It’s a Fun-Filled Halloween for All Ages at Shang this October

Halloween is here once again, and Shangri-La Plaza has lined up thrilling events for mall guests of all ages to enjoy. 

Visit the Toy Frenzy with the Boo Crew happening from October 19 to 29 at Level 1, Main Wing. Stock up on board games to play and bond over with the whole family from Hobbes & Landes; choose from a range of child-friendly books from National Bookstore; score educational toys from Build City; get child development tools for your infant or toddler from Ogalala; or simply discover what’s new from other participating merchants. Young players can visit Alter Ego’s board game events on October 21-22 and 28-29 at Level 5 of the East Wing.

See your favorite characters and superheroes in all their life-sized glory with the Halloween Installations from October 20 to 29 located in different areas of the mall. Pose with The Hulk, Iron Man, and Spiderman; cute characters such as Hello Kitty and the Minions; or the Star Wars iconic Stormtroopers, R2-D2, and C-3PO.

Bring the kids and dress them up in their best costume for the one-day-only mall-wide Trick or Treat on October 29 where little ones can go from store to store to receive sweet treats and surprise goodies.

Then, from October 30 till November 7, mall guests can shop their way into Dino Planet at the IMMRSV Dome located in the Grand Atrium. Enjoy a spectacular 360-degree view of the Earth in the age of triceratops and velociraptors. People of all ages will be awed by the one-of-a-kind experience of exploring the tropical forests and learning about these majestic creatures.  

Enjoy all these Halloween festivities when you come by the Shang this month of October.

For inquiries, call 370-2597/98 or visit www.facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficial. Follow the Shang on Instagram: @shangrilaplazaofficial.

Fujitsu Selects Cebu for Philippines Expansion

Fujitsu is expanding its Global Delivery Center (GDC) network with a new office in Cebu, which opens officially today. The satellite office is an extension of Fujitsu’s GDC in Manila. From the Manila office, which opened in 1993, Fujitsu delivers extensive services in Remote Infrastructure Management, Service Desk, Application Services and Business Process Outsourcing, primarily to customers in the Asia Pacific region, North America, Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa and Oceania. The teams working in Cebu will initially focus on providing Fujitsu customers with support in business application development.

With the highly skilled Philippines workforce supporting current and future software application, Fujitsu aims to help customers quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively develop, upgrade and maintain their business applications. The high proportion of Japanese speakers in the region was another key factor in Fujitsu’s decision to choose Cebu, and to create 400 new positions there over the next two years.

The new GDC satellite office is based in Cebu Business Park which aims to provide green space as well as business, lifestyle and leisure activities to create an inspiring environment. The city’s high population of well-educated, technically skilled people, who often boast multiple language skills, was a key factor for Fujitsu's decision.

The new center is officially opened today with a ceremony attended by the Undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines (DICT), Monchito Ibrahim; the Head of the Consular Office of Japan in Cebu, Chiharu Tsuruoka; and a Philippine Economic Zone Authority Representative, Raymond Hava. On behalf of Fujitsu, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Delivery, Hidenori Furuta, as well as the Head of Fujitsu’s GDC in the Philippines, Arlene Gregorio, attended.

Arlene Gregorio, Head of Fujitsu’s GDC in the Philippines, said: "Our Global Delivery Centers are strategically located to offer customers access to a consistently high quality service and pool of dynamic and talented employees with high technical and multilingual skills. When expanding our GDC in the Philippines beyond Manila, Cebu was an obvious choice. We are fortunate that many Cebuanos speak Japanese, as well as being great software developers."

The worldwide network of Fujitsu Global Delivery Centers offer 24/7 coverage, 365 days a year, supporting more than 1.2 million end users, on over a million devices, in 40 languages. Fujitsu continues to grow its GDCs and aims to meet demand for skilled, high quality work from customers, across a wide range of industries.

Photo caption: From L-R: Arlene Gregorio, Head of Fujitsu’s Global Delivery Center in the Philippines, Hidenori Furuta, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Delivery, Monchito Ibrahim: Undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology of the Philippines (DICT)

Sprout Solutions Underlines the Benefits of HR and Payroll Automation

Innovation, changing the way HR works
Sprout Solutions underlines the benefits of HR and payroll automation for businesses of all sizes

The recent ‘State of HR in the Philippines’ report published by Sprout Solutions ranked the major pain points Filipino HR (human resource) practitioners face. Garnering the most votes from a thousand participants are recruitment (56.90%), timekeeping (40.30%), and payroll (38.90%). These identified pain points, which can be really tedious and time-consuming, are actual problems for companies operating in the Philippines regardless of its size.

Good news is technology is continuously changing the business landscape. Today, these HR administrative tasks can be automated through cloud-based software solutions that positively impact productivity and efficiency -- generally improving a company’s bottom line.

According to Patrick Gentry, CEO and Co-founder of tech startup Sprout Solutions, companies are now recognizing the value of investing in software tools that streamline HR and payroll processes which ultimately, enhance productivity, develop employee-employer relations and meet the changing demands of today’s workplace.

“HR automation is now a huge deal for organizations as it can bring fundamental changes in the roles HR play for business growth. HR professionals can now spend more time establishing insights that provide added value for their workforce as technology gradually eliminates the administrative aspect of their job,” added Gentry.

With the Philippines having a total of thirty-two pay rates including night shift differential, overtime pay, holiday pay, among others, HR and payroll processing can get really complicated. Unfortunately, many business organizations are still doing these tasks manually making them prone to discrepancies, errors and even delays. Such inaccuracies are known to cause mistakes in the salary being paid, often resulting in an unhappy staff and strained relations between employees and employers. Meanwhile, from an operational cost standpoint, these incongruities can also lead to higher expenses.

Aside from that, a number of reports are also required from HR practitioners and/or payroll masters to comply with government mandatories. Filing of forms and getting updated reports from the agencies that monitor and collect employee income taxes and contributions can also get complicated especially for growing businesses.

Sprout Solutions, a provider of locally developed and global-quality HR and payroll software, addresses these major pain points through paradigm-changing solutions tailor-fitted for local enterprises.

The company offers customized solutions for its clients through its two modules: Sprout HR and Sprout Payroll. These programs are world-class software solutions that enable HR professionals to perform crucial tasks, both in payroll and HR, within a single dashboard.

Having all HR data reside on one integrated platform, Sprout makes it easier to track work in progress, daily attendance, leave requests, among others. Their comprehensive payroll system is also able to cut processing time by ninety percent.

Sprout’s cloud-based software tools enable organizations to efficiently comply with government requirements by making mandatory government forms accessible and downloadable (with encoded information) through the payroll module.

The tech startup is known to be the only solutions provider to truly automate complex payroll and timekeeping processes that exist for BPO companies and other time-sensitive industries in the Philippines. It has already earned the trust of more than 200 clients, composed of small businesses and some well-established industry players with thousands of employees and is the first Filipino company to be accepted by Acceleprise, a Silicon Valley enterprise SaaS accelerator. It has since expanded its operations to help businesses grow through its software solutions that address HR and payroll needs.

To know more about Sprout Solutions and its services, visit their website at https://sprout.ph/.