Microsoft Open Source Blog 
Established in 2015, Kloud-Soft Pte Ltd is a Singapore-based startup that promotes next generation modern workplace solutions. They specialise in human resource workforce management, content information services, and cloud application development.
In 2016, Kloud-Soft won the Microsoft Singapore Partner Award for Open Source on Azure. And in 2017, they won the National Business Award from Singapore Business Review Magazine in the category of Computer Software System Integration.
With already such a great track record for a growing start-up, we asked Richard Chong, Managing Director at Kloud-Soft, about the company’s aspirations. “In the short term, we hope to have deep domain expertise in the area of workplace solutions, especially in workforce management and as a content service platform. In the long term, we hope to be recognized in Asia as one of the leading providers for analytics on workforce management and as the next generation workplace solution which allows our customers to empower their employees with accurate data, mobile workforce and a collaborative environment.”
Although the company is relatively young, its leadership team offers 10 to 15 years of experience within the space of workforce and enterprise content management. They are also proud of their 100% customer retention rate.
One of Kloud-Soft’s open source projects, Affinity Business Suite is an ERP solution hosted on Microsoft Azure, which is written on Python language and runs on an Ubuntu VM. Kloud-Soft implemented the solution for one of their clients, Richport, which allowed the company to transform its traditional electroplating business, improve its quality of service, and enable seamless growth (see Customer Story).
Why partner with Microsoft?
“We see Microsoft as a Partner-centric organization with new initiatives that empower the partners to grow in terms of business and technology. The Microsoft Azure platform has greatly helped our company streamline our bottom line costs and grow capabilities to provide our services outside of Singapore,” says Mr Chong.
When asked how Microsoft is helping them meet their goals, he says:
“Attending the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference last year for the first time, let me envision the technology of the future and more importantly how such technology can be achieved using Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure. I am now confident that our aspirations can be a reality.”
Mr Chong also offers this advice for others who wish to work with Microsoft as a partner: “Be focused on what you want your product or offering to achieve, and build expertise in a vertical in order to get off to a good start.”
The benefits of using Azure
With a number of options available, why did Kloud-Soft decide to use Azure for their startup business? “We started the company wondering which platform to work with, as we knew we wanted to minimize our infrastructure footprint as well as the resources that are required to maintain them,” answers Mr Chong.
“After getting in touch with a few cloud providers, we realized that Microsoft Azure’s PaaS offered great reliability and security, making it one of the leading providers in the market. Azure rolls out so many new services each week that at times we are unable to keep abreast, however it implies it will greatly improve our product offering.”
The company also sees these benefits with Azure:
- Kloud-Soft customers profit from a lower cost to acquire their product yet also gain the assurance of data security.
- As a partner, the overhead in terms of infra costs and the resources required is lower. In fact by using PaaS, resources required to maintain the infra layer is already taken care of by Azure.
Kloud-Soft uses the following workloads: Azure App Services, SQL Azure, Azure App on Linux, Docker Container, Ubuntu VM, Azure Active Directory, Azure B2C Active Directory, Application Insights, Azure Storage, Azure Queue, Azure Bot Framework, Cognitive Services, Azure Virtual Network, and Azure Backup Services.
To learn more about Kloud-Soft, their solutions, and how they can support you, visit their website.