Accounting work being outsourced to the Philippines

Accounting is being added to the global list of jobs that are being outsourced to the Philippines. David Kinnear, co-founder and President of DDC Group of Companies said wages were comparatively lower in the Philippines as compared to India, and this is a big competitive advantage for the Philippines. (Philippine News)

Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune send circulation customer service calls to a Philippines call center

Tribune's Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, already send circulation customer service calls to a call center in the Philippines operated by APAC Customer Service of Deerfield, Ill., with other Tribune papers to follow soon. (Forbes)

Judging at 1st PODD Digital Art Contest

I got asked to be a judge on the Pigs on Parade - the 1st PODD Digital Art Contest.

The Philippine Offshore Design and Development Corporation (PODD Corp.) is set to celebrate their second year in operation during the slated Month of Art, February.

In line with this celebration, PODD Corp. has also set up a digital art competition and is calling out to all students to join. Dubbed "Pigs on Parade", it will be their first digital art contest. The theme for the competition is “The Year Of The Fiery Pig”.

I'll be at the final judging for this contest on February 1, 2007 and awarding on February 2 at the Park Lane Hotel in Cebu.

Good luck to all entries and sincerest thanks to PODD Corp. for inviting me.

Related post:

- Judging at BubuAwards

CIDG raids yield P11 million worth of pirated goods

Agents of the Anti-Fraud and Commercial Crimes Division (AFCCD) of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) turned in counterfeit items valued at more than P11 million in a series of raids at Tutuban Center, Shoppesville Arcade, and the University of the Philippines Shopping Center.

Authorities are now considering the inclusion of building owners in the filing of lawsuits against the retailers. Last November 17, 2006, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued a memorandum, among others, stated to consider enforcing criminal, civil or administrative liability of owners of buildings, such as malls, that lease space to establishments selling pirated and counterfeit goods.

IP Philippines, the lead coordinator of inter-agency efforts against piracy and counterfeiting, recently organized an advanced course for commercial court judges. Reynaldo G. Ros, executive judge of the Regional Trial Court (Branch 33) of Manila, issued the search warrants for the three raids.

More than P10 million worth of fake Louis Vuitton items were seized in various stalls of Tutuban Cluster Building and Center Mall Prime Block located in Tutuban Center. In Shoppesville Arcade, 25 stalls were raided for selling counterfeit Lacoste products with an estimated value of P750,000. Meanwhile in stall 36 of the University of the Philippines Shopping Center, assorted books, photocopy machines, and ring binders valued at half a million pesos were seized. The police invited three people for further investigation and arrested one stall owner.

Since the National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights ’s creation in 2005, the group has seized P2.4 billion worth of counterfeit items with P1.3 billion recorded in 2006.

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) contributed P722 million to the total estimated value of seized goods in 2006 from conducting 26 warrant seizures and detentions. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), on the other hand, turned in P291 million worth of seized goods from 419 operations.

The Optical Media Board (OMB) confiscated fake items valued at P172 million from 706 inspections and 87 searches. The Philippine National Police (PNP), for its part, seized P131 million worth of fake goods from 259 operations.

BoC’s IP Unit initiated more stringent border controls with its Automated Customs Operational System (ACOS). It also established a risk assessment program and management system for data gathering. The database, once complete, will help monitor, screen and interdict confiscated goods at the border and post entry level.

Estimated value of confiscated items from 2005 to 2006 increased by P128 million or 11 percent. Actual enforcement operations, however, went down from 2,930 in 2005 to 1,453 in 2006. The concerned agencies focused on the crackdown of big ticket IP violators.

Through close coordination among NCIPR agencies which also include the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), a total of 60 convictions were handed down since 2001, fourteen of which took place in 2006.

Related story:

• PNP seizes P24 million worth of counterfeit products and pirated software

Stellar Call Centres Launches New Website

Stellar Call Centres announced the launch of their new website www.stellarccs.com. Visitors to the new website will find information about Stellar's call centre and business process outsourcing offerings, their new low-cost Philippines call centre facility and their experiences with some of Australia's largest and well known brands.

