Pinoy software developer explores Mindanao market

THE recent Manufacturing Technology Davao Expo brought to Davao City an all Filipino-owned company of software developer whose products are for easy use of businesses that are small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs).

Synthesis Innovations, Inc. (SII) managing director and president/chief executive officer Noel Sinclaire P. Sy said they provide business solutions as they create simplified software systems to conform to the business requirements of the SMEs.

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He said their products are affordable and can be customized depending on the need of the client. The software covers human resources services, accounting, inventory management, e-commerce and point-of-sale.

Sy said that cost of the software is competitive of about P30,000 per program.

But aside from this, he said they value their relationship with their clients as they provide coaching for the client to fully understand and learn the operation.

Sy said if they have their way, it would be customized all the way saying each business is unique and there is only a small percentage of businesses that have identical business processes.

"Having custom-made software guarantees that the software would work a hundred percent for your business," he said.

Using commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS), he said, may cut overall development costs and time, since they can be bought or licensed instead of developed from scratch and at the same time lead to reduced maintenance cost. But a disadvantage of using COTS is dependence on a third-party component vendor, he said.

According to Sy, they would only target one percent of the 10 percent of total SMEs and a lot of them operate in Mindanao. "Bringing our product in places like the island here is also sharing what we had successfully applied in our company," he said.

Sy also heads the Myers Steel Manufacturing, the company that has ranked in the top 500 companies in the Philippines for the last two decades.

After spending several millions for its IT software which did not work well in the past, Sy stated that they have decided to work on a software that suits their needs. The steel company has some 700 workers.

Conceptualizing their own IT system, he said, they learned the hard way and realized that what went wrong during the past experience was the lack of knowledge in terms of process.

He said given such experience, they do not want it to happen again to their clients. He added that they are working in collaboration with their clients.

Meanwhile, SII vice president for business development Kendrick Ang said that to compete with software development companies they strive to keep their overhead expenses down thus passing on the savings to their clients.

He said they are here as reliable partner to small business owners who are focused on growing their enterprises using info technology.

Right now, the SII softwares are being used by some 100 companies mostly located in Manila. Among their top clients are Anchorland, Don Henricos, RS Developer, Multi-M Food, Pier One, Precision Crester, Tri Maritime, Total Eye Care, Markap Warehouse, Kimonoken, Prime Colors, RSRH Livestock, Earth Luck, Exemed, Eurofuel, Yukon, Kadamay, Jesi Mendez, Quantum Amusement, TCTI, Mrs. Fields.

In Davao, Ang said they are working their partnership with Cor Jesu College.

They also have partners in Cagayan de Oro City and will be establishing one each in Bukidnon and Butuan. (Prix D. Banzon)