BancNet: Another reason to visit Makati

I love going to Makati. I feel like it's the Philippine's New York City equivalent. Of course nothing could ever compare to the New York City, but it just gives me the vibe that it's somehow cleaner and you can really feel that it's a city compared to most cities here in the Philippines.

So why am I talking about my love for Makati? Well, it's because had a company visit to Bancnet last April 2 which was located at Equitable Tower. If you're driving and you're not familiar with Makati, learn to ask around or just get familiar with it. We went around the place just looking for some place to Park. Going back—I think we've all somehow seen it before in ATMs when we're withdrawing some cash or checking the balance of our savings. That's because Bancnet is the one connecting the ATM Network Banks in the Philippines. They started in 1990 and they've been doing it for 23 years now. What surprised me is that they only had 50 employees to run their operation. So their office wasn't as big compared to the previous companies we've been to. They also had 2 ATM machines inside their office, which was very interesting to me.

 

Disclaimer: photos courtesy of John Jane Granada.

I love vending machines, especially the ones at JP Morgan & Chase Co.

JP Morgan & Chase Co. is by far the best office I've been to. I mean, it's JP MORGAN & CHASE CO. I don't know if it's just me, or there's something about it that makes you say 'wow'. Even just hearing the name, you'll know it's a big time corporation.

I was actually excited upon knowing that we were going to have a company visit to JP Morgan & Chase Co.  located at 31st of Bonifacio Global City. I love going to BGC and I was curious about the company as well. It's a win-win situation.

BUT, getting to BGC was hard. Me and my friends got lost at least 2 or 3 times before we finally got to the place. Their company security is very strict so they didn't allow us to go up without anyone to guide us. They made us wait in the area where they accepted job applicants which had two large vending machines that gave out free hot and cold drinks. IT'S FREE!!!! So I guess that made the waiting not to boring. When we finally arrived in the room, the talk was half-way finished. But it's a good thing that there were still multiple speakers, so we were still able to understand the rest of the talk.

image source

I don't think any of the companies we visited neglected to share their humble beginnings, JP Morgan & Chase Co. wasn't an exception to that. Before our company visit, I wasn't actually sure what business JP Morgan & Chase Co. did. I always thought it as a law firm, but I guess it's also fitting that it's actually a bank; one of the oldest financial institution in the United States. I can't believe they've been around for 200 years. It's also interesting to know that the Monopoly guy is actually a tribute to their founder, JP Morgan. *cue mind blown*

The last two talks were very interesting to me. Though I cannot remember the speaker's names or their exact position, but I do know that their position is quite high. The second to the last speaker talked about how he rose from poverty. He told us that he used to sell bread before in their province, and how limited technology was when he was just starting out. His dream company was actually IBM, and he applied there numerous times but worked at different companies until he finally got accepted and stayed there for 3 years. But he left to be with JP Morgan & Chase Co. and he’s been working there ever since. The next and last speaker was the boss of the previous speakers. He talked about how his journey with Technology started with the early versions of Mac computer back in 1980s. When JP Morgan & Chase Co. offered him the position here in the Philippines, he told us that people thought he was crazy for going back to a third world country. But he wanted to improve our society by providing more jobs for the Filipinos through growing JP Morgan & Chase Co. I found their story very inspiring because they showed determination and perseverance to get to where they are, and they did not forget to give back to the community.

After the talks, we were toured around some parts of the building. They took us to the cafeteria (which also had vending machines that gave out FREE drinks) and some of their conference rooms. They're using CISCO Telepresence which allows them to have international video calls. The last stop was picture taking on their roof top. Now by this time, it would have been noon and the sun was shining with all it's might. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the office, only here and at the waiting area.

Health Information Systems

So hello there, it's me again, blogging to you about seminars and stuff. So it's going to be different this time because I wasn't actually at the seminar when it happened, I only watched it through video recording and researched about it.

So what exactly is a Health Information Systems?

According to the University of Queensland Australia (2012), it "should be an integrated effort to collect, process, report and use health information and knowledge to influence policy and decision-making, programme action and research." 

I think there are only few, if not not any, working HIS in the Philippines. Implementing HIS in the Philippine private and public hospitals and/or clinics would be a challenge because it needs to simple and sustainable (University of Queensland, 2012). But I'm very curious to see if there will be a proper implementation and how it can actually affect the people, management and system of the hospitals, especially on patient care. That's all folks!

Reference:

The University of Queensland. (2012). Defining HIS - HMN Framework. 

Retrieved from: http://www.uq.edu.au/hishub/definition-of-health-information-systems

Northern Adventure to NetworkLabs

NetworkLabs is located inside  UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub. We went there on March 8, 2013 (Friday). It's our second company field trip. Hooray!

