by RG Alama

Davao City (24 November) -- Future technopreneurs will be on the spotlight during the slated Davao leg of the Go Negosyo caravan this December 3 to 4 at SM City Davao.

Mark Maglana product manager of G2iX and part of the SaaS (Software-as- a-Service) entrepreneur camp organizing team says that about five technopreneur teams have qualified for the second round of screening for the coming SaaS entrepreneur camp which will be part of the Go Negosyo event.

He said that these technopreneur teams will still undergo filtering before the top teams will be chosen to join the entrepreneur camp and the competitions proper. This is where the eventual winner will receive a prize in the form of operating capital needed to fund their SaaS business model into a working venture.

He said that some of the five teams even if not chosen can still sit-in during the camp though they cannot participate in the competitions.

Some of the current SaaS models entered by the qualified entries include a school-based Management Information System for students, an add-on feature to Twitter, an Enterprise Resource Planning software and a SaaS for sign-up forms.

Three teams are from Davao, one is from Manila and one from Cagayan de Oro, Maglana said of the team composition. He said the the make-up of the participants are composed of either Information Technology professionals, IT students, professors and business-minded individuals.

Maglana said qualified entries to the camp will attend workshops by Silicon Valley-based angel investor Winston Gamarillo, and the team will then present their business prototypes of which Gamarillo will pick the lucky winner.

It all boils down on who would present a compelling SaaS presentation, said Maglana. Aside from the competition proper a development conference will be held where IT experts, professionals and enthusiasts gets to meet and exchange ideas like an idea camp.

SaaS is a software made by a developer designed to meet a certain need. These are made available on the internet where clients can access them through their browser, thus no need for downloads like other more expensive software.

For example a company wants to use a business performance tracking SaaS for its sales force, all the company would do is to contact the SaaS developer, for a certain monthly fee the company can access the software online. And if the client wants to shift to another SaaS, they can just unsubscribe with the developer.