Three Philippine-based companies have upgraded to a cloud-based environment, specifically NetSuite, to streamline their operations. The companies are fast-growing food and beverage retailer Big Chill; the Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines; and Far Eastern University.
Big Chill, a retail chain with 60 shops in the greater Manila area, has deployed NetSuite OneWorld to better manage its mission-critical business processes, including financials, inventory management, fixed assets management, order management, procure-to-pay and warehousing within a unified business management solution that does not employ huge IT staff.
Coca-Cola Foundation and Big Chill Migrate to NetSuite. Shown in photo are (left to right): Ting Cabalza, Project Manager, Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines; Cecile Alcantara, President, Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines; James Dantow, VP for Worldwide Support and GM for the Philippines, NetSuite; Rusty Lemon, Chief Operating Consultant, Big Chill; Rubie Casana-Villamor, Project Manager, IT Group Inc.; Aly Capote, Head of Operations, IT Group Inc.; and Jan Pabellon, Principal Product Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan, NetSuite.
This deployment gives Big Chill the business agility, visibility, flexibility and scalability that cannot be found in its previous on-premise system to support its business growth and expansion.
“The retail business is ever-changing and to maintain a competitive edge, we need an efficient scalable unified system to run our entire operations. NetSuite OneWorld gives us a pathway to take the business to the next level. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet our ambitious strategic objectives for rapid growth,” said Rusty Lemon, Chief Operating Consultant at Big Chill. “We feel like we’re upgrading from an archaic on-premise solution into a modern, luxury suite with NetSuite. The reporting flexibility and ability to add modules to the product as we expand are tremendous.”
Software grant
Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, on the other hand, got hold of the NetSuite solution as a software grant from the NetSuite.org citizenship program which offers free and discounted subscriptions to qualified non-profits and social enterprises.
As a NetSuite.org grantee, the foundation is estimating P2.5 million worth of savings in NetSuite training and software licensing costs.
From the previous system that is limited in functionality, process synchronization and visibility which hinder its growth potential and the ability to better manage and measure the impact of its educational, water-related, youth empowerment and disaster relief programs, this non-profit organization has migrated to NetSuite and is now able to run its core processes within an integrated software system without a dedicated IT staff.
The system migration has gained process automation, and real-time visibility into critical business metrics needed for the foundation to fulfill its socio-economic improvement. These capabilities were not possible with its previous solution.
“NetSuite is helping us operate more efficiently so that we can put our time and energy into making a meaningful difference in the lives of underprivileged Filipinos,” said Cecilia Alcantara, President at Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines. “Using Netsuite, we are able to significantly preserve resources for our projects, and the new software gives us the ability to clearly present the value of our work and the donations we receive to our stakeholders.”
Support for mission-critical financial processes
Far Eastern University (FEU), an educational institution with 28,000 students on Manila and Makati City campuses, is the third customer that deployed NetSuite cloud-based solutions. FEU has used NetSuite OneWorld to support its mission-critical financial processes, including accounting, inventory management, fixed assets and purchasing because of lower cost, greater functionality and its rich customization capabilities.
In the past, FEU has to contend with its outdated on-premise application that gave limited visibility into critical information like general ledger, accounts payable and numerous Excel sheets for reporting. Upgrading to NetSuite, FEU is now realizing the benefits of faster, more efficient financials based on real-time data, anywhere, anytime access to critical business information, and gaining greater control and visibility.
The deployment of NetSuite OneWorld at FEU aligns with the university’s membership in the NetSuite SuiteAcademy program, an educational program designed to bring cloud-based business management solutions to university classrooms worldwide. The FEU Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance has incorporated NetSuite cloud ERP, including accounting and auditing functionality, into the undergraduate degree curricula for third-fourth year students pursuing business degrees.
The university also has plans to avail of NetSuite OneWorld’s multi-entry management capabilities by rolling out the solution across four subsidiaries namely FEU Information Technology, its College of Computer and Engineering Studies, as well as Far Eastern College-Silang, Fern Realty Corp., and a new campus to be built in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. This gives FEU consolidated financial reporting across the four subsidiaries.
“The improved efficiency of financial reporting is one of the major benefits we’ve realized with NetSuite OneWorld,” said Juan Miguel Montinola, CFO at FEU. “NetSuite gives us access to vital data anytime and anywhere, that’s been invaluable in transforming the finance and accounting teams from mostly consolidating numbers to now properly analyzing them.”
Kaisa Consulting and Questronix Corporation Partner with NetSuite to Meet Growing Demand for Cloud Solutions.. Shown in photo (left to right) are: Bernadette Cadaing, Channel Manager, NetSuite; KarWai Wong, Director, Questronix; Michael Dionisio, President, Questronix; James Dantow, VP for Worldwide Support and GM for the Philippines, NetSuite; Jan Pabellon, Principal Product Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan, NetSuite; and Charlie Villegas, Business Unit Head, Kaisa Consulting.
New partners
The company also announced that consultancy firms Kaisa Consulting and Questronix Corporation are now its new value-added resellers (VARs) in the Philippines. Both companies recently joined the NetSuite Solution Provider program.
“Philippine companies are looking for IT solutions that offer low cost, rapid implementation, process automation and real-time visibility across the business, and NetSuite tops the list,” said James Dantow, NetSuite VP for Worldwide Support and General Manager for the Philippines. “We’re excited to partner with the capable and accomplished teams of Kaisa Consulting and Questronix in helping them meet increasing demand for cloud business management locally.”
NetSuite launched the NetSuite PH edition for local businesses where it contains accounting rules, usage conventions and regulatory requirements of the Philippine market, including comprehensive support for Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) tax reporting requirements.
The global business management capabilities of NetSuite enable Philippine businesses to manage their domestic and global businesses in the cloud, whether they are locally headquartered or are a division of a larger, multinational enterprise.
Kaisa’s cloud solution for SMEs
Kaisa Consulting, a provider of integrated enterprise solutions and business processing outsourcing (BPO) services for the small and medium enterprise (SME) market, has included NetSuite as its flagship cloud software offering, along with its on-premise solutions from IBM, SAP, Microsoft and others. The company’s new NetSuite cloud ERP is intended for light manufacturing, logistics and healthcare industries in the SME space.
The company says that initial apprehension among local firms over running financials in the cloud is diminishing as more success stories and NetSuite client reference emerge, with prospects attracted by real-time data visibility, reduction or elimination of manual processes and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
“SMEs are looking for solutions from Kaisa that are not only cost-effective, but can be easily deployed,” said Lucky De Leon, Managing Director at Kaisa Consulting.
With NetSuite, we are diversifying our solutions and services portfolios to offer our clients in the SME space a cloud-based solution that is widely recognized in the market as highly reliable and user-friendly.”
Questronix’s first cloud offering
Systems integrator Questronix has its first software cloud offering through its partnership with NetSuite. Aside from Netsuite products, the company also offers hardware and software from IBM, SAP and others.
With NetSuite as its partner, Questronix is able to address the growing demand of its clients for lower cost, faster implementation and ease of maintenance offered by cloud ERP in such industries as manufacturing, retail, trading, professional services and financial services, and as a BPO platform.
The company can also benefit from NetSuite’s strong development and support presence in the Philippines. The training Questronix has received from its Solution Provider program can help ensure rapid and effective cloud ERP implementations.
“We recognize the value of cloud computing and are seizing the opportunity to deliver its benefits to our clients by offering NetSuite, the best business solution in the cloud,” said Michael Dionisio, President of Questronix. “We are bullish on our NetSuite partnership to grow the business as more companies look to use cloud solution without investing in IT infrastructure and personnel.”
