Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 9 No. 4 - Enterprise
Simple Solutions
Cyware’s products simplify customer information management
By Anne Ruth dela Cruz

Thirty-four year old Carlos Yu wanted a career in writing. Or so he thought, until he became a print pool operator for a computer company in New York when he was 19. It was while feeding paper into high-speed computer printers that his interest in computer software was awakened.

Carlos, then, started saving for his own personal computer. He didn’t have to wait long due to the increasing affordability of computers then. Soon he dabbled in his new toy and eventually produced his own software. “I started doing trading systems for banks in New York. As I got more contacts, I indulged into a lot of consultancy work.”

But Carlos wanted more. After getting married, he realized he wanted a big family and realized there’s no better place to raise his children than in the Philippines. In 1996, his young family moved back to the country to try its luck in the software development business. Together with his wife, Elaine, who takes care of the administrative and marketing side of the business, Carlos’ software business was born.

In 1997, Cyware Incorporated was formed and its first product was launched for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) called Simple-Dialer. This product is a dial-up administration system that simplifies the configuration, deployment, and management of dial-up settings for Internet subscribers. As a result, ISPs are able to more effectively manage dial-up connections for their subscribers while utilizing less technical support resources.

The following year, Cyware developed its second product — Simple-Café — in response to the internet café boom in the country. Simple Café is a pioneering application that provides a simple management information system that is an essential operating tool for internet cafes. It is a comprehensive, web-based solution that monitors and charges users for Internet or gaming services. It also provides web-based reports for management and offers a loyalty component to reward customers. “Our products are really tailored to suit the needs of our clients,” Carlos said. “And since we design and develop all our products, we are able to offer them at cost.”

But what gave Cyware a name in the software industry is its Simple Loyalty product. Carlos relates that Rustans Department Store asked Cyware to develop a system that would monitor the number of times and the amount of purchases made by customers. “We were only given 30 days to develop the system. It was also something new in the Philippines so we also had to increase our client’s awareness on this.”

The Simple Loyalty product was the answer to retailer’s need to benchmark the loyalty of their customers. Retailers note that 20% of the business that they generate come from loyal customers. “If these retailers are able to benchmark loyalty, they will have the basis to find creative ways to increase the average spending of their loyal customers and increase the bottom line,” he said.
Aside from Rustan’s Department Store and Supermarket, Cyware’s other Simple Loyalty clients are Shopwise, Bench, and National Book Store.

An increase in Cyware’s clientele meant a need to increase its creative workforce. To date, the company has 10 employees, mostly programmers. Carlos is proving to be a tough boss to work for in terms of quality of work, but a fairly generous one. “It’s all or nothing for me,” he says. “I don’t mind paying someone more as long as he does his job well. There is no room for mediocrity here.”

Carlos plans to establish a foundation that will create free software for local businesses. This is known as open source and is the trend in the United States. “I would like to do something like this so that Filipino businesses will have software that will meet local needs,” he shares.