IBM Opens Services Integration Hub In Singapore

26 Dec 2011

The infocomm and technology services market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of over 7 per cent to US$150 billion in 2015.

Industry watcher IDC said China will likely lead demand for IT services.

And tapping these growth opportunities out of Singapore is IBM, which opened its new Services Integration Hub on Monday.

MediaCorp understands the investment came to over S$100 million - one of the largest that IBM has made in Singapore.

Located at Changi Business Park, the centre is staffed by several hundred employees and IBM expects to inject more investments into the hub in the years ahead.

IBM said the centre will help to deliver best practices that have been adopted in the West to emerging markets in Asia. These include a fraud management system for the insurance industry as well as a consumer insight management system for the banking sector.

With the new hub, IBM expects to cut the delivery speed of IT solutions to clients by up to half.

IT services and solutions account for more than 50 per cent of IBM's business in the region.

Janet Ang, managing director of IBM Singapore, said: "It is taking assets, processes, methodologies to help our clients especially where skills are lacking to achieve the consistency, the quality as well as time to market and time to value."

Analysts said demand for IT services is growing in parallel with the major drivers of each country's economy.

Matt Healey, research director for Software and Services Research at IDC, said: "In a lot of cities, especially the tier one cities in China, we are seeing two, three times type of growth. We see demand for services in manufacturing in China and Taiwan, given the strong manufacturing hubs there. In Australia, we see demand for services in mining and natural resource."

According to the IT Industry Competitiveness 2011 Index, done by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Singapore is named as the most competitive IT market in Asia Pacific, and ranked third worldwide - after the United States and Finland.

The infocomm industry accounted for some 7 per cent of Singapore's economy last year.

In 2010, the sector generated over S$70 billion in revenue and employs about 150,000 people.

Singapore Trade and Industry Minister, Lim Hng Kiang, said: "We want to serve as the home base for MNCs (multinational corporations) and global mid-sized companies to tap into pan-Asian growth opportunities as well as for Asian firms to access global markets beyond Asia."