The Seer Advantage

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The Seer Advantage

A Small Filipino software company achieves impact and ubiquity through unconventional business practices

Key Distinctives

by Victoria V. Ferro  

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f youhaven’tyetheardofSeerTechnologies Inc., that’s because it is a company that chooses to keep an unusually low profile, with a publicity-shy president who prefers not to spend time on media campaigns or PR. Nevertheless, Seer’s quiet but exceptional softwaredevelopmentworkhasalreadytouched nearly every Filipino’s life in some way.  Seer is the company behind three cuttingedge software products that power the application engines of some of the largest corporations in the country.    The first product, launched in 2005, is “Argon,”astoredvaluesolutionthathaspowered a large telecommunications company’s prepaid and postpaid Internet, an interactive company’s unified stored value platform for various games, and a national cable television company’s prepaid service.    Thesecond,launchedin2009,is“Krypton” which is the engine of a local bank’s trading system, and which was enhanced in 2010 to support the new trading platform of the Philippine Stock Exchange. The third, launched earlier this year, is “Seerium,”aunifiedcustomerinteractionfacility where companies make it easy for customers to communicate with their organization’s service representatives through various chat and text channels(includingYahoo!messenger).Alarge telecomscompanyisgearinguptouseSeeriumas an integral component of its online and mobile

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statusofOracleCertifiedPartnerofTechnology. Seer considers itself very much a part of Oracle’s ecosystem, having nurtured a deep and synergistic partnership with it for the last eight years. Oracle recognized Seer’s commitment andexcellentperformancebyofficiallygranting itthecoveted“OracleTechnologyPartnerofthe Year” award twice in its history.  The first time was in 2006, and then again, in 2008, which was the last year Oracle granted the award in thiscountry.In2010,SeerattainedOracleGold Partner Accreditation. 

Joseph Benjamin “Joben” Ilagan Seer President and Co-Founder

portal services.  Seer is also behind two of the largest cloud implementations developed and maintained by a Filipino technology company, namely the cloud services recently launched by a major telecommunications company, and the cloud services that power a Seer-developed travel application for an Australian company. The innovativetravelapplicationthatSeerdeveloped for this company made it to the Top 10 travel apps in Australia in August 2011.  These are just a few of Seer’s offerings, a small selection from a portfolio of products and services that showcase outstanding technical expertise and industry innovation.  Despite its small size, Seer has won recognition after recognition for outstanding achievement since

Computerworld Philippines

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its inception.  From the time Joseph Benjamin “Joben” IlaganleftOracleafternineyearsofemployment to co-found Seer as part of a five-person consulting and software development start-up in 2003, the company has taken on large and complex enterprise projects that would be challenging to organizations many times its size.  In the first year of operations, Seer landed its first large database maintenance contract with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. to manage its prepaid landline software infrastructure.  Within the same year, Seer attained Board ofInvestmentsnon-pioneeringstatusinthearea of software development, became a member of the Oracle Partner Network and achieved the

One of Seer’s key distinctives is a strong specialization in open source implementation of Oracle technology. The company is much more than just a strong Oracle shop, however. It has also forayed deeply into web and mobile applications development and in 2010 attained Blackberry Alliance Associate status.      Since then Seer has added IOS/Apple and Android development to its mobile development services portfolio and has won clients from Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Canada such as Yahoo! South East Asia. Despite zero attention given to the PR and media front, Seer receives a steady stream of inquiriesfromthesecountriesandmorethrough sheer word-of-mouth.  Seer’s international projects are of such quality that the company caught the attention of international business media. The Globe and Mail, Canada’s second largest newspaper, with a weekly circulation of two million, published a news article in its business section on April 29, 2010titled,“Culturallywearequitecomfortable withCanadians”byHongkong-basedjournalist Alexandra Seno, the subject of which was an interview with Ilagan, now Seer’s president and chief technology officer, and a full feature on the company.  This was the article that a local telecommunications executive found when doing due diligence on possible technology partners, that helped to convince his team to engagewithSeertodeliverapplicationsfortheir portal services projects.  Characteristically, Ilagan did not treat the feature with Globe and Mail at the time he was

interviewed as anything special. He recalled not being too enthusiastic an interview subject. It was only last month, when being interviewed for this piece that he learned more about the Canadian newspaper and its much vaunted status in international media. Indeed the media campaign that has worked well for Seer was not at all intentional.  From the very beginning, Ilagan has avoided the limelight in favor of doing what he loves best, solving complex problems for organizations through software development and software-related managed services. He is all about the work; passionately about the work. As concurrent president and CTO, He is very hands-on with all of Seer’s major projects. His mild manners and constant smile belie the assiduous attention to detail he brings to every task he undertakes and tremendous propensity for excellence.  Together with his team of highly creative and intelligent developers and technologists, Ilagan passionately crafts usercentric and design-centric software solutions that solve real problems.  In fact, he turns down projects if he feels the client can solve the problem themselves. He has beenknowntosay“Thisproblemiseasilysolved this way...You don’t need Seer for that.”  He and hisseniorofficersthenwouldprovideconsulting support, offering steps on a solution.  Many clients have gone back to their organizations and actually solved problems that way without incurring the cost of an engagement with Seer.   This is one way that Seer has created goodwill in the industry and built a reputation for integrity, value for money, and no-nonsense engagements.  Another way that Seer has built its reputation is through consistent action that reflects its commitment to delivering delightful customer experiences throughout the entire engagement. In a high-touch, communications intensive development process, responsiveness and a high level of service sets Seer apart. 

Passion for Innovation

Another of Seer’s distinctives is passion for innovation.Ilagan,aBSManagementEngineering and MS Computer Science graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, is constantly researching and studying, reading books and engaging

in discussions on innovation and product development.  He believes in experimentation and field trials of concept prototypes.  It was precisely this sometimes unstructured process that led to the development of Seer’s products, most notably of Seerium.  In 2010, Seer Labs was launched, an R&D initiative to look at various technologyincubationandexperimentalcustomer engagement intiatives.  Shortly after, Seer Labs introduced its first iPhone application for retail.  Ilagan is unconventional in the way he lets people work.  Seer employees are all furnished with MacBook Pros, can avail of flextime or work-at-home arrangements. The company has invested in GOTOMEETING so that team members may meet virtually at everyone’s convenience.  By 2012, Seer will be launching a very innnovative flexible benefits scheme where employees can tailor a benefits scheme that matches their specific situations. Ilagan encourages employees to do freelance development work during their free time as long as the work is not within Seer’s stated scope of services because he feels ultimately that the company will benefit from the skills and experience his employees will gain from such a scheme. He thinks very differently from many business owners in this way.  He is also constantly thinking of more ways to make Seer a great place (whether in the physical or virtual environment) to work in.  Despite the challenges of running Seer in a highly competitive industry, Ilagan is motivated by the potential Seer’s work has in touching Filipino lives.  He has dreams of making a difference in biotech and healthcare, and other nascent fields.  Indeed if you take all ofSeer’sworkovertheyears,theirimprintisvast, nearly ubiquitous in the Philippines, spanning the entire country, and many parts of the globe.  Pretty impressive for a company with less than 30 full-time team members!  Seer’s vision for 2012 is to be the standout Filipino software company designing and delivering superior customer and user experiencestoglobalmarkets.Itseemsthissmall powerhouse of a company is well on its way to becoming just that.  For more information on Seer, go to www. seer-technologies.com

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