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IT MARKET OUTLOOK

Leading companies optimistic about year ahead

By Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation

Published on January 5, 2010

Many say recovery being felt

Moving out of 2009 and into 2010, Thailand's information technology executives have reported slight growth in the IT market despite the economic woes and political instability of the old year.

The industry leaders are optimistic about 2010, saying recovery is making itself felt and the economy is on the upturn.

Intel Microelectronics (Thailand) country manager Accharas Ouysinprasert said his firm was seeing positive signs in the IT market because economic recovery was leading to higher consumer confidence.

Corporate clients are moving to refresh their PCs to support new operating systems and applications, and this will help them to lower the costs of management and maintenance of IT equipment. On the consumer side, Intel is still seeing positive retail growth, despite the economic slowdown.

Accharas said that in 2010, new products would provide significant stimulus to the market. The new product line-up from Intel includes the Core i family of processors, whose price and performance value will attract many buyers. The performance of PCs is playing an increasingly important role in consumers' purchasing decisions, he said.

Battery life and design of notebook PCs are other important considerations.

As part of its "innovation roadmap", Intel has begun production of the world's first 32-nanometre microprocessors. These are also the first high-performance processors to integrate graphics capacity within the central processing units. Consumers will be able to experience adaptive-intelligence performance.

"We see encouraging signs for the year ahead," Accharas said. "Despite the turmoil, we are seeing IT-market growth in the range of 12 to 15 per cent in 2009, which is phenomenal when the general-business climate is considered. We expect that sales of notebooks will increase at a faster rate, and the availability of new operating systems will lead to more people refreshing their PCs."

Microsoft Thailand's managing director Patama Chantaruck says her company is not sitting back and simply observing the economic and political situation, but is responding to it. In fact, it has taken the view that there is no crisis, but rather an opportunity for companies to push the reset button and plan carefully for the next chapter.

Information technology is undoubtedly a critical component of this and no company should ignore it, she said. In any crisis, the challenge is to find the opportunities that lie within. With the right IT, organizations can actually reduce their operational costs in the long-term.

Patama said Microsoft would introduce its latest "new efficiency" solutions this year, aiming to help businesses to get the most out of their IT investments in terms of business productivity, innovation and growth. Moreover, users will also see new hardware based on Windows 7 that will undoubtedly boost the local IT market.

"Thailand is becoming one of the fastest-growing markets for adoption of Windows 7. This shows that there is still a demand for IT amongst Thai consumers despite the economic downturn," she said. "Price is always a determining factor, so we have been listening to our customers and responding to their demands. Windows 7 has been launched with a special promotion offered by IT Mall, one of the main resellers. One of the big positive factors for us has been support from our partners - including resellers, the government, those in the private sector and other institutions."

Patama said software piracy continued to be a major threat to everyone involved in the industry. The good news, however, is that Thailand's software piracy rate has fallen for two consecutive years, from 78 per cent in 2007 to 76 per cent in 2008. This shows that Thai people are becoming more aware of the value of intellectual property and the benefits of using genuine software, and are grateful for government efforts to raise awareness of IP issues, she said.

Cisco Thailand's managing director Tatchapol Poshyanonoda said his company was seeing signs of global economic recovery. Companies are starting to invest again in expanding their businesses, including information and communications technology.

Meanwhile, Cisco sees three emerging trends, and believes both businesses and individuals should be aware of them in order to stay relevant in the new competitive landscape.

The first broad business trend is a transformation in the way we work and collaborate with one another. The firm also sees video becoming increasingly popular, which means corporate and service-provider networks will need to be upgraded.

The second broad trend is an increasing movement towards "the connected life". Homes are becoming increasingly connected as more and more home devices become networked. This trend will continue and service providers can no longer afford to offer just basic voice or data services. They have to become "experience providers", and deliver an integrated set of data, voice, video and mobile services to retain customers. New buildings and cities are also being developed with this "connected life" in mind. Broadband and the network have become a fourth utility, after water, gas and electricity.

The third trend is a dramatic shift taking place in the computing landscape, as virtualisation becomes a hot topic for chief information officers. Virtualisation has become so important because CIOs are increasingly being challenged to manage more and more computing assets while keeping a cap on complexity and costs.

Looking back on 2009, SAP Thailand's managing director Patara Yongvanich said the year had been a tough one for businesses across all industries. However, SAP has seen continued investment from some sectors, including banking, consumer products, and retail.

"At the start of 2009, most organisations froze spending because of the global economic crisis and chose to take a more conservative approach to business. The benefits SAP can offer include helping customers to control their spending more effectively and increasing fiscal responsibility through standardised business processes and controls," Patara said.

Currently, the company is seeing signs of market stabilisation, although the overall market remains challenging for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SAP's SME customers have continue to grow as well as its customer base in strategic areas such as business intelligence. The company is also seeing the benefits of investing in longer relationships by supporting customers with 35-year IT roadmaps and deployment plans, he said.

The company is confident that Thailand, with its well-developed infrastructure, free-enterprise economy and generally pro-investment policies, will be quick to bounce back when the economy recovers.

Patara said SAP's solutions, which offered executives a single view of their business and helped them make better-informed decisions faster, would be invaluable to Thai companies who were planning to ride on the wave of recovery.

Acer Computer's senior marketing manager Nitipat Praweenwongwuthi said the PC market grew by 15 per cent year on year, to about 2.4 million units, in 2009.

Acer believes Thailand has passed through its political problems and the country is now "in upturn". The company is therefore confident that customer buying behaviour will rebound and rise.

All IT executives agreed that 3G and WiMax licenses would play an important role as positive factors driving the IT industry because they would promote IT usage around the country and reduce the so-called "digital divide" - the current gap between those with Internet access and those without it.

-- The Nation 2010-01-05

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