JGSOM
Students reach finals in HSBC Entrepreneurial Tilt
Three
out of the five team finalists in the HSBC Young IT Entrepreneurial
Awards 2004 – 2005 are from the Ateneo de Manila University. Out
Innovative Business Ideas
ParkMe
ParkMe is primarily a parking management company dedicated to providing simple, efficient and easily accessible parking reservation through SMS (Short Message System) available in mobile phones. Its mission is to decongest our commercial districts while allowing the consumers better access to products and services that they desires by streamlining and improving the methods of parking administration. It seeks to become the benchmark of parking services providers in the nation. It is committed in highlighting the importance of the consumers' time and maximizing the value of land. The company's vision is to alleviate urban traffic, promote IT and e-commerce and most importantly, encourage a culture of punctuality.
The system of ParkMe allows anyone with a SMS-capable phone to send a message to any of the company's parking facilities and schedule a parking slot to be at his/her disposal at an agreed time. No other company in the Philippines provides such a simple and accessible service available at this time. The consumer will quickly know if slots are available or otherwise. A minimal reservation fee will be obtained by debiting it from the mobile user's phone bill, thus no cards to take or stubs that can be lost. Coordinators onsite will promptly direct the consumer to the reserved slot further removing the need for driving around and waiting.
ParkMe is the idea of Team Competent, which consists of Jor-el Soyangco (III BS ME), Jovitt Trinidad (III AB Psych), and Jenica Ranice Go (III. AB ECH).
eMusikero
eMusikero is an online retailer that allows migrant Filipinos in North America to quickly find, purchase, and download legitimate music from mainstream and independent Filipino artists. There are approximately 2.25 million Filipinos living in the U.S. and Canada. Although the proliferation of the Internet and new communications technologies has facilitated the transfer of products and ideas around the world, Original Pilipino Music (OPM) has not found its way to the global marketplace. Until now, Filipinos living abroad have had to illegally download their songs from file-sharing networks. On the Internet, the MP3 format can be combined with digital rights management software and encrypting technology to deliver digital media content to any computer without risking piracy or copyright infringement.
To take advantage of all these opportunities, the team proposes the creation of this online store that will allow users to quickly find, purchase, and download OPM songs for a modest fee. This will also enable Filipino artists to share their music with fellow kababayans in North America through the World Wide Web. eMusikero offers two main services namely: a) vast and diverse library of OPM songs that can be downloaded for a fee and b) online e-magazine featuring updated editorial content on the local music scene.
eMusikero is the idea of A & K Corporation composed of Aaron Jarveen Ho (III BS LM), Karlo Mortel (III BS Mgt), and Steven Alexis Ng (III BS MCT ).
The Competition
The HSBC Young IT Entrepreneur Awards was first launched in the Philippines in October 2003 to foster ingenuity and the entrepreneurial spirit among Filipino students to become future business leaders. The competition began in Hong Kong in 2000, and since then has become a regional contest covering Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. This year, HSBC, one of the world's largest financial institutions operating in the Philippines since 1875, again opens this competition to students who wish to explore their creative potential in the field of enterprise. This competition provides participants with a valuable opportunity to develop innovative business plans involving the use of information technology. A series of training programs also allow students to acquire practical business knowledge by exposing them to some of the most successful and influential people in the business and IT world.
The competition, which runs from September 2004 to March 2005, is divided into four rounds. In Round 1, participating teams submitted an outline of an innovative business idea involving the use of IT in such a way that it could lead to the creation of a successful business venture or enterprise. In Round 2, qualifying teams were invited to attend a training workshop on Successful Entrepreneurship and Business Plan Writing last 11 December 2004. They were then asked to submit their respective full business plans that were assessed by a panel of judges. In Round 3, teams who qualified were invited to meet the panel of judges last February 16 and answer questions related to their business proposals. Each panel interview lasted around 10-15 minutes. For the Grand Finals, the five finalist teams will make a formal presentation to the Board of Judges on March 9. The Board of Judges will be composed of a mix of leading figures in local business and enterprise, government and the academe.
Last
year, three Ateneo teams also dominated the Grand Finals. JGSOM's Abigal
Go (BS MCT), Richard Rubnan Que (BS Mgt), and Melody Wong (BS MCT)
received the Grand Prize for their business proposal called eLustrados.