Cloud computing seems to be the buzzword in the IT world today. Loosely speaking, it refers to software delivered as a service through the internet. Traditionally, software has always been bought on a licensed basis and installed and run on servers in a company’s data center. Cloud computing turns that concept around with a subscription model. It's like how we get our electricity now: we simply subscribe to Meralco, and pay on a monthly basis. We don’t need to install and operate our own power generation system in our houses.
We are actually using cloud computing without our knowing it. Every time we send or receive email using Gmail or Yahoo, we are relying on the email infrastructure of Google or Yahoo, without needing own email servers, or figuring out the necessary email protocols. We just simply logon on our browsers, unaware of the thousands of servers powering the email system.
In fact, Google has extended their email service to organizations and businesses. They are offering the service for free to schools and universities. This means that Google schools with a *.edu domain can have their emails hosted with Google at no cost. This makes sense as schools and universities have hundreds and thousands of email users, and at the same time have limited budget for IT. For businesses, a paid subscription model is provided by Google with their Google Apps service.
The advantage of using a cloud (the cloud refers to the internet as commonly indicated in network diagrams) is that it eliminates the concerns about the infrastructure, hardware, licenses, backups, maintenance, and upgrades, not to mention the IT personnel needed to support the application and the obsolescence typical of hardware . Since the services are delivered over the web, only a web browser is needed, together of course with a reliable internet service.
Commonly vendors charge on a per user basis. Consequently, IT costs are easily predictable and can scale up as needed. There is no need to have an army of IT personnel or the expense of hardware or software licenses.
Some other vendors such as Salesforce.com and Netsuites are making Enterprise Resource Packages (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services available as web services. Instead of using Quickbooks, for example, companies can sign up for an Accounting web service, that can be up and running in no time.
For small and medium sized business, especially in the Philippines, cloud computing services are very attractive. Combined with the use of open-source software, these can go a long way to bring down the cost of IT services for companies.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
How To Invest in the Stock Exchange
Say you have some spare cash sitting in the bank, but are unhappy with the interest rates. One option is to invest that money in the stock exchange.
Of course, investing in stocks is a high-risk activity, especially if done in the short-term. The following advise is for long term investing.
How to buy stocks? The best is to transact online through your bank like BPITrade or trading facilities such as Citiseconline.com. Set aside an amount and start buying stocks.
How to choose which stocks to buy? The idea is to invest in a group of stocks, called an index. For the Philippines, there is what is known as the (Phil Stock Exchange) PSE index, which is a group of 30 stocks that have been selected from various industries and are known to be good performing (mostly blue-chip stocks).
When to sell? For long-term, turn-over is usually after 18 months. Otherwise, you can essentially keep the stocks forever and reap the stock dividends.
Disclaimer: The advise above is at your own risk. I am advising from an amateur's perspective. Get professional advise if needed.
Here is the PSE Index list, together with their stock symbols:
1. Ayala Corporation AC
2. Aboitiz Equity Ventures AEV
3. Alliance Global Group, Inc. AGI
4. Ayala Land ALI
5. Aboitiz Power AP
6. Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. BDO
7. Bank of the Philippine Islands BPI
8. DMCI Holdings Inc DMC
9. Energy Development Corporation EDC
10. First Gen Corporation FGEN
11. Filinvest Land FLI
12. First Philippine Holdings Corporation FPH
13. Globe Telecom GLO
14. GMA Network GMA7
15. International Container Terminal Services Inc. ICT
16. Jollibee Foods Corporation JFC
17. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company LC and LCB
18. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company MBT
19. Megaworld Corporation MEG
20. Manila Electric Company MER
21. Manila Water Company MWC
22. Philippine Stock Index PSE
23. Philex Mining Corporation PX
24. Robinsons Land Corporation RLC
25. Security Bank Corporation SECB
26. SM Investments Corporation SM
27. San Miguel Corporation SMC and SMCB
28. SM Prime Holdings SMPH
29. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company TEL
30. Universal Robina Corporation URC
PS New changes to the index last Nov 2009. New inclusions: DMC, SBC, and PSE. Removed from the list: ABS, RCB, VLL.
