Orange & Bronze's Java Bootcamp for ComSci Teachers

Fifteen (15) Computer Science professors from University of the East, TIP-Manila and QC, Jose Rizal University and Mindanao State University has successfully completed and passed the Java Boot Camp lastsummer. This is part of the Industry Academe Linkage Program of PSIA where O&B is a board-member, and in partnership with PSITE and COCOPEA and funded by TESDA.

The deans and teachers will roll-out the program this school year to their respective universities and the graduates of this program will hopefully be hired by PSIA member companies. O&B will conduct mid and post-assessment to ensure that the teachers and schools are properly rolling out the program.

The teachers who passed the Java Boot Camp will be prioritized in the faculty immersion next summer in O&B where they will work for 3-6 months and will be involved in actual projects. In this way the teachers will gained real world software development experience and will impart the knowledge and experience they learned to their students.

The four organizations are looking for other organizations to fund the IAL programs so it can be implemented to other universities in the country. If your organization is interested please contact infoATorangeandbronzeDOTcom. This will be a big help in making the Philippines the center of excellence in Software Development.

"Market Research"

I really love market research and mentoring =) I find it very challenging and exciting. Unfortunately, very few people do =( Marketing students tend to shy away from doing market research as their thesis paper or school project because its too tedious and boring too. Where in fact market research helps you create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, expand into new markets etc.

Today, marks the 1st week of the newest batch of interns from DLSU who are Marketing Management Majors students. Early this week, I gave them the research guide, some readings and explained the product that we're planning to develop. This will also be their thesis paper. Am up for extra work and some excitement this quarter. Yay!

Am also very proud to share with you that this is my 4th batch to handle =) The 1st 3 batches did very well and in fact one batch has been nominated as "Best in Thesis". We have also established a very good relationship with the professors/lecturers. One OJT coordinator once said that O&B never fails to come up with a good paper. That remark stuck in my mind and really inspired me to mentor more interns and students.

Will keep you posted about the research paper =)

Effective proposals and follow-up calls

In the next few months we'll be writing a lot of proposals. We will market aggressively our Java Trainings which we will offer to public next year aside from the corporate trainings that we'll do. And hopefully, we'll be able to launch two of our products by January, and offer consultancy services for our BI solutions.

Now, what is an effective proposal? Based on my experience and readings we have to begin with reiterating the benefit/solution your product, services offers. A lot of times we have to spell this out for the customer, they may not know they have a problem until we show them. Giving a scenario would help too!

After sending proposals, follow up is the key! Average response rate is about 2% but with follow-up calls or emails, it can move to 10% =) big big difference, isnt it?! Also, I noticed that it has something to do with the tone of our voice. If you're making a follow-up call and you sound excited and knows well your product/services, others will get excited too. We'll have a bigger chance of closing deals.

Servant + Leader = Servant Leader

Servant + Leader = Servant Leader

So what is this all about? We all know about servants and we all know about leaders. But have you heard about a servant leader? I have read that servant leader means a leader who leads by serving and serves by leading. I remember Calen mentioned this to me before I started working for O&B last year which I considered one of the reasons why I decided to join O&B full time. Calen, Butch and Joel are very good examples of Servant Leaders which i believe is very inspiring. Whether it is answering a call, getting a new mouse, mentoring, sharing their knowledge and experiences or simply making coffee for everyone, in every aspect they see to it that they get to serve the all the employees of O&B. It would be very rare if not non existent that I would find another boss' like them.

If we are to be the servant leaders of this company, we have to begin in our department, where each person serves the other regardless of rank, race, religion, gender, etc . So the attitude that we should all try to have always is one of "How can I serve you today".

P.S. so whose making the coffee this morning? =) hehehehe

Marketing on a Shoestring Budget 2

I almost forgot that we can do a low cost ad on facebook =) hehehhe i love facebook!

Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

A month ago we officially celebrated the company's first year in the business. We have grown so much since then and looking back we've gotten projects and trainings through word of mouth. Which I think is the best form of marketing which always have worked and will always be. Thus we need to ensure client satisfaction in each project that we do and trainings that we give.

Also, for me Marketing is not defined by the money a company spends but by how we communicate to our clients and potential clients. Here are some of my recommendations:

a) Blog
b) Making our emailers and letters more personal especially the introduction letter wherein specify how we can help them or their business.
c) Google Ads
d) Magazine Interviews
e) Contribute Articles in Newspapers and Magazines
d) Effective Website
e) Q&A portion in our website (wherein you'll act as consultants/experts in your field).
f) leveraging our expertise in Hibernate & Spring to differentiate with other software development companies.
g) Coming up with very nice and affordable promotional items by doing it in-house.

Any way to communicate with our clients or potential clients is a way of marketing. So technical guys will be able to help the Marketing/Business Dev Div. We have to show the human side of our business, and should continuously enhance the way we interact with our customers. The key is to understand what they need and find the service/option that best fits their needs.

Work-life balance. What does it really mean?

I just want to share something I read before about work-life balance. Hmmmm...... Do we really know what it means? How do we really balance it? and can it be really balanced? Tough questions huh?! Different answers.

According to wikitionary balance means - equal amounts all around while the other dictionary (i forgot hehehhe) said that balance as a verb means to bring into or keep in a steady condition.

So it means you have to divide equal amounts of time for work and enough time for yourself or to see family and friends, or play your favorite sport/video game or simply have the time to do other things. But for some it would mean that you won't have enough time for work to enjoy all the things I mentioned.

In my opinion, the better way to do it is to enjoy your work enough to want to put it near the top of our priority list (if we have one =) and if we don't have one yet - its not yet too late to start, right?). Or is it something that we only do just to "have" to pay the bills and buy want we want?