An interesting movement in the executive of IBM Philippines.  IBM announced yesterday the appointment of Mariels Almeda Winhoffer as the President and Country General Manager for IBM Philippines effective immediately.

Almeda-Winhoffer was born and raised in Manila, Philippines, started her career in IBM 26 years ago most recently serving as Client Advocacy Executive for IBM Corporation, where she reported directly to the Chairman and provided support for global client engagements.

She succeeds James Velasquez who has been appointed Director, Maintenance and Technical Support, IBM Global Technology Services IBM ASEAN.

Under James Velasquez’s leadership, IBM Philippines has expanded its business portfolio exponentially with significant additions to its global delivery missions. Through various collaborations with government, academe and industry, IBM has also established itself as a national asset. As we enter the next phase of our growth, Mariels Almeda Winhoffer’s deep client insight, global experience and outstanding leadership will help boost IBM Philippines as an industry leader, serving local and global clients.”

Ms. Almeda Winhoffer will assume responsibility for all of IBM’s operations in the Philippines, including the company’s sales and distribution, systems and technology, software and services units, and fully-owned subsidiaries offering global delivery including IBM Solutions Delivery and IBM Global Process Services Centers.

Ms. Almeda Winhoffer has held various executive posts within IBM including Vice President and Business Development Executives leader for the Industrial Sector, Client Relationship Executives leader for Global Technology Services (GTS) Strategic Outsourcing, as well as Services leader for Electronics and Automotive accounts – all based in the USA.

She was also a recipient of the 2009 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Business Development Center, recognizing her contribution to the Asian business community in the United States.

Ms. Almeda Winhoffer completed her primary and secondary education at Assumption College, Philippines, before moving to the United States earning a double degree in Finance and Computer Science from Fordham University, cum laude.

She’s now the fourteenth Country General Manager, and the first female President of IBM Philippines.

I just wanna share some unboxing photos of Wi-Tribe Modem that I requested for the remote branches of the company that I’m working for. I subscribe for the Php598 Wi-Tribe Post Paid Internet because they gave me a 30 days Money Back-Satisfaction Guaranteed and they were offering the package at a burstable 1Mbps speed. Furthermore, Mr. Roford – Wi-Tribe Account Executive guaranteed me that I can return the unit if I’m not satisfied with the service for one month.

So far… after the 30days period, I have not received any reports of any problems nor complaints where I have the Wi-Tribe modem installed. Below is where I have installed the modem at the following Going Straight Salon outlets:

SM Megamall
SM North Edsa
SM Cubao
BF Resorts Las Piñas
Festival Mall

and the connections are still stable since the installation and we’re planning to install more on other Metro Manila outlets.

Meantime, below is the unboxed photos of the Wi-Tribe Modem:

The package comes in withthe following:

(1) Wi-Tribe Modem,

(1) AC Adaptor

(1) UTP Cat-5 Cable

(1) Users Manual

More Photos

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I have been receiving recently, a lot of proposal about ERP system and some of them is bundled with software in a cloud or in other words Software as a Service (SaaS). Today, I would like to share my insight about this model of cloud computing (SaaS) based on the proposal I’ve gathered and how I think will  benefits our company (Going Straight Salon, Inc.).

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

By the way, let me explain first what is Software as a Service. Software as a service aka SaaS is a software service solutions that run on the cloud technology or in the internet. One good examples are, Google’s Google Docs in which they offer desktop office solution that is residing in the internet. Another example is a payroll system in a cloud offered by Intuit (the company behind the  ERP System Quickbooks)- where as you can process your payroll anywhere as long their is an internet access.

The Benefits of Saas

The same with any cloud computing model, SaaS – Software as a Service delivers the following benefits:

1. It lowers TCO or Total Cost of Ownership
2. It help business owner concentrate on the core of the business.
3. You have a proven business process model.
4. You’re only spending on what you need.
5. It turns your CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) into OPEX (Operational Expenditures).

The Cons

1. Internet Connection Dependent – the performance of the software is affected by your internet connections.
2. Like any package softwares, one of its disadvantages is its flexibility. Businesses has a unique business process, any additional features will require additional cost.

Bottomline, Software as a Service has great benefits, specially in savings. But we should also take to consider the SaaS provider, it’s security, reliability and customer support or post-sale service.

So what do you think? Is SaaS for you or your company?

Solar Entertainment Corporation last December 5, 2011, signed IBM  Philippines to managed subscription service agreement to help the broadcast media and content provider with its storage solution requirements.

Solar Entertainment Corporation CEO and President Wilson Tieng said, “Our partnership with IBM allows us to increase the storage capacity our IT broadcasting operations require to keep both short-term and long-term archives and databases of shows for all our channels. The additional storage equipment ties in with our growth plans as we intend to keep our audiences continuously happy with the variety of shows we line up everyday. Our operations team is also freed up from manually updating and maintaining our databases and we don’t need to worry about technology obsolescence, because IBM manages and supports our storage requirements for the foreseeable future.”

According to Solar’s Technical team, they are using approximately more than 1 Terabyte of storage as part of their daily requirements in archiving data, media and databases in which they will be needing more or less 430Terabytes of storage space in the next 365days.

“Providing the necessary storage capabilities and helping manage their archiving infrastructure will enable Solar Entertainment to focus on their core business, while taking advantage of exceptional operational efficiencies and cost savings,” said James Velasquez, Country General Manager, IBM Philippines. “IBM is excited to work with Solar Entertainment on this strategic project as they continue to improve and expand their business to provide top notch entertainment for Filipinos.”

When our external dvd drive broke that we’re using for backup I requested for an immediate replacement from our purchasing people. Our suppliers gave us the Samsung SE-S084 Slim External DVDRW. Here’s the unboxing photos:

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Quick Review

PROs: Slim, quick, no drivers required
CONs: USB cable could be longer

PJ Lhuillier Incorporated (PJLI)recently strengthened its IT infrastructure with IBM BladeCentre servers and IBM’s latest eX5 systems to support the company’s continuous growth nationwide. PJ Lhuillier is the company behind the 1,500 Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop (CLP) branches nationwide.

The new IBM systems will also help PJLI address increasing customer demands and better prepare for the anticipated surge of business transactions in the last quarter of the year.

According to the news released, the IBM – PJLI team-up was first established in 1996, where PJLI made its first IBM server acquisition. This continuous enhancement is one of the manifestations of PJLI’s goal in providing the best service to its clients, truly living up to its slogan “Walang Kapantay Magpahalaga.”

The IBM Blade Centre server is a highly integrated system comprising of blade servers, storage, management and networking options which help reduce management complexity, increase performance and energy-efficiency. It also significantly reduces costs with a highly reliable and flexible design that deters the need for “rip and replace” as capacity needs change.

As part of the solution, IBM BladeCentre HS22 blade servers will provide hot-swap drives and integrated systems management tools, common across all new x86 servers, to help improve the economics of PJLI’s current infrastructure, including fueling faster performance to a reduction in IT footprint, energy and connectivity costs.

Although I can’t afford to acquire IBM BladeCenter for our company, Going Straight Salon, Inc.  have been running IBM Servers X series for more than 5 years because of it’s reliability and stability.