLEDEKADA (Space) Name/Address/Mobile number and send it to 8080. It will happen on October 5, 2021 so make sure to be there live on their Facebook page!





COW

Ayala Foundation, Huawei Partner Up to Build Sustainable Communities

Saturday, September 25, 2021


It's been long standing, as two companies signed through a virtual session last September 13, a partnership so they could provide digital education for Filipinos. Ayala Foundation Inc. and Huawei Technologies Philippines Inc. are doing this to continue their goal to build sustainable communities and be a part of nation building.

Present during the occasion were AFI Senior Director for Social Development Joanna Maria Duarte, Huawei Philippines Vice President Daniel Guo and Huawei Philippines Director for Globe Telecom Zeh Zhang. This also coincides with AFI's 60th anniversary. They dubbed it as "Faith in the Filipino: 60 years of partnerships in nation building", a pretty apt theme for what Huawei and Ayala Foundation is doing now.

Huawei is donating USD 200,000 to support Ayala Foundation Inc's programs. This includes disaster recovery and emergency response, education, training and building sustainable livelihood for woemn and IP's. Huawei will also support globe with a USD 100,000 grant for their environmental programs. They've been doing this for several years now because they know how hard it is especially in the education sector where tons of students and their families won't be able to afford sending their kids to school. They promise to give more through Ayala Foundation's CSR programs as a way to give back to the Philippines.

It's a good thing.


COW

GABBI GARCIA Wishes to do GL Series with Sanya Lopez


She's an amazing model, vlogger, podcast host, and global endorser. She's one of GMA's prized dramatic and romance go to actresses and she's still making waves in several shows she's been part of, yes, she's Gabbi Garcia. I distinctly remember years ago when we got to talk to them about their passion and singing, she still does that but has now discovered so many facets of what she can do as a person, I guess love has something to do with it.

Her relationship with Khalil Ramos made her open up more. She didn't get to do video blogs in the past because she didn't know the technical stuff, the cameras to use, but Khalil was there to guide her through it. In a sense, I got the impression during the interview that they complement each other. Khalil was more reserved, an introvert, which is somewhat the opposite of what Gabbi is.  Now they also added a podcast, a mukbang vlog, which they will do regularly and it's a venue where they could show how they are in real life.

Gabbi also renewed ties with GMA, and one of the things she plans to do in the future is do a GL project (Girl Love). She wants to be paired with Sanya Lopez because she didn't want to be left behind as Khalil already has done a BL series. Aside from that, I asked her about wedding plans, and she says they do talk about it because it's the end goal. For now, they know their priorities and still have so many things to do as far as their career goes. In a nutshell, we've got so many things to look forward to in Gabbi's future shows, and she's just starting!

Congratulations Gabbi! 

 
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Deciphering El Cuadro: Unfolding the Mystery of Las Meninas


Just got out of the press conference hosted by Instituto Cervantes, European Union as they are celebrating Cine Europa 24. Cine Europa has been done almost every year for over 20 years, I remember visiting the Shangrila mall in Mandaluyong to see the fillms, but since we are under the pandemic, they released 17 heavily awarded films on the Cine Europa website so you could enjoy them all for FREE at the comforts of your home. The presser was moderated by the Director of Instituto Cervantes in Manila Javier Galvan.


 


Rafael Bustamante of the EU delegation says "I am amazed by this wonderful movie and we have a lot to learn from film makers. The intrigues, are all interesting. We are happy to make this part of the festival."

The Film's Director and writer Andres Sanz says "I never really thought I was going to make movies by art, it's something that just happened. I am interested in fiction, in narrative, and fate happened, this is my first love which is painting. I wanted to be a painter myself when I was growing up, it was not trying to connect, it just happened organically, and I thought it was a good commercial idea, but making this, it's difficult, took a long time and support wasn't easy. To get the funding, it's severely difficult. I see I have about 60 hours worth of interviews and cut a lot to make this film. It's just a single picture but is seen in different ways. It has a lot of narratives, it started in a conversation with an art expert one day and this happened. I didn't even know them back then (in Ateneo in Madrid), Las Meninas was just a fascinating subject. I talked to the producer Antonio and research, investigation started. I wrote the script, I needed a structure. It's so huge and I might get lost so I  needed a guide to know what to put into the film. I already knew how we were going to tell the story. I had to create it to tell the story with suspense like a crime movie. It's like Hitchcock, so viewers would be interested. The project took 6 years, we never knew when it was going to end, it's a long process and when you're done, it was a big relief. I went to the Prado museum when I was a little kid. Before it was in a room, but now it's in the main gallery. I remember entering that room that's crowded, it was like a theater in a way. It was like seeing a movie, everyone was looking at it. There was a guy with a mirror and he was explaining it, I got obsessed, asked my parents to buy me a guide for it. In it, they explained when you see it in the mirror, you see a 3D effect. I didn't see it when I went there as a child. It was like a magician trick, and in 2013, they did an exhibit by Velasquez. There were a lot of portraits and stories and about the people in it. I looked it up in the library, I found one but they didn't have a copy. I found the author, we met at the Ateneo in Madrid and that's when we started planning a movie about Las Meninas. There's something personal, it was attached to my life, my love for Velasquez and Prado but we had to be respectful on how we could talk about it."

