Fact: IT Matters!

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Peter Drucker

Change is undeniable in all aspects – it’s like a wave of inevitable and rapid series of events happening in the world especially in the technology realm. Adaptation is vital so one must not be left behind. Following the trend is the way before, but creating the trend is what works now.

Whether one likes it or not, Information Technology matters; and its a fact. I take myself as one witness of breaking the resistance to change. Before undergoing this course, my mind already has been filtered of views limiting IT as hard, usage may be unnecessary in one’s personal life and as an additional workload in the workplace.

Going through the different topics opened my mind that IT is a good partner for everyone to lighten one’s load if only utilized correctly and anchored with proper understanding and adequate knowledge.

The IT Course didn’t only gave me a strategic value as manager, but helped me to be a responsible user of this said technology, the awareness of it’s impact to people connected to me: my family, friends, colleagues and even my superiors. From being an IT resister, I have now become an IT ambassadress – because again, it’s a fact that IT really matters.

Social Media: A Gift of Fire

Every human being is designed with a relational way of living. No one is an island – everyone has its share of feeling of belongingness and acceptance. One always wanted to be heard, to speak out and some just to hear someone else’s views and sentiments.

I believe that social media has been a great tool for communication. It compressed the world’s voices into various applications and social sites. Culture now emerged in just one click away – different travel diaries for reference, where the best food can be found in certain locations that will fit your mood on a friend of friend’s post, and the list goes on. It has been a grocery cart for all people’s sharing of whereabouts, health guide, stands on all issues (political, emotional, physical, intellectual, etc).

Social media has now become a need. I consider that at the right usage level, it has brought benefits to my personal and career development. For instance, Linkedin helped me a lot in choosing the best company to work for custom fit to my potential and preferences without having the stress of rushing through all job posts available. Some career tips and additional knowledge through different video clips and tutorial presentations added strategic value to my career bank. Facebook and other similar mainstream, also gave me a chance to reconnect with my old peers, catch up and share each other’s experiences broadened my horizon. Work and church groups sharing also developed my way of thinking and brought encouragement when I need it.

On the other side, I would not let social media consume me. It’s undeniable that sometimes it’s quite addictive but does not justify the latter for investing all your time into it. Self control and priority checklist are the keys for responsible use of social media.

As a responsible user of social media, I will:

1. Spend only one hour for any of my social media site used every day.
2. I will one week fast every 3 months and used that time for personal recollection.
3. I will find time untagging all other strangers (who I wasn’t keen accepting before) so as to secure my friends’ privacy and mine as well, and eliminate got along to their posts that may not be necessary for me to come across to.
4. Will encourage my family and friends during meal time or reunion bonding to leave our phones behind to maximize our time with each other (we can use cameras not on our phones to capture moments).
5. I will turn my phone silent before going to bed, not placing it on my headboard anymore (anywhere a little away from my bed) so I will have peaceful sleep and healthy lifestyle.

(Committed this 17^th of March 2016)

Millennial Age: Piracy Prevalence

“Piracy is the best distribution system.” –  Manfred Wong

The growing piracy business has made the Philippines one of thirty-one countries that supposedly has a larger market for illegal software than for commercial software. (International Intellectual Property Alliance 2005)

I believe that the economic liberalization in the country have provided the means for the distribution of pirated software supported by the digital technologies that we currently have. The exchange value invested by the producing company and the real value of the inclusions with it can be very different. The challenge lies in the economic notions of value and price setting in line with the cost of reproduction and distribution of this software.

Given the platform of most of us having comparatively low salaries and disposable income, it does not suffice the act of using pirated software. Justifying monetary deprivation with a wrongdoing will never correct the situation, as I am never an advocate of piracy software nor have I used one.

In order to contest this prevalent piracy dilemma, aside from the list of government sanctions and corrective actions, software companies must develop new forms copy protection wherein it is engineered by the industry itself. The software itself must also be inclusive of anti-piracy approaches like serial numbers, CD-keys, encryption, manual references, registration requirements, and installation restrictions.

Software piracy, and other form of piracy doesn’t only include the legal consequences, but attached to it is the ethical and moral issues as well – that can affect your reputation and standing in the professional and personal community. Piracy won’t be eradicated until users agree on as one that it is wrong and take a unified credence to do away with it.