Stellar Call Centre Solutions is one of Australia's leading outsourcing providers, with nine call centre sites around Australia employing over 3,000 staff, and one call centre site in the Philippines. (iTWire)

Ayala Corp.'s LiveIT acquires Affinity Express

Affinity Express Inc., a Chicago-based provider of premedia and design services, was purchased by Philippines-based LiveIt Solutions, the holding unit for Ayala Corp's investments in the business process outsourcing sector, for $28 million. (Graphic Arts Monthly)

In October, Ayala said LiveIt took control of a New-York based non-voice outsourcing services firm for $18 million. (Reuters)

Related news:

• Integreon Expands Relationship with Law Firm

Aplus.Net Prepares for Move to Kansas Headquarters

Aplus.Net was founded by Ivan and Lilian Vachovsky in 1995, and had 300 employees and offices in Sacramento, Phoenix, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Manila, the Philippines. The company has about 200,000 customers, and in 2005 revealed annual revenue of $20 million. (San Diego Business Journal Online)

Datacraft sets up Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Infrastructure Optimization with De La Salle University Philippines

Datacraft and De La Salle University (DLSU) have jointly set up a Cooperative Research Center (CRC) for Advanced Infrastructure Optimization. The collaboration aims to establish a world-class program to facilitate research and consulting services on infrastrusture optimisation for clients across the Asia Pacific region.

Funded by Datacraft, the CRC was set up to in September 2006 and is currently staffed by a group of 12 top gradute researchers from the Computer Science program who have been stringently selected by Datacraft and DLSU. They will continue to study for their post-graduate degrees while working at the center.

Being a major partner of Microsoft, Datacraft will also leverage the CRC to focus and align its research activities closely to Microsoft's Infrastructure Optimization Initiative (IOI).

The capability development research program includes:

• Desktop, server, and device management management, updates deployment, among others.


• Identity and access management, data protection, and access to resources.


• Security and networking mechanisms to protect IT infrastructures from denial of service attacks and viruses, and preserving access to corporate resources.

Tangible outputs expected to come out from the program includes completion by the students with Microsoft certification compliant with industry qualifications. They will also have industry experience engaging on number of projects working with Datacraft.

(Thanks to Dominguez Marketing Communications for passing on this information.)

Nominate your Company: International ICT Awards - Manila 2007

I just heard of the International ICT Awards - Manila 2007 scheduled for Thursday March 1, 2007. The annual event highlights and promotes the success of the ICT industry in the Philippines.

Leveraging off the tremendous success of the monthly ICT Leaders Forum organized by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, this gala event will focus on the international community and aims to bring together senior professionals from the Philippines and throughout Asia to highlight competitiveness at the global level.

The purpose of the ICT Awards night is to recognize outstanding performance and contributions by organizations and individuals within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Community. The Awards also provide a medium to promote the work and achievements of Category winners and finalists to the broader Philippine business community and to provide a launching pad for marketing the Philippines as a destination of choice for multinational companies.

Award categories include:

1. BPO Company of the Year
2. Best New BPO Locator of the Year
3. Best Mid-sized BPO Company of the Year
4. BPO Employer of the Year
5. Fastest Growing BPO Company of the Year
6. Most Innovative BPO Company of the Year
7. ICT Individual Contributor of the Year Award (2 Awards)

• Public Sector
• Private Sector

Check out International ICT Awards - Manila 2007 for more info.

NOMINATE YOUR COMPANY NOW!
Click Here to download the Official Nomination form.

CA SELECTS ARINSO for Global HRO & Recruitment Process Outsourcing

ARINSO International, a provider of HR technology consulting and outsourcing services, has been selected by CA, Inc. one of the largest information technology (IT) management software companies, to provide global HRO services and outsourced recruitment.
The agreement with CA spans a period of five years and covers HR administration in over 30 countries globally and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) in North America. The agreement with CA has a total contract value of over USD $60 million and confirms ARINSO's position as a global HRO service provider. It also demonstrates ARINSO's expertise in key HR processes, such as recruitment and HR administration.

The global HRO solution provided by ARINSO will serve over 15,000 CA employees and will enable CA to enhance the administrative and transactional services to internal customers by rolling out innovative self- service functionality. Services will be provided by four regional HR Shared Service Centers -- the Americas will be serviced by centers in Atlanta (US) and in Buenos Aires (Argentina), the center in Katowice (Poland) will service the EMEA region, and the fast growing Asia Pacific region will be serviced by a center in Manila (Philippines). (Market Wire)

Davao Call Center Eyes Expansion in Muslim Mindanao

Joji Ilagan-Bian, president of the JIB e-Academy, said her firm is partnering with the Marawi-based Hope Care Academy for the setting up of a 2.2-million peso call-center school as the first step toward exploring the business potential of the ARMM as a call center site. (Davao Today)