The Philippine business landscape has changed significantly over the last decade. This is especially evident in the new technological as well as management tools now used by corporations.

Philippine Business lists ten of the most notable business innovations that have greatly contributed to modernizing Philippine companies over the last decade.

Faster Computing
The use of computer technology has enabled many companies to reach certain levels of sophistication in their operations.

With more convenient word processing software, typewriters became a thing of the past. Imagine the impact, especially in the financial sector, of manual computations being largely replaced by computing software delivering results in split seconds. This speed of business computing also rapidly accelerated parallel to the growing strength of the processors. Intel’s 808i series, 286s, 386s, and 486s, in demand in the 1990s, were all brought to obsolescence at the close of the 20th Century which, in turn, gaveibol way to the more powerful Pentium processors.

E-mail, Networks, and Info-Highways
Computer hardware and software became even more popular with the advent of the internet in the Philippines in 1994. Sending internal and external correspondence, locally or abroad, has never been easier with e-mail.

Nowadays, computer work stations in offices are networked at least one way. This interconnection of computers allows for real time data access to shared files within an office. The same office may also be included in a wide area network.

On top of this, information highways are becoming wider and smoother, allowing for data to travel faster, a must for the businessman who is always racing with time. Satellite links. Cables. Wireless. Broadband. One or more of the information highways fulfill the communication requirements of today’s companies.

Online Selling, Payment Facilities
With the internet came a new breed of companies, especially in the US. These companies became known as “blick-and-click” companies which connect to their audiences and markets via the internet. They also primarily exist in virtual offices.

There may only be a handful of blick-and-click companies in the Philippines, but many of the country’s traditional or “brick-and-mortar” companies were compelled to migrate to the internet due to the sheer pressure of the times. The popularity of the internet has inspired these traditional companies to tap the vast potential of the internet medium to expand their access to markets locally and abroad. Companies, especially those into merchandising, complement their traditional sales channels with online presence. Resultant online transactions are more popularly known as B2C (business-to-consumer) transactions.

With all these transactions happening online, another business tool was born – the online payment system which allows buyers to pay for their online purchases.

E-Marketplaces, Supply Chain Integration
A relatively newer innovation in the Philippine internet era are e-marketplaces, which provide efficient and savvy tools for procurement of inputs and resources. E-marketplaces are online markets where corporate buyers and sellers meet and match and close B2B (business-to-business) transactions in the comfort of their own offices. Prospective business partners’ propositions are neatly catalogued in a single interactive portal.

These online trading facilities inspire businesses to do what is called supply chain integration which, for each company, entails the aggregation of resource requirements of different business units to achieve better price-bargaining volume with suppliers.

Promotions via Text
The past two years have opened new doors for marketing and promotion of products and services. One standout development is the gigantic opportunity to reach mobile phone users by launching groundbreaking promotions using SMS (short messaging service) as a promotional medium. Inasmuch as the Philippines is the text capital of the world, with about 15 million cell phone subscribers crazy about texting, SMS promotions have become more cost effective and easier than more traditional promotional media.

Data Warehousing
As information becomes more and more important to the business environment, companies have found it imperative to do data warehousing where vital business databases are centralized within a company and administered by an information engineer. Data warehouses, said to be critical components of a company’s decision support system, organize and collect data into databases that can be searched and mined for information through the use of business intelligence solutions. These databases enable top management to analyze, plan, and react to changing business conditions in a faster manner.

Business Scorecards
Companies of today are more aware of the need to increase accountability within the organization. This gave rise to the popularity of the business scorecard, a way of developing balanced measures which are key to the development of a meaningful business performance system. The business scorecard was invented in the early 1990s in response to the corporate leaders’ need to measure critical success factors of their corporate strategy with the end goal of increasing alignment around the most important actions.

The importance of the scorecard is highlighted by the executives’ need for more than the traditional financial measures to successfully manage today’s organizations. They realize that financial measures rarely capture a company’s strategic objectives.

ISO Certification
Various ISO certifications now exist as trophies for well-managed companies. ISO certification of a management system focus on the areas of quality, efficiency, environment, and on-the-job safety. For customers and potential investors, a certified integrated management system becomes a definite advantage of a company over the vast pool of local and international competitors.

The road to being ISO-certified is characterized by efforts toward productivity increases, process sequence optimization, defect cost decreases, and more manageable entrepreneurial risk. Philippine companies are commonly aiming for ISO 9002 and ISO 14001.

Franchising is the most popular mode of business expansion today

Franchising
Companies with good fundamentals or profit propositions are eventually bound to expand. In recent years, the most popular mode of expansion of companies has been franchising. Though practiced already decades earlier, it was only within the last decade that franchising prospered significantly. From less than a hundred in the early 1990s, franchises rapidly grew to over 500 within the past decade. In fact, according to the Philippine Retailers Association, more franchises came into the market from 1995 onwards than in the previous 20-year period.

Franchising flourishes as consumers increasingly desire a higher level of professionalism, quality, guarantees, and efficiency offered by experienced franchises. On the economic side, steady population growth, changing consumer preferences, greater diversity in food and services, an increasing urban middle class, the emerging multi-income families, and an increase in the number of shopping malls are said to have all contributed to the growth of franchises in general. Interestingly, the more popular local franchises like Jollibee and Mercury Drug Store have become a gauge of progress at the municipal level.

Subcontracting / Outsourcing
Subcontracting became an accepted way of doing business in the 1990s, with companies opting to source out some of its messengerial, collection, customer service, and HRD functions. In the case of manufacturing firms, subcontracting job orders to smaller manufacturing companies enabled them to accommodate seasonal increases in orders. An unpopular practice for some labor groups, subcontracting seems to have a stronghold in businesses as it accords them more financial and operational flexibility.

Today, subcontracting is more commonly referred to as outsourcing. The fastest-gorwing segment of outsourcing includes business process outsourcing and customer contact centers or call centers. Services range from fulfilling orders to more technical customer queries on certain consumer products.