Eastern, ADFIAP woo SMEs

MANILA, Philippines - Eastern Communications, along with its partners Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP) and EStorm Technologies, held a business forum recently at the Cebu Waterfront in Lahug City.

Other attendees were the European Chamber of Commerce (Philippines) and the bigger SME Associations in Cebu, which includes Cebu Gifts, Toys and Housewares (CGTH), Fashion Accessories Manufacturers and Exporters (FAME), and Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation (CFIF).

Eastern, EStorm and ADFIAP held separate presentation on how they could help SMEs (or small and medium enterprises) access more funds for expansion as well as take advantage of SME-appropriate on-line technologies to help them systematize and automate their business operations.

ADFIAP presented its Fund Access modules that help SMEs work through the banking system to access financial assistance. Eastern and EStorm, on the other hand, presented their SuccesSME andDataHUB SME business Solutions, respectively, along with their connectivity and partnered services.

SuccesSME is a telco-neutral, SME-appropriate CRM (customer relationship management) tool that requires no servers, no expensive software to automate marketing campaigns, sales force, inventory, billing, business reporting, project management, and purchasing operations.

It is also the most affordable CRM tool in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

SuccessSME solutions drive down operational costs for SMEs and are user friendly and secure. They can also be bundled with EASTERN’s reliable and fast DSL and IDS services.

DataHub meanwhile is the first Tier 2 and GREEN Data Center in the Philippines that will enable SMEs to be more cost-effective and eco-friendly in their data management and disaster-recovery requirements.

It also assures clients high-security, high-performance and stable data storage without the high cost of capital outlays and upgrades, as well as the inconvenience of equipment, software, infrastructure and manpower maintenance.

These features have the effect of enhancing clients’ capability to store and systematically analyze large business and customer information, thus improving their competitive advantage to achieve executional precision, quality decisions and speed to market.

SMEs dominate the business landscape in Cebu, comprising 80 percent of the provincial economic profile.