Bancnet

Getting there:

Going to Bancnet which was located near the Ayala Triangle was sort of difficult. I expected a whole building for them with a huge Bancnet signage on it. It turns out, the Bancnet only existed inside the a few floors within the Equitable Tower. I was dropped over there at Paseo De Roxas around 7am. I was significantly earlier than the others. I tried to look for the place but I didn't know exactly where it was then. So I waited in a coffee shop until others started to pop-up. We then moved to a restaurant around 8am wherein more classmates were already waiting there. We were soon accompanied by our professor and then proceeded to the Equitable Tower. We signed up for attendance and took the elevator to the Bancnet floor.

The Talk:

The talk started with the speaker presenting facts about the company, as do other talks. Bancnet is a consortium. I didn't know what that meant at that time. So I Googled it just now.

Bancnet was the first and is now, the largest Automated Teller Machine Consortium (ATM) in the Philippines. It was also the first multi-bank, multi-channel electronic payment network in the country. As a multi-channel payment gateway, BancNet enables its customers to transact, not only at any ATM anywhere, anytime, but also at point-of-sale (P.O.S.), the Internet or through mobile phones. (Bancnet, 2013)

The Tour:

The tour of the place was short and sweet. The place wasn't very large. They presented the different rooms they have. They did indicate that they only had 55 employees. All 55 employees in Bancnet had personal office spaces, special rooms for executives, and an impressive server room. I don't think we were allowed to take pictures, but they didn't say anything about it. So I did.

Overall, the place was okay. I found the place somewhat untidy. There were also low ceilings - which I am not fond of - or any sort of low-positioned-above-the-head furniture because I tend to bump into them. I found the office cubicles sort of constraining, and there is little personal space for my taste.

Bancnet is a true technological innovator in the country. This is why they are the largest consortium here. They do the right practices so that they are able to accommodate millions of transactions with ease. Bancnet is just one of the great companies in the wonderful world that is the IT industry.

Stay tuned for more!

Remember! Don't buy the Facebook Phone! Peace! :>

JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Last March 26 2013, we visited the great JP Morgan Chase & Co. bank and outsourcing company.

*The pictures found in this blog post are not taken from me but from various sources on the Internet because security prohibited us from taking pictures inside the building. 

Taken from the Internet, not the site itself
because that wasn't allowed according to security.

Getting There:

The map :)

My mom dropped me off there. I got there on time. The building we went to was the Net Plaza building. This was located at Bonifacio Global City. You can't miss it. It's a towering beast of a building.

All this time, I've always wondered what it's like to be in this building. I've known some employees of the company and I can truly say that they are living good lives because of JP Morgan Chase & Co. This made the company even more of a dream company for me.

The Talk:

The talk started with several facts about the company. They said that it was 200 years old. It has 2.3 trillion USD in assets. They made 19 billion USD last 2012. They have 240,000 people in 60 countries. It is made of 2 of the most respected brands which are Chase and JP Morgan.

The company was founded by JP Morgan Jr. The company strives for excellence through corporate responsibility and giving back to the community. They go by the belief that happy employees translate to happy clients.

The company has some employee engagement programs such as celebration of holidays in different countries or communities. This helps people be more engaged. The company is sensitive to different kinds of people in their organization. They also support LGBTs and Health and Wellness programs for their employees.

Their training program involved 2 to 3 months and organizational development.

Fun Facts:

Fun Fact 1: J Pierpont Morgan

The Monopoly man is a tribute to him. JP Morgan was a Gem collector and a philanthropist  He was involved in saving the stock market and the country's - The Unites States of America's -  economy.

Gem

Philanthropist 

Fun Fact 2: The Morgan Museum

The Morgan Museum NYC

The Morgan Museum was also made. This contained exhibits of the gems and other artifacts Mr. Morgan collected. Employees can come in for free. This Museum in located somewhere in New York.

Fun Fact 3: Economy advisers

Facebook

Google

Google and Facebook were advised by JP Morgan to go public quite recently.


The Tour:

The tour of the place was great. We walked through hallways. Everything was tidy. We were also able to come across very unique rooms such as meditation rooms and the like. We passed by the cafeteria. There was quite a large variety of choices. I don't think they showed us all of the cool rooms they have. I think there's more to what meets the eye here.

