MANILA, Philippines — It’s that time of year, again, when everyone who wants to have a say in anything comes out with his or her crystal ball. And claims to foretell what the future holds.

(Hmm. I am making this note to myself: Next year, at exactly the same time, I will be checking whether the predictions and prophecies everyone is making today would have had come to pass.)

But while we indeed have to look forward, we should never forget to look back. Remember those things that happened in the past year or two. Learn or relearn the lessons they offered.

Keep in mind that those who do not look back won’t know how far they have traveled.

Acer Christmas Promo

Acer Philippines aims to bring holiday cheers to its loyal consumers with its Acer Colorful Christmas raffle promo. Running from December 10 to January 15, the promo will give Acer customers the chance to win premium IT products. Each purchase of an Acer product entitles a consumer to a raffle coupon.

Prizes at stake include geek-friendly products and, of course, the Acer Aspire S3 ultrabook. Deadline for submission of entries is on January 15, 2012.

Roof Vendor Opts for Oracle

Union Galvasteel Corp., a leading vendor of prepainted roofing, has chosen the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 to enhance business processes across the company’s business units nationwide. Also expected to help Union Galvasteel justify its IT investments, the implementation will take about half a year to accomplish and will include Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 Financials.

Oracle describes the E-Business Suite 12.1 as capable of providing a “flexible, scalable, and reliable global business platform.” iOM Philippines, a Gold member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork, will lead the deployment.

SAP Reseller Runs SAP

Mustard Seed Systems Corp., one of SAP Philippines’ channel partners, has grown its business by integrating SAP software in its internal business systems.

MSS claims that since implementing SAP, it has achieved an efficiency ratio of 80 percent in its operations, while reducing its operating costs by 50 percent.

The software reseller used to be saddled with redundant data entry, inventory management problems, and other issues caused by its previous system.

Today, however, MSS says it benefits from SAP software’s user-friendly features. Also, SAP’s customer relations management feature enables MSS to upsell or cross-sell products, improving its bottomline by as much as 30 percent.

Online Shopping Boom

This year, online holiday shopping in the United States grew 15 percent from last year’s level. Data from market research firm comScore show that American shoppers spent $30.9 billion online from November 1 to December 16, compared with the $26.9 billion they did last year.

Obviously, there are American consumers who do not want to go through the pushing, shoving, and pepper-spraying that normally come with Black Friday and other holiday retail events. Why risk getting injured, or worse getting killed, when you can let your mouse do the shopping for you?

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.