Startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may now avail of cloud-based services and IT resources through a pay-as-you-use model from IP Converge Data Services, Inc. (IPC), a unit of ePLDT, the ICT arm of PLDT.
Dubbed as “The Enterprise Sachet,” the service offers SMBs access to enterprise-grade IT applications and services.
Rene Huergas, IPC President (left) and Nino Valmonte, IPC Director for Product & Marketing discuss the concept of “The Enterprise Sachet” with the media.
With this model, IPC aims to assist small enterprises get into the digital world, with tools that help them manage their client data, and systems that will automate backroom operations.
“The support we’re driving at is that we would like to be the catalyst for small entities to use technology in their business,” said IPC President Rene Huergas, noting that many businesses today, especially SMEs, are not fully equipped.
“The challenge now is how can we be a partner of SMEs towards getting into the digital world and let them obviously compete head-on with large companies who have big pocket, whereas these businesses have little money, yet they want to avail of the technology. If we will not help them or offer this opportunity, they will remain small,” adds Huergas.
The Enterprise Sachet model provides small enterprises access to any or all cloud computing services available at cloud.com.ph, a cloud portal which offers locally hosted services and accept payments online through major credit cards such as MasterCard, Visa and AMEX; over-the-counter cash payments via Dragonpay or online payment provider Paypal.
Through the cloud portal, enterprises can avail of applications and services which include access to Google Apps for Work online productivity and collaboration tools; timekeeping and payroll management tool IPC PayCheck; and the cloud-based customer relationship management app Salesforce. Computing resources like cloud servers or virtual machines and simple apps that SMEs would need are also available.
Huergas said that the bulk of their applications is ready to use. He also said that scaling up or down anytime is not a problem and you do not end up with too much or too little services, space, or licenses.
Nino Valmonte, Product Management and Marketing Director at IPC, claimed that these applications and services can be made available to users for a 30-day free trial so they can try them out before they decide to subscribe.
Valmonte also said that the model can serve enterprises which hosted applications to the server. It can be applicable to industries such as manufacturing, call center, education, e-commerce, online gaming and online shopping.
