Some stories don't start in a boardroom. Mine started at a celebration, with a familiar face and a question I didn't answer right away.
A debt that has no due date
For close to two decades of my childhood and youth, I was a scholar. Through ChildFund Japan and the Canossian Sisters, a program in my community helped struggling families send one of their children to school. I was one of those children. The program was part of my life until I graduated from college.
No one asked for anything in return once I graduated. There were no obligations. But I have always believed that a former scholar who becomes a professional should show, in some way, that he values what the program gave him.
This year I attended an event marking the program's 30th year of commitment. It was also the end of the program. It was moving on to other areas that needed help, and the people there, some of whom have known me since I was a child, were closing a chapter that had changed thousands of lives, mine included.
The cooperative that grew out of it
Part of building that community involved launching a cooperative, so the people being helped could eventually stand on their own. The partners behind the program were right about it. The cooperative flourished and became a dependable institution alongside ChildFund Japan and other partners, helping the area grow and overcome adversity.
I first crossed paths with that cooperative while I was still in college. Its manager asked me to review their process and the system they were using at the time. I was fascinated by the idea of staying the course and helping develop their accounting system. Ironically, my thesis was built around the idea that time itself is an accounting system. In the end, I had to turn it down. The scope was too big for a student.
Years passed.
From developer to NetSuite consultant
I worked as a developer for a small firm that is now a global company, and I handled its accounting system along the way. Today I am a NetSuite consultant and the founder of jomIT Solutions. NetSuite is generally seen as accounting software, but it is much more than that. It is an ERP: how a business sees itself, runs itself, and makes decisions. That lesson matters to this story.
The question
At the event, I was talking with people I have known for a long time. During a quick chat, one of them asked: "We need an accounting system. Can you help us find one?"
I didn't say yes. I didn't say no. I asked what they really needed.
I have seen what happens when an organization buys everything at once. Large systems, big licenses, features nobody asked for. For a small cooperative, that can be fatal. When they followed up with, "Can you send us an estimate of the cost?", I felt the temptation to quote a number. But I also knew that if I focused only on earning income from this, the idea would fail.
Honestly, I was also at a crossroads. I was trying to grow a young startup and still looking for the right way to define its purpose. I had no clear direction. Taking a job here could just have been a way to earn as a professional. This felt like something else.
So I did what I do when I need time to think. I steered the conversation to personal topics. We exchanged contact details. Two days later, I asked when I could visit their office. They gave me dates. Two days after that, I told them what I really wanted: not to be a vendor, but a partner. They loved the idea, and they knew I was expected to bring proposals and plans on my visit.
Earning the right to be a partner
Saying "partner" is easy. Proving it takes work, so I did the work.
- I learned Odoo Community Edition. It is open source, with no license fees, which suits a cooperative that should spend its money on its members and not on software subscriptions.
- I mapped what a cooperative actually needs: accounting, member records, share capital, savings, loans, and dividends, built around Philippine realities such as CDA guidelines and local reporting.
- I designed a member portal so members can see their own share capital, savings, loans, and earnings in one place.
- I put together a partnership proposal with phased packages, an on-site presence in their building, and an offer to join the cooperative as a member, with real skin in the game.
On the site visit, I met the people who run the place day to day. I walked past the same storefront and the same building I had known for years. It felt less like a sales call and more like coming home.
Where things stand: on hold
I'll be honest: the engagement is currently on hold. In real projects this happens often. Boards deliberate, budgets are tight, priorities shift, and trust takes time. I'm not frustrated by it, and I'm not walking away.
What I realized during the pause is that the work didn't go away. The foundation I built for this one cooperative (the accounting structure, the member model, the portal design, the import tooling) is the kind of foundation many small cooperatives in the Philippines need and few can afford. The question that was put to me in a quick chat turned out to be a much bigger one.
Growing together
That is why jomIT now has two service lines. Our NetSuite and Celigo consulting serves international clients. Our Odoo Community Edition work is for small businesses and cooperatives closer to home. Both come from the same belief: technology should serve people, not the other way around.
Thirty years ago, a program invested in a child. Today that child is building tools for the community that raised him. The door is still open to the cooperative that started it, and to any other cooperative asking the same question: "Can you help us find a system?"
My answer will probably still begin with: what do you really need?
If you lead or serve in a cooperative and want to talk, with no pitch and no pressure, reach me at jomar@jomitconsulting.com.
Learn more about the organization that made it possible: ChildFund Japan.
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Growing Together: How a Scholarship Kid Found His Way Back to the Cooperative