Friday, August 23, 2013

Tiktakbo 6: Water Dash

Fun runs are trending in the country. Not because people are running to be competitive but it benefits in health and it is fun activity to spend with friends and to meet new ones. UP-JPIA organizes this run with a twist. The theme will be Tiktakbo 6: Water Dash. Each runner will be having their own water guns. It will be a wicked run ever since zombie run. It will be held at UP Academic Oval in Diliman campus on the morning of September 22. If there's a good place to hold a run in QC, it's this particular area.
 
There are 4 categories in this run. 500m for kids ages 7 and below, 3K, 5K, and 16K. Registration fees are P300, P450, P550, and P650 respectively. Inclusive of singlet, race bib, finishers' kit, raffle stub and water gun. This is for the benefit of scholarship program, Longterm Educational Assistance Program or LEAP.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Zest Air offers to airlift relief goods for free

Press Release
 
To help flood victims in the National Capital Region and its nearby provinces, Zest Air is accepting free airlift of relief goods to Metro Manila. Interested charitable organization, non-profit, socio-civic or religious groups may avail of this service by sending an e-mail to Zest Air head of cargo team Ernest Bernal at mnlcargo@flyzest.com.
Relief goods should be packed in boxes with a list of items, their estimate value, size and weight in kilos including the complete contact details of their counterpart NGO or consignee.
Zest Air provincial cargo stations in Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Kalibo, Iloilo, Bacolod, Tagbilaran, Puerto Princesa and Tacloban will start accepting relief goods and donations for free airlift to Metro Manila starting today, 21 August.
For more information, please call +632.8511801 or proceed to Zest Air’s cargo office in Domestic Road, Andrews Road, Pasay City. For provincial cargo relief operations, please call Cargo Operations General Manager Ritchel Jungco at  +632.917.7198808 and +632.922.8102342.
Zest Air has resumed some of its international flights yesterday and including domestic destinations today (21 August) after Philippine regulatory authority has lifted its suspension order. 
The airline will immediately resume services to and from Manila to China, South Korea, Malaysia and to domestic destinations of Kalibo (Boracay), Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Bacolod, Tagbilaran, Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro and Puerto Princesa (Palawan), as soon as the inspection of all its 11 aircraft has been completed.  The inspection is expected to be completed in a day barring any weather issues.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

2013 Promil Pre-School i-Shine Talent Camp Grand i-Shiner Revealed!

Online Release


Manila, Philippines – After 8 weeks of honing the i-Shiners’ talents, the Promil Pre-School i-Shine Talent Camp 2 Grand Finale was held last July 27, 2013. It featured outstanding performances of the i-Shiners with their mentors on stage. This year’s Promil Pre-School i-Shine Talent Camp 2 Grand i-Shiner is none other than four-year old i-Shine actor Yesha Camile from Tagum City.
Promil I-Shine Talent Camp 2 I-Shiners

The “Incredible Drama Princess” of Tagum City is also the Top i-Shiner for Acting. The youngest among the finalists, Yesha received a grand prize of P500,000 cash, a talent contract with ABS- CBN Star Magic and Promil Pre-School as well as a year’s supply of Promil Pre-School products. The two i-Shiners who also shone were JM Andres and Nathan Bautista. Both of the very talented seven-year-olds received a cash prize of P200, 000 each.

Now on its second year, Promil Pre-School i-Shine Talent Camp, the reality TV program that hones children’s gift to mastery showcased multi-talented boys and girls. Aired by ABS-CBN and hosted by Dimples Romana, Matteo Guidicelli and Xian Lim, this year’s Top 12 i-Shiners underwent a series of comprehensive workshops and performances with their mentors. Season 2’s top-caliber mentors were award-winning actor, recording artist and producer Piolo Pascual, acclaimed broadway artist Pinky Amador and dance instructor, choreographer and G-Force founder Georcelle Dapat-Sy.

