The Technology Resource Center (TRC) is hosting the first-ever business match-making opportunity between the UP-Diliman based technopreneurs of the Open-Technology Business Incubators (Open-TBI) and the business locators of the Mabalacat TechnoCenter in Pampanga.
Dubbed as the “TBI-TechnoCenter Business Matching”, TRC Director General Dennis L. Cunanan noted the event was meant to open an avenue of engagement for both business communities to mutually enhance their productivity and competitiveness. Cunanan explained the aim as two-pronged; for the TC business locators to explore innovative approaches that may potentially improve their bottom line and for the TBI locators to better expand their offerings, even to tailor-fit innovative business solutions to help out the TC community.
Coinciding with the 3rd anniversary celebrations of the Open-TBI, the event features at least eleven out of its fifteen resident startups, which exhibited their technology solutions before the media and the Mabalacat business locator community. They are, namely, GSMetrix, Solutions Resource, Orchestrinix, Sparkscom Technologies, Wikonec Inc., BizAlliance, Itemhound, Basecamp Technologies, Version 791, Inc., Auberon Solutions and SerBIZyo. Later in the day, they have engaged the Mabalacat locators in a more detailed, one-on-one, consultations discussing possible specific accommodations of their technology solutions to the clients’ actual day-to-day business operations needs.
Likened to California’s Silicon Valley, the Open-TBI startups include R&D companies, IT consulting firms, software developers, online business support services, web and network design, as well as those engaged in various digital services. In contrast, TRC’s business locators at Mabalacat are largely composed of product manufacturers and industrialists who are on the cusp of business expansion and are thus, very keen on reducing costs, increasing productivity and growing their client base. Cautiously optimistic, Cunanan said inter-mingling the two communities promises to be very rewarding in terms of possible innovations and enriched business experience. He noted, however, that true breakthroughs could only be realistically expected following years of sustained and dedicated effort, which TRC is committed to provide.
The Open-TBI operations is managed by the TRC and is itself a joint venture project with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Philippine Export Processing Zone Authority (PEZA), the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) and the University of the Philippines (UP).
The Mabalacat TechnoCenter, on the other hand, is one of several industrial estates owned and managed by the TRC in Central Luzon. Following the initial success of the TBI-TechnoCenter Business Matching in Mabalacat, Cunanan said it is only a matter of time before the same opportunity is extended to its TCs in other parts of Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, and Zambales.
By Joseph Vizcarra
