MANILA, Philippines, April 19, 2012 — Orange & Bronze Software Labs (O&B) announces today the launch of Open for Business Online (O4BO), which provides SMEs with low-cost business applications in a single subscription service.
Currently, it provides subscribers access to four critical business tools: Liferay, a portal and collaboration software; OpenBravo, a web-based ERP; Pentaho, a business intelligence solution; and Jackrabbit, a content repository.
O4BO is a product conceptualized by Michael Oliver, a technology veteran with over 40 years of experience with industry giants like Sperry, Sun Microsystems, SAIC, Network Systems Corporation and Open Text. As an advocate and expert on cloud computing, Oliver recognized the need for an integrated service that will allow data sharing between applications and come with out-of-the-box features.
“We decided to develop Open for Business Online because we saw the potential of bringing feature-rich applications to businesses who might not otherwise be able to afford them”, says Oliver. “The high cost of maintaining servers or the manpower to support them hinders enterprises from acquiring business tools that are mission-critical to their operations.”
The company tapped Orange and Bronze Software Labs (O&B), a Filipino software firm, to develop the product. O&B immediately recognized its potential and offered to incubate the company.
“We incubated O4BO because we saw the potential of leveraging cloud technologies to drive down costs,” says Calen Legaspi, CEO of O&B. “Our team built O4BO using programming best practices backed with robust infrastructure – a multi-tenant server provided by our partner Corent Technology and the IBM SmartCloud.”
A proponent of Agile Software Development, O&B specializes in Java development with a focus on Spring. The company is the first and only SpringSource partner in the Philippines, and after SpringSource’s acquisition by VMWare, is now also a VMWare partner for the vFabric line of products. O&B employs over a hundred developers specialized in Spring and vFabric technologies in its Manila headquarters. The company is a known start-up incubator in the country, with a product line-up that includes Haybol.ph, MilObjects, and Aprubd, among others.
O4BO chose O&B for two reasons: the proximity with the CEO and founder Michael Oliver, and the history and credentials of the company.
According to Butch Landingin, CTO of O&B, O4BO is beneficial to businesses because of the application of true multi-tenant technology from Corent Technology. “This allows the 4 applications O4BO will be hosting to operate from a single instance on the IBM SmartCloud for the lowest possible cost of delivery, which will be passed on to customers.”
With an introductory price of US$12.49 per month per organization after a 30 day free trial, O4BO has begun accepting subscribers to the service. Visit www.open4businessonline.com to subscribe and to get more information. The next few weeks will see the addition of OpenBravo ERP, Pentaho Analytics and Reporting, and the JackRabbit Java Content Repository.