Busybee leads digital transformation in the post-pandemic Philippines

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As the research around digital transformation grows at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding straightforward solutions to companies’ encounters and hardships can become a challenge. That’s why Busybee together with JCI - Perlas Pasay, Rotaract Club of San Antonio de Padua, Rotary Club of Alabang Madrigal Business Park, ASEAN Youth Organization – Philippines, Asian- African Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inquirer.net, The Philippine Star, Business World, ABS-CBN News Channel, DZMM TeleRadyo, and When In Manila put together a three-part Webinar series, "Coping with the Accelerated Digitalization: Empowering Organizations with Digital Tools" — to provide the most valuable and up-to-date information about digital transformation all in one place. More than five thousand known professionals and individuals from concerned government agencies and the private sector joined and established a cohesive and integrated strategic action in order to help and educate organizations on how to rapidly innovate and take advantage of new digital tools and leverage digital services to emerge from the pandemic crisis.

Over the course of the three Webinars, presentations and discussions demonstrated the technology’s strategic importance as a critical component of our businesses and not just a source of cost efficiencies in order to stay competitive in this new business and economic environment. The first part of the series focused on the topics on SMS and Viber Marketing, and the e-commerce and web development with speakers and panelists from the National Economic Development Authority Dr. Dexter Galban, MyBusybee, Inc. head of AI Chatbot development team Bench Cosme, and Zagana CEO Joshua Aragon — who provided insights on how to get the message across the Philippine Archipelago and the future of physical offices and shops post-pandemic. Part two provided the theme: Information Systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot, as well as the virtual event platform which tackled the future of business operations and the new normal approach in hosting events with guest speakers from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Wea Bohol, the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Atty. Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones, and Lamudi Group Philippines CEO Kenneth Stern. The third part covered the topics on cybersecurity and data privacy with panelists and speakers from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Dr. Thelma Villamorel, Busybee’s Cyber Security head Ireneus Laszlo Legeza, and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) Janssen Esguerra, who established awareness on cybersecurity in the Philippines and how organizations can secure its information online. Throughout the whole event, attendees, speakers, and panelists shared opinions, thoughts, and suggestions with a mission to help individuals and businesses adapt to digital transformation, ensure business continuity, and continue to deliver public services during this time of crisis and even beyond.

Since its inception in 2009, Busybee has helped build infinite opportunities for the country and the world by harnessing the infinite dynamics of technology and innovation. With technological capabilities constantly advancing and customer expectations are always on the rise, the need to streamline internal efficiencies has been ever-present. Becoming “digital-ready” demands several high-level preparations. Busybee provides an agile digital support strategy and a place for digital in the core business model.

Beginning with mobile, Busybee is one of the few top aggregators in the country, servicing Global OTT clients like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Apple, Zoom, and a lot more. With its proprietary products in SMS, specifically BrandTxT and PowerBlast, Busybee has become the most trusted and most reliable provider of SMS applications in the country. Busybee BrandTxT is the newest SMS gateway platform that offers a unique form of brand recognition, while at the same time making communication more professional. This platform covers over 900 mobile networks across 180 countries. It boasts a wide range of fully-set and user-friendly web SMS features, along with an API for easy integration with any application and website. BrandTxT is widely used for welcome SMS, payment reminders, announcements, transaction alerts, birthday greetings, and a lot more. "BrandTxT application offers endless possibilities for automated and direct communication to ensure that important notifications are delivered efficiently, securely, and directly to your clients," Busybee head of sales, Kim Klarisse Almeida said.

In the area of the web, Busybee’s products and services include domain, hosting, VPS, dedicated server, emails, web designs, web development, e-commerce, SSL, web vulnerability, and a lot more. As the top choice of many sensitive government agencies for their website redesign projects, Busybee prides itself as a platinum member of PhilGEPS, an iGov compliant company, and as an official partner of Acunetix and Rapid7.

Busybee assures the quality of its products because of its staff expertise which is composed of veteran developers such as web designers, web developers, graphic designers, QA Specialists, system analysts, software engineers, project managers, and digital marketing specialists. Busybee built its unique and original websites from scratch ranging from simple info sites to complex e-commerce sites.

Aside from its command of all things web, Busybee also delved into software reselling, being an authorized reseller of big global softwares such as Google, Microsoft, QuickBooks, Adobe, Zoom, and many more — making its way to being the top software reseller in the country. To further put its foot into the doors of the future, Busybee is also a player in the world of digital marketing, providing different types of digital marketing services like email marketing, mobile responsive websites, web security, chat messaging, SEO, social media management, and a lot more. As traditional media are slowly becoming obsolete, Busybee steps up to engage in this fast-growing digital media.

