Bancnet

Bancnet is considered to be the first and is now, the largest Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Consortium in the Philippines. It is the first multi-bank, multi-channel electronic payment network in the country. Bancnet enables its customers to transact, not only at any ATM anywhere, anytime, but also through Point-Of-Sale (P.O.S.), the Internet or through the use of mobile phones. Aside from the traditional cash withdrawal service at the ATM, Bancnet also provides a wide range of services through different channels, such as balance inquiry, checkbook re-order, statement request, interbank fund transfer, payment of bills, prepaid phone and Internet reloading, payment of purchases by direct debit to account, and remittance of taxes, Philheatlh and Social Security System contribution and loan repayments. Through interconnection with other ATM consortia in the country (Expressnet & Megalink) and International ATM & P.O.S. networks (Diners Club, Discover Card, JCB, MasterCard, Union Pay and VISA), Bancnet provides cardholders not only the widest nationwide access to their accounts but worldwide convenience as well.

During our visit last April 5, 2013 we were fortunate enough to listen to Bancnet leaders. The company has Core Values abbreviated as ExCI^2Te which stands for Excellence, Concern for the Individual, Integrity, Innovation and Teamwork. Having these core values embedded to your employees will definitely give you more productivity and competitive advantage. During the talk, I was very amazed on how Bancnet evolved or as they say, Innovation never ends. From an ATM consortium they partnered with multi-national companies, acquired IT infrastructures, provided leading technologies to various organizations and supported different sectors of our government. Their network truly expanded throughout the years. Despite this, if we really look at it the company is not that huge. When the speaker asked us to guess their number of employees all of us expected it to be in hundreds or even thousands. We were very surprised when they said they were only 55. I guess numbers are not the only basis for success. What is really important is the quality of service your company gives to the customers.

The class while waiting for the talk

The Speakers with Ms. Abesamis

ATM for Testing

Play Money

98M Account Balance :>

The class

JP Morgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.2 trillion that has been in operation for more than 200 years. With 220,000 employees in more than 60 countries including the Philippines, the firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers, small business and commercial banking, financial transaction processing, asset management, and private equity.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. began operations in the Philippines in 1961 with a representative office. Since then our firm has expanded its presence into a fully integrated franchise in the Philippines, including Investment Banking and Treasury and Securities Services.

Last March 26, 2013 our class went to JP Morgan Chase  & Co at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig for another IT-Expo class.  Looking at the company and its environment I can say that it is one of the prestigous multi-national company in the country. The office building  is very big with about 23 floors and the formal environment is very motivating. The security is also very tight, for taking pictures is strictly prohibitted and our bags were carefully inspected. When it comes to their company culture, I can see that they were very kind to accommodate us despite their hectic business agendas. Different people from different departments gave us a talk about their company (Around 6 people). We also toured around their offices and we have discovered that they really put investment in terms of technology. Such as the case wherein there is this conference room wherein there are big screens setup and installed that enables different teams to communicate with the other office located in Cebu.

Breathtaking view from JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Network Labs Visit

Last March 15, 2013 we visited Network Labs Inc. (A Joint Venture of Nokia Siemens Network) for another company visit for the IT-EXPO class. Among all the other visits or seminars we attended this is the most IT-related so it was really fun and interesting.  Network Labs is a one of its kind research and development (R&D) center in Asia that is internationally recognized in the telecommunications industry. NetworkLabs is directly involved in research work and software development for 3G and 4G radio communication networks for NSN and even LTE.

The main speaker Mr. Vanson So is a DLSU alumni an IST graduate of Catch2T6. Besides his talk about the company, it was also interesting hearing his experiences in DLSU like his interaction with Doc Lloyd and Ms. Kiran. I felt comfortable to his talk because I can relate with a lot of things especially about gox experiences. As a fellow Lasallian, I felt proud that he is one of the leaders in Network Labs and I think he is a really good human resources employee trainer.

In the talk of Mr. Vanson he mentioned that they have a unique organizational structure. It is not the usual hierarchical structure wherein there are only a few people on top, but so many at the bottom. In Network Labs, they kind of have a flat structure wherein anyone can voice out his/ her concerns, but there is still a manager to supervise the overall work. Looking at the environment, I noticed that all cubicles look the same which promotes equality and the employees look very comfortable in their workstations. I think this kind of organizational structure is important in companies geared towards technological innovation. This is because a comfortable and less pressured environment promotes confidence to share innovative ideas. This is why, their office has so many leisure places like karaoke bars, pods and relaxing pantries. 

