History of Pinoyblessings IT Services
Computers have always fascinated Marcelino “Mars” R Catan. He was in high school when the first 64k microcomputer was introduced by Apple. In college he began programming for both mini-computers and microcomputers in various languages such as Cobol, Fortran, Basic, Dbase, Turbo Pascal and C++. He graduated with Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science and in Secondary Education from De La Salle University in 1987. His first jobs were teaching math and computers to high school students and software applications to professionals.
He attended a Pathways to Victorious Christian Living seminar in 1988 and committed his life to Jesus Christ. Thus, a life of devotion to God has been central in all his undertakings since then. He is currently a fulltime servant of the Lord in Elim Communities, a family of Catholic Communities dedicated to the Lord’s service. He is very much involved in Elim Missions and is currently the Luzon Regional Coordinator, with 56 communities, as well as the Singapore Cluster Coordinator. He is also Market Development Director of Springs Foundation Inc, the corporate arm of Elim Communities. Springs is a non-profit organization dedicated to the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ through media. He handles the Digital Archives project for various Catholic Dioceses throughout the Philippines.
Mars put up a website in 2000 as a hobby and established Pinoyblessings IT Services as a sole proprietorship in 2002, marking his entry to the world of e-commerce. From the website’s beginnings as a gift shop for Overseas Filipino Workers with “Your pakiusap is our delight” as its tagline, it has evolved to become a complete IT Outsourcing solution for small and medium-size companies.
Pinoyblessings first ventured into web development in 2006. With its first few customers, the company realized that many websites created the past years were not maintained well, due to the per-page cost of web design. It initiated the concept of Webcare, where all of the clients’ website needs are taken care of, including the management of email accounts. At very reasonable costs, Pinoyblessings thus endeavored to assist even the not-so-“internet versed” entrepreneurs with their computer concerns. The company became a web hosting company itself in 2007, completing the entire line of website services in-house.
Pinoyblessings again expanded in 2008 by offering complete IT services, primarily for businesses who need IT infrastructure but are hindered by high costs. Although Outsourcing IT services was a relatively new concept locally, companies now see it as a viable option addressing rising IT services costs and personnel turnover concerns.