BlastAsia introduces an innovative cloud-powered platform
BLASTASIA, a leading Philippine software product engineering company, recently announced a powerful new platform called Steer, which enables companies to build apps for customers to order/check status using their smart phones, as well as for internal teams to manage workflows and records using their phones, tablets, or laptops. These apps are fully integrated to back-end processes and systems and are built in a short time - with no coding skills needed.
“We saw a gap between what businesses need and how they can adapt technology to suit those needs,” explained Arup Maity, president and CEO of BlastAsia. “Custom software development is not for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) — it takes too long and has a high upfront cost and risk associated with it. Steer is our response and solution to help businesses “uberize” their business model. To uberize, as the Cambridge Dictionary describes it, is to change the market for a service by introducing a different way of buying or using it, especially using mobile technology.”
BlastAsia wanted to provide a solution that would cater to the specific needs of SMEs — and so the Steer platform was born. Their research found that 86 percent of consumers prefer not to talk with customer support and would rather use a self-service app. Yet, only 2 percent of companies successfully address this issue. This is why SMEs can lose critical business to larger and more digitally transformed enterprises.
To bring their vision to life, BlastAsia knew it needed a powerful cloud service to support its users. The software company turned to Microsoft Azure, building from its experience as a Microsoft Gold Partner for Application Development and Cloud Platform. It initially used the free version of Microsoft Azure to understand how to take advantage of Microsoft cloud technologies.