The speaker, Mr. Vanson So

The Network Labs Workstations

Main Pantry

Meeting Pods

Boracay Lounge

         

Karaoke Room

Meeting Room

Brady Corporation Visit

Nowadays, call centers have been increasingly popular as outsourcing also increases. With outsourcing, a firm contracts out some of their jobs to be handled by other companies. Since it can be costly to maintain and keep track of call center equipment and staff, some companies therefore choose to outsource their telephone functions to an external call center. In this case, call center staff from the external company can be trained to answer phone calls from a number of different companies. Over the years, Philippines has become a significant outsourcing destination. BPO in the Philippines has been one of the fastest growing sectors; this is due to its supply of English-speaking professionals, low labor costs and availability of a good telecommunications infrastructure.

An example of this is Brady Corporation which we visited last March 5, 2013. Brady uses various technologies to help them ameliorate their performance and customer experience. The company of course first identify their business strategy to the IT strategy and then to the Infrastructure Technology.

Based on our visit I believe the operations process is the most vital, for controls and manages most of the important business functions. It is the heart of the company because it is handled by the leaders or officers with their agents who directly interacts with the customers. This is why, it should be carefully managed especially with the use of technology. The speaker, Mr. Alan emphasized this very well. IT has a huge role in BPO because it gives the company competitive advantage. It aims to lower total costs, improve efficiency and productivity and increase integration and flexibility. This is why, it should be carefully planned and implemented throughout the organization. To do this, the IT head must be excellent in his/her soft skills. One should always have a positive attitude and must be able to adapt in any environment.  

The speaker, Mr. Alan 

The inside

A closer look

Back to the Voters

Elections have always been a hot topic in our country may it be in schools, organizations, companies especially government. It has been around for so many years now, but a lot of people still fail to see the importance of it. Many citizens feels indifferent whenever elections come and do not maximize their right to suffrage. They won’t even bother to register because it is too hassle for them or even scrutinize the various candidates in their district. I believe than one of the main reasons for this is because these people treat elections a business for the greedy candidates we have. The voters are merely pawns for the selfish desires of senators, congressman and mayors and they will never truly benefit from it. They don’t get their vote’s worth and can’t see the changes in their place.

A better performance assessment process should be in place in our country. Citizens have the right to know all the actions of the leaders to see if they are doing well. Visibility should not stop before and during the elections and campaigns. The more important stage is when the time of incumbency. The projects and platforms they promised to the citizens must be accomplished well. Transparency especially in terms of finance must be given to the citizens.

IT can definitely play a big role in this kind of scenario. Information systems that aims to monitor and distribute vital information (e.g. budget, people involved, rationale, total expenses incurred) about a specific government project can be established, for the citizens to efficiently assess their leaders. With this, future citizens can have a basis for the next elections on who to vote.

All in all, the most important thing that I have learned in this forum is that the citizens should never be afraid to the government leaders. This is a democratic country and we have power over our leaders. We have the right to know all the little things our leaders do and make sure that they do their responsibilities well. The abuse, under the table, bribery and corruption should stop now!  This time, the power must be brought back to where it came from; to the voters. 

Ms. Niña Corpuz as the Forum's Host

Lasallians in the BMPM Election Forum

Avatar Groupwork

1. How do you define an avatar? Enumerate the consensus definition.

    An avatar is an online representation of a computer user that may reflect his/her identity. Since there are different types of computer users, an avatar can be project in different ways. It may be the person's projection or idealization, or it can just be any experimented character that the user wants to be seen as. In short, in can illustrate the user's appearance and personality or it may be the opposite. The appearance of an avatar depends on the computer user's motivation or purpose.

2. Does definition of what character or personality your avatar has would only be defined in the role-playing games? Explain your answers.