Busybee also offers graphic design, photography, and video presentation services. Its design group produces high-quality company logos, business cards, brochures, letterheads, flyers, billboards, and other customized designs that cater to any business’ marketing needs.

To top it all, Busybee offers a platform for virtual events called Busybee VEP, which is the very first virtual event platform in the Philippines with cutting edge event technology engineered by its top senior software architects and developers. The engineering team behind Busybee VEP uses patent holding infrastructure and framework, assured of industry leading security, scalability, world-class user interface, and unmatched customer experience. Its technology has powered events of all sizes, from large international conferences to focused B2B meets in industries ranging from Information Technology, Aerospace to Medicine, Nanotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, among many others.

“Our mission is to provide A to Z products and services that are relevant to the current situation of our nation, which is why we always collaborate with government agencies for us to know how our innovation can further facilitate their systems and processes and to offer innovative tools for businesses. The goal is to alleviate the barriers towards digital transformation to ease the evolution of their business model. We believe that companies and agencies alike can further scale up their operation as they go digital. It is also important to note that in order for us to successfully get through this transition, the right mindset and outlook is crucial. Yes, we can harness the benefits offered by technology and utilize it to our advantage instead of gearing away from it,” Busybee CEO Rico Hernandez stated.

By 2023, Busybee aspires that not only the large organizations but also the small and medium-sized enterprises would have adopted the digital revolution and will be considered “digitally determined” or committed to the goal of fully adopting and implementing digital tools via new business models and digital products/services.

“As a home-grown Filipino, I strongly believe that our country can realize its full potential because we have diverse local talents and unique ability to cope with pivotal changes as shown in our history. The digital transformation and online revolution is just one of the many paths our nation can succeed by equipping our workforce with digital skills, and supporting the new generation of startups in their innovation. This is a collective effort,” Mr. Hernandez said.

The end of this Webinar series signaled just the beginning of a new paradigm of impactful projects that will help support the Philippine digital economy and benefit society worldwide.

IT Outsourcing to Gain Ground Amidst Digital Wave — ePLDT

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Business technology is rapidly evolving and companies are compelled to undergo a “digital transformation” to keep up with competition. It is such a boardroom priority today that according to the latest Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide from the International Data Corporation (IDC), global spending on digital transformation technologies and solutions will reach $2.0 trillion in 2020.

ePLDT, the industry-leading enabler of digital business solutions for enterprises in the country, believes that due to the increasing focus on going digital, many companies will find that outsourcing their IT infrastructure & operations is a sound and strategic decision.

IT outsourcing is an option where an external services provider — in this case, experts in Information Technology — manages a company’s IT infrastructure for the purpose of business development. One important IT task that is commonly outsourced is operational maintenance, where the external service provider takes care of managing software, physical infrastructure, data security, and the like.

“Undergoing digital transformation requires a company’s in-house IT department to work with emerging and constantly evolving technologies. This can put a strain on their resources. Outsourcing IT takes their hands off the more mechanical tasks enabling them to focus on the strategic part of their responsibilities,“ said ePLDT Group Chief Operating Officer Nerisse Ramos.

Learn How to Use Social Media to Boost Your Business at PBEX 2017

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Social Media is already at its peak in the country – according to data from the recent data from consultancy firm We Are Social, the Philippines is the world’s No. 1 in terms of time spent on social media. If your business is still not hopping in the bandwagon, here’s your chance.

This July, the 8th Philippine Business and Entrepreneur's Expo has invited social media professionals to share with you the basics of how to use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Blogging as a way to communicate your business to everyone.

On the #SocialMedia for Business Seminar (to be held on Saturday, July 29) are featuring The City Roamer’s Alwin Aguirre, The Reimaru Files’ Chad Ramos, Encyclopevia’s Via Galang and Social Media Influencer Christian Melanie Lee as they share their experience and expertise in the fields of Blogging, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook and to give you tips on how each platform can help you boost your business.

Wazzup Pilipinas is a proud media partner.

The 8th Philippine Business and Entrepreneurs' Expo will be held at the Megatrade Hall 1 of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City this July 28 to 30, Friday to Sunday. We are open for exhibitors to showcase their products and services - get in touch with Ex-Link at (+63 2) 633-0153, 643-3887 or 535-1150; SMS (+63) 920 981 4376 or (+63) 920 924 2532; email info@exlinkevents.com or message us on Facebook @exlinkevents. Program lineup subject to change without prior notice.

8th Philippine Business and Entrepreneurs' Expo Kicks Off this July

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Starting and experienced entrepreneurs are expected to fill in the Megatrade Hall of SM Megamall once again for the 8th Philippine Business and Entrepreneurs’ Expo (PBEX) this July 28 to 30.

The annual PBEX gathers businessmen and students of business-related courses for a weekend filled with knowledge and business opportunities. Last year’s Expo is a success, gathering 5,000 visitors for the whole three-day event, and has been featured in the media.