He adds "Everybody would like art. I don't think it has to do with any particular country, this story has intrigue, I'm interested in Asian art myself and I know they would be interested in Western ones, culturally we are different and this represents us in that certain time. I think it's a story that has the suspense and surprises of a thriller. It's an interesting mix, not using narrator, but just listening and talking to them. Finding out what the meaning of the painting is for them, someone in the Philippines would be surprised how much intrigue there is about it. It's like dreams, real people talk about it would have different views, elements that are universal. I had a long list of people to talk to, but I read books before making the film, so I had a select people in mind already prior to making it. Jonathan Brown, Fernando Maria, such a great number of people, it was difficult because they probably didn't know me and I had to contact them. I was just lucky at the end because I got who I wanted. It wasn't a propaganda material, I want to give them time so they can establish their point of view. I had to give them amount of time to see what I needed, but their moments are special, even if they had 2 minutes. We shot for hours, lots of them are not in the movie. We talked about the restoration too, but it was very controversial. At the end, the editing should tell the story, you get surprised as it brought a lot of philosophical ideas, it brings so much beauty. I'm grateful for everyone, to meet them, to see them share their thoughts about the film. In the beginning, I created a visual script, it's images that had to do with the film. It's paintings, images, I thought of it while making this film we will make. It's all in black and white, some locations, some inspirational films, at one point I thought of using some of its views so I could do it in the film. I got to the box and got the idea of the box with dolls and puppets, so I could explain Las Meninas. I could also explain them in locations that were not there anymore. I thought about doing it with actors, but it was really expensive, the puppets will give you an idea but not distract you from costumes and feel that it's fake. The puppets somehow had to induce imagination, it's a way to make us think of what would happen. It worked out very well and do it for stop motion. It was all one take and animated it, then we moved to the next one. We had to go, and at the end of the film, we had the puppets, and it meant we are part of that, we become fiction, we become the story. When they talk about this film, they will invent ideas how we made it, it has subjectivity and fantasy. We tried to put that into motion."



It was just awesome to see and hear it from the person who created the film itself, I was at awe of how he was able to put these together. Art is subjective, and I've seen a lot of videos made just for this particular artwork, this one puts you in the driver seat, make you feel you are investigating about it. That element makes it greater, and I'd like to ask you to watch it by registering at https://www.cineeuropaph.com/ and it's all there! 

You can watch it all for FREE!



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Piolo Pascual Set to Join Cast of TV5’s Niña Niño


Excitement has flooded TV5's stable as the prime actor Piolo Pascual starts taping episodes of the hit Kapatid series Niña Niño. Piolo is set to play as the Mayor of Sitio Sta Ynez named Christopher Charles Juarez.

The show has been breaking records in ratings, and has practically beaten several programs from other channels in the same timeslot. TV5 President and CEO Robert P. Galang attributes this to the right kind of material being shown in primetime hours in the channel. TV5 Execs, people behind the show are extremely grateful for the viewers who religiously watch the show. They know it wouldn't have been successful without their support and even tease that there would be a lot of things they have in store for them in upcoming episodes of the comedy/drama program.

This will definitely add a lot of conflict between Piolo, Maja Salvador and Noel Comia Jr.'s characters, but rest assured they'll be living a life that may be full of challenges, but will never lose hope. Make sure you catch it on October 25 and the corresponding Monday, Tuesday, Thursdays after that at 7:15PM. It goes right after Sing Galing and before hit show FPJ's Ang Probinsyano which is also shown on TV5.

Now that's exciting!




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JOLLIBEE Releases Limited Edition Jollibee Funko Soda!



If you love Jollibee, Funko and everything in between, you probably have seen the recent announcement in the Jollibee Facebook page about this a couple days ago. It's an exclusive Jollibee Funko Soda made from the partnership with well loved brand Jollibee and Funko.

It's only available to order via the Jollibee app which you can download off the App Store or Google Play buy purchasing a meal of 200 peso value and shell out Php 790 for it. Jollibee also has said there will be in some cans, a limited edition Chase glow in the dark version (which collectors would surely go crazy for). 

 

This will only be available until September 26th, so you've got a few hours left to get one from the app. As of this writing, I've been trying to get one but it's taking its own sweet time to load. There have been successful purchases already as I've seen a few on social media. You better download the app today and try your luck to get one! (Oh and it's only available in a few select stores!)


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Huawei Urges ICT Industry to Innovate Nonstop for Faster Digitalization


Looks like a lot of things happned in the recent Huawei Connect 2021 event. Eric Xu opened the event with a keynote speech urging ICT professionals to "Innovating Nonstop for Faster Digitalization". It does make sense to do that especially when businesses are in the midst of recovering from the hit of the economical challenges of the pandemic.