    No, an avatar would not only be defined in role-playing games because it is also a representation of oneself. Avatars can be an image of a person in a virtual world and it reflects his/her appearance, hobbies and interests. Basically, there is no rule in creating your own avatar an it can be anything under the sun 

3. Do you want to be defined as an individual or entity virtually based on your avatar or online name? Why or why not.

    The group all wanted not to be judged based on his/her own avatar or online name. Even though we believe that an avatar may be a reflection of one's personality, it cannot fully define you as a person. Your avatar or online name might have a different meaning for other people and they might misinterpret it. This is why it is important that we should not judge a person by merely basing it on the virtual world. 

4. Do you find any significance of having a purposeful avatar or online identity?

    Creating an avatar and treating it as a display picture to any of one's social networks or any online account is important since it represents oneself. It reflects the values, attitudes, and personalities of the owner which might affect on how people should treat the person. Having an interesting avatar also catches the attention of the viewers. At the same time, it can also tell something about the activities of a person.

5. Does having multiple characters imply negative or positive impact to the person? Give at least two examples and explain your answers.

    Having multiple characters online can actually bring both positive and negative impacts to the person.

    Example #1: A blogger changes his display picture or avatar from a basketball player to a golf player. Let's say from Lebron James to Tiger Woods because he decided to form a new content for his blog because of the change in his interests.

    Positive: Due to the change of his display picture, it might catch the attention of his followers which will cause the users to visit his page. This means that there is a big change that a lot of people will see his blog. It can also be a good part for the owner because he had this freedom to change the picture according to the type of article he is working on. Moreover, the new avatar will speak for the owner's work itself.

    Negative: Changing the display picture can cause people to unfollow the owner maybe because they don't recognize or they are not familiar with the new image. This means that a fewer number of people will read the blog. Changing the image in this case also means taking the risk since the owner is not yet sure of his specific audience because a change of theme also means change of audience. It might bring a hard time for the owner to look for new followers.

    Example #2: A Yahoo! Messenger user changes her avatar from a simple to an exaggerated one.

    Positive: She was able to have this sense of fulfillment of using the application's features about customizing the avatar. It's also part of experimenting or editing the avatar because she used it to picture her goal like "a picture of what she wanted to be". It's one way of telling people that there's a change/you want to change.

    Negative: It might not reflect who she really is and her chatmates might have a thinking that she is having a wrong avatar for herself. There might be a misunderstanding that can come along the way.

6. If you will be asked to make an avatar for yourself today as a Social Being in the #Socmed class, how will you draw your avatar? And what #onlinename will you use?

Andrea: I will make my avatar similar to my physical self as much as possible. I will also include some other stuff that can show my likes. For example, I can wear my favorite color or style of outfit. As usual, my online name would be Baorea which orignated from Baolong + Andrea. Baolong is the nickname of my favorite star Jerry Yan back in grade school.

Aica: My avatar should look like me. As much as possible, I want to see it as just a portrait of myself which has been animated. I want to keep it simple since it reflects my personality. The online name I am going to use might be: #aiczkey, #aiczzz, or #glitzyONE. Both #aiczkey and #aiczzz are termed after my nickname. #aiczkey was given to me by a classmate when we were in high school. Some people call me #aiczzz though I introduced myself to them as Aica. #glitzyONE is the username I have for this online game, Gunbound. 

http://aiczzz.blogspot.com/

Luigi:

http://ramoner.blogspot.com/

Bon: I wil make my avatar look like a pirate. I will picture my avatar with a bass guitar. I would name it 'theb0n' or since I always use that online name.

http://arawigum.blogspot.com/

My Avatar

Baorea

via Weemee

This avatar reflects my personality because it shows my favorite color which is green. It also shows my addiction to icecream because it holds a sundae. It's physical appearance is also similar to mine especially the hair and the headband. I also often wear this kind of outfit, so I chose this design.

The Youtube Experience

I have always considered youtube as a spectacular Web 2.0 innovation due to its sharing features that can benefit many people. I can say that youtube has a positive impact to me because I can have the opportunity to access different kinds of information anytime for free. I can listen to the songs of my favourite artists, watch music videos or recent movie trailers and I can see interesting and funny home videos of other people. Youtube is definitely the easiest way to entertainment. Many people are even discovered in here making them “youtube sensations” such as, Charice Pempengco and Arnel Pineda. Furthermore, youtube helps me to share my own videos to my family, friends and even for academic purposes. With this, people from different places are able to share their works and may update us to different happenings and perspectives in the world.

