Vicky Agorrilla, Lenovo Philippines country general manager, said the company is beefing up retail presence across the country to educate, reach and engage with more consumers.

“Our retail presence is vital to build the Lenovo brand in the country. Many Filipino consumers are buying ThinkPads from our concept stores, which is why we have revamped our concept stores to include Think-branded PCs, particularly the ThinkPads," she said.

Lenovo Philippines further raised its presence in the country recently as it opened two new Lenovo Exclusive Stores in SM Cubao and Robinson’s Ermita. 

Owned and managed by Lenovo’s business partners, Lenovo Exclusive Stores are concept stores that carry the Lenovo logo and branding.  Designed to let consumers see, touch, feel and experience the Lenovo products, these concept stores display and sell Idea-branded and Think-branded PCs, ThinkServer systems and ThinkVision monitors, as well as Lenovo computer accessories.  All stores offer technical support and services for Lenovo PCs.

The company also recently appointed Axis Global Technologies as its newest distribution partner for Think-branded personal computers (PCs) to address the growing demand from small-and-medium businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises. Axis Global is one of the leading distributors of computers, communications, and consumer electronic products in the Philippines.
 
As Lenovo’s distribution partner, Axis Global will receive education and training programs, comprehensive technical support and access to a variety of sales and marketing tools and skill-building courses from Lenovo.

SOURCE:  http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/11/24/09/interest-pc-notebooks-still-growing-lenovo

MANILA - Microsoft officials on Tuesday said at least 15 Philippine companies in different industries have already started using Windows 7 since its launch last month.

ESS Manufacturing Company Inc. (EMCI), a local business process outsourcing firm that participated in the Windows 7 Early Adopter Program, said the compatibility solutions of Windows 7 made it a lot easier for the company to migrate to the new OS without the need to recompile their legacy tools.

"We now run our programs in Windows XP mode within Windows 7," said EMCI Infrastructure lead Mark Cruz told reporters.

Cruz praised the new Windows Bitlocker to Go program, which extends encryption to external drives. He said the new program obviates the need to purchase third-party encryption software and allows them to be more flexible in using external drives.

Ramoncito Balboa, EMCI Technology Deployment Manager, said other built-in features in Windows 7 improved task efficiency and allowed their company to move away from third-party applications such as the snipping tool and file compression.

Renvi Martinez, Transnational E-Business Solutions president and general manager, said Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 was a revelation in terms of live migration and allowed for infrastructure optimization.

Armand Gacho, ACER Product specialist, also praised Windows 7 for minimizing maintenance efforts and reducing systems risk for users.

19% of global IT workforce to use Windows 7

By the end of 2010, more than 7 million people worldwide in the IT industry and at IT-using organizations or an estimated 19 percent of the global IT workforce will be working with Windows 7, according to a study by International Data Corporation.

IDC's forecast for Windows 7 shipments shows a brisk uptake after its October 2009 launch: 177 million units to be shipped by the end of 2010 and 272 million by 2013.

"In the scheme of total IT spending worldwide, the spending on the 177 million copies of Microsoft Windows 7 to be shipped by the end of 2010 will be small -- barely 1 percent of total IT spending and less than 5 percent of total spending on software. But Windows 7 means more than revenue to just Microsoft. It will also drive revenue for hardware companies, other software companies, service firms, and channel firms in every corner of the globe," the IDC study said.

The July 2009 study, which was sponsored by Microsoft, showed that 350,000 IT companies that produce, sell or distribute products or services running on Windows 7 will employ 3 million while another 4 million will be employed at IT-using firms.

IDC's analysis of the IT services market also showed that for every dollar of packaged software sold, there is another $1.24 in revenue to IT service firms. On a worldwide basis, packaged software spending will reach $311 billion by 2010.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/technology/11/10/09/15-philippine-firms-start-using-windows-7

With an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Filipinos already in Switzerland, the Philippine Embassy felt it is time for the Filipino community to start being engaging Switzerland’s political, economic and cultural spheres.

“I feel that with the increasing numbers of Filipinos, we have also increasingly contributed to the economy of this country, being nurses, accountants, many others. Even in the domestic jobs, we are contributing a lot to this country”, Philippine Ambassador to Switzerland Maria Theresa Lazaro told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau in an interview.

“It’s about time that we call the local governments, the state, even the confederation council that the Filipino community is a growing community, able to contribute more and therefore, there should also be some requests for funds so that we are able to do more,” added Lazaro.

