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917Ventures, AC Health team up for new healthcare app

With the current pandemic, it’s not easy for Filipinos to take care of their health. There have been delays in seeking medical help due to fear of contracting the virus when they go out to visit a doctor’s clinic or a pharmacy. Healthcare providers, on the other hand, are also facing a challenge, as they have to handle a tremendous volume of patients while making sure that everyone receives the appropriate help at the right time. 917Ventures, the largest corporate incubator in the Philippines wholly-owned by Globe, is collaborating with ACHealth to provide solutions to these problems. The collaboration resulted in HealthNow, an all-in-one health app that will help Filipinos get the healthcare they need anytime, anywhere.   With HealthNow, users will be able to consult a doctor through video, buy medicine for delivery, and book clinic and lab appointments. The mobile app  will be powered by the assets of 917Ventures and ACHealth, which include KonsultaMD, FamilyDOC, Healthway, and Ge

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PayMaya Negosyo's 'Bizkarte' program supercharges MSME growth and recovery 

[27 JULY 2020] As the whole country adapts to changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, many enterprising Filipinos are turning their entrepreneurship drive into full-fledged businesses, utilizing the power of social media and cashless payments technologies.  To help accelerate the growth of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) all around the country, digital financial services leader PayMaya launched its PayMaya Negosyo "Bizkarte" Program which aims to provide MSMEs with the right tools, assistance, and resources to help their businesses thrive in the growing world of digital commerce.  A play on the words "business" and diskarte–which describes the uniquely Filipino trait of being enterprising despite the seemingly insurmountable odds–the "Bizkarte" program for MSMEs offers PayMaya's end-to-end digital payment solutions bundled with incentives through exclusive promotions and rewards for merchants and their customers, co-marketing push for members' products and servic

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Globe teams up with Bataan LGU to streamline SAP processing

The general community quarantine still follows the same guidelines from the enhanced community quarantine: go out only when necessary, practice social distancing, and wear masks at all times. To help maintain these guidelines, the Bataan local government unit (LGU) has tapped Globe to streamline the processing and approval of its Social Amelioration Program (SAP) for constituents. Globe via its innovative developer arm, Globe Labs, and Bataan LGU harnessed technology through Amber, the telco’s SMS blasting tool that allows businesses and organizations to send branded and customizable messages to engage their target audience. Through the service, information about the SAP was disseminated to constituents safely and effectively. Since reports about the subsidy were circulated via text message, it helped minimize overcrowding in public spaces, thus curtailing and eliminating the spread of COVID-19. “As they say, modern challenges require modern solutions. Given that our national govern

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UnionBank is Retail Banker International’s Asia Pacific Retail Bank of the Year 2020

Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) was declared the winner of Asia Pacific Retail Bank of the Year at the recent 35th Annual Retail Banking International Global Awards in London. At the virtual awards ceremony that honored the best of the best in global retail banking, UnionBank was cited for its key initiatives particularly for the fintech ecosystem, serving as a leader in industry associations such as the Fintech Philippines Association and Distributed Ledger Technology Association of the Philippines and supporting various conferences, meet-ups, mixers and hackathons for the community. UnionBank partners with top fintech in the Philippines and other parts of the world to tech up small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are constrained in terms of resources and access to pursue digitization. By vetting and partnering with fintech including those for human resources, payments, financing, and APIs, among others, the bank was able to extend services to small and medium enterpri

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Holcim advocates embedding sustainability in COVID recovery programs

Holcim Philippines’ Plan 2030 targets are designed to support the achievement of the United Nation’s Sustainability Goals. Leading cement manufacturer Holcim Philippines, Inc. reiterated its commitment to improving environmental and social performance as it supported calls for COVID-19 recovery programs to be aligned with efforts to address larger sustainability challenges. Holcim Philippines President and CEO John Stull: “We are determined to help where we can to ensure that new ways of doing business support the overall efforts to preserve gains in improving the quality of life for people all over the world and build resilience against similar global challenges.”   On 20 May, over 150 global corporations released a joint statement urging governments all over the world to align socio-economic recovery programs for COVID-19 with actions that build resilience against future shocks caused by climate change. Global building solutions leader LafargeHolcim Group is among the signatories

