Foreign demand for non-voice BPO service to increase, BSP says

MANILA - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects continued demand for information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) services from foreign companies, with the gradual shift to non-voice segments seen to increase revenues.

BSP director Rosabel Guerrero said BPO revenues are expected to have increased by 15 percent to $13.34 billion in 2013 from $11.6 billion the previous year.

“We see continued demand for BPO, computer, information and other business services,” Guerrero said.

For this year, the BSP sees BPO revenues growing by 15 percent to $15.3 billion.

“We have been seeing the gradual shift to other segments of the BPO industry, including transcription, animation, back office transactions of financial and non-financial industry,” Zeno Abenejo, BSP Department of Economic Research director said.

Tourism receipts, meanwhile, are expected to have grown by 20 percent to $4.8 billion last year from $4 billion in 2012.

“We see more demand from foreign companies to reduce operational cost. There’s an increasing market share of IT BPO segments such as the non-voice segments,” Abenejo said.

“Basically, there’s a view that the economy will show more strength. As we have seen, data releases from major economies, there are issues of more recovery,” he said.

The BPO sector is expected to generate around 124,000 jobs a year from 2014 to 2016, Pasig Representative Roman Romulo said.

Romulo, who is chairman of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, said this would help address the problem of unemployment, especially among college graduates. He said the government was counting on BPO players to continue generating employment to help shore up the economy.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung: Galaxy S4 will break more records than predecessors

MANILA, Philippines — It will definitely break even more records.

That was the bold remark issued by freshly minted Samsung Philippines Mobile Head Eric Sulit when asked if they expect the Galaxy S4, the Korean technology firm’s latest flagship smartphone, to exceed the overwhelming performance of the Galaxy S3 last year.

“The Galaxy S3 was very strong in the Philippines, that is why we think the S4 will do even more and surpass its predecessor easily,” Sulit told InterAksyon.com during the local launch of Samsung’s most-anticipated smartphone.

“The problem right now is allocation, because we noticed that early on, the demand is so great already,” he added.


In just three months after launch, the Galaxy S3 already breached the 20 million mark and broke a lot of sales records made by its own predecessors. In November 2012, the Galaxy S3 officially claimed the coveted top smartphone title in the world, overtaking rival Apple’s just-launched iPhone 5.


Which is possibly why Samsung decided to stick with the same design philosophy with the S4. Sulit said they consciously stuck with the “organic” and tried-and-tested design of the S3, with a few minor changes in the body.

The S4, for example, is thinner at just 7.9 millimeters at its thickest point, while its Super AMOLED touchscreen display is a bit wider at 5 inches. The entire unit is wrapped with the same glossy plastic finish that have become hallmarks of the Galaxy S3 as well as the Galaxy Note 2, both released last year.

Quad-core variant

Aside from the build quality, Sulit revealed that the Philippine version of the Galaxy S4 will still be sporting a quad-core chip now made by Qualcomm in the form of the Snapdragon 600. The executive said that price was their main consideration, which enabled them to bring its retail price down to just P30,990.

“But of course, we felt that for the functionality, we could do with the quad-core (chip for the S4),” Sulit added. “The other consideration is LTE, since the local version includes the 2100 LTE band being used by both major telcos.”

Another variant, which carries the proprietary Exynos octa-core chip, is available in other countries. Sulit said they are looking into bringing the other variant to the Philippines as well, but issued no definite comments as of now.

Reports indicate that units will start selling in retail stores and with telco operators by May 5. Both Smart Communications and Globe Telecom have come out with their respective pricing plans for the Galaxy S4, with Smart offering a week-long promotion where interested subscribers can get the unit by signing up for Data Plan 1500.

Globe, on the other hand, is offering Samsung’s latest smartphone at Plan 1799, with a lock-in period of 30 months.

