Catching up with the digital age

We are certainly in the thick of burning issues on corruption of public officials, all of them very prominent. The Senate has been the venue of a public circus televised on national television and covered live by the radio stations. Some good news would be a welcome change.

The digital age is catching up with our youth, I am pleased to note. We do have a wealth of talents here at home, many of them just wanting and waiting in the wings to get the big break. The project of Mr. Manny V. Pangilinan to search for “inventors” not just in the literal meaning of it, but innovators as well, is a giant step towards this. 

The program seeks young people who have novel ideas and have the application in principle to see it to fruition.  Those whose ideas are chosen could get the funding to develop it into a potential moneymaker. It really is a very promising program, with the search launched about two years ago, but I still haven’t heard of any potential blockbuster from the national search.

For a while too, we were making headway in the field of animation so that big universities have included animation in their curriculum. But somewhere along the way, the bubble fizzled out and nothing much came out of it. Other Asian countries have now outpaced us in this promising and very lucrative field but sadly, the Filipino animator or cartoonist has not made a name.

While we have a couple of prominent Filipinos who made a name in Silicon Valley, we still have to develop our own Silicon Valley here. There is no dearth of talent, that’s for sure, but we can’t seem to get our act together here.

One good news I gathered was the recent launch of a cloud-based service for financial management developed by a 100-percent Filipino company. 

Cid Systems is a fairly new company, having been established only in 2013, but this 11-year old company has already developed easy-to-use and affordable software for business application. Their main line has always been web-related: web hosting, web site development and web systems development, but they have since added new business apps. They just developed the Oojeema Online Accounting System which is perfect for small to medium entrepreneurs. 

What we are seeing now is a big surge in entrepreneurship and the company recognized the market demand for such a software. These entrepreneurs are usually bogged down by an accounting system that they may find too complex for their simple operation, or too expensive to maintain.

The Oojeema Online Accounting System is able to do invoices, track inventories, create reports and even do bank reconciliation.  What’s more, they developed the software to include the necessary forms of the Bureau of Internal Revenue so that all one has to do is click, print and the forms are ready for submission to the BIR.

According to the company GM Lumeng Lim whom we interviewed for our television show Business & Leisure, Oojema Online Accounting System was developed to address three main concerns: ease of use, providing smart solutions to general accounting problems, and affordability.

To enroll in the Oojeema program, one needs to pay the subscription of P800/month, but the beauty of it is the subscription can be availed of on a month-to-month basis, meaning one doesn’t have to be tied down to long-term programs or contracts. One can easily opt out of the program, and with their offer of a 30-day free trial account for new applicants, this doesn’t seem to be a bad deal. Plus, the P800/month is the total monthly cash outlay for the subscriber, which already includes maintenance charges, if any.  As they say in poker, it’s all in.

Smart cooking

There is a new line of high-end and smart kitchen appliances in town, which should be good news for modern homemakers and busy career women who do not have the luxury of time, or are not inclined to spend too much time in the kitchen.

Midea recently launched this line called The New Wave of Cooking with executive chef Rob Pengson doing live demonstrations during the recent product launch using the Midea microwave oven, induction cooker, multi-cooker and rice cooker.

This is a new name in the Philippines, but Midea is actually already an established global brand, one of the biggest producers of consumer appliances.  It was established in 1968 in China with a full range of household appliances, from the entry level to the advanced level, according to Mr. Philip Trapaga, general manager of Midea here in the Philippines.

Midea has entered into a joint venture with the Concepcion Industrial Corp. to bring to the Philippines this smart line of appliances, which include washing machines, refrigerators and even air conditioners, apart from their kitchen line. The company’s claim is that all their appliances are energy efficient. To quote Mr. Trapaga verbatim: “To wash with our washing machine, it’s P1.” The same claim goes for their microwave ovens where meals can be cooked “daw” for as low as P1, according to the same source. Really?  That’s a very bold claim indeed. In this age of exorbitant and soaring power rates, it should be interesting to verify if one can indeed wash and cook a meal for P1.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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