Edwin Glindro, project director of PCCI's training arm Philippine Chamber Development Institute (PhilCDI), said they have adopted the use of FOSS and other related technologies as among their focal advocacies to help improve the global competitiveness of the business sector.

“We're looking at promoting its (FOSS) use to help reduce the cost of doing business,” he said at a PCCI-led chamber management seminar for Mindanao business leaders here.

The management seminar, which was held at the The Farm Resort here, focused on the theme: “Developing the chambers' advocacy work program: The issue of competitiveness.”

The activity is among the sidelights of the ongoing two-day 18th Mindanao Business Conference (Minbizcon) at the Fitmart Mall Convention Center.

Glindro said they have tied up with the International Open Source Network’s (IOSN) ASEAN+3 Node, which is based at the National Telehealth Center of the University of the Philippines in Manila, to help provide awareness about FOSS among business chambers.

IOSN, which is a Center of Excellence for FOSS in the Asia-Pacific Region, is tasked specifically to facilitate and network FOSS advocates and human resources in the region.

It envisions that “developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region can achieve rapid and sustained economic and social development by using affordable yet effective FOSS information and communication technology (ICT) solutions to bridge the digital divide.

Latreia Estabillo, IOSN training alumna for Socsksargen, explained during the chamber seminar that businesses could save a significant portion of their operating investments if they shift to FOSS or Linux-based operating systems.

She said most businesses in the country, including those based in Mindanao, have been largely using proprietary software and operating systems that cost thousands of pesos for limited license terms.

Citing a 2008 study released by Gartner Inc., she said most Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) view computing as an expensive venture and as a result, they tend to use very little of it – both hardware and software.

“Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well-supported and they provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment,”Estabillo said.

In terms of operating systems, she said Gartner’s research study in 2008 showed that Linux is considered the fastest-growing server operating system since its first release in 1994.

Estabillo said the other areas where FOSS has gained significant development during the last several years are in customer resource management, enterprise resource planning, mobile and computing communications, business intelligence, voice over IP or VOIP telephony, web browsers, virtualization and security.

She said the IOSN has been in the forefront of networking with FOSS developers in the development of FOSS toolkit for SMEs and a collection of FOSS applications essential for basic business operations dubbed the SME-in-a-box.

Bronx Hebrona, an IOSN partner and currently the President of the Sarangani Chamber of Commerce and Industry, pointed out that Linux servers have proven to be very reliable and stable, especially in terms of security, for various corporate users in the area.

He said the available applications that are important for the corporate desktop such as office suite, email client, graphics and multimedia software have also proven to be competitive options.

Hebrona cited the OpenOffice suite, which has continually grown in terms of users worldwide. Citing records obtained from the website of DabaweGNU Inc., a Davao City-based FOSS advocacy group, he said among the companies and institutions that have been using FOSS and Linux technologies are the University of the Philippines, Prudential Life, Shopwise, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sony Service Cente, NCCC Mall in Davao and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc.

Peter Marquez, President of the Metro Cotabato Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc., initially signified interest to link up with IOSN to find viable FOSS solutions for the operations of various businesses in his area.

Marquez, who has ventured into the call center business in Cotabato City, said his company has been looking at some possible ICT solutions that could help reduce the cost of his operations.

“We’ve been spending a lot of money just for licenses to some software that we’re using. Now I think we have some viable option,” he added. (PNA)
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Source: Philippine News Agency website at http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=3&sid=&nid=3&rid=230369