 

KNOWLEDGE: A Power When Shared

“You become the company you keep, so choose the relationships you want to nurture wisely.”

Knowledge is everywhere – this is what we are told in these days of internationalization and globalization. Given in our organization where culture and sub culture context take into place, as we mediate the international customs of multinational principals into domestic context needs in the country; knowledge management may make perfect sense on some organizational regions and maybe impractical and inapplicable on the other.

The good thing about knowledge management in our case if applied to our platform, as seventy percent  of our workforce, are tracked on field,  easier updates and reusability of resources as it eliminates duplicate of information thus raises employee’s confidence  of utilizing the right information. To add, knowledge management increase sense of community and loyalty amongst cross functional departments as everyone are well familiarize with the best practices they have in and familiarization with the opportunity in tuned along with the experts on the organization. It also brings along reinforcement on sense of belongingness increasing employees’ loyalty.

 

The barriers of Knowledge Management implementation in multinational distributors accommodating multiple and diverse clients across different channels in consumer and pharmaceutical trade are respectively technology as our planning team may be in trap of having a decision on what platform or software to use that maybe unimplemented due to financial reasons as we are just profiting in margins; stringent routines and procedures of the organization may be in crisis if the latter vision will not link into reality.

But it can be combated through more formalized task of knowledge management – is to lead and execute activities to support and enhance the connectedness of people, content, technology and routines within the organisation and to take ownership of the process.

On a personal note, I believe that knowledge is power to everyone who possesses it. But knowledge dissipates thus hoarding knowledge is not powerful in terms on the organization context as nobody can replicate that knowledge and it can be long gone. Sharing knowledge is empowerment because it sanctions people to make the right decisions at the right time because that knowledge is a product of emerged shared awareness and purpose. Bottom-line is shared knowledge empowers people to proactive realm thus making an organization relevant in today’s fast and changing landscape.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: The Wise Trend

How can you mark the top planned resolutions for your organization if you’re spending more stint trying to find the data, than certainly evaluating it?

Given the challenging global milieu with shorter business phases and deviations in the competitive setting, organizations must be alert in order to endure and be up-and-coming.

 

Organizations that have a flawless approach for consolidating and standardizing data for both calculated and deliberate tenacity can hasten their business decisions to help them stay in the fast-paced market – made possible through Business Intelligence.

Organizations will be encouraged if they can do/be the following with Business intelligence:

• Empowered to make decisions based on facts and not gut feelings
• Utilize their data creating intellectual decisions on markets to breach and ventures to pursue
• Have a proactive approach to decision making leading to competitive edge among competitors
• Have an accurate outlook of the entire organization in one setting

I believe that the biggest growth area in operational BI analysis is in the area of business performance management since there’s a vivid platform for the selection of goals,consolidation of measuring progress vis-a-vis these goals. Thus interventions made by managers in lieu of the latter to improve future performance inclusive of pay raise versus performance is well-defined.

The catch of Business Intelligence efficacy relies on the rewarding approach in giving employees the gist of its value rather than punitive manner blocking their appreciation with its utilization.

Most organizations already have the critical skill that’s looked-for to support their success. But merely having information isn’t sufficient — it’s how the data is used that creates distinction between the successful organizations from those that are struggling.

 

 

Online Shopping

“Cinderella is a proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life.”

Online shopping has become a trendy shopping routine ever since the internet has acknowledged a takeover.  The pros of being an online consumer are you are able to save time, fuel, energy which is great gain. Added on the cart are the wide range of price comparisons, 24/7 availability, easy to maneuver the search merchandise and of course avoiding the “hate waiting line” scenario.  However the drawbacks are that you are not able to check the actual product beforehand and your instant satisfaction of shopping diminish given the lead time of delivery.

 

 

My top three product choice in online shopping which I do buy with my sisters are tops/dresses, shoes and bags. These stuff are quite effortless to mix and match online on your personal mood of fashion given the enormous selection they have. Size is not an issue for me since I’m on the average line, and I haven’t experience any return because of wrong estimation on the latter. For women who wants happy wardrobe, online shopping address this need without making our wallets empty.

