Andaya: I'm fortunate because we are much smaller, so we can move quickly. Our requirements are not that big, and they don't require people coming to our office. Basically, we just monitor the downtime and uptime of our systems, and then maybe corrupted databases here and there. Basically, all these things can be settled by a company. If the user interface for the reports is okay with me, then that's fine. All I look at is responsiveness, that if I e-mail them will they e-mail me back immediately, and what kind of reports they can give. I'm happy with my provider right now, because when you log in to their admin panel, everything is there. I think it's overkill even.

Dela Cruz: For the servers, basically, we measure them by the turnaround time. So for the AS/400 boxes, which seldom go down, in our case, if it goes down, we make sure that when we report them, we follow the SLA. We give them two hours after they've received the call to send their personnel. For the application, it's being managed and maintained by a third party in Denmark. So our concern there is the time zone. We send them an e-mail and we expect the answer the next day. Fortunately, the problems we've encountered in that system is more on our side, and not on our customers' side. What's good about foreign providers is that they give you details of your project.

Ferrer: We normally outsource because providers do it better and manage things better.

Andaya: In the US, if you call a helpdesk, when they pull your account, they know the product and the problem right away. Here, you have to look for the specific person handling your account. If he's absent, then you have no choice but to wait for him. In the States, you can never encounter that. If the person is not there and they can do it themselves, they will. No problems.