 |
| Jocyl and Heinz Militar |
Heinz Militar made true his desire of providing homegrown entrepreneurs a better platform in selling their products and services, likewise informing consumers of locally-made products available in the market.
Militar, the brains behind the e-commerce platform – OneAklan WantAklan, said that the idea originated and developed following his inclusion as a mentee of the Kapatid Mentor ME (KMME) Program of the DTI and the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship.
OneAklan WantAklan is both a web-based and mobile-based e-commerce platform that consolidates the products and services of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Province of Aklan.
“I was already a home-based web developer but I have a passion to create a digitized community. Opportunity came when I was included in the KMME Program. Through my mentor, Mr. Clarke Nebrao, he floated the idea of a consolidated app for MSMEs. I got excited and immediately developed it. The rest was history,” Militar said.
The KMME Program is a coaching and mentoring program consisting of 10 modules to be conducted and undertaken in partnership with institutions specializing in functional areas of entrepreneurship.
“Through the app, we connect thousands of buyers and sellers around the nation while at the same time empowering the people and creating economic opportunities for local MSMEs,” Militar said.
Militar and his wife, Jocyl, manages Jocyl’s Food Products. They also own Selah Studio.
Service-oriented
Militar’s advocacy and passion to digitize the community coupled with the strong support coming from his mentors from the DTI – Maam Bec, Maam Maricar, Maam Stella – as well as from the PCE drove him to develop the application.
“Some of my fellow MSMEs were excited to be part of the platform. It is something that they want to do but they don’t know how. They said that I am the one responding to that need,” he shared.
The Province of Aklan is the first province in the country to launch an application providing digital exposure to local MSMEs. It was developed to help bridge the gap in promoting e-commerce in the Province of Aklan.
Customers request for products and services through the platform while providing income opportunities to the taskers – with the provision of crowd-servicing, crowdsourcing, or crowd-shipping creating micro-entrepreneurs – who fulfil their requests.
“Using this platform, we are building a community of micro -entrepreneurs to provide skilled services, errands, deliveries, and many more. It is not profit-oriented but rather service-oriented. To be able to create meaningful public partnerships for the inclusive growth of a community is what OneAklan stands for,” explained Militar.
Achievement
Militar admitted that he had his apprehensions prior to the development of the application.
How ready is the community to accept a new digital culture? How can I convince people to adapt, download the app and use the application? And, “we need a strong marketing campaign to be able to encourage both buyers and sellers to use it,” he said.
“Capital funding is also a factor because we need to sustain our day-to-day operations. But we know that very soon, e-commerce will be a huge part of our economy so we do not give up. Rather, we continue to improve what we have started, market it as best as we can, and make use of the limited funds and resources that we have,” said Militar.
At present, Militar said the company is at 75 percent successful, while the remaining 25 percent “lies on our target market and influencing them to use the app.” On the side of the MSMEs, he said, we are already successful in the sense that we were able to promote them in the digital market. We were able to gather orders for them and even linked them to institutional buyers who have become their regular clients. The remaining challenge is being profitable and sustainable. I believe we are on the right track of achieving success.”
oneAklan GO
The e-commerce platform, OneAklan WantAklan, was able to consolidate the products and services offered by MSMEs in one digital platform. It has become an advantage of MSMEs because there is a team that markets for them.
Militar said that the application has offered convenience to customers and the community, by shopping online and taking away the hassles of going from store-to-store, saving so much time and effort.
Militar said that they have also made available a new app called oneAklan-GO — an on-demand service application which provides income opportunities to taskers and convenience to users needing specific products and services.
“Through the app, we create a healthy economy, by linking products and services to customers who are actually needing them,” he added.
Nomination
The Department of Information and Communications Technology has nominated the OneAklan, WantAklan, as a start-up company, to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Awards 2019.
The award is an annual recognition of organizations exemplifying best ICT achievements in promoting creativity and transformative innovations, advancing the adoption of ICT, and elevating growth and development of ASEAN economy and bringing ASEAN ICT products to the international market.
The award has six categories, specifically: public sector, private sector, corporate social responsibility, digital content, start-up company, and research and development. An ASEAN member state is entitled to nominate a maximum of three entries per category.
Aside from Aklan’s OneAklan, Want Aklan, other nominees are Mina, Iloilo’s Budget, Accounting, Treasury and Assessment Electronic Comprehensive Income and Expenditures Management System (BATA-e-CIEMS); and, Iloilo Provincial Government’s Province-Wide Electronic Assessment and Collection System (eAssyscols).
Winners will be announced during the 3rd ASEAN ICT Awards 2019 in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic on 23-24 October 2019.
For more information, you may download oneAklan and oneAklan-GO from the PlayStore or AppStore. Or visit our website www.oneaklan.com.♦
Date of release: 16 August 2019