Field Trip DAY 1 --SSS Office and SPI GLobal!

First Company visited: SSS Main Office

                 We arrived at the NAIA around 7:30 AM.  It was really a big and nice airport as what I am always heard and seen on Televisions. We were the first batch to arrive at Manila so right after a minute of waiting for our belongings, we were then asked to be geared up for our first company visit in the SSS Main Bldg at East Ave., Diliman, Quezon City.  I was a bit surprise since as we have been practicing everyafter  travel , I thought of having  a rest even for an hour only(hehe), unfortunately , the trip was not that like the trips way back in high schools and grade schools. happily, we have about 1 hour before making to the site, so instead of making myself fascinated on the views against the window of the bus , I put myself to rest to lessen the fatigue and physical exhaustion brought by the plane.

          We were able to reach the SSS Main Building around 10. Suppose to be, we must be there at about 8 – 9 but because of some unexpected circumstances happened at the airport, we did not made it on time. From that moment, I thought the SSS staffs were gnashing their  teeth already. Fortunately, they are too kind to make be like what I thought, and guess what; they organized a program exclusive for us. Hmmm… they were too good to be true. ^_^ 

What I learned?

                The program starts formally right after we were all settled up.  We were welcomed by their pretty MC Ms. Mercy Lucena. The first speaker talked was Ms. Marissa Bugante, a UP Graduate and she was in the corporate department of the Company. She did the opening remarks and introduced us their company. Next was Ms. Eugenia dela Cruz, she talked about the history of the Company, how they progress and endured the years passed and also their programs offered to the people. One thing that did went under the surface of my mine from the lectures of the first 3 speakers was that when you are once a member, you will always be a member of the company—nice slogan and so true.

                The last speaker from the company was Mr. Leo Abayon from the Production Center. At last, they will to introduce us to their IT division. He first discussed the beginnings of their usage of the technology. It was in years 1970-1983 when they started using computers, huge computers – NCR machines as they call them .  in year 1983, they created 2 branch online and since the company was growing rapidly, in 1986 they were able to centralized their operations and made another online branches. It was in 1992-1996 when they switch to full computerization and in 1997-2003 they recentralized their databases and had a business recovery center. In these years also they started clustering their servers in order to support their growing company. In the present they are using SUN M9000 server is the Oracle’s highest-performance and largest-multiprocessor enterprise server delivering massive scalability, up to 64 processors and 256 cores to handle the largest workloads. It's designed for demanding virtualization, consolidation, and multi-hosting deployments that require mission-critical RAS features. (http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/servers/sparc-enterprise/031587.htm). Currently, they have 3,722 Web Inquiry Systems, about 839,247 Web registered members including Web registered Employees, 106 receiving and processing centers. Their regional hubs has the capacity of 1.7 DB record,a private network connected to public networks and uses TELCO Grade Firewall. the company was indeed well informed to the new technologies passes by.

                After the talk of the last speaker, our very own Professor Dr. Randy  Gamboa, they  accompany us on a tour to their building. From the Museum to the library wherein we were able to know the company’s humble beginnings. Then ,we went to the MAC or the Members Assistance Center wherein they teach us how they corporate all their services and also they introduced to us the ID capture and the use of Biometrics. The last tour was in their production centre. We went to the first section of the center, the AUTOMATIC FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM where they showed us how they match fingerprints and how they were able to identify unauthorized users. The second section was UMID then the third was MAILING section.

What I liked ?

                What I liked about the company was their staffs. They welcomed us warmly and as a matter of fact, they prepared a yummy snacks (burger and bottled tea) to keep us energized. And of course, the best thing about them was the fact that they did not  prohibited us to explore their company especially in their IT division.

                This reason why among the companies we’ve visited, this was one of my favorites.

What I didn’t like?

What I didn’t like about the visit was the long talks of the speakers especially those speakers who took a long time to advertise their company—from History to their Services. Their topics were so far from what we want to hear.

Second Company visited: SPI Servi Soft

                After about 4 hours touring in the SSS Building, we took our lunch (lunch?) at the Jade Valley, Timog Ave.,QC and went directly to our next Company Visit—at the SPI Global located at Parañaque City. We arrived  at the site at around 3 pm. SPI as what they introduced us is one of the world's largest and most diversified Knowledge Process Outsourcing and Customer Interaction service providers in the industry in terms of clients, geographic presence, and capabilities with more than 14,000 dedicated employees globally. They provides domain expertise in the Customer Interaction, Healthcare, Legal, and Publishing markets and provides services across a wide-range of industries including banking and financial services, government, information technology, media, not-for-profit organizations, retail, and travel.

What I learned?

                During the lecture, I was not able to understand greatly what they want to mean cause they were not sure of what they were telling  us. However, as far as I can remember, they teach SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle) and according to them they use “waterfall”. I’m not familiar with this term but what I understand it was all about creating systems. I guess it’s under SAD subject and since not enrolled to that subject so in the entire lecture I just made some positive gestures (haha). In the next speaker, fortunately, even though I’m not familiar to the SAD, I was able to understand some since he delivered the talk informatively. He taught us the stages of making a system. From the structure stage,then to the programming stage (wew!),  to the testing stage, then to the End-user Testing, and then to the implementation stage. Hmmm… at least I got some background to system analysis and design! I might used this knowledge soon.

What I liked ?

                I guess, what I liked about the company was the fact that they are always looking for more of the right people to help them provide their  worldwide clients with high quality, cost-effective Knowledge Services and CRM outsourcing solutions. That means they are at all times open to people who might want to apply to their company.

What I didn’t like?

                What I didn’t like about the visit was their accommodation. Unlike SSS, their unpreparedness was too obvious to see.  For me it’s okay even if we waited a long time for the presentation to start, what I don’t like was the truth that they did not delivered their presentations the way we can understand easily.