Just when businesses are starting to make strides in their attempts to recover from the pandemic, lockdowns disrupt any progress being made.

According to Stephen Canning, Chief Executive Officer at JCurve Solutions (ASX: JCS), some critical challenges businesses face during lockdowns include continuity of operations and data security in remote work setup.

With the volatility of business operations since last year, Filipino businesses have kept up by shifting from brick and mortar to online stores, but the transition has its challenges. “A large proportion of small businesses moved to sell through popular social media platforms. While these platforms are familiar and help maintain revenue streams, it has caused issues with inventory levels, logistics, and payments management,” Canning said.

To survive and thrive, businesses need to strengthen their digital capabilities to streamline backend and customer-facing operations to address remote working challenges and meet consumer demands. “For example, in the retail industry, midsized and enterprise organizations pivoted to e-commerce as stand-alone solutions, but integration into incumbent on-premises platforms caused problems,” Canning said. “Having a cloud-based, integrated business solution would have minimized interruptions regardless of the size of the business.”

JCurve is the only five-star Oracle NetSuite partner in the Philippines and is Oracle’s largest partner globally in terms of customer base. It has been implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions since 2009.

JCurve’s cloud technology portfolio includes ERP, telecom expense management (TEM), and service management software.

As COVID-19 continues to threaten the economy and health of Filipinos, cloud solutions continue to rise in popularity among businesses to stay afloat in the new normal. “There is an increasing appetite from organizations in the Philippines to discuss cloud technologies. Most organizations felt the pain when they had no choice but to shut down during lockdowns because staff could not get to their usual office/work location,” Canning said. “During this time, we found many business owners researching cloud-based solutions, which brought them to JCurve Solutions.”

“As a growing business ourselves, we understand the challenges of creating a resilient, growing business in today's on-demand world. As the demand for cloud solutions rises, so does the competition. We’re committed to guiding clients through a transformation plan that provides tangible returns on your investment in a manageable, proven, step-by-step process,” Canning said.

This demand has helped JCurve establish its local footprint by tripling its staff members since setting up in 2019, making the Philippine branch a full sales office that helps serve over 500 customers from different industries, including financial, manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, services, and supply chain.

Earlier this year, the cloud solutions provider further expanded local operations by acquiring local digital marketing agency Creative Quest to complement its expertise in helping businesses digitally transform.