Monday, August 12, 2013

PET INDUSTRY TURNS TO NETSUITE CLOUD

NetSuite media release


Pet Retailers, Manufacturers and Distributors Rely on NetSuite to Run End-to-end Business Operations and Expand Omnichannel Sales

 

MANILA, Philippines — August 12, 2013—NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financialsERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced new customer wins in the pet goods sector, a $55.5 billion industry in the U.S. alone1 . The new wins announced today include fast-growing companies like Dog is Good, Happy Jack, Pup-Pee Solutions, Ruffwear and Pet Lifestyle And You (P.L.A.Y). These companies have replaced disparate and outdated on-premise systems with NetSuite's single integrated suite of business management software, providing omnichannel B2B and B2C sales, financials, inventory and order management, manufacturing and CRM functionality, allowing these organizations to improve efficiency and deliver a superior customer experience.

 

Pet goods companies running NetSuite report that they are growing revenues, optimizing inventory management, dramatically improving productivity, building stronger customer and partner relationships, and expanding B2B and B2C sales channels atop the NetSuite SuiteCommerce platform. SuiteCommerce addresses key omnichannel challenges and delivers critical business advantages, including a 360-degree view into customer relationships, real-time data visibility and analytics, real-time inventory management, a dynamic web storefront, efficient order management, and multi-language and multi-website management. NetSuite will be at the SuperZoo pet industry trade show in Las Vegas this week, hosted by the World Pet Association and attended by pet retailers and suppliers from more than 50 countries. For more information, please visit www.netsuite.com/superzoo.

 

With NetSuite, pet goods merchants are better able to serve their customers through anytime, anywhere access to real-time information on sales, profitability, inventory, suppliers, B2B and B2C customers, and more. By eliminating the high capital expenditures and unproductive, ongoing IT maintenance and troubleshooting required with in-house systems in favor of the NetSuite cloud, pet goods companies are channeling resources into delivering innovative and quality products, expanding into new markets and delivering a superior omnichannel customer experience across their websites, call centers, direct sales and other touchpoints. NetSuite's integrated suite makes real-time business information available on-demand, driving informed business decisions and eliminating the delays and inefficiency of piecing together data from disjointed applications and relying on spreadsheets to cobble together fragile business views, as is typical in on-premise environments. With NetSuite, distributors and manufacturers of products for dogs, cats and other family members—are able to:

·         Improve supply chain operations with integrated inventory and order management, and build demand forecasts with real-time data, reducing excess inventory or the risk of stock outs.

·         Provide a real-time, 360-degree view of the business by seamlessly integrating financials / ERP, CRM and Ecommerce, empowering businesses to manage their interactions directly with consumers, other businesses and trading partners.

·         Allow data to flow seamlessly to wholesale distributors and their trading partners, to ensure communication is in lockstep with the same data, audit trails and real-time accuracy at every stage.

·         Let stakeholders share container, pallet, location, forecasting, scheduling and unit-level data while collaborating on a common cloud platform.

·         Manage all transactions and associated customer interactions regardless of touchpoint.

"NetSuite customers in the pet goods industry are no longer losing out on growth opportunities in fragmented environments of stovepiped applications," said Roman Bukary, NetSuite VP and GM of Manufacturing and Wholesale Distribution. "We're gratified to see so many pet goods companies thrive in the pet goods sector by taking advantage of the benefits of cloud ERP, CRM and Ecommerce."

 

The expanding NetSuite customer base of pet goods retailers and manufacturers includes:

 