Of course, investing in stocks is a high-risk activity, especially if done in the short-term. The following advise is for long term investing.
How to buy stocks? The best is to transact online through your bank like BPITrade or trading facilities such as Citiseconline.com. Set aside an amount and start buying stocks.
How to choose which stocks to buy? The idea is to invest in a group of stocks, called an index. For the Philippines, there is what is known as the (Phil Stock Exchange) PSE index, which is a group of 30 stocks that have been selected from various industries and are known to be good performing (mostly blue-chip stocks).
When to sell? For long-term, turn-over is usually after 18 months. Otherwise, you can essentially keep the stocks forever and reap the stock dividends.
Disclaimer: The advise above is at your own risk. I am advising from an amateur's perspective. Get professional advise if needed.
Here is the PSE Index list, together with their stock symbols:
1. Ayala Corporation AC
2. Aboitiz Equity Ventures AEV
3. Alliance Global Group, Inc. AGI
4. Ayala Land ALI
5. Aboitiz Power AP
6. Banco de Oro Unibank, Inc. BDO
7. Bank of the Philippine Islands BPI
8. DMCI Holdings Inc DMC
9. Energy Development Corporation EDC
10. First Gen Corporation FGEN
11. Filinvest Land FLI
12. First Philippine Holdings Corporation FPH
13. Globe Telecom GLO
14. GMA Network GMA7
15. International Container Terminal Services Inc. ICT
16. Jollibee Foods Corporation JFC
17. Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company LC and LCB
18. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company MBT
19. Megaworld Corporation MEG
20. Manila Electric Company MER
21. Manila Water Company MWC
22. Philippine Stock Index PSE
23. Philex Mining Corporation PX
24. Robinsons Land Corporation RLC
25. Security Bank Corporation SECB
26. SM Investments Corporation SM
27. San Miguel Corporation SMC and SMCB
28. SM Prime Holdings SMPH
29. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company TEL
30. Universal Robina Corporation URC
PS New changes to the index last Nov 2009. New inclusions: DMC, SBC, and PSE. Removed from the list: ABS, RCB, VLL.
Monday, September 7, 2009
A Talk on SAP
Recently I was invited by my office colleague to give a talk on SAP, the ERP software, at an MBA class she was attending in Dela Salle University. It was a class, I think, on Technology Management.
In my talk, I gave an overview of SAP, as well as the latest developments on SAP software, as far as I knew it, which centered on Enhancement Packages. Enhancement Packages are essentially add-ons to the base ERP software of SAP. Instead of doing costly upgrades, if a company wants to add a new SAP functionality, it could be done via this route, which installs on top of the base software. This potentially minimizes risk and avoids downtime that are commonly associated with upgrades.
Since my audience were mostly business professionals, I also emphasized the need for business process knowledge and expertise as a very important aspect of ERP success, regardless whether it is SAP or any other software. If one thinks about it, a software is just a model of a business process, one that reflects the reality of the organization. The more mature an organization's business processes are, the better chance of a smooth implementation.
At the end, I pointed them to some resources that maybe useful for them if they wanted to do a further study on SAP. These are the websites help.sap.com and sdn.sap.com. These are surprisingly very rich sources of knowledge that can jumpstart anyone wanting to study SAP.
In my talk, I gave an overview of SAP, as well as the latest developments on SAP software, as far as I knew it, which centered on Enhancement Packages. Enhancement Packages are essentially add-ons to the base ERP software of SAP. Instead of doing costly upgrades, if a company wants to add a new SAP functionality, it could be done via this route, which installs on top of the base software. This potentially minimizes risk and avoids downtime that are commonly associated with upgrades.
Since my audience were mostly business professionals, I also emphasized the need for business process knowledge and expertise as a very important aspect of ERP success, regardless whether it is SAP or any other software. If one thinks about it, a software is just a model of a business process, one that reflects the reality of the organization. The more mature an organization's business processes are, the better chance of a smooth implementation.
At the end, I pointed them to some resources that maybe useful for them if they wanted to do a further study on SAP. These are the websites help.sap.com and sdn.sap.com. These are surprisingly very rich sources of knowledge that can jumpstart anyone wanting to study SAP.
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