Reliable Internet is essential to outsourcing

Totally agree with the reader's point. Perhaps our Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should realize that they are not there to simply provide the means for the lonely to find their soulmates in chatrooms and date sites, but they are a crucial service to enable immediate data transfers for enterprise-related activities.

Dear Mr. Malazarte:

Your column two weeks ago about IT outsourcing compels me to write about my experience as a graphic designer for several local and foreign clients. I hope this email would merit a considerable space in your column so the concerned parties specifically providers of internet service may know the value of prompt service which is essential to the business of outsourcing in the country specifically Cebu.

I agree about the potential of Cebu for outsourced IT projects. I see a lot of projects not only limited to software engineering but even graphic design and content.

For many of us who courageously left our jobs to venture into accepting outsourced IT works, have our own share of rewards and pains. The good part is that it gives you the flexibility to work at home and be with your family all the time. The tough part is when you are faced with things that are beyond your capacity to resolve like poor Internet service.

I've been through a lot of providers before and my experience was not at all pleasant as their glitzy commercials. If you talk about bandwidth, it's nothing compared to our closest rival, India, which provides connection speeds of up to one megabyte per second (1mbps) for a typical DSL connection in the home located in either New Delhi or Calcutta.

The success of India as the "outsourced IT capital of the world" was a result of government foresight and preparation in addition to the aggressiveness of Indian telecom companies. They all believed that fast and reliable Internet connection would tremendously support the new industry that came to their shores six year ago. Now, not only do they deliver high speed Internet service but technical support is also comparable to US standards. The latter is one thing that most providers here fail to deliver all the time.

To work on outsourced projects require constant coordination with clients. That's why we need reliable Internet so much for easy communication and for faster uploading and downloading of important data.

My experience recently with SMART Wifi (Meridian), a wireless Internet service provider was worst of all. When my connection bogged down, it took them four days (not to mention the repeated calls I made) to field a technical representative to fix my connection. I almost lost that business after my client found out that I was virtually nowhere to be found. Unlike my experience with US technical support team, it was really very quick. I shoot an email concerning my hosting and the problem is solved in minutes. That's how fast they are.

I hope ISPs will realize the impact of how a poor service can affect home-based workers like me. Lastly, in this digital age, inefficiency is inexcusable for any IT related service and ISPs should better know that.

Thank you and more power to your column and The Freeman. Wilmer G. Olano
Creative Director, Interactive Design

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I would like to send my well wishes to our Bohol readers especially to Marichel and Romy Aparicio Jr., who just exchanged their "I dos" last Saturday. Their father Romy Sr. and wife say that they can't afford to miss a thing here. I'm very flattered. I don't usually get such compliment from such wonderful people like you.

And before I forget, I'd like to also extend my greetings to Ronald and Lindy Benoya, the parents of Marichel who also have come to enjoy reading this column recently.

Thank you for reading TF and God bless you all in Bohol!

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