The other set that I may not buy instantly online would be: mobile phones, laptops and other gadgets. I’m quite an over thinker when it comes to handling of these products, and I have the tendency to think that maybe I might not have seen the minor deficiencies even to the lightest scratch prior to receiving, may cause me to procrastinate over it on why did I do buy the stuff. It gives me peace and assurance if I do personal check on these products and rather buy it on the brick and mortar stores than online.

Lastly, the batch that i would never consider buying online would be: car, beauty products and medicines. It is vital to have test drive and check all car parts and accessories prior to buying as this involves personal safety and to note comfort as well since the latter would be your buddy when travelling. Beauty products must be essentially check for a test to avoid allergies and skin irritation – and I will never risk my skin over convenience. Same is true with medicines which a make or break decision prior to intake thus doctor’s prescription are more reliable than online advise.

Online shopping is limited up to the consumer’s point of view and choices. It may be beneficial for some and not for the others. But on a personal note, I started to enjoy its benefits on the stuff I prefer buying online.

REAL WIRELESS

“Wireless technology changes quickly. These advances in wireless tech are therefore worth watching.”

Wireless technology is literally all around us. Because wireless tech is so pervasive, and because businesses rely on wireless tech now more than ever, it’s also constantly improving and evolving.

Regardless of the industry you are in, the technological tools we bring into play nowadays are deeply altering and swiftly developing an innovative mode of doing business.

As wireless networking moves into the mainstream, Zuellig Pharma find that wireless tech offers undeniable business benefits – and can even improve public perception, and introduce new, “cutting edge” mechanisms for customer interaction.

Seen directly, wireless solutions can improve the connectedness of a workforce and enhance decision-making by providing faster access to more current information. The more mobile the workers like us where mostly 70% are in sales, the greater the demand for the seamless communications that can be offered by wireless connectivity.

Indirectly, wireless tech can improve worker satisfaction by providing easier, more flexible access options. Establishing a Wireless LAN will give employees tremendous flexibility, and reduce potential service interruptions. Thus will improve productivity through better communications, have efficient access to business-critical data, faster product delivery times, increase employee and customer satisfaction and reduce connection costs.

Though relatively easy to use and access, wireless networks are not always safe networks. For this reason, we need to learn how to protect our wireless networks from malicious intrusions. We can take some guidelines that we can follow to increase our network’s protection (by IT security group):

• Increase your security by enabling network encryption
• Make sure you have a good firewall
• Protect the devices that connect most frequently to your wireless network
• Ensure that your operating system patches and firewall software are up-to-date

In the end, the opportunities of wireless technologies greatly outweigh the challenges. It’s a continuous trend in any realm that will always have its spot.

 

 

 

Outsourcing – A Modern Phenomenon

Outsourcing seems to have alleged an overpowering occurrence in the modern world. While the trend of outsourcing has diverse advantages, it has its share of drawbacks.

IT security costs are among the most expensive in modern businesses and most businesses goes a long way in achieving higher returns in less cost. Although outsourcing tasks such as call handling or cleaning is easy, outsourcing IT security can be a risk or costly if not done properly.

The advantages of outsourcing managed security are cost efficiency, superior technology and expertise, and support.

For instance, in running an in-house security team means hiring and paying salaries and benefits, creating office space and overall operational costs. By outsourcing IT security, you pay for services only.

Also, when outsourcing IT security, you hire a company whose sole business is securing other businesses. This means, managed IT security service providers have the best hardware and software and skilled personnel, thus no need to acquire the said technology which is expensive and counterproductive for the business that don’t specialize in IT security.

Security is a sensitive area and so all managed IT security service providers offer support all-day, all year as long as the contract is valid. Your business is secured always and time it takes to resolve IT security issues is minimal.

 

However, there are consequences as well with the latter – loss of control, quality and the risk.

When you hand over IT security to another company, it means you will have to accept the terms they propose – full control is not in your hands. Changing such software would be breaching contract with the managed security service provider.

Although rare, hiring managed security service providers known to compromise quality for profits is a security risk. To prevent this, researching before signing a contract and asking for service level agreements is advisable.

Risk is a hot issue as well, trusting a different company with your intellectual property, can be hard. Most managed security service providers have well-known reputation and track record.