Dog is Good (www.dogisgood.com), a Los Alamitos, Calif.-based merchant of canine-themed t-shirts, coffee mugs, art, gifts and more for dog lovers, has dramatically improved business efficiency and productivity since implementing NetSuite in the Fall of 2012 to replace QuickBooks, ProStores, ShipWorks, Brandboom and other disparate systems. Dog is Good, founded in 2008, leverages NetSuite for sales force automation that has helped increase the number of retailers stocking Dog is Good products to several hundred in the U.S. and Canada; and for financials, inventory management and fulfillment from its California warehouse, NetSuite SuiteCommerce powers Dog is Good's B2C store and B2B portal, enabling retail buyers to order products, access discount pricing, and more, in a password-protected environment. Dog is Good is saving at least 20 hours a month compared to its previous manual order management and fulfillment processes, while a process to calculate sales commissions and royalties has been reduced from seven hours to 1.5 hours. By switching to a cloud-based solution, Dog is Good has eliminated the expense and headaches of its previous multi-vendor environment. "With NetSuite, everything is tied together," said Dog is Good Co-founder Jon Kurtz. "Our order management and inventory are in real-time, and we do not need to manually enter orders into QuickBooks. We're poised for growth with NetSuite and no matter how big we get, I know we'll never have to add infrastructure or invest in another system."

 

Happy Jack (www.happyjackinc.com), a manufacturer of animal health products in Snow Hill, N.C., has revolutionized its business operations since installing NetSuite in 2004 to replace an antiquated, custom-built MS-DOS application with limited functionality that resulted in numerous paper-based processes. Selected over a competing Everest Software application, NetSuite has given Happy Jack breakthrough efficiency, visibility and control over a complex mix of inventory components sourced from more than 800 suppliers that go into its products to treat fleas and ticks, worms, ear and skin maladies, and more. Happy Jack can track inventory at the item level in real time and better understand costs to optimize pricing, while NetSuite helps the company streamline production at about 12 U.S outsourced manufacturers as well as internal assembly processes. The solution also improves Happy Jack's compliance with federal and state regulations governing medicines, such as strengthening product recall readiness with on-demand data on product lots, shipment dates and buyers. Since going live, Happy Jack has increased sales by about 40 percent and expanded its channel to 3,000 dealer locations in the U.S. while running three SuiteCommerce-based webstores that draw from a single data set, including the www.kennelvax.com direct-to-consumer site. "NetSuite has revolutionized our business on every level," said Manning Exum, Happy Jack Chief Operations Officer. "What used to take us hours, from hunting down an invoice to even entering orders, can now be done in minutes. NetSuite is a constantly evolving and improving system, and I don't know what we'd do without it."

 

Pet Lifestyle And You (P.L.A.Y.) (www.petplay.com), a San Francisco-based maker of high-quality dog beds, toys and accessories, has achieved 70 percent year-over-year growth since it launched its business on NetSuite in 2010. The company co-founder, Will Chen, a former management consultant, knew about the growing pains of a small company built on a collection of disparate on-premise solutions, which is why after comparing NetSuite to SAP, Oracle and Zoho, P.L.A.Y. selected NetSuite for its centralized platform that efficiently accommodates any degree of business growth without the need for a costly and disruptive overhaul in several years.

 

P.L.A.Y relies on NetSuite for financials and payroll, inventory management and fulfillment via a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. P.L.A.Y. is also leveraging NetSuite Order Management for Magento to process orders coming from its Magento-powered B2C Ecommerce site. With NetSuite, P.L.A.Y. has rapidly grown to 500 retail store partners in North America and a dozen international distributor partnerships across Europe, Asia and Canada, while NetSuite CRM supports the lead-to-cash cycle and sales analytics. "NetSuite is excellent because it offers a holistic solution with almost all the functionality our company could need," Chen said. "Scalability is an outstanding aspect of the NetSuite solution—it's intuitive and easy to use, and as long as I have the Internet, I can run my business from anywhere. That's a huge advantage of running our business in the cloud."

 

Pup-Pee Solutions (www.thepetloo.com), founded in Australia in 2003, is a leading provider of pet waste management products with its Pet Loo brand. It scaled a new U.S. business unit from several thousand dollars in revenue to several million after implementing NetSuite in 2010 to run operations in the U.S. and Australia. Selected over Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains and QuickBooks, NetSuite replaced an inefficient MYOB system that offered poor visibility. With NetSuite, order-to-cash processes that used to involve 15 manual steps have been reduced to just three clicks, enabling the company to channel resources into rapid growth. Using NetSuite ERP, CRM and SuiteCommerce for a direct-to-consumer Ecommerce site, the Los Angeles-based Pet Loo expanded its B2B and B2C business to 84 countries and more than 3,000 retail stores while streamlining business processes. "NetSuite significantly increased our productivity while reducing errors in manual labor and data re-entry, and the global business transparency at an executive level with up-to-the-minute information is fantastic," said Tobi Skovron, Pup-Pee Solutions Founder. "There's no way we could have grown as much as we have without NetSuite."

