UP Cebu formalizes ties with consultancy firm

CEBU - As almost all major companies have already adopted the Systems Applications Products business solutions for their Enterprise Resource Planning, SAP education partners and service providers find the urge to multiply by a thousand the few existing SAP consultants in the country.

Yesterday, Kaisa Consulting Corp., a premiere SAP education partner, formalized its partnership with the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu College as the latter’s first locator at its Technology Business Incubation (TBI) facility.

Kaisa managing director Teh Opinion said there are only 800 estimated consultants all over the country which is very little compared to hundreds of thousands demanded globally.

Opinion said the Philippines is already behind countries like India, China, Singapore and Malaysia in terms of producing consultants who will assist companies in finding business solutions.

She said using the country’s own manpower is their priority since Filipinos are 60 percent better in quality and the only problem is to cope with the numbers.

Putting a center in UPVCC is Kaisa’s first outside Manila venture to seek for more potential consultants in the south particularly in Cebu who shall undergo intensive and sophisticated trainings in their SAP Academy.

Opinion said they recognize that Cebu is a rising Information and Communications Technology hub which continues to attract more investors.   

Kaisa Business Development Manager Urk Acapulco said they believe there is a lot of potential in the south. He said engaging in this career is a practical step as SAP resources are very in demand that it wouldn’t be too long to find a job. “In fact, a lot of homegrown SAP consultants have been employed by Overseas employers,” said Acapulco.

Kaisa will provide different types of services from Business Consulting, Technical Consulting, Global Delivery Services and Education Services.

For technical services, Kaisa would like to embark in faster way of communication while delivery services will help in business outsourcing, IT sourcing, applications delivery and customer contact services.

Located at UPVCC’s TBI, third floor of the Arts and Sciences building, Kaisa Consulting set up its office and training center equipped with nine computer sets. Kaisa will introduce the online-based training which they call the E-academy, instead of instructor led training so they can get more registrations as online-based courses are 50 percent cheaper.

Judy Maramo, Kaisa education manager, however assured that there will be no difference between the two types of learning systems in terms of quality.

UPVCC Dean Enrique Avila said the partnership with Kaisa promises a lot for the campus. It will not only expose the students to reality but they will be given access to products, services and trainings.

“Students could take advantage of the exposure and they’ll be given assistance in terms of advice. It is always better to learn from real world problems,” Avila said. —Jessica Ann Pareja/BRP (THE FREEMAN)