CITING increased mobility in the local work force, Intel Philippines is calling on large businesses to use notebooks, saying it improves productivity especially for “road warriors.”

Based on a study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Intel, companies can achieve 5% to 15% “end-user productivity” improvement by using notebooks.

“Data show that notebook users are 51 minutes or almost an hour more productive per day than desktop users,” said Jermyn Wong, Intel Philippines business development manager for enterprise solutions sales said in a presentation to reporters yesterday.

He argued that the work force is changing, with growing dependence on wireless networks. This applies across all segments from “road warriors” to light travelers and even to desk-bound employees.

As such, “there are significant gains to be made in terms of enabling new business processes and efficiencies by providing notebooks to more desktop users,” he said.

Apart from productivity, the use of notebooks will also improve responsiveness and access to information, and will reduce the cost of supporting remote and home office-based workers.

However, Mr. Wong said it was critical for information technology managers to segment workers by how frequently they travel, to determine the appropriate distribution of notebooks.

The international IT company also recommends that businesses should not keep machines past the optimum three-year life cycle and should acquire only notebooks they deem to be of highest quality and with “low failure rates” to avoid costs in repair and maintenance.

Telecommunication and the media, sectors that rely on mobility, will likely benefit from this transition to notebooks from desktops, Mr. Wong said. — Jeremiah F. de Guzman

IGNORING gloom in the equities market, software solutions provider Ripple E-Business Int’l., Inc. yesterday sought approval from regulators to sell shares to the public for the first time to raise funds for product development.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that the company intends to sell 4.58 million common shares at P4.37 each to raise P20 million, half which would be spent for research and development involving its main product, Barter MMS. The product is a computer software intended to help retailers manage inventory and sales transactions.

Ripple E-Business said it wants to expand the product’s market and create new lines for pharmaceutical firms and warehouse and distribution outfits. Funds will also cover sales, marketing and administration costs. The firm plans to spend the proceeds of the initial public offering (IPO) within 18 months.

Asian Alliance Investment Corp. will serve as issue manager and lead underwriter of the sale, which will involve almost 30% of the firm’s stock.

Ripple E-Business, formed nine years ago, would be the first firm to do an IPO after San Miguel Brewery’s listing in May 2008.

A number of firms have postponed IPO plans due to unfavo-rable market conditions brought about by the credit crisis in the US, which had driven the global economy into recession.

Ripple E-Business’s financial reports showed that annual revenues for the last four years averaged P29.26 million. Annual profits averaged P1.76 million during the same period.

Analyst Claire S. Quiray of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said that while the chances of having a successful IPO are better during a bull market, delaying such plans could also cost a company. “Time is gold. So it may also cost you if you wait until conditions improve because you may not get the funds for your planned expansion,” she said.

“If your price is really good, then people may still participate in your IPO,” Ms. Quiray said. — Don Gil K. Carreon

ILOILO CITY — The Iloilo City government and the busi-ness sector are launching a campaign to attract investors in information technology (IT), tourism and agribusiness.

Leah Lara, executive direct-or of the Iloilo Economic Deve-lopment Foundation (ILED) and Iloilo Business Club (IBC), said they will mount an invest-ors’ forum and product exhibi-tion at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati this September.

Ms. Lara said they plan to invite to the forum the Ayala Group, SM Group, Megaworld Corp. and other business giants in the country.

“This is a coming out party for the city and province of Iloilo as the next investment hub. We will ask for help and attract investors in agribusiness, tourism and IT. We will also exhibit Ilonggo products dur-ing the activity. The club and the foundation are working on the details,” she said.

Megaworld plans to develop the 54-hectare old airport site in Mandurriao district into a P1.5-billion IT park. The Phil-ippine Economic Zone Author-ity (PEZA) recently approved Megaworld’s application for accreditation of the proposed cyberpark as a special economic zone for IT. PEZA director general Lilia de Lima informed the Iloilo City council last week on the approval of Megaworld’s accreditation bid, Ms. Lara said.

The IT park, which will be known as the Iloilo Business Park, is envisioned to become a “live, work and play” hub.

Megaworld acquired the old airport property in 2007 for over P1 billion.

The new airport is located in Cabatuan and Sta. Barbara towns, about 20 kilometers north of this city.

Ms. Lara said the PEZA ac-creditation is a positive development in their efforts to attract more investments to the city and province of Iloilo.

“Iloilo is ready because we have the resources and the space. It is just a matter of packaging the city and province to lure investors. Iloilo has a distinct advantage in the IT industry,” Ms. Lara said.

“While the local government unit stands to lose a lot in terms of real estate taxes [due to incen-tives for locators in the economic zone], the jobs that will be gene-rated by the presence of IT firms in these PEZA sites are already a good trade off,” she added.