 

Ruffwear (www.ruffwear.com), based in Bend, Ore., a manufacturer and merchant of dog packs, beds, toys, leashes and other gear, has been able to focus on its core competency of designing and developing innovative dog gear without worrying about servers and on-premise software since implementing NetSuite in 2005 to replace FileMaker Pro. With the ability to make data-driven business decisions, Ruffwear has seen steady revenue while expanding sales across a direct-to-consumer webstore, international distributors in about 30 countries and a retail network that includes REI, Altrec, Bass Pro Shops and Amazon. Ruffwear has leveraged the customizability available with NetSuite SuiteCommerce to offer customers a visually striking and richly functional shopping experience, with a self-service portal for B2B merchants. Ruffwear also takes advantage of solutions for enhanced shipping from NetSuite partner Oz Development to extend the platform to meet unique business needs. "NetSuite gave us instant access to valuable best practices to help us restructure the workflow of our back office," said Ruffwear President Will Blount.

 

About SuiteCommerce 

NetSuite SuiteCommerce enables B2C and B2B merchants, manufacturers and distributors to seamlessly connect every step of a multi-channel, multi-location business—from Ecommerce, POS and order management to merchandising, marketing, inventory, financials and customer support. Featuring an advanced webstore that allows the creation of uniquely branded and personalized shopping experiences optimized for multiple devices, SuiteCommerce empowers businesses to run across multiple touchpoints—web, brick-and-mortar stores, social, mobile—all from a single, unified cloud-based commerce system that provides unprecedented visibility into your business and customers. Please visit www.suitecommerce.com for more information.

 

Today, more than 16,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of enterprise-class cloud financials/ERP suites for divisions of large enterprises and mid-sized organizations seeking to upgrade their antiquated client/server ERP systems. NetSuite excels at streamlining business operations as demonstrated in a recent Gartner study naming NetSuite as the fastest growing financial management software vendor on a global basis. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud ERP/financials suites to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud is accelerating.

 

1 American Pet Products Association, "Pet Industry Market Size & Ownership Statistics," http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Skyscanner reveals Pinoys’ favorite European destinations


Site shows 53% increase in online flight search to Europe


Next stop, Europe!

Leading flight search engine, Skyscanner has recently reported an increase by 53% in flight search to European destinations this year. Following the decision to lift the ban on Philippine Airlines by unanimous votes among the European Commission’s 28 member states, Skyscanner also revealed top destinations of choice among Filipinos.

Topping the list of most searched destination is the United Kingdom.  With an estimated Filipino population of 200,000 in 2007, UK has been a favourite destination not only for its rich culture and castles but also for the visiting families of Filipinos working there.

Coming in second is Germany, famous for its rich culture, mouth-watering cuisine and people who know and love a good party. In fact, Filipinos travelling this great country date back to the 19th century and our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal is one of them.

Filipino’s penchant for fashion, food and discovering interesting spots made Italy the third on the list.

“We Pinoys love to shop, eat and go sight-seeing. So a country that offers all these definitely plays a part when we decide to travel,” Janet Ranola, Skyscanner Philippines Manager explains. “Plus the fact that a lot of Filipinos are working and are scattered in Europe, flying at cheaper rates is great news indeed,” Ranola added.

“Now that Filipino travelers can fly to Europe without having to catch connecting flights and such, I think online search and inquiries to more European destinations will increase” Ranola concluded.

Other destinations that made the top 10 list are France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland.
               