It is advisable to conduct research before signing up and include requisites for the confidentiality agreement suited to organizations need and drive; backed by law and insurance. This means your managed security service provider will never sell your data to your competitor. Most managed security service providers will also insure the company they are securing in case of data loss.

Weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing IT security, I suggest that if the organization is interested with the value offering in addressing its needs, then they must not let the few disadvantages stop their pursuit.

 

 

 

 

Manager’s Cursor in IT Success

Organizational systems embody the rudiments of a business – its people, work processes, tasks and structure & control systems – and the plan that enables them to work powerfully to achieve business goals. If the company’s IS falling short to shore up the organizational systems, the outcome will be the misalignment of the resources needed to realize its goals.

Managers when making foremost IS decisions must collaborate with the staff of the ensuing changes in their daily work – lest will lead to costly mistakes stirring in the business every day. Setting out technology without assessing the course how in fact be used in the organization – who will utilize it, how they will apply it, and how to make sure the applications selected will actually accomplish what is intended – marks in significant expense.

Involving in IT resolutions means conveying a vivid set of skills to the company’s table. All managers are asked to take on tasks that necessitate diverse skills at different times. It is vital that managers must have essential skills to the respective moral fibre – being a visionary, structured and informational & interpersonal, if they wish to take part effectively in key IT decisions.

At the outset, managers must be visionary or be able to provide leadership and direction for the group by being creative, curious, confident, flexible and focused on business solutions.

Secondly, they must have the informational and interpersonal skills to be able to provide information and knowledge the group needs to be successful. Thus, managers must have good communication & listening skills, efficiently gather information and be engaging.

Finally, managers must be structured in order to organize the group. The latter must be proficient in project management, analytical, organized and competent in planning, leading & organizing.

These set of skills doesn’t only emphasize understanding, organizing, planning and solving the business needs of the organization but also it is an excellent checklist for all managers’ professional growth.

The manager, who, nevertheless is charged with ensuring that company resources are used in actual fact; must guarantee that the company’s IS support its organizational systems and that changes made in one system are reflected in the other.

Singaporean Information Study, Susan Ellen Higgins

Managing Information Systems, Carol Saunders

Information Technology: The Best Sales Partner for Millennials

The world is changing rapidly and technology is driving those changes – much more in the business world. As I continue venturing in my career in sales, almost all sales teams and managers everywhere are using social, mobile, big data, and cloud services. Information technology created a DNA in changing the way everyone does business.

In today’s globe, competitive advantage for sales organizations depends largely upon the knack to effectively capture, manage, and analyze immense volume of customer data that contains handy into customer behaviors and buying routine.

Good thing is millennial sales professionals like me are provided with big data analytic tools which directs my sales efforts to the most promising and profitable activities and customers. To note, lead intelligence tools is a big help during my daily buying process given the time savvy prospect solutions; especially that buyers in this day and age also valuate the provided information within every transaction online.

Then I realize that sales workforce role is no longer the traditional one of just providing information about the product per say. But rather our role now is to add value by understanding the needs of a customer. Only those who make the transition of emerging sales into technological selling will have a future in sales.

The thrust of my job is constant travelling and frequent sales calls; using sales and marketing technology boost my productivity, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. That’s the wonderful thing about technology—it not only makes us competent to improve our jobs but also enables us to do them in a more satisfying and productive way.

Take in – the social media. Social media platforms like Facebook provide opportunities for me not only to keep in touch with my personal colleagues but to “shake hands” with customers, engaging them in conversations about products and services for valuable insights with personal touch, that eventually could lead to a sale. Moreover, it widens my network of career opportunities unlike the conventional way of career advancement.

Another good to go with IT is the E-learning to educate. I find over training detrimental and push technique over ability. Instead, to create healthy team lifestyle, my boss send out reminders via email or encouragements via smartphone, thus enforcing helpful habits without totally overwhelming us.

The sales credo nowadays is not just about knowing what brand of coffee the buyer drinks. Instead, it’s about identifying the experience that the buyer wants to have as they consider making a purchase in your market. It’s always our job to exceed the expectations set before us in order to survive in the never-ending hungry world of business. You can’t exceed them if you don’t understand and outlive information technology.