Last July 2-4, 2009, COMDDAP Davao ’09 was held at the Apo View Hotel, Davao City. It was a once a year expo event here in Davao, so we couldn’t miss it. My classmates, friends and I went there to check out what was there to see. And also, we attended the tech update sessions there at the Apo View’s Vanda Function Room, which were free of charge. It was only that there were limited seats, so, you had to be early there so you could listen well. But first, what is COMDDAP, and what does it mean?
COMDDAP stands for Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines. Some of its Primary Members are Canon Marketing (Philippines), Inc., Epson Philippines Corporation, Fujitsu Philippines, Inc., Hewlett Packard (HP) Philippines Corporation, Microsoft Philippines and others. Some of its Associate Members are Creative Technologies, Inc., Innovista Technologies, Inc., and Silicon Valley Computer Center.
COMDDAP Davao is the biggest I.T. expo held regularly in the South. It showcases the latest I.T. products and software for computing, imaging, printing, connecting and communications, security, entertainment and lifestyle applications. It has also events like the Technology Update series of seminars and workshops, products demos, as well as event discounts, raffle draws and generous giveaways for lucky attendees. The seminars now were the ADOBE Seminar Series on Flash CS4, Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks CS4 and Contribute. These were held at the Cattleya Function Room at the Apo View Hotel.
The technology update sessions there were the Windows Server 2008, the ERIC Dealer Management System, the HP Thin Client, Retail Management Overview and Open Source Business Applications. I only had the privilege to attend two of these sessions, which were the ERIC DMS, and the HP Thin Client. I would gladly share to you what I had learned and heard there.
The Enterprise Resource Information and Control (ERIC) Dealer Management System is an end-t-o-end software solution for automotive sales, parts and service businesses. ERIC DMS covers the full range of dealer activities-from marketing to sales and services. Aside from core business operations, DMS includes a full ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and completely automates and integrates back office operations all the way to financial reporting. It is a complete, end-to-end solution for vehicle dealers, distributors, and service providers. This software was made by Jupiter Systems Inc.(JSI) a Philippine-based IT company dedicated to delivering business solutions for medium to large companies globally. JSI is one of the most experienced software houses in the Philippines and was one of the pioneers of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in the country. The company has been delivering business solutions for the past 25 years
ERIC DMS is composed of three core modules to manage dealer Operations. These modules are:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - ERIC CRM captures and tracks information for sales and marketing from walk-in prospects to sale, and even post sales appointment scheduling. All appointments are visible to the appropriate account manager- from sales to follow up calls and service.
An intelligent feature for grouping and filtering related inquiries from the same family, company, or individual ensures helps your sales people avoid redundant follow-ups on the same lead, as well as minimize duplicate pipeline reporting.
Vehicle Sales and Administration (VSA) - With VSA, dealers will be able to automate the business cycle of vehicle selling: customer quotations, sales ordering, vehicle allocation, invoicing, vehicle purchasing, and vehicle receiving. The system also keeps track of vehicle inventory.
Manage your inventory of vehicles. Powerful import shipment features keep track of shipping costs as you order from your manufacturer.
Service Management (SM) - The Service Management module records and controls the full range of operations when delivering service requests. This includes:Booking and creating repair orders (ROs), Approval and assignment of ROs to a mechanic, Parts and materials request, Mechanic's time monitoring, Final control quality checklisting, Service operations monitoring for efficiency and materials consumption
All of the above capabilities depend on ERIC SVM's integration with the core ERP modules for purchasing, crm, inventory, and accounts receivable.
REFLECTION:
I was amazed at this software, because it was a total all-in-one package. It had functions for the payroll, it had functions for the working hours of technicians, for the profile of the cars that they had serviced, the profiles of their customers, supply and material orders and requests, invoicing, and so many more. Also, the speaker was really very knowledgeable on his product, because he seems to know every aspect of it. He answered all the questions of the audience with full information and explanation. Then I imagined of the people that were behind this software. How long did they perfect this? How did they test it to meet the customer’s needs? How many made this software? Then I thought that I still had a long way to go before I could develop this kind of software.
The next technology update session I attended was the HP Thin Client Session. But first, what is a thin client, really?
A thin client (sometimes also called a lean or slim client) is a client computer or client software in client-server architecture networks which depends primarily on the central server for processing activities, and mainly focuses on conveying input and output between the user and the remote server. In contrast, a thick or fat client does as much processing as possible and passes only data for communications and storage to the server.
The thin client is a PC with less of everything. In designing a computer system, there are decisions to be made about processing, storage, software and user interface. With the reality of reliable high-speed networking, it is possible to change the location of any of these with respect to the others. A gigabit/s network is faster than a PCI bus and many hard drives, so each function can be in a different location. Choices will be made depending on the total cost, cost of operation, reliability, performance and usability of the system. The thin client is closely connected to the user interface.
REFLECTION:
Again, I was amazed by this technology that they called thin client, especially that this was the first time I ever heard of this. I was amazed by the effectiveness it brought in a company, organization or a school. Thin clients were cheaper, because if you compare the costs that you would have to spend with fat clients and thin clients, you would save more with the thin client in the long run. It has less energy consumption, requires minimal maintenance, so no extra cost for technicians, and it had immovable parts, so no damage is caused when you ship it or you transfer it to another location. It was also much easier to ship and handle so deliveries and transfers were no problem. I also enjoyed this session because I won a 2GB flash disk, in the Question and Answer portion of the session, haha!
I did not just attend the sessions, I also watched the products in the exhibit area. I had a glimpse of the new cameras Canon had to offer, which were more on the Digital SLR series. I also registered at the mysandbox.com booth there, were I got a free bag. And Blinque, a computer store, also had an exhibit there, which were more on their video cards. They put two heavy duty video cards in a PC, and the result was high quality graphics, fully detailed objects and an out of this world gaming experience! It’s like you’d never want to get up from your seat when you were playing in that set-up.
And there was this product that cleans your PC. It was clay-like, and it absorbed all the dirt that it held onto. I tried it on my cellphone casing, and it really worked! And the thin client was not only in the session, it was also there in the exhibit. Ng Khai Development Corp. was its distributor. I watched the HP Thin Client presentation in their booth, and was amazed again. Adobe and its Dreamweaver CS4 also had a booth there, next to Corel and its CorelDraw and AutoDesk’s CAD.
The COMDDAP ’09 for me was a success for I.T. enthusiasts here in Davao. I hope the next one will be as exciting, as or rather more exciting than this year’s.
Sources:
my borrowed digicam
http://www.jupitersystems.com.ph/product.aspx?prod_id=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client
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