BAGUIO CITY--The Internet is a liberating technology. It's rapidly changing the way businesses are being run. And it's revolutionizing the old system of companies globally.

One young Filipino organization, Diversified Financial News Network, plans to keep up with the times by playing a key role in shaping the way businesses--particularly stock brokerage--is being run in the country.

DFNN, the first company to implement secure online trading in the country, held its first provincial launch in Baguio City Aug. 27. After it was established late last year and DFNN.com's third version launched last month, it received numerous inquiries from business communities nationwide.

Online trading is making big waves in the regional markets, particularly in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and recently in Taiwan, stated a DFNN factsheet. Taiwan's monthly transaction online was recorded at US$3.5 billion for the first half of 1999.

With this, DFNN intends to compete globally with its home base in the Philippines. DFNN president Ramon Garcia Jr. said DFNN is one example of a company providing growth opportunities for the IT sector in the Philippines.

Through the Internet, DFNN offers online trading, real time and updated stock prices for broker-partners, financial news information and online shopping.

"Before, the mentality was to keep information to yourself so that it empowers you. Now the reverse is true. With the Internet, distributing information to your customers, to your clients, to your partners actually empowers you more," Garcia stressed.

Garcia added that through the Internet_particularly through DFNN's technology of providing online trading and real-time stock prices_organizations can build better business relationships.

He said that it will also keep everyone within the organization's strategic alliance on an updated basis_in real time. Today, one can easily engage in online trading or gain access to the latest stock prices through the Internet or even with the use of cellular phones.

Garcia said that a number of affluent people in America, Europe and Japan invest in the stock market. What DFNN is doing is popularize trading so that all Filipinos can participate in the local stock market. Garcia added that soon, stock markets in the United States, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Hong Kong and Japan will be accessible.

He calls Internet trading a "win-win" situation for clients and brokers. Information is received faster, "whenever or wherever" these clients want as long as they have a link to the Internet.

Through DFNN, one could keep track of trading negotiations, because both trading partners will have records that could be printed out for analysis and reference.

Garcia also said that it would eliminate mistakes committed through trading negotiations on the phone.

"In the US, you are mandated to have a recording device. That is not the case in the Philippines because it is very expensive for each broker to implement it."

The Internet, however, requires a user ID and a PIN.

"No matter what happens, there's always a record that exists in the virtual world," adds Garcia.

Before ledgers are picked up monthly, DFNN's online trading system provides daily updates on the ledgers.

"(That's) savings for both broker and investor. The concept is to make the whole trading experience better for the investor and the broker."

Another advantage, Garcia stressed, is that clients can place an order online without worrying about busy signals or being placed on hold.

DFNN's technical specifications for brokerage firms who want to be part of the network include four Pentium III servers (128Mb RAM, 6Gb hard drive) with LSN Cards, three 56K modems, a dot-matrix printer, network hub and a secure socket layer (SSL) connection.

A broker must have access to the Internet, a functional webpage and a subscription to the Philippine Stock Exchange's price data feed.

Garcia also shared his view against businesses in the country being mandated where it should be physically located.

"The Internet is geographically blind. It will find its best mix of components anywhere from Surigao to Baguio City."

He said the government can just give incentives to industries and not require it to be in a specific location.

"Let us not mandate it, let us just support the industry as a whole and let each business model locate where they want to locate where they believe they can maximize their resources."

In the United States, he said, the people locate to Silicon Valley because the land is cheap and companies have access to research centers.

He added that Boston is another high-tech growth area, for the same reasons.