Finex launches IT financing for small and medium firms

The Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex), along with SB Corp. and private IT providers, is undertaking a seminar on providing affordable PCs and systems with financing packages on April 24 at the RCBC Plaza (5/F, Rooms 527-528), from 1 to 5 p.m.

Information technology, a buzz and a byword among businessmen, has been around for decades now. And yet, hardware and software, even for backroom or office use, have yet to be realized for majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

One of the reasons why IT is not immediately available is its cost. To SMEs, they would rather depend on manual processes. Even if they have the PC or the hardware, they would rather use the available programs provided in the hardware they had purchased in lieu of software that may be expensive as far as their businesses are concerned.

In the seminar, Benel Lagua, president of SB Corp., the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry, will discuss funding and guarantees for SMEs.

Under a new project called SULONG (SME Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth), government financial institutions (GFIs), including SB Corp., have standardized processes to enable SMEs to readily access cheap financing.

With government support for SMEs, an IT-based consulting firm, Franklin Financials, headed by Franklin Ysaac, a former banker and now an IT provider, will present management information systems that will address the needs of SMEs.

Aside from providing high-end software applications for financial institutions like foreign exchange dealing system, money market and trust systems, Franklin Financials is now targeting SMEs as beneficiary of low-end software applications like accounting, payroll, account receivables and other office/administrative programs.

These programs, which will be available in small modules depending on the needs of SMEs, are priced reasonably with features that can be further customized.

Fujitsu Phils. Inc., a software and hardware provider, will also present its products that will be affordable to SMEs. From servers and workstations to PC peripherals, these products will come in handy with the software of Franklin Financials.

Rene Betia, Fujitsu marketing director, will also discuss the financing component for qualified SMEs that will purchase the software and the hardware.

According to Lamberto Scarella, chairman of Finex’s SME committee and executive vice president of Plantersbank, the April 24 seminar is only one of a series of seminars that Finex will conduct this year for SMEs in Metro Manila and elsewhere in the country, under the theme "Sulong, Filipino! Magtiwala, Magkaisa!"