0
5
Aug

IT: Support or Strategic Role?

IT has been the main player in our daily life. If we look further into a company’s organization and locate the role of IT division in an organization, most of us will find IT lies as a supporting role for a business. Unless we’re looking at a technology company such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, etc; there’s a little chance in finding IT as a strategic role in a company. An IT guy/division probably consists of those people you dislike because (in user point of view), they have failed to make a reliable application as you keep on encountering system crash while trying to access the application. Well, listen to this: We have tried our best.

IT as a supporting role is the main case in Indonesia. At least in my narrow point of view :P hehehe IT support in an oil company, in banking, in department store, in a restaurant chain, in a hospital, etc. But I would like to highlight one company that seems to have think ahead of other company and implement IT as one of the company’s strategy. This company is BCA. I remember I once wrote about BCA ons my strategic management class. I highlighted on how the management decides to make the bank as a transactional banking and make IT as their strategic role. Their decision was made on 1994 and look where they are now. When other Banks haven’t thought about ATM, they rolled out ATM machine to several spots. When other Banks didn’t think of having an Internet Banking, they deploy the system and educate the market. And now, when others are busy making mobile banking, BCA introduce the mobile version of its Internet Banking. They’re making technology as a state of the art. It’s elegant, really.

It has been my longtime dilemma on whether to stay in IT as my core or jump in to the strategic part of the company. Unless I worked for a company like Google, I doubt that my loyalty to IT will lead to some place strategic. Oh what am I mumbling here?

2
29
Jul

Pempek Megaria

7-29-2010 8-30-37 PM_0035

Huffhh memang sunggu keterlaluan, setelah 2 tahun kuliah di daerah Salemba dan hampir setiap hari melewati Megaria baru sekarang (saat sudah selesai kuliah) akhirnya menyambangi tempat ini untuk mencoba pempek-nya.

Pempek Megaria terletak di dalam kompleks bioskop Megaria/Metropole yang telah berdiri sejak tahun 1949. Meski sudah berdiri dari tahun 1949, sekarang Metropole sudah di renovasi sehingga menjadi bioskop sekelas XXI. Gedung dimana tempat bioskop ini berada masih tetap saja merupakan gedung tua. Anyway, saking seringnya lewat sini dan hanya lihat-lihat saja akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk mencoba. Abis kepikirannya, kapan lagi dong main-main ke Salemba lagi kalau sudah tidak ada kepelruan perkuliahan.

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0
26
Jul

Seven Café @ UI Salemba

Buntut Fried Rice @ Seven Cafe

If you happen to be visiting UI Salemba complex and doesn’t have any idea on where to have a decent meal, well I might have one place to recommend. The Seven Café is located at the LPEM FEUI building, inside the UI Salemba complex. There’s a little chance you might miss this place, since it has a bright blue-green neon sign in front of the café. The interior of the café is quite nice and clean, dominated with yellow, blue and orange color. This café has a capacity of around 48 persons with six 4-person regular table and six half sofa half regular chairs suitable for 4 persons that’s very comfortable.

Yamin Noodle with Meatballs @ Seven Cafe

One meal that I would surely recommend is the Nasi Goreng Buntut. Oh the fried rice is so tasty and the fried “buntut” is so juicy and very easy to chew. I tried several dishes during my 2 years of studying but I must say that the Nasi Goreng Buntut is the best of them all. The Yamin Noodle with meatball is also great, whilst Oriental Fried Rice taste just average. One meal that I wouldn’t recommend is their Soto Mie, although the meat taste so good but I’d prefer the “abang-abang” version of Soto Mie. They serve Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean food such as Nasi Goreng, Mie Mamak, Hainan Chicken Rice, etc. They also serve light meal such as toasted bread, roti cane and teh tarik. I think their variety of menu is influenced by Malaysian/Singaporean food.

The price of the meal is quite pricey for a “campus” café though, the nasi goreng buntut cost about 23K, mie yamin costs 16K, oriental fried rice costs about 23K. Too bad I completely forgotten how much the soto mie cost me. But then again, it’s a “café” and not just any campus cafeteria. The ambient of the place is casual, clean, relax and air-conditioned. In day time, you’ll meet FKUI students having their lunch here. But above all, I would recommend anyone to try the Nasi Goreng Buntut!

