The Shoppes at The Infinity: Newest Commercial District to Boost Pampanga’s Business and Tourism

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Set to highlight the commerce potential of Central Luzon, The Shoppes at The Infinity will soon excite with its distinctive offerings and good finds

Touted as the first and largest central business district at the heart of Central Luzon; Pampanga homegrown developer AC Beautiful Island Realty Development Corporation (ACBI) is unveiling its pilot development. The newest retail and commercial hub dubbed as The Shoppes at The Infinity is expected to be the next-go-to leisure destination in the region.

“The Shoppes, a sprawling retail strip within the upcoming vibrant fully-integrated city will offer 15,600 square meters of palatable delights, local and global boutique brands and service establishments making it not only a shopper’s paradise but a top-of-mind recreation experience,” said Byron John T. Siy, General Manager of ACBI Realty Development Corporation.

“We envision The Shoppes to complement the trade and investment prowess of The Infinity. As business and leisure are industries that now work side by side, we want to make sure that we are offering a complete and one-stop-shop destination at par with central business districts here and abroad,” added Siy.

Inspired by renowned mixed-used developments in the country whose success was driven by its commercial components, The Shoppes is anticipated to fire up the transformation of the area. The retail landscape will highlight a relaxed and nature-inspired atmosphere while satisfying the shopping and dining needs of the region.

The recreation zone will start construction as soon as mid of this year and the first phase is projected to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2019. The shopping mecca will follow a modern contemporary design influence with the help of leading style firm LG+V Architects.
ACBI, the real estate arm of JENRA Group of Companies is the power behind The Infinity. They conceptualized the commerce district not only to open prospects for Pampanga but to serve as a commerce link of the region to the rest of Luzon. This can be owed to the strategic location of The Infinity at the gateway of Central Luzon and its direct connection to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) via the Angeles Exit.
The Infinity traverses the cities of Angeles and Mabalacat in Pampanga. Masterplanned by Palafox Associates, The Infinity will be a 40-hectare development that will soon house business, commercial, residential and all other dynamic features that completes a community.

Utilities at The Infinity are carefully tucked underground making the road networks functional and aesthetic. Moreover, sustainable features are also in place as the company follows the green building code.
In addition, The Infinity offers freehold ownership and long-term lease investment options.

SAP Announces New Suite of Solutions to Modernize CRM and a New Data Management Suite

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SAP SE fulfilled its ambition to disrupt the marketplace for customer relationship management (CRM) with the formal introduction of a new suite of applications, SAP® C/4HANA, to help businesses serve and retain customers. SAP also announced the SAP HANA® Data Management Suite, the industry’s first comprehensive data management solution that enables companies to turn data sprawl into business value. The announcement was made by SAP CEO Bill McDermott at the company’s annual SAPPHIRE NOW® conference.

SAP C/4HANA is an integrated offering designed to modernize the sales-only focus of legacy CRM solutions. Following the completed acquisitions of market leaders Hybris, Gigya and CallidusCloud, SAP now ties together solutions to support all front-office functions, such as consumer data protection, marketing, commerce, sales and customer service.

“SAP was the last to accept the status quo of CRM and is now the first to change it,” McDermott said. “The legacy CRM systems are all about sales; SAP C/4HANA is all about the consumer. We recognize that every part of a business needs to be focused on a single view of the consumer. When you connect all SAP applications together in an intelligent cloud suite, the demand chain directly fuels the behaviors of the supply chain.”

Building on the company’s reputation as an end-to-end business solutions provider, the new SAP C/4HANA suite will offer full integration with SAP’s business applications portfolio, led by its market-leading ERP suite, SAP S/4HANA®. The combination of assets features new machine learning capabilities from SAP Leonardo, a set of intelligent technologies the company introduced last year, as well as the new SAP HANA Data Management Suite, which enables companies to gain visibility and control of their highly distributed data. The company’s overall strategy, focused on helping businesses run as intelligent enterprises, highlights the demand for a balanced approach to automation in the workplace.

Expanding its customer service solutions offerings, SAP also announced it has acquired Switzerland-based Coresystems AG to improve field-service customer experience, especially in the manufacturing, energy, high-tech and telecommunications industries. Coresystems’ platform service provides real-time scheduling for customer-service requests and uses artificial intelligence-powered crowd-service technology. This broadens the service technician pool to include company employees, freelancers and industry partners to assign the best-qualified technician to each call by taking into account expertise, location and availability of the individual service expert.

These announcements come on the heels of Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which took effect on May 25. The massive regulatory change has caused businesses to take a critical look at their legacy CRM investments.

Managing Data to Reach Customers

All systems rely on data, yet the challenge facing companies today is distributed data — data that is not just in transactional systems but scattered across products, machines and people. It is about data that must be ingested, prepared and made enterprise relevant. SAP HANA Data Management Suite enables enterprises to turn massive amounts of data — both structured and unstructured — into valuable, usable knowledge, no matter where it resides. SAP HANA Data Management Suite allows customers to maximize the potential of their data safely, simply and efficiently.