This year’s event is expected to be relevant, according to Orly Ballesteros, Chief Operating Officer of business event organizer Ex-Link Events. “We expect this year’s expo to be more in tune to the needs of upcoming and existing entrepreneurs.” Meetups between businesses and knowledge-sharing discussions are planned to complement the Expo’s activities.

The 8th Philippine Business and Entrepreneurs’ Expo will be held at the Megatrade Hall 1 of SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City from Friday to Sunday, July 28 to 30, 2017. Exhibitors can book booth spaces by calling Ex-Link at (02) 633-0153 or 643-3887, through SMS at 0920-924-2532 or 0920-981-4376, or through email at info@exlinkevents.com.

Microsoft: Enabling Digital Transformation for Business Growth

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With zetabytes of data soon to be within our midst in the near and looming future, businesses need to know how to use all those information for their benefit and advantage.

They need to adapt and evolve to the impending changes, and will be required to conform, if not able to excel, with the times to make themselves at least competitive or suffer imminent loss of profit, or worst, death.

We need to embrace the reality that everything and everyone aiming to reach and remain on top is going digital.That's how it is right now, and will be, as we say goodbye to the traditional and welcome the new technologies that has continuously disrupted the way we do business.

Nowadays, every business needs to operate like a software company managing digital and data in their business. There has been several job titles with "digital" as part of their designations but only a few are still fully aware what it stands for.

We can predict that the Internet of Things  (IoT) will start to change the business landscape until the next big thing is invented, or has emerged out of the many technologies out there just waiting for their big breaks just as social media networks has broken the Internet, and made people a lot more involved and engaged with everything around them.

Everyone needs to be able to engage, empower, optimize, and transform to keep up with the rapidly changing times. The digital transformation must be on a board-level, the culture must become data-driven, and we need to learn how to empower the Millennials to change the business into something permanent and sustainable and not just a passing trend or phase.

Staya Madella, CEO of Microsoft says to pick your technology partners carefully for it may make or break you if you make a mistake. But the question is how to choose the proper criteria as basis in making our choices.

After all, it may be the same technology that would also change how we perceive a successful business.

Below is the official press release from the recent Microsoft event focused on Digital Transformation of Businesses:

86% Of Business Leaders in Philippines Believe They Need To Be a Digital Business to Succeed: Microsoft Study

Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study shows that business leaders are just starting to embrace disruptions as region ushers in the 4^th Industrial Revolution

Business leaders in Philippines are showing urgency in embracing the 4^th Industrial Revolution, where 86% of them believe that they need to transform to a digital business to enable future growth and that new data insights can lead to new revenue streams for their organisations. These are some of the key findings of the Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Survey[1] to understand how business leaders are embracing the digital era.

Technology advancements have ushered in the 4^th Industrial Revolution, where cutting-edge technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), advanced data analytics, and mixed reality are powered by cloud computing to create limitless possibilities in transforming the way people work, live and play. This revolution, together with rapid urbanization, emergence of the millennial workforce and a fragile global economic climate, is ushering societal and economic changes at an unprecedented pace.

The Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study surveyed 1,494 business leaders from Asia, including 111 from Philippines. All respondents were pre-qualified as being involved in shaping their organisations’ digital strategy.

Even as majority of business leaders are aware of the urgent need to transform digitally to address the changing business climate, the study found that the transformation journey for most organisations in Philippines is still at its infancy. In fact, only 32% of business leaders have a full digital transformation strategy while 43% are in progress with specific digital transformation initiatives for selected parts of their business. 25% of respondents have very limited or no strategy in place.

Karrie Ilagan, Managing Director for Microsoft Philippines said: “The Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study has shown that business leaders have started to act on the need for digital transformation to address the challenges and opportunities of the 4^th Industrial Revolution in the region. Lessons from past industrial revolutions have taught us that organisations that do not evolve fast enough will be less competitive or even obsolete as they face disruptions in every industry. We urge organisations of all sizes to digitally transform themselves amidst changing demands externally and internally, to stay relevant. At Microsoft, we believe this involves transformation in four key pillars – empowering employees, engaging customers, optimizing operations and transform with new products, services or business models, and data and the cloud are key enablers of these.”

Clear Priorities for Digital Transformation but True Transformation Lacking

Microsoft has defined what it means to transform in four key pillars:

1.     Engage customers: Consumers are savvier than ever before, with access to data ensuring they are often educated on a product or service before engaging. To stand out, organisations will need to deliver a new wave of deeply contextual and personalized experiences, while balancing security and user trust.

2.     Empower employees: The nature of how we work—and the workplace itself—has undergone a dramatic evolution. Organisations can empower their people and help them do their jobs better with the power of mobility, which allows employees to collaborate from anywhere, on any device, and access apps and data they need, while mitigating security risks.