The Embassy rounded up a group of about 20 Filipino women over the weekend for a peer-counseling seminar that included pep talks from a Pinay psychologist and exercises on self-esteem, leadership and teambuilding.

“Look at the US and the other countries, why are the blacks and the Latinos prominent? Because they are not quiet, they are noisy. Because they project themselves well. I think we have to do that,“ Lazaro told the group.

Lazaro added, “You are not only Filipino citizens, you are Swiss. You have every right to be noisy. You are able to project the country at its best, and the Filipino at its best.”

Among the group was a lawyer, a psychologist, a kindergarten teacher, a tourist guide, a bank accountant, pharmaceutical workers, domestic workers and several nurses.

“This group will decide on their own. It will not be imposed by the Embassy. We’re just trying to get leadership skills of these people, trying to enhance their leadership skills,” said Lazaro.

Anny Hefti-Misa, the psychologist who facilitated the exercises said as immigrants, Filipinas are able to overcome many challenges including cultural and language differences and homesickness.

“We are not only survivors. We are actually winners,” Hefti told the group.

Flor Oberli, meanwhile, has lived in Switzerland for 34 years after marrying a Swiss. She said the experience of Filipinas in earning money “the hard way” will help new arrivals integrate faster into Swiss life.

The Embassy hopes that by being prominent members of the Swiss community, these Filipinas can also help the Philippines in return. Further trainings will be held to help in their integration and participation in Swiss community life.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/pinoy-migration/10/09/09/filipino-women-aim-raise-status-pinays-switzerland

Since he became a congressman, a total of 18,000 high school and college students have been given scholarship grants by Gonzales in his district.

He said that aside from DJGHS, other schools given scholarship grants are the Arayat National High School with 133 scholars, Nuestra Senora Integrated School with 50 scholars and San Fernando West with 50 scholars.

He said the Iskolar ng Dong program has grown from 1,200 scholars in 2007 to 7,000 in 2008 and to 18,000 this year.

"Ang mga scholars natin ay 9,000 high school at 9,000 ay college coming from 40 high schools in Mexico, Arayat, Sta. Ana, Bacolor at City of San Fernando. Habang ang mga college scholars ay nag aaral sa DHVCAT, Assumption , PAC at iba pang colleges dito," Gonzales said.

The lawmaker said he has put much emphasis on education, adding that coming from a poor family, he sees the value of education in uplifting the quality of life on an individual and his family.

"Napakahalaga ng edukasyon kaya sa ating munting kakayahan ay naglalaan tayo ng pondo para sa mga scholars natin. Inilalapit natin ang mga eskuwela at unibersidad sa kanila para dito na sila mag aral at hindi na kinakailangan pumunta pa ng Maynila," Gonzales added.

SOURCE: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/dong-grants-scholarship-500-students

MANILA - When Boston University graduate student Thea Cuaso first heard about tropical storm Ondoy (international code name Ketsana) a few weeks back, she shrugged it off as "just one of those typhoons" constantly visiting her home countty.

But when she logged in to her Facebook account, she soon discovered Ondoy was different - all of a sudden, she said, her Facebook home page was "literally flooded - no pun intended - with "messages of missing students, of buildings... that people could seek refuge in, and of people who had to leave their cars because the flood had reached their windshields."

Jennifer Kelly, an MBA student at Harvard, meanwhile, was worried about friends and family back home when she heard of the storm, but she said she did not realize the gravity of the damage until she read messages and photos about the disaster being posted online.

"There was no news whatsoever in the US so I could only get my information from friends and family," Kelly said.

Cuaso and Kelly were not alone. At that time, Filipinos across the world could only watch in horror as those back home faced Ondoy's wrath.

"I have seen the devastation of calamities first hand before and I felt it was absolutely unacceptable not to help," Kelly, who once worked in reconstruction efforts in tsunami-hit Aceh, Indonesia, said.

As news from the Philippines trickled in, she found herself exchanging emails on how she and other Filipino students could raise donations for the victims.

"Myself and a couple of students from Columbia (Gian Valerio) and University of Pennsylvania (Bennett Aquino) and Harvard (Gena Chua) were emailing each other about how we could raise a bit of money for the victims," she narrated.

However, they soon found out it won't be an easy task. They did not exactly know the extent of the damage back home; they did not know where and how to send their donations as quickly as possible; and, they had to act quickly to reach the victims fast.

"That’s when I realized that there could be many students and schools around the world trying to figure out the same things," she said. Under these circumstances, the Student Calamity Fund (SCF) was born.

SOURCE: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/10/31/09/online-bayanihan-typhoon-victims