Next Stop: NetworkLabs, Inc., UP - Ayala Land TechnoHub

Located at the heart of UP - Ayala Land TechnoHub, Quezon City, lies its very first branch in the country. NetworkLabs, Inc. is a joint venture of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) with various partners to establish a Research and Development (R&D) center to support the operations of Nokia Siemens Network. It provides software solutions and application support for the many projects that NSN undertakes.

Photo by John Jane Granada

Looking more briefly into the company, NetworkLabs, Inc. is a collaboration of three (3) different organizations:

Nokia Siemens Networks is a telecom equipment manufacturer company that is one of the largest in the world in terms of revenue and size and provides a quarter of the world's telecom infrastructure.

Nokia is a communication and information technology company that manufactures mobile phones and portable Information Technology (IT) devices. Nokia also offers internet services like games, apps, music, and media.

Siemens is an electronics and electrical engineering company that manufactures products for the energy, transportation, and healthcare industry.

Still with me? Good! Because I won't bore you with a wall of texts anymore. In the next few scrolls, I'll take you to a place that is almost a paradise for IT, food, and environment enthusiasts. Sightseeing is a good leisure in the place because of the vast green fields. Foodtrip is also a good alternative because of the plentiful restaurants.

Here's a preview of some of the pictures we've taken last March 8, 2013 upon arrival at UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub.




We arrived at UP - Ayala Land TechnoHub at around 8am. The morning was a bit gloomy but good thing it eventually recovered. NetworkLabs opened its doors for us not long enough thereafter.

1st Speaker

Unfortunately, I was not able to get the name of the two (2) speakers that gave us a brief overview about the company background with a little bit of career talk.

The first speaker also explained some of their practiced policies, tradition, and culture. He said that they were trying to make everyone equally at level so that their employees would be more open especially to the top managers with their concerns. In implementing this, they made their executives reside among the cubicles and blend in with the employees.

The setup of their work environment is peaceful; mostly painted with warm bright colors with a touch of minimalist design makes everything less stressful in a very fast-paced IT environment. I'd like to work in a similar environment someday. Unlimited coffee drinks and shower rooms are also available anytime. They have no sleeping rooms however, as they do not encourage sleeping during working hours.

Warm Colours. Photo by John Jane Granada  

Their conference rooms, compared to Brady(see my previous post for my walk-through), are honeycomb-inspired. There were also Sauna-like rooms used for other discussions that include brainstorming.

Honeycomb Discussion Rooms

The room could accommodate up to five (5) persons only with my rough estimate. They have no electric fans nor airconditioners inside each room because they said that private discussions should not take that long to finish before one begins to feel the compressed hot atmosphere inside. The organization is composed of small teams, after all, that handle specific areas like maintenance, research and development, and IT infrastructures.

There were also interesting tables that we have encountered. These tables are particularly just for the casual chitchat with workmates because of its petite structure.

Hey look! It's a Canoe! Photo by John Jane Granada 

Despite the small composition, tables like this compliment the mood during leisure time especially coffee breaks.

Hole-in-One? Anyone?

Other than coffee tables for break time, they also have indoor mini-golf courses, a Boracay area(simulating the vicinity with a wallpaper, beach sand on the ground, and wooden beds for sunbathing) and an Xbox 360(no pictures, unfortunately). In using such for one's leisure time, they run an honesty system for moderation between work and play.

Moving on to their workstations, like what I've stated earlier, wherein they try to promote equality to encourage openness between the employees and top executives, their cubicles, including their boss' workstation, are all in the same area. There was no hint of distinction provided.

Workstations. Photo by John Jane Granada 

Finally, like any other big company, NetworkLabs also has its own storage room for its servers. Again, taking pictures was prohibited for confidentiality purposes. It was widely aircoditioned, secured with CCTV, and there were also experimental devices inside.

Class picture with our professor, Prof. Mary Jane Arcilla. Photo by John Jane Granada 

It was a fun-filled day with friends while learning new things. I really enjoyed this fieldtrip(more than Brady, to be honest) and got engaged more with my future. The last few inspiring words spoken by the second speaker, which was also a fellow Lasallian, were:

"Know what you love." and always challenge yourself "How do you make your boss trust you?"

NetworkLabs, Inc., being a Research and Development (R&D) Center, is focused on the future. They live for the future. The want to get there before us to welcome us. Likewise, I want my perspective as an individual to be the same - to think and plan ahead to make the lives of the upcoming generations better and more productive.