Telepresence Room

Then we proceeded to the telepresence room. This room was equipped with high quality cameras and acted as a conference room for people that are far away. This enabled conferences between people with a telepresence room as well. The room had 3 large HD screens in front and displayed the people as if they were sitting across the table from you. I found this room quite innovative yet it might have cost a lot or resources to make. There were mics for each person as well. They could mute their mics and speak directly into the mic too.

Then we proceeded to the training room. This room was just a room with several computers. This was made for marketing people or possibly sales reps.

I wasn't able to follow the class to the penthouse because it was my sister's graduation that day. She is now a high school student. Yehey! We did get there late though. It was terrible. Anyways, I wish I was able to come to the penthouse with the class. I saw the pictures online and it seemed pretty amazing. I mean if the view from around 15 floors was amazing, what about the view from the penthouse, right?

Overall:

I found JP Morgan Chase & Co. quite amazing. The environment was great. The people were healthy and well. It was just a great experience for me. And knowing that they give back to the community and care about corporate responsibility, it just reminded me of my dream of working for a company that does the right things. Companies that you just know they're doing the right things. They don't make mistakes. It just gives you a feeling of security and assurance that you are in good hands. The same feeling I get from companies like Google or maybe Microsoft.

The place, people, the things they do were great. It's companies like this that are really the companies I want to be part of in the future or maybe even start, run and own myself. This company was truly a company of the wonderful world that is the IT Industry. 

Thank you for reading! :)

Brady Corporation-Manila

Greetings once again!

Last March 2013, we visited Brady Manila. This is located near Shaw Blvd. Mandaluyong City Philippines. It was certainly informative and enlightening.

Photo by Jan Marvin Tee

Taken from Google Maps

Getting There

Getting there was no walk in a park. Me and a few friends of mine agreed to meet at DLSU around 6am so we could get to Brady on time. What happened was, I got to school by 6 sharp and the others arrived around 8am. That was only the tip of the iceberg. When we got on the car, we made a wrong turn because of yours truly. I could have sworn that taking the right turn at EDSA was correct. We ended up taking a long trip in the wrong direction just to find a u-turn slot. In addition to that, there was also heavy traffic. I guess it was just a series of misfortunate events, huh?

Anyways, when we got to the venue we weren't sure if they'd allow us to follow with the rest of the class. We were relieved when they let us in. Then again, why wouldn't they?

The Company

When performance matters most

Brady Corporation is an international manufacturer and marketer of complete solutions that identify and protect premises, products and people. Brady's products help customers increase safety, security, productivity and performance and include high-performance labels and signs, safety devices, printing systems and software, and precision die-cut materials. Founded in 1914, the company has millions of customers in electronics, telecommunications, manufacturing, electrical, construction, education, medical and a variety of other industries. Brady is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and employs approximately 6,500 people at operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Brady's fiscal 2012 sales were approximately $1.32 billion. Brady stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BRC. (Brady - LinkedIn 2013)

The Talk

Alex Goh - March 2013

By the time we got there, Mr. Alex Goh was in the middle of his presentation. He presented the infrastructure of the company and how most call centers would have that kind of set up. We later were toured in the magical server room where the magic happens. I'll save that for later. Mr. Goh discussed many things about what they do there and how they do it. He indicated that Brady Philippines in an international manufacturer and marketer of complete solutions that identify and protect premises, products and people.

The Tour

We were toured around their office. We were exposed to different leisure rooms. There were a few gaming consoles, a ping pong table, and sleeping quarters were spotted. We didn't really meet any employees since they mostly do their jobs when at night here because their clients are overseas. I noticed the names of their rooms were all names of famous places in the Philippines. There was the Boracay room, the Baguio room and others. It didn't necessarily mean that there would be sand in the Boracay room, or that the Baguio room would be any colder than any other room. I guess it was just a creative way of naming their rooms.

At the server room, we weren't allowed to take pictures. I guess it's a regular policy when it comes to these things. Racks and racks of servers were found. Blinking lights were everywhere. Surprisingly, their wires weren't scattered all over the place. Everything was tidy. It was relatively cold there though. Servers love cold temps. I always wondered what would happen if someone were to rip out all of those LAN cables all at the same time. I didn't take that chance. It would be something if someone did do that.