I assure you that I didn't get lost this time because I joined a convoy to get to the venue, but sadly I was still late. It was easier this time around I guess, because 1.) we had our professor with us to lead the driver, 2.) I was with my other classmates so if we get lost, at least we get lost together.

One thing you should know about me is that I'm a southern girl and I have a slight motion sickness. Our driver, as I quote one of my other classmate, was crazy. I was in the middle area of the Innova and I still wanted to have a tight grip on the handles and maybe even have my seat belt on. It felt like a really long drive, to be honest. And there were even issues when entering the venue. All I can remember is that there were a lot of guard posts. I couldn't blame them for stopping us, security is essential of course.

This one of my northern adventures because I'm from the South and I rarely go to Quezon City on commute, or at least convoy. I recognize the place because I passed by it when I went to Marikina or some other place at North.

Upon getting inside, we had a taste of how cool the design of their office through their pantry (note: I inserted a pun there, I hoped you saw it). Their office was divided into two themes: Finland and Philippines. The second floor pantry where our talk was held, had the Finland theme. Their walls had pictures of a scenic lake and the floor were covered with rock pictures or they were colored blue. They were trying to recreate or to give their employees a feel of what I think is a Finland lake dock. They even had ropes and boat shaped chairs and tables to stay true to the theme, which is really cool.

The talk was basically about NetworkLabs' humble origin and how they were able to achieve success and  maintain it through the years. They also talked about opportunities within their organization. They have a very meticulous screening process in order to filter out the best in order to be the best.

They also gave us a tour around their offices. They practice equality where managers don't have a separate offices which makes them more approachable.

 

 Of course it just wouldn't be complete without a group picture.

 

Disclaimer: photos courtesy of John Jane Granada.

Brady—Philippines, not Bunch

(Photo taken from Brady Philippines)

My trip to Brady Philippines on March 5 (tuesday) was the first company field trip I've been to for our IT-EXPO course. It's located at the third floor of Worldwide Corporate Center at Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City. I got there by riding the MRT from Edsa until Shaw boulevard. 

After I got down at Shaw, I got lost. It's a good thing I was with another one of my classmates. We asked around, walked around and finally got to Brady after a few minutes. If you're wondering if I got there late, well.... let's just say I'm lucky I got there before anything happened. 

While entering Brady, I noticed the name of the rooms where different. Different because they were mostly named after beaches or another place that's sort of a tourist spot. I wondered why they named it that way, maybe its a way to make the workers feel that they're not just in some office space. I guess it's a way to make employees efficient in a sense that they're making them feel more at ease and relax through their environment.

It's so enlightening to see familiar faces after walking around an unfamiliar turf. So you can imagine how relieved I felt when we finally got to the pantry where the seminar was held. It's a pantry so there has to bee food at some point, and the people at Brady prepared boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts and they also had a Nescafe vending machine that has free coffee. FREE COFFEE!! I definitely felt joy upon getting that hot cup of coffee from one of my favorite inventions of man. Call me shallow, but I firmly believe that you need something to start your day right, and mine is a hot cup of coffee.

Ms. Caroline Co made us watch an animated video first, which contained a brief overview of Brady. The video was very informative and cute. She told us it was also made by our fellow Lasallians so I felt a little bit proud knowing that they were able to contribute to an organization like Brady. After a while, more people finally arrived and Ms. Co gave us more information about Brady and how they're trying to help their employees have a work-life balance. They had the Angel Network, which is sort of an outreach where Brady gives back to the community.

We also had a tour around the Brady office, where we saw the cubicles, sleeping quarters and locker rooms of the employees.

Their Sleeping Quarter Guidelines

Brady Tournament Trophies and Rewards

Panorama of the one of the Brady Office with our IT head Ms. Kiran

Ms. Caroline Co giving us a tour around th Brady

Mr. Allan Goh

Me and my classmates during the discussion

After the tour, Mr. Allan Goh our speaker discussed to us a more in the history and processes of Brady Philippines in a more in depth and technical manner. He also told us a bit of history of Technology (networks, internet, etc) and the five things that are trending in businesses today.From what I believe, Mr. Allan is Singaporean and I'm not used to hearing Singaporean accents that much so his accent made it a bit difficult for me to understand him. But overall he was able to give us more information about the said topics.

Brady also gave us freebies! A shirt and a notebook with a pen! Overall it was nice adventure! ☺

Disclaimer: photos courtesy of John Jane Granada.

Shaking hands

Hello World! (geek pun right there)

Welcome to the most awkward blog (made for a subject requirement) ever! I hope I get to interest you and hopefully, you'll learn something useful amidst all the confusing thoughts and weird opinions.

01101011 (k) beks.