Aside from the high-performing chip, Samsung included a number of software enhancements with the S4, including:

  

• Smart Pause and Smart Scroll: based on the Smart Stay technology from the Galaxy S3, these two new features identifies and monitors eye movement and activates functions accordingly. Smart Pause will momentarily stop playing video when the user’s gaze moves away from the device, while Smart Scroll will move the page up or down when the user’s gaze reaches the bottom or top of the screen.
• Air View and Air Gesture: this software feature is powered by the IR gesture sensor that’s fitted with the new Galaxy S4. Air View allows you to hover your finger over content to display specific details about it, like opening an email or text message. Air Gesture, on the other hand, allows you to give swiping directions without even touching the phone.
• Group Play: Group Play will allow you to play music to up to 8 Galaxy S4 devices even without Internet connection.
• S Voice Drive: an improvement to the S Voice personal assistant introduced with the Galaxy S3, S Voice Drive aids in controlling the phone while driving by allowing to send and receive emails and text messages, as well as take and make calls, just by using voice commands.
• Dual Camera: Samsung has now made it so that certain applications, such as camera and video calling apps, can use both the front- and rear-facing camera at once.
• S Translator: This feature will allow live text-to-speech and speech-to-text translation of up to 8 languages using only the user’s voice input.

Samsung’s line of smartphones continues to be the runaway leader in the world market as it sold more than 50 million of its Galaxy S III units in 2012, trumping rival Apple in the category.

The company saw its share of the lucrative smartphone market surge to 39.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012, up from just 3.3 percent in late 2009 as it reportedly shipped more than 100 million units of its Galaxy S line as of January 2013.

source: interaksyon.com

Adobe says user forum was breached, takes site offline

BOSTON — Adobe Systems Inc shut down a website where customers share information about using its Connect online conferencing service after the software maker discovered it had been compromised in a data breach.

The company, whose software is frequently targeted by computer hackers because it is widely used to publish digital documents, said on Wednesday that it would reset passwords of the approximately 150,000 members of the site, Connectusers.com.

Adobe said its Connect web conferencing service and other company sites were not breached.

News of the breach surfaced on Tuesday when a hacker claimed in a posting on the Internet to have stolen log-in credentials of 150,000 Adobe customers and partners.

The hacker, who claimed to be from Egypt, released 644 records from the site, including emails, saying the release was done to point out that Adobe is slow in fixing security problems.

The hacker also promised to release data stolen from Yahoo Inc. A Yahoo spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

The Adobe breach was discovered a week after Russian security firm Group-IB said it had uncovered a flaw in Adobe’s Reader software that criminals are currently exploiting to attack PCs by infecting them with malicious PDF documents.

Adobe spokeswoman Wiebke Lips said the company is still reviewing that report, though it has not yet received samples of malicious code discovered by Group-IB.

source: interaksyon.com

US cybersecurity bill dead after second Senate rebuff

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared a US cybersecurity bill, opposed by business and privacy groups, dead on Wednesday after it failed a test vote for the second time.

The bill would have increased information sharing between intelligence agencies and private companies. It also would have set voluntary standards for businesses that control electric grids or water treatment plants.

Business groups opposed the bill as overregulation and privacy groups worried it might open the door to Internet eavesdropping.

“Everyone should understand cybersecurity is dead for this Congress,” said Reid, a Democrat, adding, “Whatever we do on this bill, it’s not enough for the Chamber of Commerce.”

Reid invited President Barack Obama to issue an executive order “to fully protect our nation from the cybersecurity threat.”

The measure fell nine votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate on the bill and open the way to a final vote.

A trade group, the Software Alliance, said Congress should give top priority next year to bolstering security.

Backers had hoped to move the bill during the post-election session. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said recently that attacks on US financial institutions and stock exchanges showed the need for more cyber safeguards.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month that unnamed foreign elements had been targeting computer control systems that operate chemical, electricity and water plants and those that guide transportation.

Senator Susan Collins, the senior Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the risk from a cyber attack was huge.

“In all my years on the Homeland Security Committee, I cannot think of another issue where the vulnerability is greater and we’ve done less,” Collins said.

source: interaksyon.com

Little First-Quarter Growth Seen for India Outsourcers, Recovery Hopes Fade

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Uncertainty about spending by U.S. and European clients in a weak global economy will likely weigh on the earnings of Indian outsourcers, dampening hopes that demand will pick up in the second half of the year.

India's $100 billion-a-year information technology and back-office outsourcing industry earns about three-quarters of its revenues from customers in the United States and Europe.

Analysts expect No.2 ranked Infosys Ltd., the only top-three vendor to provide a full-year forecast, to pare its revenue growth estimate for the current fiscal year to as low as 5 percent when it posts quarterly earnings on July 12.

