FROM BRICKS TO CLICKS

The journey from the Old Economy to the New Economy is now part of every Filipino company’s corporate saga. Some foresaw the trend years ago and launched their Internet presence ahead of the pack. Others are just starting to discover the advantages of taking their businesses online and are now joining the mad rush to tag on a .com to their corporate names.

For those whose feet are still firmly planted on traditional ground, it wouldn’t take long before they realize that joining the rest of the business world in cyberspace is the only key to survival.

For top technology solutions provider Systems Standards Inc. (SSI), creating its own niche in the electronic marketplace via a newly launched e-commerce Web portal is not only a matter of making its presence felt in the World Wide Web. It is also about enabling other companies to participate in the rapidly evolving world of e-business.

SSI, a long-time business partner of IBM, is the country’s leading provider of hardware, software and other IT tools and services such as project management, programming, software solutions implementation and customization, IT consultancy, systems integration, networking, and IT education and training.

In August last year, it launched a full service e-commerce Web portal – the Philippine Internet Business Exchange or PhilBX – a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) site designed to make e-commerce a reality for everyone, from small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to multinational firms.

Simple concept

Augusto Lagman, SSI chairman and chief executive officer, says the concept behind PhilBX is simple. "PhilBX enables companies to transact business on the Internet without investing in expensive hardware, software and personnel and allocating precious time to maintenance and training."

"On the B2B side," he says, "we offer an online procurement system for businesses and their suppliers using state-of-the-art technology that fully addresses the purchasing needs of companies from product search all the way to payment."

All that is required of them, he says, is a computer connected to the Internet and a PhilBX subscription pegged at a very competitive price of P2,500 a month (almost the same amount that one pays for a cellular phone subscription). With these, they can now purchase their supplies online and engage in electronic trading.

"It is really our strategy to offer this service at a greatly reduced price to level the playing field between SMEs and large corporations. With this, we are making sure that no company will be left behind in the e-commerce boom," he says. Procurement sites usually charge a percentage fee of the transaction value.

Another advantage: "A supplier here, for example, do not have to subscribe to other exchanges to do global transactions. This is because PhilBX’s counterparts in other countries are using the same software so an exchange-to-exchange transaction is possible."

Easy steps

For the uninitiated, online procurement is as easy as counting one to three. First, a purchaser has to log on to the site: www.philbx.com. Then he takes a look at the catalogue of his suppliers to find the products he needs to purchase. Once he finds those that he needs, he then sends a message to the supplier requesting for a quotation. When the quotation comes in, he goes through the workflow of obtaining approval for the purchase from his superiors or the company’s approving officers.

Once he gets the approval, he now sends the purchase order to the supplier who, in turn, sends a bill once the order is served. Upon receipt of the bill, the purchaser now clicks on the banks with which his company maintains accounts and chooses the account which will pay the supplier. He then gives the payment instructions to the bank.

With these easy steps all done electronically and in one website, the procurement process is completed.

Meanwhile, PhilBX’s B2C component is the Electronic Bills Presentment and Payment (EBPP). The system allows billers to transmit all billing data to the site for consumers registered in the site to access them online.

Under this system, a customer will have to log on to the PhilBX website, request to view his bills online and give instructions to his bank to pay them.

"Our advantage over other online bills payment facilities is that when this feature becomes operational in our site, our customers will only have to log on to one website to pay all his bills – electricity, water, telephone, credit card, insurance, etc. And this service is free," Lagman says.

"For companies," he continues, "the advantage we offer is that by enrolling their company to our EBPP for a very minimal transaction fee, we help them reduce the cost of payment collection."

With these developments in the e-marketplace, it is safe to surmise that more and more businesses will be clicking their way to cyberspace in the coming months or years.