3 groups complete incubation at TBI in UPVCC | Sun.Star
3 groups complete incubation at TBI in UPVCC
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
A âBRIGHT ideaâ presented by start-up companies a year ago has been transformed into prototype models that were presented during graduation rites yesterday.
There were three groups of young entrepreneurs that finished a course under the Technology Business Incubation (TBI) program granted to University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu College (UPVCC) by the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development.
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The people behind technology-based business ventures techjobs.ph, pindoco.com and Gazeebu were recognized yesterday.
Pinoy Document Company or pindoco.com is composed of three friends who have been in the print business since 1999. They started with POW Designs Inc. that had tie-ups with mostly restaurants to produce menus and tarpaulins.
The graphics design company pindoco.com offers âan efficient, inexpensive and template-based service to international clients.â
âItâs like having a designer beside you,â said Barry Canton, adding that the company
also manages information storage that can be retrieved any time.
Jethro Estimo said TBI provided them with the needed expertise in formulating a business plan and the legal side of entrepreneurship.
The company is named after legendary folk hero Pedro Penduko as a way to present to prospective clients that a âsmallâ Filipino company is backed by a competent creative staff.
The TBI, meanwhile, improved the business plan for Gazeebu project, which is aimed at âusing technology to enhance learningâ through online class management.
Project creator and manager Elmo Nazareno said his initial plan was to create a school system that involves the enrollment process but through the incubatorâs mentoring process the idea evolved.
âIt would be difficult to market the school system project. It is through mentoring that the problem on how to create revenues was raised,â he said.
The Gazeebuâs objective is for teachers and parents to be able to monitor academic achievements of students and provide teachers with tools to also improve their skills.
Nazareno said the website is functional but the official project launch will still be in June 2012.
Meanwhile, a group of young people took a close look at the growth of business process outsourcing (BPO) in Cebu and the availability of workers.
Darlene Ganub, the companyâs administrative officer, said they got more than 200 applicants but only fewer than 50 people were hired.
They said IT grads form part of the informal sector because many prefer to be freelance workers because they get bigger pay.
âThere is a hire and fire (cycle) that we have observed,â Ganub said, adding that techjobs.ph was created specifically for IT professionals and is currently processing accreditation and certification from IT companies and call center training centers.
Mischelle Ogdoc, a business management graduate, said many of her friends who are computer science graduates are working abroad.
âBut BPO companies are coming here, but they leave the country to work. There is hope here in the Philipines,â said Ogdoc.
Pauline Wade, the UPVCC-TBI incubator manager, said the graduates would be monitored through the incubation program in the next three to five years.
âBy that time, we expect them to be operational, to have real clients and we assume that by that time they would have a working income or at least break even,â she said.
Wade said form a group with a bright idea, and it is not necessary to start with capital. TBI has a tie-up with the UPVCC business cluster that provides mentoring, which has been identified as important for new entrepreneurs.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on November 24, 2011.
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