Globe myBusiness in partnership with the CDA of CALABARZON launched a webinar to enable cooperatives with digital solutions that will help them navigate life amid COVD-19.

More entrepreneurs struggle on a daily basis, to keep their businesses afloat.  As such, Globe myBusiness, the corporate arm of Globe Telecom continues to enable and empower SMEs through digital tools and solutions, tips and know-how, and events tailor-fit to every industry in the business landscape.

Globe myBusiness spearheaded the Business Consultation Caravan, a series of webinars for enterprises in the industries hardest hit by COVID-19. These webinars feature powerhouse speakers and discuss a range of topics:  from emerging trends, to new ways of success, to digital products enterprises can invest in today.

Last September 4, Globe myBusiness hosted a webinar for the region of CALABARZON’s cooperatives sector. Entitled Going Digital: The Road to Resilience and Business Continuity, the event featured experts from both CDA of Regional CALABARZON and Globe Telecom.  The panelists which included leaders in the cooperative sector, discussed the current state of the industry and ways to combat and overcome the challenges of today.

Salvador Valeroso, Regional Director of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) of CALABARZON, was the first to speak. He discussed the challenges faced by various clusters within the cooperative sector, acknowledging not only the issues being faced but also the ways that the CDA is working through them.

Digitalization will play a very important role, as face-to-face operations are no longer an option. Thus, the CDA issued a memorandum making amendments to their previous guidelines and launched initiatives for regulatory relief, continuous monitoring and assistance, updated cooperative information, Cooperative Business Management Information, and digitization. All these and more are being done to ease the transition to a more digital, and more importantly safer, way of doing business.

In addition, Bradley Pineda, Finance and ICT/BPO Industry Manager of Globe myBusiness, discussed not only the general challenges faced by all businesses in the COVID pandemic, but also enumerated Globe’s proposed solutions in the form of 2 C’s for Success - namely, Connection and Convenience.

Connection is subdivided into connecting with your team, and connecting with customers. Proposed technological solutions that are already familiar to entrepreneurs include mobile Internet and social media, but Pineda also adds the prepaid mobile kit for connecting with employees, and the SMS Blaster for connecting with customers.

As for convenience, the overarching task is to make things easy. But that too is subdivided into making it easy to work anywhere, and making it easy for customers to transact and do business with you. Working remotely can be done via video conferencing with tried-and-tested solutions like Messenger, Skype and Zoom.  But why not consider Cloud computing to make the processing of documents easier as well?

Also, for customers to transact and do business, solutions like GCash and KonsultaMD are available. Beyond that, GCash Powerpay+, online HR benefits, online payroll, online loan disbursement, and online payment options are also available for entrepreneurs to take advantage of.

According to Pineda, you can start investing in Digital Transformation today, one step at a time. Start with the basics, like mobile, Broadband, and Prepaid Mobile WiFi. Then you can step up to G Suite and the SMS Blaster, before moving up to GCash and KonsultaMD. From there, you can upgrade to Direct Internet, SD-WAN, or the SMS API. And finally, to be really future-ready you can go for solutions like the Virtual Private Cloud or Cybersecurity.

Following the two speakers was a panel discussion with Garry Clent Sales from the Quezon Federation and Union of Cooperatives, Bon Ian De La Rosa from the League of Corporate Managers of Batangas, and Christian Benedict Bueno from the City Government of Cabuyao. The event was moderated by Karl Del Val of FullTank Digital PH.

At the end of the webinar, Cooperative representatives learned not only about their industry, but also that they are not alone in this struggle. COVID-19 may post a number of challenges, but with the expert help and partnership of the CDA and Globe myBusiness, they will be able to get through this obstacle and turn this challenge into an opportunity to gain something even better.