1
United Kingdom (UK)
2
Germany (DE)
3
Italy (IT)
4
France (FR)
5
Spain (ES)
6
Netherlands (NL)
7
Norway (NO)
8
Denmark (DK)
9
Ireland (IE)
10
Switzerland (CH)

 

For more information on cheap flights, deals and where to go in Europe visit www.skyscanner.com.ph. 

Monday, August 5, 2013

THE NEWSROOM KICKS OFF SECOND SEASON THIS AUGUST 5 AT 9PM ON HBO / HBO HD


PHILIPPINES, JULY 30, 2013 – Created by Oscar® winner Aaron Sorkin, this Golden Globe®-nominated HBO Original series THE NEWSROOM, a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program, is back with its corporate mandates and tangled personal relationships. Premiering in Asia on Monday, August 5 at 9pm exclusively on HBO and HBO HD,

Photo courtesy of HBO Asia
THE NEWSROOM follows a high-rated cable-news program, “News Night”, at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) Network on their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of a fickle audience, but the news stories covered are often actual past news events or stories which have been inspired by them.

Beginning a year later from where we had left off in season one, this nine-episode second season covers the period from August 2011 to November 2012, and touches on the administration’s anti-terrorism policy, Occupy Wall Street, Troy Davis, Trayvon Martin, Benghazi and, the primaries and general election. The second season begins in the days leading up to Election Night 2012, when the “News Night” staff is being prepared to give depositions in a lawsuit — the circumstances of which unfold throughout the season. A mysterious tip has led to the airing of a story with consequences no one could have anticipated.

In addition to Golden Globe nominee Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer who star as news anchor Will McAvoy and the show’s executive producer Mackenzie McHale, respectively, other returning cast regulars include John Gallagher, Jr. as Jim Harper, Mackenzie’s loyal producer, currently covering the Romney campaign; Alison Pill as associate producer Maggie Jordan; Thomas Sadoski as Don Keefer, Will’s former executive producer; Dev Patel as resourceful self-made newsman Neal Sampat; Olivia Munn as financial news analyst Sloan Sabbith; and Sam Waterston as Charlie Skinner, Will’s old-school boss.

Returning guests for season two include Oscar® winner Jane Fonda as Leona Lansing, the CEO of ACN’s parent company, Atlantis World Media; and Hope Davis as gossip columnist Nina Howard.

New to the guest cast are Oscar® winner Marcia Gay Harden as Rebecca Halliday, a lawyer hired to defend ACN staffers in its wrongful-termination case; Hamish Linklater as Jerry Dantana, who temporarily replaces Jim when he leaves to cover the Romney campaign; Grace Gummer as Hallie Shea, a reporter competing with Jim on the Romney campaign; and Constance Zimmer as Taylor Warren, a Romney campaign press spokesperson who questions the coverage her campaign is getting from the media.

THE NEWSROOM was created by Aaron Sorkin (Oscar® winner for writing “The Social Network,” executive producer and creator of the multiple Emmy® awards winner “The West Wing”). The first season of THE NEWSROOM received two Golden Globe nominations, for Best Television Series – Drama and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama (Jeff Daniels).

The second season of the smart, thought- provoking and highly entertaining HBO Original series THE NEWSROOM premieres on Monday, August 5 at 9pm on HBO / HBO HD. Brand new episodes air weekly at the same time.
 

About HBO ASIA

Singapore-based HBO Asia is able to bring the best of Hollywood to Asia first because of its exclusive licensing deals with major Hollywood studios - Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros., as well as a large number of major independent studios. HBO Asia has proprietary and award-winning HBO Original programs that are produced exclusively for HBO viewers. HBO Asia offers a bouquet of channels and services including 24-hour commercial-free subscription movie channels in standard-definition and high-definition – HBO, HBO SIGNATURE, HBO FAMILY and HBO HITS – as well as HBO GO, HBO ON DEMAND, CINEMAX and RED. HBO Asia is the exclusive distributor of BabyFirst and WarnerTV in Asia and a joint venture of HBO (a Time Warner company) and Paramount. Log on to www.hboasia.com for more information.