Software solutions

Looking back, “computer software” was not yet a fad or used “universally” as a management tool by medium and small-sized companies especially in the Philippines in the early 1960s. And lately, even if there is an upsurge in the use of computer software as a management tool by large industries, it can be assumed that small and medium-sized industry owners are not yet fully exposed to the reality of the importance of using new technical advances in computer software that could drastically and tremendously increase production of goods and services at a significant reduction in cost of operation, increasing efficiency and managerial and technical know-how of personnel, and hence earning better, if not huge profits in the process.

Although I am not a computer bug, I became interested in the beneficial contribution that computer software could provide in the management of industries in the different sectors of the economy of the country. For instance, using the explanation provided by Rene Mader, a Swiss-American investor who organized Arkipel, Inc. in the Philippines, I roughly figured out that the owner of a printing company which is using manually-operated commercial printing machines could drastically and tremendously increase production or output, reduce cost of operation, increase market coverage, and dramatically increase his profit with the adoption and installation of “brain-computer software” to his machines with the advice and guidance of a software management consulting company.  

In casual conversations with professional economists, engineers and sociologists I found out that there could be “1,000 and one” applications of “computer software” i.e. in projects ranging from among others, agro-industrial development, agri-forestry development, infrastructure, human resources development, marketing/sales service, and health services (as in the case of home health), etc.  

In this day and age, in order for businesses to increase their chances of success, it will be well to consult and hire the “computing” services of a “management solutions company” to help them increase the efficiency of their “backroom” operations and free them to concentrate on creative aspects of running their companies. 

Being a novice about the intricacies of computer operation, I asked my nephew, a senior ICT student at Rizal Technological University, what “computing” means: simple, anything that has to do with computers. So Arkipel provides computer services that live up to its name as a purveyor of “21st Century Utility Computing.”

  A friend told us he wished Arkipel had entered the scene when his business was doing well years back. If it had, his business would have continued to flourish. Arkipel’s computing utility management solution would, as it does with its client companies today, create systems to take care of in-house computing concerns like making warehouses operate efficiently,  checking on a fleet of trucks’ running on schedule, taking care that retail stores and commissaries are well-stocked, and checking that accounting and  personnel departments are doing their job.

To put it simply, Arkipel takes care of a client company’s computing needs, assures confidentiality of the company’s information data and security so that the information is not corrupted by hackers or lost during calamities like fires and earthquake, etc.

Another important Arkipel solution benefit is charging computing infrastructure at a lower cost than when the company manages its own computing system.

One rents Arkipel’s computing services at a reasonable cost of P45,000 a month, starting  only when the services have been started. The amount can go up depending on the client’s needs. An Arkipel founding owner says, “If a company can save enormous amounts of money in start-up costs simply by having its computer needs served up online, why not? Invest that money elsewhere.”

According to our friend, Arkipel provides the manpower and the computer hardware to make its solutions work. “This allows massive savings on the part of the business owner who would otherwise have to shell out millions of pesos to purchase computer mainframes, back-up mainframes and related accessories. It also saves him the need to hire his own technical engineers who he’d have to pay on a monthly basis.”

“But the biggest savings of all is the cost of trial and error, which can run up to millions,” says our friend. “Arkipel delivers its business solutions to its clients debugged of glitches. The entire business owner’s need is a computer terminal and an Internet connection, and the information he would need (e.g. delivery schedules, inventory stock positions, cash status, etc.) could be accessed at the press of a button.”

Rene has a degree in physics from the University of California Berkeley, but his resume describes him as “enterprise database architect/software engineer.” The company’s name, Arkipel, is a derivative of the Philippine archipelago, which Rene fell in love with when he fell in love with and married  a Filipina. His wife is not involved in the business, but his mother-in-law, computing expert Mildred Dominguez, is the company CEO. They set up the solution integration and utility computing company in Mandaluyong in 2011, and since then, Rene has conducted seminars and visited companies, hotels and schools some of which, although having thousands of students, are not yet in step with cyberspace intelligence or at least share it with the students. To his surprise, some schools allow students to handle the computers in their laboratories one hour a week, and never by themselves. Such a practice does not make for future global cyberspace specialists.

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True to form, former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel  strongly clamors for the implementation of RA 10354, or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012. In a motion for reconsideration filed with her peers, she has asked the Supreme Court to lift the status quo ante (SQA) order it issued two weeks ago stopping the law’s implementation for 120 days.

The 25-page motion said maintaining the SQA order is “neither desirable nor essential, nor is it equitable.”

President Benigno Aquino III signed the law last December. Contrary to the position of petitioners contesting the law, she said the law does not violate any specific provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Risa, who is running for a senatorial seat in the May 13 election, said the law has undergone 15 years of exhaustive deliberations in Congress. “All of the issues raised in the petitions currently assailing RA 10354’s constitutionality were discussed and debated at length, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with the outcome of these debates being directly considered in determining the final text of the law.”

The Executive branch, in consultation with citizens, civil society groups, and various stakeholders has already issued the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the law.

There are currently 10 separate pleadings contesting the law with a separate motion to intervene from Hontiveros’ camp in support of the law.

Hontiveros said RA 10354 does not violate any of the constitutional provisions, “does not violate the dignity of every human person nor does it undermine the guarantee of full respect for human rights.”

According to Hontiveros, the newly-enacted law assures “universal access” to medically-safe, non-abortifacient, effective, legal and affordable and quality reproductive health care services.”

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