Last night Karen and I went to Festival Mall to watch Ouija and The Simpsons Movie. I'm more of a feel good movie king of guy and horror flicks are really not my thing. Not since I saw The Exorcist (Director's cut) that I started to get scared of horror flicks. hehe However, Karen loves watching thses kinds of flicks and I thought why not give her a chance. The trailers of Ouija looked good to me and I like the cast. I won't go into the details of the movie but kudos to the cast and crew because I found it to be a nice movie. I got scared while watching but somehow I was not really as scared as I thought I would be in the movie house. Watching a horror movie with other people can sometimes take the scare out of you. I found it a little funny when the audience would scream when the ghosts are about to appear. Still I found Ouija to be more than I expected it to be. I would recommend this movie.
Of course wouldn't let myself go to sleep with the images of Quija in my mind. How else would you do this but by watching another movie. A comical nonsense movie like The Simpsons Movie. Its not really all nonsense. Just like your typical Simpsons show on TV, it tries to teach some morals but is more often than not twisted by the writers of the show. It had a lot of laughs but I also felt that some of the jokes were not as funny. Maybe its me and I would buy its DVD but not as eagerly as waiting for the Transformers DVD. I felt they were trying so hard to make the movie last more than 30 mins in order to make it into a movie. I guess I'll just stick to the Simpsons TV Show. :)
Just wanted to share an article about the industry that I am in and my company, eTelecare Global Solutions.
Reference: CNNMoney.com
Philippine Call Centers Are Music To The Ears of American Callers
July 18, 2007: 08:05 PM EST
Jul. 18, 2007 (Investor's Business Daily) --
The playwright George Bernard Shaw famously quipped that "England and America are two countries separated by a common language." Any American who's called tech support lately might feel the same way about India.
Many tech firms are outsourcing their call centers to India, thanks to its surfeit of high-tech workers at low wages who speak English. But that English, inherited from Britain and processed through Indian phonemes, can be hard for Americans to understand.
That's one reason why the fastest growing call-center market right now is the Philippines.
As a former U.S. colony, it picked up American English right from the source. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Filipinos have family in the U.S. keeps the two cultures connected.
Growing Industry
According to Robert W. Baird, the Philippine call-center industry is growing 40% a year. That compares to 23% for India and 1% for the U.S.
ETelecare Global Solutions ETEL was in early on that trend. In 1999 two former workers at McKinsey & Co. set up shop in Quezon City, near Manila. The team saw that the linguistic amity could let it offer higher-end services than the typical offshore call center.
"Our core philosophy is that we want to be a value-added provider, not a commodity provider," Chief Executive John Harris said. "So we look for opportunities where we handle more complex voice interactions -- those that require certifications for the agents or extensive training."
ETelecare backs this up with a complex system of metrics to show exactly how much they're worth to their clients.
For instance, the firm values its services for an unnamed telecom at $11million a year. It reckons that every 1% improvement in customer satisfaction generates $1.12 per hour, while every 1% rise in up-selling and cross-selling yields $3.60 an hour. The company clocks its sales conversion rate at 25% and its dissatisfaction rate at only 5%.
All this number-crunching applies to workers as well, says Harris.
"We have an elaborate scorecarding system that's driven to every employee in the company, from myself down," he said. "It's very strongly focused on performance -- where we rank within the vendor set that serves the customer."
Baird analyst David Koning says it's hard to tell how accurate these figures are. But the approach seems to be working.
"The reason we believe it's true is that their margins are better than their competitors'," he said. (Baird was an underwriter for eTelecare's March IPO.) "They do seem to be doing something right."
The firm's first-quarter operating margin stood at 11.8%. That's a little behind West Corp. and Convergys CVG, but ahead of most others, including larger Sykes Enterprises (NASDAQ:SYKE) SYKE and Teletech Holdings (NASDAQ:TTEC) TTEC.
Overall, eTelecare had an excellent first quarter. Revenue jumped 50% to $62.1 million, while profit gained 217% to 19 cents a share. Analysts expect full-year earnings growth of 82% this year to 80 cents a share, steadying to about 30% in each of the next two years. They see yearly revenue growth at an industry-leading 23%.
Koning says eTelecare can stay competitive by spreading to other places. The firm already went beyond the islands with its 2004 buyout of Phase 2, based in California.
