Born to be wired

For most of us, checking e-mail, surfing the Internet and chatting are what we do in our free time -- or when the boss is not looking. Nazario Ramon "Pom" Figueroa does all these -- and gets paid for it.

But it’s not all play for this 22-year-old. After all, he has the huge responsibility of being the technical head of myAyala Co. Inc., the information technology arm of Ayala Corporation, for wired and wireless business solutions. He leads the small team of "techie guys" of myAyala, composed of Sunny Zandro Uy, Nelson Tan and Don Batino. They are the hard-boiled programmers behind the websites and mobile commerce programs of ALI, Ayala Malls, Nestle Philippines and a host of other institutional clients. And none of them have even turned 24.

Not that age sets them apart from their peers in the company.

Says Pom: "Pag young kasi, do or die kami. We take risks. It’s an advantage because we’re not just programmers, we’re also involved with the creative side."

SURESEATS.COM

They certainly gave a lot of input in a recent project with Globe Telecom involving Sureseats.com, the online ticket reservations system of myAyala.com. The idea was to introduce ticket reservations through mobile phones, a service already provided by Sureseats.com on the Internet. As avid cell phone users themselves, Pom and his gang immediately saw the advantage of making Sureseats.com text-accessible.

"Texting can be more powerful than the Internet because you get information and service anytime and anywhere," notes Pom.

Now texters can reserve tickets -- even while stuck in traffic on the way to the mall -- by typing sureseats <theater name> <cinema number> <screening time> <number tickets> and sending the message to 2333.

All told, Sureseats.com gets around 400 ticket reservations per day through web, WAP and text. Pom believes that as word spreads in the texting community -- and it inevitably does -- more people will avail of the service.

NOT JUST GEEKS

It’s somewhat ironic that Pom gets calls for emergency technical support many times while he’s in the middle of a movie.

"Being in this field conflicts with our personal life," he smiles ruefully. "But you don’t turn off your cell phone because you’re also committed to your job."

It’s not that they’re tied down to their jobs; they simply love doing what they do. Sunny says that although work occasionally overwhelms him when there are several projects going at the same time, his learnings have more than made up for any inconveniences. "Technology-wise, madali kang mag-evolve," agrees Pom. "We started debugging and writing webpages and now we’re into software development. There’s a lot of room for growth."

Besides, when they do get a break, they literally stay as far away from work as possible.

"I don’t touch my PC at home kasi kasama ko na yan sa office everyday," Don confesses. Nelson says he travels out of town as a means of escape. And Sunny parties with friends or goes back to his hometown Bacolod to unwind. "So don’t call us geeks," he says, rolling his eyes.

From The Philippine Star’s YS