The event also will be featuring speakers from different private corporations, industry leaders, and over 200 speakers in different topics plus several exhibitions and discussions which can be viewed on Huawei's corporate website.

Xu also reiterated how it is important to innovate to create value in digital technology. He also shared how Huawei has pursued technology in low carbon emissions which they assume is going to. He cited examples like the Huawei Cloud and how it has grown the throng of developers they have for it, bringing in partners from the industry as they make even more services available to the public. To ultimately have these be used by startups, enterprise, government agencies, so they could all go digital. He also introduced UCS which is a ubiquitous cloud native service which is available in the Huawei Cloud.

If you would like to know more about the subject, head on to huawei.com/en/events/huaweiconnect and watch the videos of previous talks held in China.



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TV5 Launches Frontline Tonight


Consuming news for me is a little chore and I can't stay for a whole hour just to be informed about what's happening with the world and what's around us in the Philippines. Looks like TV5 is going to make my life easier as they launch a new show called Frontline Tonight which will air starting this September 27.

Veterans broadcast journalists Ed Lingao and Maeanne Los Banos will take the helm and bring the day's latest news stories in 30 minutes, and focus on information, analysis and what's important to know via their exclusive stories all from News5 correspondents across the country.

TV5 President and CEO Robert Galang says "We want to have better and useful content for our viewers. Frontline Tonight will get you to understand relevant news stories that affect us, and the society as a whoe. This is what we advocate, our responsibility, we want to make it understandable for everyone."

Data driven reporting? I'm there! Can't wait to see it on Monday at 10:30PM only on the Kapatid Network, TV5!




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Infinix Unleashes Zero X Pro and INBook X1 Pro

Friday, September 24, 2021


Looks like Infinix is bringing out the big ones as it takes their new flagship phone the Zero X Pro into the country. Not only that, but a lightweight laptop is also being released, they call it that INBook X1 Pro, something that could actually challenge new laptops in the market.

For starters, the Zero X Pro has a 108MP back camera with an 8MP periscope moonshot lens with 60x zoom power and a wide 120 degree view on its 8MP ultra wide macro lens. Imagine what you could actually do with it! Taking shots of the moons surfaces must be in arms reach now that you've got something this powerful on a smartphone from Infinix. It also has Hybrid Image Stabilization which you can use to stabilize those blurry shots you used to take with your old phone, plus a dual chip gaming processor that can take your hobbies into monstrous tournaments but still do other tasks on the side. It utilizes a MediaTek Helio G95 and a MediaTek Intelligent Display chipset so those games would play so fine, you might drop your primary phone.


The INBook X1 Pro on the other hand is a monstrous laptop that is available in intel i3 and i5 processor units. You can work and play a few games as it's got 8GB of memory, an HD webcam, can do video conferencing and charges fast. You can use a Type C cable to do it too, something that other brands might not be doing til now. Very convenient, so if you're looking for one, check out InfinixPhilippines on Facebook and their other channels. They've got pretty good hardware and if it can rival the other brands existing now, I wouldn't be surprised how much they'll grow this year. The INBook X1 will be available for pre-order on the Shopee app starting this October 10, 2021. The laptop will cost Php 22,990. It will then go back to its original price of Php 24,990 the next day so make sure you get em fast! Here's where you can pre order! https://shp.ee/y8k5d4f

COW


Intelligent World 2030 Report Released by Huawei


Tech giant Huawei has released a report based on data gathered over 3 years with academics, customers, industry partners drawn from workshops they've organized including the UN, World Economic Forum and the WHO. The report contains a forecast of sorts using quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to see what's on trend in the next few years. This would hasten industries to identify and discover opportunities in the ICT sector and see where it could apply much of its products in the coming years.

It was discussed by David Wang tje current Executive Director and President of ICT Products and Solutions for Huawei during his keynote speech at the Intelligent World 2030 Forum in Shenzen, China. It was witnessed by industry partners and discusses about how ICT would solve problems and challenges of future tech, what direction to take in communication networks, digital power and automotive solutions. This is part of Huawei's pursuit of a connected and intelligent world which they deem is arriving at a fast pace.

The report includes directions for exploration specifically on health, food, the way we live and transportation. It states the ability to tackle potential health problems by using medical data, the use of IoT and AI devices and make it a way of prevention. They also see a future in vertical farms, 3D printing actual food, zero carbon buildings, aircrafts to take our travel ways to a so called "third space". They also have high hopes for AI and how it goes beyond digital and physical limits, with the help of more innovation in software, architecture and advancements in semiconductor technology, it's going to be possible.  

Aside from that, there will be more empowerment in the digital space hastening low carbon footprint, gains in tech of renewable energy, increase in electric vehicles plus autonomous driving in many places around the globe. Huawei prospects much of these happening in China first, then elsewhere in the globe. Visit their site huawei.com/en/giv for more information about it.



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