NetSuite, which supplies business software through the internet, aims to steadily build up its business on the mainland through its Hong Kong operations and as multinationals that use its products expand in the vast market. The United States company, whose major shareholder is software mogul Larry Ellison, said it had seen a steady adoption of its products by small and medium-sized mainland companies since establishing its Hong Kong operation in 2008. 'Chinese enterprises, like businesses anywhere else in the world, are starting to recognise that moving to cloud technologies can provide an optimal way to run their operations,' chief executive Zach Nelson (above) said. Founded in 1998, NetSuite is the world's leading provider of cloud-computing business software programs. These include enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, professional services automation and e-commerce programs. Cloud computing enables companies to buy and receive over the internet a range of software, information and other shared resources, such as storage capacity, on demand, just like the electric grid. The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the internet, which is depicted in that form on computer network diagrams. Nelson said cloud-computing adoption had been 'accelerating in China', as many small and medium-sized enterprises expanded their business from one province to another without spending a lot on information-technology systems and the staff to run these facilities. NetSuite's most prominent customers on the mainland are fast-growing domestic units of multinational companies including Philippine fast-food giant Jollibee, and US security services firm Brink's and vitamin supplements manufacturer NBTY. Nelson said NetSuite's Hong Kong and mainland channel partners, for example, had helped its accounting program meet local tax requirements, which differ from province to province. 'They've built this so-called 'Golden Tax Integration', which serves as the lynchpin for customers to manage the different tax regimes on one system,' he said.