Foursqure Venue: Seven Cafe

Food: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Price: ☆ ☆ ☆
Value for Money: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Ambience: ☆ ☆ ☆

5
25
Jul

Yoshinoya: the Japanese Beef Bowl

Original Beef Bowl @ Yoshinoya

I finally had the opportunity to taste this Japanese beef bowl that everyone’s been talking about. Reopened its Jakarta’s branch on July 2010, Yoshinoya made a famous comeback and has made curious customers queue for around 15 minutes just to get a bowl (or more) of their famous beef bowl. Yoshinoya’s outlet is located in Grand Indonesia Entertainment District, floor 3A.

Chicken Teriyaki Bowl @ Yoshinoya Side Dishes of Paket Puas @ Yoshinoya

Although famous for its beef bowl, I decided to try the chicken teriyaki. Since I’m very keen on sweet sauce rather than salty beef bowl. I ordered one Original Beef Bowl “Paket Puas” and Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl. The “Paket Puas” consists of one regular portion of beef bowl, one piece of tempura, fried onion and another fried side dish and miso soup. The teriyaki chicken rice comes with miso soup too. Every bowls has two sizes, regular and large.

What I love the most about their beef/chicken bowl is that they serve real vegetables with it, it’s like they really “mean it”. The vegetables are fresh and well served, they surely try to keep their promise of serving “Healthy Beef Bowl”. The portion of their beef bowls are quite big, I didn’t finish the rice. I see several customers share their large portion of beef bowl for 2 persons, great idea so that they don’t waste the food. The taste of the food is good, really worth the money spent.

The price of the rice bowls are very reasonable, the teriyaki chicken rice in regular cost about 19K before tax and the “Paket Puas” costs about 30K. The ambience of the restaurant is also good, the place is quite spacious to cater all the customers. I would surely come back to Yoshinoya again :)

Food: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Price: ☆ ☆ ☆
Value for Money: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Ambience: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

2
3
Jun

Thesis oh Thesis

Aktivitas saya beberapa hari ini, akan membuat saya menyandang status baru sebagai spammer di Twitter :-P Harus pasang muka tembok dan tweet ke temen-temen yang gak dikenal dan meminta bantuan mereka untuk isi kuisioner thesis saya mengenai Soyjoy. Dan alhamdulillahnya, these strangers are very nice and have been very helpful :) Terima kasih sekali untuk yg sudah bantuin, saya bersyukur bangets…

Sebenernya apa sih topic thesis saya? Topiknya itu tentang marketing di social media gitu lho… Sekarang kan lagi trend banget dan banyak yg claim dirinya sebagai social media junker, enthusiast dll. Dan banyak online media meliput dan mengakui mengenai keberadaan social media sebagai aktivitas marketing perusahaannya. Tapiii karena baru, banyak yg bingung dan bertanya-tanya juga; Harus gimana? Ini barang apa? Approach nya bagaimana ke konsumen? Return yg saya dapatkan (sebagai perusahaan) apa ya?? Dan masih banyak lagi.

Karena itu, saya tertarik untuk melakukan penelitian di aktivitas komunikasi pemasaran melalui social media. Studi kasus yang dipilih adalah Soyjoy Healthylicious, sebuah online reality show yang menggunakan media blog sebagai sumber utama informasi dan twitter sebagai media buzz nya. Seru kan :-) Nahh sebenarnya aktivitas ini berdampak pada apa? Berbagai macam literature menyebutkan aktivitas yg dapat dilakukan di socmed oleh perusahaan. Bisa sebagai media promosi, media PR, consumer research, dan lainnya. Tapi yang namanya perusahaan, setelah investasi pasti tanya “What’s in it for me?”. Disini saya mencoba meneliti apakah online buzz di socmed berpengaruh ke offline/kehidupan nyata konsumen dan meningkatkan brand awareness sehingga membuat konsumen ingin mencoba produk.

Kalau mau ikutan bantu isi kuisioner bisa kesini :)

Semogaa thesis saya lancar, masih butuh 125 responden sementara sekaran gini baru 30-an! :’( huhhuhu