At first blush, this may seem to be paddling up the waterfall. The past few years, eTelecare's rivals have been pouring from North America to distant tropical climes, and here eTelecare heads the other way.
However, the U.S. still has the biggest outsourced call-center industry. Koning says many firms like having all their reps in the mother country. Still others like having reps in a range of places and time zones.
"We primarily serve Fortune 1000 companies, which tend to have needs in multiple locations," said Harris. "We plan to maintain a presence in the U.S., though it will probably grow modestly compared to offshore locations."
Harris says the firm plans to move into other countries in the future. He especially likes Latin America, another hot call-center region with 21% annual growth.
The management also hopes to diversify the customer base. In 2006, the top five clients brought in 80% of the revenue. Cingular, now part of AT&T's T wireless unit, led the way with 42%, with Dell DELL providing 18%. Vonage VG, Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) TWX AOL and Sprint (NYSE:FON) Nextel S each kicked in 6% to 7%.
Harris says this concentration is partly a sign that clients like eTelecare and keep bringing it into more parts of their business.
Dell is a good example. It has two programs with eTelecare, one for less complex services and another for more complex ones. In the first quarter, Dell's revenue contribution rose to 25%.
Still, analysts fear that reliance on such a small number of clients is risky. This was evident in 2005 when the loss of a major client account helped drive the company into the red.
But Harris says that such concentration is normal for a firm the size and age of eTelecare. He believes that the problem should naturally dwindle as the company grows.
Vonage Account
Nonetheless, eTelecare is shrinking its customer base a bit by scaling back its relationship with Vonage. The VoIP provider has been bleeding money and is entangled in a patent fight with Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZC) (NYSE:VZ) VZ, so less exposure makes sense.
Another risk eTelecare faces is exchange rates. "About a third of their costs are incurred in Philippine pesos, and if the peso gets stronger against the dollar, effectively their costs go up," said Dhruv Chopra, analyst with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:BDJ) (NYSE:MS) (NYSE:MWJ) (NASDAQ:ESTX) (NASDAQ:MNDX) , another underwriter.
Chief Financial Officer Mike Dodson says the company expects to launch a hedging program in the third quarter to reduce this risk.
That hasn't stopped eTelecare from expanding its Philippine business. On July 17, the firm announced plans to build a new service center there housing at least 3,000 employees. It's already building one there about the same size, due to open in the third quarter. When both centers are running, eTelecare will have about 13,000 Philippine employees in all.Newstex ID: IBD-0001-18237359
Originally published in the July 18, 2007 version of Investor's Business Daily.
Copyright (c) 2007, Investor's Business Daily, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Investor's Business Daily, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Welcome Leonidas! :)
The happy mommy of five :)
I was tagged by Mich.
Two names you go by: Pacs, Francis
Two things you are wearing right now: shorts only
Two things you want in a relationship: love and trust
Two of your favorite things to do: photography and playing video games (still a kid at heartÜ)
Two things you want very badly at this moment: rest and massage
Two pets you have had: Dog and a goat (yes, you read that right a G-O-A-T)
Two people who will fill this out: peachy and andrea
Two things you did last night: worked :( and got sick
Two people who live at your house: mom and dad
Two things you ate today: home-made tapsi and mechado
Two people you talked to last: my boss and my teammates
Two things you are going to do tomorrow: get well and go to work in the evening
Two longest car rides: Ilocos and Baguio
Two favorite holidays: Christmas and New Year!
Two favorite drink: chocolate and grape juice
I could not wait to watch Transformers eversince its trailer was released. I even have Optimus Prime as my wallpaper!Ü As soon as I had the chance, I took Karen to Eastwood to watch Transformers. We were supposed to go to Caleruega early Sunday morning but I was not able to wake up early because we went home late the night before when my other high school barkada had a reunion.