There are now five PEZA-accredited sites in Iloilo City, namely the: Amigo Mall and Robinsons Place in Iloilo City proper district; SM City in Mandurriao which hosts call center firm TeleTech; Gaisano City Mall in La Paz district; and Iloilo Commercial Development Corp. (ICDC) building which houses ePLDT Ventus in Molo district.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said the presence of PEZA sites bolsters the city’s standing as a promising business process out-sourcing (BPO) hub.

In its “Exploring Global Fron-tiers” report released in February 2009, auditing firm KPMG cited Iloilo City as one of the next generation BPO sites in the world.

The Commission on Infor-mation and Communications Technology (CICT), the Busi-ness Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and the Department of Trade and In-dustry (DTI) also cited Iloilo as one of the “Top 10 Next Wave Locations for Outsourcing in the Philippines” outside Cebu and Metro Manila. Iloilo City ranked third in the CICT-BPA/P-DTI scorecard with a rating of 80.93%.

Ms. Lara said they initially planned to hold the investors’ forum in October last year but it was postponed because of the economic crisis and the after-math of typhoon Frank, which struck in June and caused mas-sive flooding in Iloilo and other areas in Panay.

The Iloilo Economic Deve-lopment Foundation, which was founded by key represent-atives from the local govern-ment, business community and private individuals, has said it is committed to fast-track the development of the city and province of Iloilo by promoting and marketing Iloilo as a pre-mier investment destination.

It is headed by Alfonso Uy, chairman of the La Filipina UyGongco Corp., as chairman, and Rex Drilon II, chief operating officer of Ortigas and Co. Limited Partnership, as president. — Francis Allan L. Angelo

Caught Twittering or on Facebook at work? It’ll make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9% more productive that those who do not.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said “workplace Internet leisure browsing”, or WILB, helped to sharpen concentration.

“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” he said on the school’s website (www.unimelb.edu.au/).

“Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity,” he said.

According to the study of 300 workers, 70% of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB.

Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

“Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity,” said Mr. Coker. “That’s not always the case.”

However, he said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20% of their total time in the office.

“Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity…,” he said. —�Reuters

Now is not a good time to hunt for mergers or acquisitions even though asset prices are relatively low, the top executive of Lenovo Group, the world’s fourth-largest PC maker, said on Friday.

Lenovo executives have previously said the company, which competes with Dell, Inc. and Hewlett Packard Co. was hunting for acquisitions in emerging markets, especially Brazil, India and China.

But Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing said it could be difficult to reach agreements currently because target companies might be unwilling to sell at the current depressed prices, while Lenovo would not want to buy at high prices.

“Even if asset prices fall to a low level, it does not necessarily bring a deal to us,” Mr. Yang told reporters. “Now is not a good opportunity to do M&A.”

Lenovo realigned its business structure last week to focus on emerging and mature markets by creating two new business units, which replaced the company’s existing regional market organizations.

On Thursday, the company unveiled 50 new consumer models in Beijing, underlining its efforts to shift business focus to the consumer segment.

PC demand in the Chinese market is seen rising in the quarter ending March from the previous quarter, Mr. Yang said.

“We have noticed the increasing intentions of spending [in PCs] by Chinese consumers, a result of the stimulus measures by the government,” he said.

Focus

To meet demand, Lenovo will step up the pace of launching new products and also diversify its range, Mr. Yang said.

Research firm IDC says Lenovo shipped about 22 million PCs in 2008 for a 7.4% share of the global market in 2008, and was the only PC brand among the top four to see its market share shrink, falling by about 0.1 percentage point.

Lenovo’s larger rival Acer’s market share grew by three percentage points driven by its low-cost netbook PC line, as consumers and companies pulled back on discretionary spending and chose to buy cheaper items instead.

“Lenovo tends to lag behind Taiwan’s Acer and Asustek in product development, often by months,” said Charles Guo, an analyst with JPMorgan in Hong Kong. “And it often takes another several months for Lenovo products to hit the market.”

“The market focus towards consumer PC would require even faster pace in product launch,” Mr. Guo noted.

Lenovo, whose operations were previously all in China, now relies on the mainland for 45% of its global revenues after buying IBM’s PC business in 2005 for $1.25 billion.

Mr. Yang declined to say if China’s contribution to Lenovo’s global revenue would rise but said growth in the Chinese PC market is likely to outpace the global average over the next few years.

He said global economic conditions would probably bottom out by the middle of 2010, but the company did not expect the impact of weakness in mature markets to be countered by the strong performance in emerging markets.

“We are prepared that the current slowdown in the US and European market will continue into next year,” Mr. Yang said.

Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo, told Reuters in February the company is set to break even in 2010 after shifting its business focus back to China and low-cost personal computers.