The company in April had forecast 8-10 percent growth for the fiscal year ending March 2013, already disappointing investors enough to cut 13 percent of its market value on the day. It has gained about 2 percent since.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies, or NASSCOM, an industry lobby, expects the industry to grow exports by 11-14 percent in the current fiscal year that ends in March.

Customers continue to hold back discretionary spending due to the extended euro-zone crisis and the absence of unequivocal data that an economic recovery is under way in the United States, the Indian providers' biggest market.

"Hopes of a recovery in the second half are just that, hopes," said Apurva Shah, head of research at BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, which manages investments of about $750 million, including in the top Indian IT companies.

Due to the continued uncertainty in the demand environment and discretionary spending not coming through, the fund was "underweight" on the sector, Shah said.

FADING FAST

The sluggish global economy is prompting clients to demand more for every dollar spent. This adds to the pressure on billing rates on a commoditized set of services that Indian firms, competing with Accenture and IBM, rely on for the bulk of their revenues.

"The depressed situation in the west appears to continue to be of concern, but the hope is that they will recover slowly," Tata Consultancy Services Chairman Ratan Tata said at the company's annual shareholder meeting on June 29.

Shares of Infosys, which has a market value of about $25 billion, are down about 11.5 percent this year, while those of top-ranked TCS are up about 8.7 percent. By comparison, the main 30-share Bombay index has gained about 13 percent.

A weaker first half may have been factored in by the street, but "hopes for recovery in 2HFY13 are fading fast," Bhavin Shah, chief executive of Equirus Securities, said in a July 2 report. He has an "underweight" rating on the IT sector.

For the June quarter, analysts expect little or no sequential dollar-term sales growth for Infosys. The company may say sales grew 0.5 percent, Deutsche Bank analyst Aniruddha Bhosale said in a note. Bhosale, who advises clients pick TCS, expects it to report sequential growth of 2.6 percent.

Infosys is seen posting a profit of 23 billion Indian rupees ($413.71 million), compared with 17.2 billion rupees a year ago, while TCS is seen coming in at 29.7 billion rupees, 23.3 percent more than the year-earlier period, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The companies are expected to benefit from an 8.5 percent fall in the rupee during the quarter. However, analysts see some negative cross-currency effect due to the move in the euro and British pound versus the U.S. dollar.

"The rupee depreciating is not a reason good enough to play these stocks, as the outlook in terms of overall demand remains weak," Apurva Shah said.

($1 = 55.5950 Indian rupees)

source: nytimes.com

Three UP students win IT competition in Madrid

Three students from the University of the Philippines (UP) won first place in “Indra Future Minds Competition,” an international Information Technology (IT) contest held in Madrid, Spain on April 26.

According to a report of Bloomsberg Businessweek on Tuesday, the UP team beat participants from:

• the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid's (UPM) School of Telecommunications in Spain, who came in second,
• the Sao Paulo Faculty of Technology in Brazil, and the UPM's School of Industrial Engineers who both shared the third place.

The UP team is composed of:

• Erwin Soleta, a Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering (BS ECE) student;
• Maria Katrina Volante, also a BS ECE student, and
• Benedict Ivan Andrade, a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering student.

UP’s Assistant Vice-President for Public Affairs Danilo Arao congratulated the winners.

“The recent achievement of our students in the Indra Future Minds Competition shows that UP can compete with the best and the brightest globally,” Arao told GMA News Online.

“This achievement, together with UP topping the recent licensure examinations for electrical engineers and teachers proves the students’ adherence to their values of honor and excellence in the service of the people,” he added.

The second edition of the “Indra Future Minds Competition” is launched by an IT multinational in Spain aiming to have students compete with the challenges that are faced in the current business world, such as globalization, multiculturalism or collaborative networking.

The UP team earned their victory by resolving the final Smart Cities case based on actual Indra projects for the Barcelona City government such as the design of a cloud computing solution, a simulator to optimize water management, and unmanned vehicles (UAVs) project, the report said.

Winners of the competition will join the IT multinational company in the subsidiary of the office of the students’ choice, upon completing their studies, the report added.

They will also be given monthly travel allowance for one year. - with Jon Lindley Agustin, VVP, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com