We got to Eastwood around lunch time and Karen wanted to eat some Chinese food. We were supposed to eat at Super Bowl but unfortunately, it was closed so we went to Shanghai Bistro. It was a good experience dining there not to mention the food was awesome. Not only did the food taste great, the serving was also good for at least 3-4 people! Had we known of their serving size, we would have ordered a little less than what we did.Ü
Stir Fried Beef with Brocolli (Php205++)
Steamed Fish Fillet with Garlic (Php366++)
Salt and Pepper Squid (Php 223++)
Chicken Fillet in Orange Sauce (Php205++)
Yang Chow Fried Rice (Php178++)
We even texted Allan, Barry and Selle to come and join us. Ok more like, help us out finish the food.Ü After eating, Karen wanted to have her picture taken with some of the still animals that were at the open area in front of Shanghai Bistro. Here are some of them.
We met with Allan at around 3pm to watch Transformers but Selle and Resty were going to Trinoma to buy Selle Avaiator glasses at Topshop. We decided to accompany her there and just come back to Eastwood later that night to watch the movie. It was also my chance to check out the newest Ayala Mall in town. I read in Anton Diaz' blog their mis-adventures when they went there not to mention the things I got from a friend of mine in college who gave not so good feedback when they went there. It was probably because the mall is not completely finished. Although, we were not able to walk around the mall, the small park at the top floor was pretty. The flowing water was relaxing and enjoyable for the kids. There were a couple of things that I thought they might need to improve on. First, their parking area. There were a lot of ways to enter the parking building but it only has 2 lanes for vehicles plus the road is a bit narrow. Second, the restaurants can be found outside the mall, quite similar to MOA. The difference is you have to go through their security inspection if you want to check out the other restaurants on the other floors. It would be better if they had an escalator or stairs to be able to access the other floors without having to go inside the mall.
We ate dinner at Bangus before going back to Eastwood. Another first for Karen and I, so we were not quite sure what to eat and we were still full with the semi-buffet we had for lunch.Ü The Bangus sisig and the Lumpiang Bangus were delicious! That Karen and I were able to find the space in our belly to eat them!Ü
Bangus Sisig
Lumpiang Bangus (photo taken by RZTBoi)
TropaTups at Bangus Trinoma
Check out their menu.
The movie was incredible! Special effects were nicely done. I only hope they used the old transformation sound more. I can't wait for the sequels!
Next movie date?
Thanks to Jet coming home for a couple of days from Germany, we were able to have our long overdue reunion. I haven't been able to attend several gatherings in the past because of work but since everyone decided to meet up on a Saturday, I was finally able to come. We also had a good venue to hold the reunion, Molokai Grill at Festival mall, Muntinlupa where Bonsai is a part-owner (Silent part-owner daw). I was not able to go its opening, a few weeks back and I was a bit excited to see the place not to mention that the last time I went to a bar was eons ago! It was also a chance for me to meet Jet's wife, Michelle. It was great hanging out with everyone again!
Jet and Christine
Bonsai with Cyril (a.k.a. Silverfilter)
Jet and Toto with the ladies of Madmoz (Rona, Marie, K-An, Na-K, AJ and Kitty)
The Bomb (me, Don, Cyril, Bonsai and Jet)
Til next time! Out of town perhaps? Pwede rin sa bahay nila Marie! Hehe
Last night Karen and I went to Festival Mall to watch Ouija and The Simpsons Movie. I'm more of a feel good movie king of guy and horror flicks are really not my thing. Not since I saw The Exorcist (Director's cut) that I started to get scared of horror flicks. hehe However, Karen loves watching thses kinds of flicks and I thought why not give her a chance. The trailers of Ouija looked good to me and I like the cast. I won't go into the details of the movie but kudos to the cast and crew because I found it to be a nice movie. I got scared while watching but somehow I was not really as scared as I thought I would be in the movie house. Watching a horror movie with other people can sometimes take the scare out of you. I found it a little funny when the audience would scream when the ghosts are about to appear. Still I found Ouija to be more than I expected it to be. I would recommend this movie.
Of course wouldn't let myself go to sleep with the images of Quija in my mind. How else would you do this but by watching another movie. A comical nonsense movie like The Simpsons Movie. Its not really all nonsense. Just like your typical Simpsons show on TV, it tries to teach some morals but is more often than not twisted by the writers of the show. It had a lot of laughs but I also felt that some of the jokes were not as funny. Maybe its me and I would buy its DVD but not as eagerly as waiting for the Transformers DVD. I felt they were trying so hard to make the movie last more than 30 mins in order to make it into a movie. I guess I'll just stick to the Simpsons TV Show. :)
