Word Of The Day: Outremer

Outremer, according to Wikipedia, is a French terms that literally means “Overseas”. However, during the days of the Crusade, “Outremer” was often used in reference to captured and newly Christianized states.

This word gives me flash backs to a lot of things. First is the Crusade that resulted to thousands of people dead and the second is the realization that I am looking at one of the words whose meaning are not necessarily the exact translation of its dictionary definition.

Bike Safely

In the Philippines, some cities impose heavy penalties for motorcycle riders who do not wear helmets. The fine is so huge even on first offense that it had become cheaper for bike riders to buy helmets than pay fines. I wonder though if that is a good policy. Heavy fines, when implemented on the street become a temptation for traffic enforcers to become corrupt.

Home Based Detective!!!

Further to my last post, get some training, partner with actual boots on the ground and call up companies with a large employee base and get them to check background checks now through your firm. Use your credentials as well as those of the experienced boots on the ground and the result would be a home based firm with excellent credentials. Go!

Safety First!

A lot of employees working for call centers and other outsourcing companies use motorcycles in getting to their places of work. It is therefore a good idea to encourage the use of Shoei RF-1100 Pious and other types of helmets that comply with quality and safety requirements of the industry. Watching these mostly young people leave on board motorbikes is quite unnerving because there is this feeling that an accident might happen to this company assets.

Misspelled

Darn!

I was looking at this blog and realized that I made a misspelling of a post title.

Outsourcing was misspelled to "Outsoircing". And the post has been up for at a week already.

Why can't blogger spell check titles? He he.

The Best There is

Of course, a musician will say that nothing beats a musical arranger keyboards by korg. I, a layman, am not in a position to say otherwise but I believe that based on what little I know now, I am inclined to head towards the same line. Everyone that I know says it’s the best and evidences that support such a claim is plentiful. I am very young in this industry to be able to accurately say the same but I also trust those who came before me and most probably I will be able to prove the same thing to myself.

Outsourcing Boom in PH

The Philippines has a lot to be thankful for. The US, it seems, will continue to outsource a lot of activities to the Philippines for at least a few more years.

This development has very little to do with our politicians creating good laws or lobbying in the senate. This has everything to do with our education system that prepared our people for BPO competence. While we are complaining about our deteriorating educational system, it has successfully created about half a million jobs in the BPO sector.

Of course, I believe that the Philippine educational system needs a lot of improvement. However, I also believe that that it has done a lot for about half a million Filipinos during the past few years.

A Nice Rest

Walking by a quiet section of a beautiful mall, I walked into a shop selling beds and their top line is a popular brand of memory foam mattress. I tested it by resting my back and immediately, I noticed its difference compared to the normal mattress that I have at home. It was so good that I was tempted to sleep there not minding the other customers. I probably would have been made the best testimony to the greatness of that product.

BPO Growth in the Philippines

The Business Process Outsourcing industry of the Philippines has grown to about half a million employees. It used to be mainly situated in the National Capital Region but now, a lot of outsourcing facilities have sprouted in the other major cities and a few secondary locations. I know of a good call center in far away Tanjay.

I know you probably haven’t even heard of the place but yes, there is at least one modern call center facility there.

Cheap Laptops

When my mother was in the US, she was able to find a man who sold cheap laptops. They were cheap because they were second hand, refurbished units. She got a few for friends at $100 to $150. She wanted to buy a lot then sell them here at a higher price. The problem is she didn't have the money to buy units and pay for shipping.

There are people everywhere who would buy cheap laptops as long as they are in good condition.

Outsourcing's Contribution to the Philippine Eonomy

The Philippines made a lot of money from call centers and other outsourcing companies that have sprouted all over. However, the bigger economic contribution of to the Philippines of outsourcing is not on the taxes collected but in the jobs that it created. I estimate that almost a million jobs has been created in the Philippines by the outsourcing industry. Therefore, it means close to an equal number of families benefitted and a lot of mouths have been fed.

Be a responsible consumer

Group buying sites have gotten so popular that people's lives revolve around it. I know a co-worker who bought online life insurance offered by a group buying site. He said that he has been waiting for this to happen, to get a big discount on a life insurance policy.

I don't know if this is good or bad. I hope he took the time to read the fine print on the policy the way that people should do when buying online or offline just about anything.