PHL operations to play crucial role in Oracle + Netsuite global expansion
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Oracle + Netsuite will continue to expand its work force in the Philippines this year as part of the company’s global strategy to dominate the cloud technology market, its official said on Tuesday.
The company formerly known as Netsuite Inc. now operates as a global business unit of Oracle Corp. after the latter acquired Netsuite for $9.3 billion in November last year.
Thomas Kim, managing director of Oracle + Netsuite in the Philippines, said the company went into hiring mode as soon as the global headquarters announced a massive expansion plan this year that includes “immediately” launching field offices in 30 countries and building more data centers and development centers all over Europe and Asia.
“We’re definitely going to increase headcount. We’re hiring more developers... [Customer] support is another area where we’re continuing to expand, more so than any other department at this time,” Mr. Kim said on the sidelines of SuiteWorld 2017, the company’s annual industry conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
As the company’s largest field office outside the US, Oracle + Netsuite Philippines serves as a key center for the company’s global technical support, services and back-office operations and product development.
While he did not disclose exactly how many new employees the company will hire for its fiscal year ending in May 2018, Mr. Kim mentioned that the company’s work force in the country — 1,100 and counting — “has been growing at approximately 24% year on year,” and that next year he estimated it will be at the same rate.
Mr. Kim also said the Philippines will play a “large role” in the company’s global investment and expansion plans, which will focus on two main areas: customer support and research and development (R&D).
He added that the development center in Manila is already serving international markets and, with plans to launch into new markets, it makes sense to expand the work force.
“We’ve opened up another office for our development team in [Bonifacio Global City], and we’ve acquired new clients locally — not because of the acquisition — but because more customers realize the advantage of going into cloud. So, things are looking up.”
‘THE CLOUD HAS WON’
During the four-day conference attended by the company’s customers, partners and developers, Oracle + Netsuite Executive VicePresident Jim McGeever said the company will leverage Oracle’s vast global scale and resources, which will help bring the Netsuite’s cloud ERP ( enterprise resource planning) suite to more organizations around the world.
“There’s no doubt the cloud has won,” Mr. McGeever said during his keynote speech, adding that cloud technology has enabled companies to expand their market reach.
To take advantage of the great cloud shift, the company, with the support from Oracle, is expanding its global footprint by setting up more data centers, field offices, and development centers across the globe.
“We’re going global in a big way... Leveraging Oracle’s global scale, we are able to massively accelerate NetSuite’s vision of bringing a single unified suite to companies all over the world,” Mr. McGeever said.