More About SAP C/4HANA

The SAP C/4HANA portfolio includes SAP Marketing Cloud, SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Customer Data Cloud (including the acquired Gigya solutions) and SAP Sales Cloud (including the acquired CallidusCloud solutions). Additionally, SAP Sales Cloud unites the SAP Hybris® Revenue Cloud solution and SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (comprised of SAP Hybris Sales Cloud and SAP Hybris Service Cloud solutions).

These cloud solutions — formerly on the market under the SAP Hybris brand name — as well as SAP’s commerce and customer engagement organization are now consolidated under the SAP Customer Experience business unit to support a consistent brand experience.

Benilde Films Featured in Seattle

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Seven short films from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Digital Filmmaking program (BenildeFilm) were officially selected and screened as part of the Diwa Filipino Film Showcase of Seattle held at the Armory Loft 1 Seattle Center, Washington last June 2 and 3.

John Craig de Guzman's Amy, Christian Rae Villanueva's Ang Mga Turo ng Gabi (The Lessons of the Night), Aleina Espineli's Ang Pagbabalik Tanaw ni Olympia Mercado (A Look into the Life of Olympia Mercado), Kim Timan's Caramel Child, Pamela Barrios' Cesar & Magda, Lino Balmes' Orlie and Dev Angeo's and Kristine Medenilla's Saglit (A While) were among the films about the Filipino diaspora featured in the Seattle event. 

Amy tells the story of Mark (Seaver Choy) who is reminded of Amy (Chloe Tabanda), a person who has just passed away in Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), as he sees her in his reverie. It earlier won Best Short Film and Best Editing at the 9th Largabista Film Festival in Tacloban, Leyte and tied for the Best Narrative Film award at the first ASEAN Biennale or ASEANnale Film and Multimedia Competition in UP Diliman this year. 

In Ang Mga Turo ng Gabi, Juanita (Sheenly Vee Gener), a teacher battling depression, teams up with her delinquent student (Dylan Ray Talon) to retrieve something important for her over the course of one night. The short film previously won Best Editing (Annie Chua) and Best Performance (Talon) at Pelikultura: The CALABARZON Film Festival 2018. 

Ang Pagbabalik Tanaw ni Olympia Mercado is about a middle-aged woman (Maddie Martinez) remembering memories of a treasured relationship triggered through her taste buds. 

In Caramel Child, which is set in the year 2003, Katherine Kaye Jones (Angelica Ulip), or Kakay, is a child of a call girl, Ellie Pilorin (Sue Prado), and an absent American man. A poster of the Regional Science Quiz Bee and her mother’s American client (Savino Bellini) will fuel Kakay’s curiosity and determination to finally be in contact with her father. It bagged the Best Film, Best Director (Timan), Best Screenplay (Timan and Balmes), Best Performer (Ulip) and Best Musical Score (Marcus Santos and Joseph Salcedo) at Pelikultura 2018. It also won Best Screenplay at De La Salle University’s Indie Un-film Festival 2017. It is a nominee for Best Short Film at the Cinema One Originals Festival 2017 and 41st Gawad Urian. 

Cesar & Magda is a film about a man who’s trying to survive his extinguished married life. Cesar (Francis Mata) tries to bring back the spark of their relationship by mimicking an ideal woman (Larissa Louise Alivio). He has yet to discover the uncertainty of how his wife, Magda (Bridge Martin), would absorb the transformation. It is one of the finalists in the short film category of Sinag Maynila Film Festival this year. 

In Orlie, after hearing about the Orlando Massacre, the lead character finds himself deeply affected. While seeking refuge in his bathroom, he comes to discover the extent of his wounds. After winning Best Supershort Film at the CineFilipino Film Festival 2018 and a jury commendation at the 12th Filminute, the one-minute film competes at Mister Vorky: 5th International Festival of One Minute Film in Serbia and the 18th Korea Queer Film Festival in South Korea. 

Finally, Saglit (A While) is about a former couple, Misha (Anna Luna) and Kai (JC Santos), who spends one last night together before the former gets married and the latter migrates.

Diwa, a small community film festival made in cooperation with the annual Pagdiriwang Philippine Festival, aims “to celebrate the Filipino Spirit wherever it resides by exhibiting films from the Philippine islands and beyond,” according to Festival Director Adrian Alarilla.

Pagdiriwang, which commemorates the anniversary of Philippine independence, is presented by the Filipino Cultural Heritage Society of Washington (FCHSW) to promote better understanding of the Filipino arts and culture. Held at the Seattle Center since 1987, it has grown into the largest festival of Filipino art, craft, song, dance, music, history, literature, and culture in the Pacific Northwest.