Tag: cloud computing

West coast skin care company leverages cloud to support U.S. expansion [Byline]

/ Gary Hilson

Expanding into new markets is a challenge in and of itself, but when it’s a complex business and your financial management software can’t keep up, it’s time to make some changes.

Vancouver-based Skoah Inc. is a small chain of shops that offer facial products and treatments to its customers in 15 stores, some of which are franchises. Company president Christ Scott said that as the company looked to expand to the United States, those complexities could not be accommodated by its QuickBooks accounting software – it didn’t integrate with its Point-of-Sales (PoS) system.

Read my full article on ITBusiness.ca.

Gary Hilson is a freelance writer with a focus on B2B technology, including information technology, cybersecurity, and semiconductors.

Cloud-based ERP levels the playing field for retailers [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

It makes a lot of sense that Oracle wants to buy NetSuite given its cloud-centric strategy, as the smaller company considers itself first to the cloud in enterprise resource management (ERP) software. But what they also have in common is by being cloud-first with their software portfolio, customers that couldn’t previously take advantage of large ERP software deployments can now do so online.

It’s something that Oracle CEO Mark Hurd noted in his keynote at this year’s OpenWorld, where he highlighted smaller, younger customers such as Uber-competitor Lyft and wireless HotSpot provider Boingo. Hurd said the prior to having cloud offerings, Oracle wouldn’t be involved with these smaller organizations because they don’t have any IT staff.

NetSuite now services 30,000 organizations in 160 countries and is adding 400 customers per year, according to company senior VP Steve Cerovcec, who kicked off a showcase of Canadian customers in Toronto Tuesday night, including retailers Casalife and Sears Canada.

Read my full article on IT World Canada.

Cloud comes first, driven by DevOps: ServiceNow survey [Portfolio]

/ Gary Hilson

We’re living in cloud-first era, according to a new report released by ServiceNow, and it’s result of DevOps have a strong influence that spans across the organization.

That’s one of the key findings “The 2016 Cloud Computing Tipping Point,” which found that more than half of all enterprises with 500 people or more are now choosing cloud as the default for IT projects, based on interviews and polls with 1,800 respondents spanning IT, DevOps and lines of business.

“There’s more going on faster than what we expected,” said Farrell Hough, ‎VP of  product operations at ServiceNow. “Reality is meeting the hype for cloud computing.” What was particularly surprising, she added, what that DevOps was leading the charge. “The rise of DevOps is a major factor.”

Read my article and slideshow on IT World Canada.