Girl Nation Tuesdays @ Nectar Nightclub

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Girl Nation is the hottest new weeknight destination for lesbians, bisexual, and queer women in Manila. With a gathering of community leaders, set to the soundtrack by the best LGTB DJ’s in the country, Girl Nation is the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the weekday.

Girl Nation takes place every Tuesday night at Nectar Nightclub, in Bonifacio Global City. Nectar Nightclub opened its doors in 2016 and has become one of the hottest nightclubs for the LGBT community and its allies. It provides live sets from the country’s biggest DJ’s every night of the week.

Conceived by fashion designer Kaye Morales and friends, Girl Nation has been making waves in the EDM circuit for providing women with a safe space to have fun and mingle.

“I wanted more than just a venue where I could have fun with my friends”, shares Kaye Morales. “I wanted a safe space where queer women from all walks of like could come, interact, and have fun. It’s seldom that we have these places of our own here in Manila.”

Better Internet for Manila Train Riders

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Smart is on track with its network improvement program that aims to expand LTE availability and boost 3G coverage all over the country. After completing its rollout in Boracay and Davao, Smart is now working to give the best possible mobile data experience to its subscribers in Metro Manila and nearby areas like Rizal.

One of the key locations for the Metro Manila network improvement: the LRT-1 where an estimated 600,000 passengers ride daily.

This change will benefit riders like Paolo Barruga, who uses his phone while commuting to access Facebook and Messenger. “I also like playing games, but sometimes when there is no internet, I just play downloaded games,” he said. “It’s good if there’s internet, because it means I can play my online games on the go,” he added.

University of Manila sophomore student Vanessa Chua is likewise excited about the promise of better LTE on the LRT. “It means that I can start doing my assignments on the train,” she said, adding that she also uses Facebook to share and upload photos while on commute.

“When there is better internet, LRT commuters won’t be bored while waiting for the train,” said employee Rommel Hagad. “It means commuters waiting won’t be hotheaded.” Rommel added that he uses his smartphone while on the way home, accessing apps like Facebook to get in touch with family. “I use them to keep my family updated on my whereabouts.”

To enhance the mobile experience of LRT-1 commuters, Smart will deploy state-of-the-art network equipment at the stations and platforms, inside the coaches and along the tracks to beef up its 2G, 3G and LTE network coverage. It will also install carrier-grade Smart Wifi in the 20 stations and platforms, and eventually inside the coaches.

Similar network improvements are also underway for both LRT-2 and MRT-3, as part of Smart’s major network expansion in Metro Manila to improve the overall quality of service available to Smart, TNT, and Sun subscribers.

In many ways, the LRT-1, which runs right through the heart of Manila from Baclaran in Pasay City to Roosevelt Avenue in Quezon City, is Manila’s ultimate symbol of mobility and industry. The oldest of Metro Manila’s 3 elevated trains, LRT-1 ferries Metro Manila dwellers from their homes to their schools and workplaces, and back.

That change has come to LRT-1 is a welcome sign that the best is yet to come for the rest of the Metro.

Theo & Philo Sweetens Business Operations with Netwsuite Cloud ERP

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit, one of the industry's leading providers of cloud financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle, today announced that Theo & Philo, a bean-to-bar maker of single-origin Philippine artisanal chocolate, replaced QuickBooks and numerous Excel spreadsheets with NetSuite to gain scalability and flexibility to power its growth.

Since going live on NetSuite in November 2015, Theo & Philo has been using NetSuite for accounting, inventory management, order management, invoicing and purchasing – all within one cloud ERP system. With NetSuite, Theo & Philo is able to better plan and manage sourcing, production and distribution and increase efficiency while saving both time and money compared to the error-prone manual work required by their previous software and paper-based processes.

Founded in 2010, Theo & Philo (www.theoandphilo.com) grew steadily offering more than a dozen varieties of premium, locally-sourced chocolate products. As production volume soared 700 percent to about 14,000 bars a month, the organization faced challenges keeping pace with its previous system and inventory management was handled manually and tracked on paper.

“NetSuite is an integral part of our day-to-day operations and a scalable platform for our continued growth,” Chua said. “We’re a lot more efficient and, as we grow, the automated process flows and checks and balances that we need are already in place within NetSuite.”

Through its continued global growth and success, Theo & Philo, a social enterprise and grantee of the NetSuite Citizenship software donation program, has been able to help improve social welfare in the Philippines in partnership with Gawad Kalinga, a nonprofit organization committed to ending poverty for 5 million Filipino families by 2024.

The features and benefits that Theo & Philo has been able to achieve with NetSuite include:

International growth. Theo & Philo has expanded sales to foreign distributors in recent months, using NetSuite’s multi-currency capabilities for transactions in the Euro for Germany and the U.S. dollar for Japan.

Real-time access. Compared to the limitations of its previous QuickBooks desktop application, Theo & Philo now enjoys anywhere, anytime cloud-based capable access to NetSuite with no need for on-premise software and servers.

Streamlined inventory and distribution. Real-time data has helped Theo & Philo control inventory and accelerate production and distribution with visibility that helps spotlight issues and areas for improvement.

Flexible customizations. Leveraging the NetSuite SuiteCloud Platform, Theo & Philo can adapt NetSuite to unique business needs, for instance, a customization by Tech for Good, a PGE Solutions sister company, enables the company to seamlessly manage consignment inventory and associated sales orders.

Future-proofed for growth. As a unified suite, NetSuite offers Theo & Philo functionality for CRM, ecommerce, product assembly, lot tracking and more as the social enterprise continues to grow.