Accounting students ‘go to cloud’

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

WITH just Web browsers as tools, college accounting students are learning the basics of cloud-based business management solutions with the help of a cloud-based financial software provider.

Officials of NetSuite announced Tuesday that the company’s education program called SuiteAcademy was driven by the growing global demand for cloud solutions in college classrooms.

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NetSuite president and chief executive officer Zach Nelson, who flew in to Manila for the event, said 16 universities, including three in the Philippines, are learning how to use cloud-based solutions.

Nelson said these students are now more advanced than their contemporaries, saying they are learning just as big companies are shifting from on-premise software to the cloud.

The NetSuite cloud business solution is introduced to students in their third and fourth year. In Cebu, the University of San Carlos has adopted the use of NetSuite programs for its students. The other Philippine universities include the Mapua
Institute of Technology and the De La Salle University.

NetSuite Philippines general manager James Dantow said the schools do not spend anything for integrating the program into their curriculum, as the only infrastructure needed is a Web browser and Internet access.

“We are now turning computer science labs into cloud-based labs,” he said, adding that they work with the faculty so they can complement the traditional curriculum.

He said they have been working with DLSU and USC for more than four years and that they maintain a “stable” relationship with both universities.

Nelson said these local universities are more advanced than other universities, who are still being trained in older software systems.

The USC program teaches its accounting students how to use NetSuite’s enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Martin Evangelista, managing director of CloudTech, a local partner of NetSuite, said they hope to have similar partnerships with other Cebu universities, adding that USC does not have to shell out anything to be part of SuiteAcademy.

He hopes students trained in cloud technology will have an advantage over others in the job market.