T hereâs much business and much money to make in the world of high technology, an d no, the possibilities arenât just for Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.
ÂI n the January-February 2008 issue, SME Insight takes an in-depth look at successful homegrown tech companies.
ÂT hereâs Seer Technologies, a lean-but-mean software company tha t has managed to rack in millions in sales from top clients like Skycable and P LDT. Find out how they made their mark with just a handful of people on board.< /font>
Â< strong>Level Up! Games Philippines is best known for its massively mul tiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) Ragnarok. But thereâs more to Level Up than just Ragnarok, as CEO Jane Walker tells us.
ÂT
hen thereâs everybodyâs favorite Internet café, Netopia. Did
you know that it started as just a small place on
O nline buyers have been patronizing Regalo Service for its gift registry and shopping services. And all it took to get the word around was the power of blog marketing.
ÂF inally, we zero in on a âperpetual trade fair onlineâ run by Global Tra de Philippines. The fact that the company is in turn run by two very y oung people whose mission is to bring foreign buyers and exporters together mak es this company particularly interesting.
ÂE lsewhere in the magazine, get to know the pretty lady behind the hot Zen Zest s tores and Scent Station kiosks â Michelle Asence Dula â as she tells us how she started her empire and made it grow.
ÂT hen Roberto Castañeda reveals how he stumbled upon making wine from yellow and green mangoes. As he says, âIf Europeans have the grape wine, the Filipinos ha ve the mango wine.â
ÂA side from our features, we also have our meaty Toolbox section, with articles o n the art of closing a sale, availing of the tax amnesty, getting results with publicity, identifying leadership, using Six Sigma in operations, dealing with labor unions, and managing project quality.
ÂI tâs another power-packed issue of SME Insight. Now at your favorite bo okstores and magazine stands.
  Â
By Gabriel Mercado
New business intelligence software and ways to deal with viruses and ma
lware
Let's say your SME occasionally runs special projects that involve certain empl
oyees dropping whatever they are doing so they can take time to do certain task
s. How much money do you lose whenever they do that? Is the time away from work
worth it? How much money is saved or made when they work on it anyway? Will it
justify hiring new staff just for that purpose?
What if your company warehouse is maintaining inventory of several thousand dif
ferent products as well as caring for company equipment that cannot be stored a
nywhere else. How much company resources are being spent on doing so exactly? I
s it more cost efficient to separate the two? Sometimes it feels as if it's mor
e trouble than it is worth so why not outsource the job? But wait, before you d
o that, why not find out just how efficient it is so you'll know if you did the
right thing?
Most likely, the examples I stated above are simplistic. In truth, business peo
ple have questions about their organization that range from the mundane to the
scientific, with many variations in between. Or sometimes it's just a feeling t
hat something is not right, that an issue is not being addressed or a task is n
ot being efficiently done the right way.
There are certain types of software built to answer such questions -- questions
that go far beyond what typical accounting software and especially a spreadshe
et can provide. Typically called Business Intelligence, Wikipedia describes the
se as technologies, applications and practices for the collection, analysis, in
tegration and presentation of business information.
In short, it's a step beyond off-the-shelf accounting software where you will n
eed to sit down with consultants and experts to thoroughly discuss what type of
data you are looking for in order for them to customize a way for you to view
information you need to make decisions. Information that can be simple or far m
ore complex than the examples I stated above can be made more specific to the k
ind of business you are running and the way you want to run it.
Read the full story in the January-February issue of SME Insight Magazine
