QuickBytes: How this firm is driving tech adoption in Singapore’s manufacturing industry

The manufacturing industry is key to Singapore’s economy – it makes up roughly a fifth of the island nation’s gross domestic product. In order to maintain its status as a regional leader for advanced manufacturing tech, the country’s government and manufacturing firms must embrace Industry 4.0. However, many companies haven’t been able to properly incorporate these advanced technologies into their work processes because of unfamiliarity with new tech and the difficulty of changing old mindsets.

Parallo, a provider of cloud services that helps businesses to focus on their product and growth by addressing their cloud-based needs, is trying to remedy the situation. It recently organized an event with the support of Microsoft called Technology in: Manufacturing & Supply Chain, which was aimed at helping the software-as-a-service manufacturing and supply chain tech community understand the opportunities in the space.

Julie Bulaklak, business development manager for Singapore at Parallo / Photo credit: Parallo

In this interview, Julie Bulaklak, business development manager for Singapore at Parallo, discusses the event and how the company is looking to support independent software vendors (ISVs) and other tech SaaS firms in providing solutions to the manufacturing industry.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

What does Parallo do?

We are a specialist cloud services provider focused on helping SaaS companies accelerate their growth. Faster growth means higher multiples, less dilution, and larger exits.

Scaling is a race against cash burn. SaaS companies must ship new features fast to rapidly acquire new customers – everything else is a distraction. We remove that distraction by providing expert technical cloud services, optimizing across the four key areas of security, performance, availability, and cost. We work with vendors like Microsoft to help accelerate the adoption of cloud, and these relationships also enable us to access funding and other often overlooked benefits for our SaaS partners.

What did the Technology in: Manufacturing & Supply Chain event want to achieve?

The big picture objective was to support the SaaS and ISV community in Singapore. It is a niche industry that deserves all the support it can get – and there is a lot of support out there, but it can be all over the place. We wanted to bring it together, get all the right people together in one room. And that is what this event did.

We realized that the SaaS and ISV community has not had many opportunities recently to meet in person and connect. Connecting like-minded people and providing opportunities for inspiration and learning helps the community to thrive.

What did the event’s content cover?

Vikram Kalkat, vice president and founding member of the International Centre for Industrial Transformation, said that despite the Singapore government’s emphasis on Industry 4.0, only 28% of this tech has been rolled out or is used extensively in the manufacturing industry. This highlights the significant opportunities that SaaS and ISV companies can look to capture. Kalkat also introduced the Smart Industry Readiness Index, which consists of a suite of frameworks and tools that help manufacturing firms start, scale, and sustain their transformation journeys.

Samuel Tan, CEO and co-founder of industrial IoT solutions provider Auk Industries, then talked about his company’s journey and also shared some lessons he’d learned. He said that startups should position themselves as a product company, not a services firm, and that the key to scaling is selling a product that doesn’t require a lot of customization.

Finally, Benson Ang, manufacturing and program lead at Microsoft, talked about the various kinds of support that manufacturing companies are looking for and the bridging role that Microsoft plays. The software firm connects government agencies, ISVs, industry associations, and educational institutions, supporting the overall ecosystem and providing commercialization opportunities for ISVs.

What were the main concerns that attendees brought up?

Attendees wanted to know how to get more clients in the manufacturing space – in other words, commercialization and go-to-market opportunities. This can be a challenging industry to break into for many tech companies.

Attendees networking at the event / Photo credit: Parallo

More specifically, they were curious about acceptable rates to charge manufacturing clients – again, this relates to their interest in being a part of this growing industry. They didn’t want to price themselves out of an opportunity.

How was the event received by attendees?

Attendees were excited to have some big players in the industry in the room.

Indeed, networking opportunities were the big draw: They wanted to talk to, connect with, and learn from the Microsoft staff and the two industry speakers – people who have been successful in the space and were willing to share their knowledge and experiences.

What future initiatives does Parallo have in mind to continue this mission?

We are organizing additional networking events that feature expert speakers on topics relevant to the SaaS, ISV, and tech community in Singapore – the next one will be held later in the year.

Ultimately, alongside Microsoft, we are building a community of ISV leaders in Singapore. It is a competitive, fast-paced industry and the feedback we’ve received from attendees is that they are great opportunities to meet other people who’ve faced similar challenges.

Parallo is a cloud services provider that helps businesses to focus on their product and growth by managing and optimizing their cloud platforms for them.

Get in touch and find out how Parallo can help your business scale faster on its website.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.