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EON partners with AiPayGo to Expand its Technology Stack

Union Bank of the Philippines, through EON, has entered into a partnership with Artificial Intelligence Payment Gateway Online (AiPayGo) to enhance EON’s award-winning banking technology by leveraging on AiPayGo’s global fintech expertise and mobile technology solutions. “With so many banking apps out there, customers are looking beyond payments and yearn for one that would help them achieve their life goals and aspirations.  EON is a one-stop-shop for payments, so our customers need not spend too much time on this chore and can devote more towards their life aspirations.  However, we won’t stop there, in the same way, our customers never cease to creatively find ways to fulfill their dreams,” said Kimberly Espiritu, Assistant Vice President and Communities and Linkages Head of EON. “Beyond payments, we work towards the financial well-being of our customers.  If our customers need money to achieve their life goals, we are ready to lend and extend a lifeline. Harnessing AiPayGo’s tech

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PLDT Enterprise, DTI to enable MSMEs restart with 3-month FREE business bundle

PLDT Enterprise, the Business-to-Business (b2b) arm of the country’s leading ICT and digital services provider, introduces a solutions bundle designed to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) get their businesses back on track. Recognizing that businesses have differentiated digital priorities, PLDT Enterprise designed the said package with flexibility to allow MSMEs to build upon their requirements by offering reliable business and connectivity solutions and selecting add-on services best suited to shift their operations to digital—all with first three months of use for free. The bundles are founded on connectivity solutions that feature PLDT Enterprise’s newest fiber broadband service BEYOND FIBER and wireless broadband Smart BizLTE 1899. “We at PLDT Enterprise have always aimed to make a positive impact on every single business. With our current situation posing much financial pressure on MSMEs, we have endeavored to design a customizable solution that goes beyond basic

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Mastercard partners with tonik, Philippines' first digital-only neobank, to accelerate financial inclusion

Mastercard today announced a new partnership agreement with tonik, a two-year-old startup that recently received a bank license in the Philippines. Through this partnership, Mastercard will further enhance tonik’s market proposition by enabling the latter to issue a range of electronic payments products that tap into Mastercard’s global network and extensive business intelligence when tonik launches operationally later this year. Internet penetration in the Philippines is at 67 percent, and one-third of the population is millennials—many of whom are digital natives. However, according to the 2017 Financial Inclusion Survey by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), over 70 percent of the country’s population is unbanked. At the same time, 60 percent of Filipinos who are either in the formal banking system or can become part of the system, are willing to use offerings that are digitally focused. Achieving financial inclusion by leveraging financial technology has been top on the agenda for

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Converge ICT commissions high capacity backbone in the Philippines to improve internet connectivity

Converge ICT, the country’s fastest-growing local fiber internet provider, has commissioned an innovative and flexible high capacity backbone to give Filipino consumers and enterprises their most powerful connection yet. The new 400G metro backbone utilizes industry-leading optical solutions from a United States-based networking systems, services, and software company, paving the way to support current and future requirements from a range of applications. As demand for bandwidth increases, the 400G optical solution allows Converge ICT to be flexible and efficiently improve the capacity of its nationwide backbone to deliver a more seamless user experience. Leveraging ASON technology, the network is capable of automatically routing traffic to multiple available paths during fiber breaks, a feature that traditional DWDM technology cannot provide as it’s limited to switching of traffic from the main path to only one protection path. This deployment gives Converge ICT a programmable, dynam

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Demystifying 5 Myths About Collaborative Robots

Collaborative Robots or “cobots” are more than just a cool innovation we all are excited to discover and utilize. It is in fact widely used in manufacturing companies around the world, wherein automation has increased productivity dramatically while realizing immense growth and sustainability. This has led to having cobots being hailed as one of the fastest-growing products in automation, as independent research forecasts sales growth to jump sixfold by 2030. As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, that push towards automation has never been so emphasized and necessary.  In a purely manual labor-dependent manufacturing setup, the disastrous effects were seen as factories shut because workers were not allowed to report for duty and operate equipment in person. With the collaborative nature of the cobots, it is certainly possible to have manufacturing operations run smoothly even with less human intervention, while still realizing productivity gains and business continuity. Yet, despi

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