These benefits of youtube also show that we can also use it as a tool to improve education in the Philippines. Since the use of youtube is free as long as you have internet access, students can search for academic videos for their assignments, research papers and other school related works. There are many tutorial videos in almost any subject like Calculus, Algebra, Programming etc. With this, students can have a different kind of learning style because they are able to get information from other people.  Although, one must be careful in choosing credible videos because there are also fake uploaders that shares wrong information. Moreover, people can use youtube as a self-study tool especially if they don’t have the money to get a formal education or hire a tutor/teacher.  

Youtube has existed for a couple of years now and we can really see how it’s slowly evolving. Each day, thousands of people upload their own videos and information gets wider. I believe that in 10 years youtube can have two futures. Youtube can either be very powerful or it can collapse. It can be so powerful that we may not need to use television anymore. This is because, it can be the primary source of business opportunities and advertising. On the other hand, it can also fall because it may not be up-to-date anymore because there will be new kinds of websites or other forms of technology that is better in sharing. Either way, I still believe that youtube is the perfect tool for us to be updated and communicate to other people in the world.

Real Leaders

Blog reaction from: http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2010/08/benjamin-frankl.html

The blog Benjamin Franklin and deliberate practice shows the other side of being a prominent person. We look up to many outstanding persons, and we sometimes tell ourselves we can never be one. We admire their impressive works, yet envy them for their skills, talents and advantages.  “Being great only comes to the selected few,” is the typical belief of people.  However, the story of Benjamin Franklin says otherwise
.

 As a magnificent writer who is idolized by many, I never thought that he also experienced criticism. I was inspired how Benjamin didn’t hesitate to improve all his essays word by word. He doesn’t stop for a certain goal and he continues to achieve higher standards. He does more than what is expected from him and is willing to listen to what others can say. Unlike others who shuts themselves, Benjamin is open for improvements.  His story also proves that “practice makes perfect.” He is very persistent and eager to learn new things which gave him the resolve to do his best.

I hope all leaders can learn from Benjamin’s persistence. They should listen to their colleagues and also be open for improvements. This is because, a real leader must not look in only one view, but different perspectives. Indeed, being great doesn’t t only come to chosen people, but to those people who are eager and determined. 

안녕하세요! - Annyeong Haseyo!

 The year 2004 was probably the time when Korean drama addiction was at its peak in the Philippines. This is why, one of my favorite childhood memories was our family trip in Korea last January 2004 ( I was 10 years old). That tour was my second out of the country trip after Hongkong and I was very excited to see the country that I’ve always adore. I was very thrilled to see the places where my favorite Korean idols go and the famous spots where their dramas are shot. Some of these places are the Lotte World- the amusement park in Stairway to Heaven and Full House, Nami Island from Endless Love Winter Sonata, The Royal Palaces of numerous historical dramas and many more.

The well-known sites are not the only reason why I loved this trip. The trip was very unforgettable because it was my first experience of winter/ snow. I believe many Filipinos also wishes to experience snow since our climate is very hot. As a child, I was envious of the children in other cold countries because they can enjoy the wonders of snow by having snowball fights, making snow mans, creating snow angels and the like. I also had my first ski experience in Korea and it was very fun, yet challenging. It looks easy to do in televisions, but it is actually difficult to balance the ski and smoothly drive into the snow. We went skiing in Mt. Sorak and the temperature was below zero degrees (-15 degrees at most), but I didn’t feel very cold back then because I kept falling while skiing. I also remember when I opened the refrigerator at the hotel to put our ice cream, I thought it was broken because I wasn’t able to feel its chill. I realized that it was because it was colder outside, so I just buried the ice cream in the snow. My childhood friends who were also craving to experience winter, asked me to get them snow “pasalubongs”. As a naïve and foolish kid, what I did was to put balls of snow in a small container and brought it back in the Philippines. Obviously, it melt when I showed them to my friends and we just laughed.

Truly, Korea is such a wonderful place that I would always want to go back to. I hope my friends can also experience going there especially those Kdrama-addicts. They have such wonderful culture and tourist spots that everyone will surely enjoy and love.

 Snow Fight at Nami Island

Mt. Sorak

First Skiing!!

Famous Mural from Stairway to Heaven :">