Filipino Software Firm Bags International Award

Online, October 12, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The country's cyberservices industry has once again proven its global competitiveness, as Filipino software development company, Orange & Bronze Software Labs (O&B) bagged an award at the recent South East Asian SME Forum (SEASME) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Winning the silver for the Human Assets Category at the Tiger Awards of the SEASME, O&B bested many companies from South East Asia for having the most productive investment in its workforce, ranging from staff training to social responsibility.

The SEASME Tiger Awards was created to celebrate the success and acknowledge the vital role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone of South East Asian economies.

Receiving the award for O&B was its president and CEO, Calen Martin Legaspi who was also invited as a delegate and a participant of the SEASME Forum.

"Even when we were just a tiny start-up, we had been committed to investing an unusually large portion of our time and resources in developing our people to the highest standards of software development, probably much more than most SMEs. We continue to do so today. It feels very rewarding to receive international recognition for our efforts." Legaspi explained.

"Part of what we strive for is to keep them challenged by providing interesting projects, to support their personal lives with work-life balance initiatives, and to continually improve their skills through mentorship and training programs," he added.

As a consulting firm where its reputation is dependent on the quality of work of its software developers, Legaspi stressed, "it is important we keep them well-rounded, keep their skills at par with the best, and overall happy with the workplace and their job."

He said, "we also encourage employees to develop software projects that are beyond the scope of their official work duties. We have an incubation program where our employees' personal software products and projects have a chance to make it to the mainstream, with O&B providing marketing and operational support."

"One such project is Haybol.ph, founded by two of our senior developers. We have some other incubation projects in the works, which we will launch when they are ready," he added.

Aside from its initiatives within the organization, O&B is also a strong supporter of the Philippine academe. Legaspi believes that one way to improve software engineering in the country is to make educational reforms in the field of IT.

"We contribute and volunteer for projects aimed to improve the quality of our educational system, including conducting free seminars for university CS and IT professors, providing IT Training curricula to TESDA [Technical Education and Skills Development Authority], and working with CHEd [Commission on Higher Education] to evaluate the quality of instruction in colleges and universities around the country," Legaspi stressed.

Meanwhile, Legaspi said that for Filipino software companies to become globally competitive, they should not only invest up front in technology, infrastructure and process, but also espouse a culture of professionalism and accountability in their organizations.

"Those things sound so basic yet are sorely lacking in most of our traditional Filipino companies, which is the reason why the traditionals are held back while the more forward thinking are making such pronounced progress," he said.