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Friday, July 10, 2009

COMDDAP Learnings

               Last July 2-4, 2009, the Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines or basically called COMDDAP had conducted an exhibit at the Apo View Hotel, Davao City. The said event was open to public and has free admission.

               Actually, by the first time I saw the tarpaulin outside the Hotel of Apo View about this COMDDAP event, I don’t have the idea on what it was all about. I did not even give care to read more about this on the tarpaulin being displayed. Until, our facilitator in Management Information System subject had instructed us to attend the one of a kind happening that by chance had conducted free seminars with the latest innovation in the market.

               We were advised to registered online for us be able to attend the free seminar that will be administered by the NEXUS Group. A link was provided for our benefit and ease of registration. The registration took only 2-3 minutes to accomplish. When I was registering to the site of the NEXUS Group, I was attracted to the seminar they are offering because it was very parallel in our field of study. I decided to take the entire seminar they are offering for me to update and to gain knowledge on the latest technology on the market.

               Honestly, it was my first time to participate in that kind of exhibit, thanks to our facilitator for instructing us to attend that said event.

               July 2, 2009 was the date of our visit in the event. Accompanied by my classmate on the same subject, we enjoyed watching the latest technology being displayed. After taking the sticker outside the function room of the hotel for recognition, we hurriedly went inside to see what was going to stun us. As I went in the room, it was like a magical store to me way back to my childhood because of the gadgets that attracted me. Latest cameras were displayed in the corners. Laptops were on the other side. Internet service providers were attracting people by giving freebies. LCD monitors are tangling the eyes because of its fine display.

               As far as I could remember, the crowd was mostly occupied by students which I think the course of study is related in either Information Technology or Computer Science from different schools. There was also a number of professional, I think, who watched the exhibit. The people participated in the free demos and free testing of their product. Of course, we, the USEPians, won’t let ourselves be left behind in doing the same thing as the people are performing.

               After taking our time exploring flaunt of technology, we went to our main reason of going to the hotel, the free seminar of the NEXUS Group. The demonstrations were located at the back of the function room. Due to the small capacity of room for demonstration, the sits are limited.

               It was already pass 1:00 pm when we reach the room. The demonstration about the ERIC Dealer Management System had started. The said demonstration was handled by the Jupiter Systems, Inc of the Nexus Group.

               The ERIC Dealer Management System (DMS) is an end-to-end software solution for the automotive dealer operation. ERIC DMS’s range of solutions covers Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Vehicle Sales and Administration (VSA), and Service Management (SVM). It is also supported by a robust back-end system on the parts and supplies inventory, over the counter sales, purchasing and requisite financial modules for financial accounting and reporting. It shows how the implementation of ERIC DMS could help in dealership to have a full visibility of over-all operations.

               The presentation ended by 2:10 pm then another presenter had come to change the stage. The next presenter showed us a technology that I had encountered for the first time – the HP thin client.

               The thin clients are computing devices that function as an access device on a network. It is a client computer or client software in client-server architecture networks which depends primarily on the central server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the user and the remote server. In a thin client/server system, the only software that is installed on the thin client is the user interface, certain frequently used applications, and a networked operating system. This software can be loaded from a local drive, the server at boot, or as needed. By simplifying the load on the thin client, it can be a very small, low-powered device giving lower costs to purchase and to operate per seat. The server, or a cluster of servers, has the full weight of all the applications, services, and data. By keeping a few servers busy and many thin clients lightly loaded, users can expect easier system management and lower costs, as well as all the advantages of networked computing: central storage/backup and easier security.

               Moreover, the demonstration had captured our attention because of its prepared prizes for a surprise question. If I were right, all ears had been given to the demonstrator just to win the prizes for the certain questions. Overall, the participants of the HP thin client demonstration had fun while gaining information because of the Answer my Questions portion.

               Next presenter had tackled about the Retail Management System Overview. They are trying to show how to remedy the existing dilemma of enterprises through their product.

               According to the presenter, the Philippine retail industry continues to thrive despite the global financial crisis. Retailers challenged with multi-branch servicing cost need a scalable solution to bring sales to its branches, promote interbrand stock sharing and send sales information to the head office seamlessly. They wanted to show how to have enterprise-class tools to analyze data a fraction of the cost. The need for timely business information will help to improve the bottomline, restore order to multi-branch stores and meet geographical challenges.

               After the presentation of the Retail Management System Overview, Open Source for Business Applications followed.

               To them, as companies cut IT spending by up to 10 percent, its income generating prospects need not suffer. Open Source development of business applications has proven to lower acquisition costs, and decrease vendor lock-in reliance and obsolescence rate so that even commercial software giants have acknowledged the rise of this technology by allowing interoperability. They aim us to discover how the use of Internet-based Open Source platforms is a viable alternative for developing systems such as corporate, e-commerce, CRM, employment, publishing and collaborative sites.

               After giving the whole content about Open Source, their came a discussion about which is reliable software to be used in the election system on 2010. Two parties, Open Source developer and the Commercial software developer, are showing their sides and opinions about which should be used. While in the heat of discussion, one party decided to stop the discussion since they are running out of time and what they are opposing is will always depend on the result of the election on 2010.