Posted by James Dantow, VP for Worldwide Support and GM for the Philippines
One of the Philippine’s leading institutions of higher education, Far Eastern University (opens in new tab) (FEU) is taking a two-pronged approach to cloud business management. FEU both uses NetSuite to run its core financial processes, and its faculty teaches NetSuite to business students.
With 28,000 students on campuses in Manila and Makati City, FEU has implemented NetSuite OneWorld for mission-critical financials, including payables and receivables, fixed assets and reporting.
Replacing a legacy on-premise ERP system and spreadsheets, FEU (opens in new tab) has gained new visibility and control over financials, with real-time reporting that replaces once-a-month paper reports of the past. NetSuite makes efficient, accurate financial management possible for FEU’s finance department. FEU has cut its monthly financial close time three-fold, from 16 days to five, compared to its previous legacy environment. It’s streamlined purchasing with nearly 700 suppliers, replacing manual paper-based checks and purchase orders. And it’s strengthened its reporting and compliance with the Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The improved efficiency of financial reporting is one of the major benefits that FEU realized with NetSuite OneWorld, according to Juan Miguel Montinola, CFO at FEU. NetSuite gives FEU access to vital data anytime and anywhere, that's been invaluable in transforming the finance and accounting teams from mostly consolidating numbers to now properly analyzing them.
The Cloud to Shape the Future of FEU and its students
Just like most companies moving to the cloud, FEU plans to grow with NetSuite at its core. In a next step, FEU will be rolling out the multi-entity management capabilities in OneWorld to run four subsidiaries, including FEU Information Technology, its college of computer and engineering studies, Far Eastern College-Silang, Fern Realty Corp. and a new campus to be built in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. As in other financial processes, managing subsidiaries in OneWorld will help FEU eliminate time-consuming and unproductive manual work in Excel to reconcile the books.
The NetSuite OneWorld implementation also aligns with FEU’s participation in SuiteAcademy, a NetSuite educational program that equips universities with resources to offer students hands-on instruction in NetSuite’s cloud ERP technology, helping to shape the business and IT leaders of tomorrow.
Since the summer of 2013, FEU’s Institute of Accounts, Business and Finance (IABF) has been teaching NetSuite as a course to its students, giving students highly sought-after skills that today's employers covet as more companies migrate to cloud-based business management solutions.
At NetSuite, we give FEU an A+ for taking advantage of cloud business management to better run its business, and to help prepare students for the workforce with skills in high demand among leading organizations.
