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Where is BPO in Asia-Pacific?

Posted in Sourcing Insight by Michael Rehkopf on Sunday, July 20 2008 12:55 PM

Do you see lots of BPO happening in the Asia-Pacific region? Before we answer that, what do I mean by BPO?

I mean business process outsourcing which therefore excludes captive centers and considers only the engagement of third parties to provide business processing services, excluding IT related services such as infrastructure and applications. In addition, we need a threshold..... Read more ť

Has the Internet changed our core values?

Posted in By The Way by Eileen Yu on Friday, July 18 2008 02:11 AM

If you've been following this blog, you might remember that I'm a self-professed sufferer of a, erm, disorder I've come to call, privacy paranoia.

Becoming a blogger, getting on Facebook and letting people other than my friends be able to contact me via mobile and IM, meant I had to give up some..... Read more ť

Time for online TV to arrive?

Posted in Malaysia Explorer by Oon Yeoh on Thursday, July 17 2008 03:59 PM

Several Malaysian outfits have tried to do online TV. Two notable ones were Cyberjaya.tv and Malaysia.tv. Both are now defunct.

There was even a stillborn attempt by famous TV news anchor and producer Suhaimi Sulaiman. He's now gone back to traditional TV.

But that hasn't stopped others from trying. Cuzzy Media is the latest of the online TV players..... Read more ť

Singapore's TR19 BCM standard: How to snatch victory from jaws of defeat

Posted in BCP Confidential by Nathaniel Forbes on Thursday, July 17 2008 11:42 AM

In the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Framework for Voluntary Preparedness report of January 2008, the authors refer to Singapore's Technical Reference for Business Continuity Management (TR19) as an "authoritative source" for "best practices" (see page 4).

That's ironic, because among professionals here in Singapore, TR19 has been mostly a source of derision since its release in..... Read more ť

Use technology to understand your audience

Posted in Inside India by Swati Prasad on Wednesday, July 16 2008 02:00 AM

In the last 15 years, journalism in India has gone through a sea change. In the 1990s, we saw the birth of "Page 3" journalism. That meant a bunch of fashion-savvy journalists were sent out each night to cover parties and fashion shows. They invariably came back with some juicy gossip about the "movers and shakers" of the city.

During this..... Read more ť

Kidneys for sale: A case of self-defense?

Posted in Tech Legal by Bryan Tan on Monday, July 14 2008 02:56 PM

The news over the past few weeks in Singapore is that a few people have been charged in relation to two transactions where kidneys were offered for sale. So far, two sellers, one would-be buyer and two middlemen have faced various charges under the Human Organ Transplant Act ("HOTA"). As these cases are pending, I do not propose to venture..... Read more ť

SQ vs CX: Which one is more e-ready?

Posted in The Pinoy Post by Melvin G. Calimag on Monday, July 14 2008 01:07 PM

As we've written before in this section, journalists are quite fortunate to be given the chance to cover events outside of their home country. Two of the most common places we go to, like in my case, are Singapore and Hong Kong. These two cities are very similar yet rivals in almost every aspect, including in the airline business.

More..... Read more ť

Executive decision to let heads roll

Posted in By The Way by Eileen Yu on Friday, July 11 2008 02:28 AM

Not a great week for the folks at Yahoo. The embattled Internet company is facing renewed pressure from Microsoft and investor Carl Icahn to have its board members ousted, including Yahoo's iconic frontman, CEO and co-founder, Jerry Yang.

Hostile takeovers and involuntary removal of top honchos..... Read more ť

Longing for lost Philippine glory

Posted in The Pinoy Post by Melvin G. Calimag on Tuesday, July 08 2008 10:59 AM

It's difficult to imagine now, but the Philippines was for a time the toast of Asia. Just visit YouTube and type the words "Manila, Queen of the Pacific" and "Old Manila", so you can view videos that can give an idea on what I'm talking about.

The reality now, however, is that the situation is entirely different--the Philippines has become a..... Read more ť

Weathering turbulent times

Posted in Sourcing Insight by Michael Rehkopf on Monday, July 07 2008 08:16 PM

Each day and week, we continue to read about the global challenges people worldwide are facing.

These challenges include:

1. Massive losses and writeoffs in the financial services industry;
2. Increasing inflationary threats; and
3. Soaring energy prices.

What impact can these dislocating events have on the sourcing industry? I would offer a few thoughts...

The pursuit of scale and cost efficiencies will continue unabated. When..... Read more ť