Overall, the trip to Brady was awesome. We were informed of the infrastructure and the office set-up they have. I guess this is what we can expect in our future as IT professionals. Future IT industry leaders in training for the wonderful world that is the IT industry.

Stay tuned for more juicy posts coming soon. I have something special coming. Hints: Nokia, Siemens. 

Health Information Systems at Asian Institute of Management

Greetings!

Today, was all about Health. Particularly how Health Information Systems are progressing in the Philippines today. I attended a talk at the Asian Institute of Management located in the wonderful city of Makati.

I arrived there with some of my friends around quarter to 2. We were warmly welcomed by the staff. I did imagine the place to be a lot larger. I pictured the ceiling would be higher and halls wider. When we walked into the seminar room, I really was also expecting a larger room. Not that the seminar room was small or anything negative, I'm just saying that it could cater to more people if it had been a little larger.

The seminar started around 2:30. There were a few opening remarks by 2 people. They basically introduced the topic for the people to have a little perspective of what they'll be listening to for the next 2 hours. They indicated that the seminar was basically about:

How ICT can help improve Health Information Systems.

Improving operational efficiency.

The introduction was further emphasized with Mr. Alberto Romualdez. He presented alarming facts about maternity, reproduction, and mortality rates  and the differences between people from different social classes. He indicated that improving access, geography, and economy play heavy roles. 

Inequity was the biggest problem - inequitable access to health services. 

An overview of what a typical health system should have was also presented. Governance plays the most crucial role in any health information system. Without it, the rest will be dysfunctional. An overview of current information systems also was presented. A lot of institutions still have antiquated data collection (pen and paper).

The 'main' speaker of the seminar was Alvin B. Marcelo, M.D. For a short background he's part of PhilHealth and a Surgery Associate Professor in the UP College of Science. 

He showed a diagram about how health information systems components react with each other. There was human resources, governance, regulation, financing, services, and in the middle of it all was information. Information was the uniting entity. Although it was not the most vital, it was the 'glue' to the whole mechanism. It enabled the different parts to function and work with synergy. Again, the most important part was governance or justice. 

This basically indicated that coordination is key. With coordination, it will be more possible to have all the information more comprehensive and easily retrievable. I could not agree more. 

He also emphasized the importance of establishing standards for future growth. These standards will be used in the information architecture. Standards ensure that everything goes well in the future so that no major changes will have to be made that will potentially cost a lot. He indicated that simplicity was key. These simple standards will be used in the information architecture of the system that is yet to be made within the next 2 years.

With all this, I wish them a smooth and conflict-free development and implementation of that system and may it be a huge step for health in this country and ultimately a step closer to accomplishing MDGs.

The seminar ended around 4:30. Pictures were taken, complementary food was eaten, stomachs were filled, brains were stuffed, and we were all ready to go. I appreciated this experience and may there be more talks like this. Going to talks like this just feels so real and concrete. Real-life things are discussed and not just a concept system that has a slim chance of being implemented. It just felt so real. In the following years, we look back to this moment and say, "Wow, the system has already been implemented. I know a lot about that system." May there be more talks like this but hopefully another topic. Perhaps one that would help me with my thesis for this term with Team Flying Ipis. About crime and case management if possible. That would be a big help for us. 

Here are some of the pics I took from the talk. Enjoy!

 

I hope you liked it! Leave a comment and tell me what you liked or what you want me to improve on! Don't for get to follow my blog if you haven't yet! :)

Stay tuned for more!

Peace!

Hello, World!

I am Sonny Lee. I am a BS Information Systems student at De La Salle University. I made this blog for my class IT Industry Immersion (IT-EXPO). I will be posting journals from time to time about my experiences in my immersion into the wonderful world that is the IT industry.

I like to think of myself as a 'techy' guy. I like to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and advances in technology. I wonder what surprises and mysterious discoveries await me in the months to come. Join me in my journey through the wonderful world that is the IT industry.

Here's a little sample video that might be the future of smartphones in the years to come. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for more!

Peace!