More local firms migrating to cloud services, says NetSuite

More businesses are migrating to cloud services to streamline their business processes.

The shift is attributed to more businesses—large, small and medium entrepreneurs—taking a step back from the conventional means of managing their day-to-day operations into more sophisticated and accessible platforms.

“The Internet via the cloud offers a unique view. A more organized system to manage an entire business from just one platform. We deliver solutions via the cloud. It is cost-effective and quick to deploy,” says Jan Alvin Pabellon, NetSuite’s principal product manager for the Asia-Pacific and Japan.

To answer the clamor for cloud solutions in the Philippines, NetSuite provides an avenue where businesses can upgrade from antiquated on-premise software and servers and paper-based processes.

To further make their imprint visible on the latest cloud technology, NetSuite partnered with Asper Solutions and CloudQwest to meet the increasing demand for cloud solutions across the country.

NetSuite started to ride the wave of cloud solutions even before the term “cloud computing” was coined, says Pabellon.

It was in 1998 when Evan Goldberg and Larry Ellison set out to create  software where entrepreneurs need not go a thousand and one processes just to keep their business afloat.

They dubbed their brainchild “NetSuite.”

Pabellon also notes that there has been a sea change in the view of most entrepreneurs regarding cloud services.

“Before we would struggle explaining the concept of what enterprise resource planning (ERP) is — it is a business application via the cloud. But now companies ask us ‘so is this available in the cloud?’ The preference now is to get everything online,” he adds.

The typical ERP has three phases. The first is “customized solutions” where they hire programmers to set up shop. Second is to buy packaged solutions from software companies to manage their business. The third phase is subscription or cloud-based solutions.

“We believe that the cloud is here. It is not in the distant future anymore,” he said in a briefing.

To further improve their services, NetSuite carefully chooses their value-added resellers (VAR).

Asper Solutions which derived its name from “asperatus”—the newest cloud type to be discovered—is a solution provider with expertise in business process optimization and systems implementation.

In partnering with NetSuite, they are tasked to expand the cloud business management solution to the retail, distribution and manufacturing industries.

Through Asper Solutions and NetSuite, the daily task of managing an entire warehouse can be simplified by placing all business processes in the cloud.

Once in the cloud, it can be easily accessed minus the fear of losing precious data due to technical glitches or external threats like hacking and other forms of cybercrime.

In terms of security, NetSuite goes through various measures to ensure that the stored data in their systems are kept safe from visible and invisible threats.

CloudQwest Solutions is a software integration service that has developed custom localized NetSuite ERP modules, including payroll and human resources information system.

NetSuite creates applications and platforms which companies can turn to solve problems like tracking locations of warehouses, bins and shelves of products across the region.

But in every country, there is a different set of regulations and laws regarding trade and manufacturing.

This is where the services of CloudQwest comes handy, because NetSuite the experience and expertise to solve regulatory rules for specific countries, Pabellon said.

Since NetSuite started operations in the Philippines in 2007, their profile of customers has diversified.

And they are proud to proclaim that, when they were just starting out, the bold souls who took interest in them were the SMEs.

Pabellon says SMEs optimistic outlook for new technologies and high-appetite for risk that draws them to new concepts like the cloud.

Later, the big players came out and decided to toy with the idea of trusting cloud services.

In 2009, Jollibee came into the picture and used NetSuite to deploy business systems while they were setting up their branches in Vietnam and China.

That same year, ABS-CBN also followed suit. And last year, Air21 and Roxas Holdings made their move to the cloud.

Jollibee rolled out 10 stores in a span of two months by utilizing the cloud.

Though setting up in the cloud may vary depending on the kind of company involved, the standard length of time to set up business processes using the conventional way may take up to 10 months.

With cloud services, the longest time it takes to set up a business is six months.

Aside from the reduction in time, storing data in cloud also eliminates the need to constantly configure systems.

Asked what role companies’ IT departments will have once the cloud takes over some of their tasks, Pabellon said that IT professionals will still be in charge of maintenance.

In disaster-prone areas like the Philippines, the cloud service offers a safe haven for information to remain intact in cases of untoward incidents.

“It will be business as usual with the cloud. Everything is just there and can easily be accessed,” he quipped.