3.     Optimize operations: Technology disrupters such as IoT are accelerating the potential for businesses to optimize their operations. This can be done by gathering data across a wide, dispersed set of endpoints, drawing insights through advanced analytics, and then applying those learnings to introduce improvements on a continuous basis. Organisations in manufacturing, retail, and even healthcare can shift from merely reacting to events to respond in real time, or even pre-emptively anticipating and solving customer issues.

4.     Transform products & business models: The opportunity to embed software and technology directly into products and services is evolving how organisations deliver value, enabling new business models, and disrupting established markets.

The Study found that business leaders are putting people at the forefront of their digital transformation strategies:

Fig 1: Prioritization of Digital Transformation pillars among Philippines’s business leaders today

Said Ilagan: “It’s concerning to see that while there is widespread acknowledgement on the need to transform, they are doing so incrementally. With constant pressure from newer, agile and tech savvy players disrupting across industries in Asia, the transformation of products and new revenue models provides the greatest opportunity for organisations to truly lead rather than be disrupted. Leaders need to rethink business models, find new data insights which lead to new revenue streams. And they need to do this by embracing a different way of bringing together people, data, and processes. which create value in a new digital business.”

Sailing into success: Wallem Shipping, one of the largest shipping agents in the Philippines, used Office 365 and Sharepoint to increase transform their productivity especially in their line of work where time value is important . Click here to read more.

Emerging Technologies in Demand

Cloud computing and the decreasing cost of devices have made it more affordable for companies of any sizes to transform digitally, according to 86% of business leaders in Philippines surveyed. Majority of business leaders (84%) regarded cloud computing as essential in their digital transformation strategy.

In the next 12 to 18 months, business leaders in Philippines are interested to explore a range of emerging technologies to accelerate and achieve digital transformation. The top five technologies identified by business leaders as being relevant to them are:

1.     Internet of Things (IoT): Network of sensors embedded into devices that can collect data or be remotely controlled. Examples include smart buildings, cars and home devices;

2.     Artificial intelligence: Intelligent machines or software that are able to learn and perform tasks independently. Examples include robots, chatbots and self-driving cars;

3.     Next Generation Computing: Computers and software that can process natural languages, gestures and visuals. Examples include Microsoft’s Skype Translator and chatbots;

4.     Wearable technologies: Advanced computing and electronic technologies that are embedded into clothing, devices or bodies. Examples include smart watches and fitness trackers;

5.     Quantum Computing: Next-generation computers using different computation systems to solve data equations much faster than traditional computers.

Ilagan added: “Emerging technologies, specifically, cloud, analytics and new capabilities like AI and IoT will give organisations new capability to transform. But real transformation only happens when they bring their people along with them. Equipping employees with the right tools to enable them to be part of solution to be more responsive, data driven and customer centric are also key.”

Barriers to Digital Transformation in Asia Pacific

While there is no doubt that digital transformation will bring significant benefits for both businesses and employees, the path to digital transformation has been slow, given that only 32% have a full digital strategy in place.

According to business leaders in the study, the top barriers to digital transformation are, in order of priority:

1.     Lack of organization leadership to ideate, plan and execute digital transformation

2.     Cyberthreats and security concerns

3.     Lack of a digitally-skilled workforce able to optimize digital businesses

4.     Lack of leadership shown by Board of Directors & Executives, as well as lack of the right governmental policies and ICT infrastructure to provide a sound digital transformation platform for organizations.

Increasing security threats in today’s digital economies is real and cannot be ignored. There is a continued perception among business leaders that the cloud is less secure. However, they may be less privy to the advances being made in the cloud on security and privacy and need more exposure on how, with the current threat environment, it will be safer being in the cloud than relying on tradition forms of IT. In fact, a recent Microsoft Asia Pacific survey of 1,200 IT leaders[2]  showed that 90% of IT leaders in Philippines believe that in the longer term, the cloud will be safer. 

“People don’t use technology that they don’t trust. This is a golden rule that applies to organisations and individuals alike as we live in a mobile-first and cloud-first world. Ensuring security, privacy, and compliance are key to enabling businesses to carry out digital transformation with confidence. With the rise of mobile workers introducing new devices, apps, and data into organisations today, protecting sensitive company data requires a new and integrated approach, all of which we have invested in significantly,” Ilagan added.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more—building technology so that others can innovate, build their own technology, and create solutions that make things happen. Microsoft is uniquely able to enable businesses of all sizes to get from where it is today, to where it needs to be as digital business through its flexible technology solutions, integrated offerings and our investment in being the most trustworthy with investments in security, privacy and control, compliance, and transparency.  

To find out more about how Microsoft is enabling digital transformation for organisations, visit enterprise.microsoft.com/en-ph.