From:	Baroni Limited [Baroni-Limited@tiscali.it]
Sent:	16 October 2007 20:01
Subject:	Baroni Limited - Offshoring Newsletter' - 29/07

Sensitivity:	Confidential

AMI-Partners: SMBs in Singapore to Spend $3M on Hosted Apps, (SaaS) This Year
Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) in Singapore are set to spend US$3 million on hosted applications and SaaS (software as a service) in 2007, up 27% over 2006, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
'Even though spending on hosted applications and SaaS represents only 3% of all SOFTWARE spending among SMBs in Singapore, its 27% growth rate is the fastest in Southeast Asia,' says Daniel Sim, Singapore-based Senior Research Analyst at AMI-Partners. 'Overall software spending by SMBs in Singapore is on track to cross US$127 million this year, up some 9% over last year.'
Hosted applications such as Web-based emails and instant messaging have played a critical role in driving the adoption rate of Singapore SMBs using online applications.
Users are more comfortable than before in exchanging data and communicating over the Internet. This gives rise to a wider acceptance of business-related applications such as sales-ordering, contact-management, leave-management, inventory-checking, online information access, etc.
SaaS offers low-cost but high-value solutions as a paid or leased service to SMBs. 'SMBs, unlike large businesses lack the resources when it comes to information system support,' Mr. Sim says. 'For SMBs to adopt SaaS, vendors would have to play a value-added role in educating SMBs on critical issues such as data security, downtime management, costs versus benefits, data ownership and data migration issues.'
The top three verticals in hosted applications spending will be wholesale, retail, and professional services (i.e. accounting firms and legal firms). Due to the mobile nature of the workface in these verticals, spending on hosted applications and infrastructure is a key requirement in ensuring timely delivery of goods and services.
Healthcare is another key sector in Singapore. Over the last few years, private healthcare companies have formed their own clusters through collaboration or mergers. These clustering efforts have brought about the need to cross-share patient databases that are being kept in different locations. The last two years have seen significant growth in healthcare IT spending in areas such as Internet infrastructure, applications development, applications hosting and computing hardware. Given the need to maintain patients medical confidentiality, healthcare firms need to conform to regulations set by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC).
Given time, the healthcare sector in Singapore has the potential to become a key IT spender, especially in software development, Mr. Sim says. 'The medical information structure is highly complex, given the wide range of medical practices and information needs that range from text-based to video sequences to complex image sequences.'
The financial services sector is another with potential for growth. This vertical will see hosted applications and SaaS spending grow 29% in 2007 over 2006. Smaller banks and financial houses are using technology to keep up with the competition. 'Information security continues to be a key concern when implementing new applications, more so over the Internet,' Mr. Sim says. 'Regulatory bodies defining security standards and conformity requirements have helped greatly in ensuring data security and at the same time pushing banking and financial houses to adapt to the required protocols.	

 	
 Top Stories	
 	
AIB Renews ABN Amro Trade Finance Outsourcing Deal
Allied Irish Bank said Oct. 1 it has extended its trade services outsourcing contract with ABN Amro for another five years to 2012. The renewal of the deal comes a year ahead of the expiration of the original five-year pact. The contract requires ABN Amro to provide comprehensive trade finance services to AIB's clients via TradeAccess, a private-labelled version of the Dutch bank's MaxTrad portal.
Commerzbank AG Signs Global IT Outsourcing Contract with HP
Under terms of the agreement, HP will deliver to Commerzbank a full range of IT services, from infrastructure services to complete desktop lifecycle management. By outsourcing its IT functions to HP, Commerzbank can increase its focus on core business processes, standardize IT services worldwide and help lower its costs.
UK Somerset councils sign £400M IT services deal with IBM.
Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council in the UK have signed a 10-year shared services outsourcing contract worth £400M with IBM. Under the contract, IBM will establish a joint venture company Southwest One, which will include employees from both the counties and IBM. Southwest One will offer services in areas ranging from computer system management to HR, procurement, customer services, and finance. It will also be responsible for managing the IT infrastructure of both the counties. Moreover, the JV comprises an agreement to offer similar services to over 30 other public sector organizations in the South West region.
Australian Taxation Office Extends Contract with IBM
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has awarded a two-year ICT outsourcing contract extension to EDS under which the latter will continue to manage ATO's computer mainframe and server environment as well as its data storage and communications network. Moreover, the company will continue to offer ATO with workplace and CRM services. 
Suncorp signs Satyam for analytics
SUNCORP has brought in Satyam Computer Services to build customer analytics software for the bank, increasing the number of Indian technology firms it uses. The bank has also worked with Infosys, which recently handled a major desktop migration project for it.
Goodyear Renews Procurement Outsourcing Contract With ICG Commerce
Goodyear engaged ICG Commerce in 2005 as part of the company's focus on driving cost reductions, one of the seven key drivers in their corporate strategy to build momentum and maintain profitable growth through improvements in company performance. 'Extending our contract with ICG Commerce attests to the success of the relationship to date,' said Ted Augustine, Goodyear's Director of Purchasing - North American Tire.
El Paso Electric Selects DYONYX as IT Outsource Provider
El Paso Electric (EPE) has chosen DYONYX to provide it with various ITO services, such as strategic IT oversight, managed services as well as helpdesk and network support. The company will also offer hosting and management services for EPE's mainframe and financial applications.	
 	
 Service Provider News	
 	
U.S. Education Department gives Perot Systems IT contract
Perot Systems has won a 10-year, $400M information technology outsourcing (ITO) contract from the US Department of Education (DoE) to provide various IT infrastructure services. Under the contract, Perot Systems Government Services will provide various IT services including desktop support; helpdesk support; email; network, communication, and multimedia; disaster recovery; printer services; and other cross-functional services to DoE's 5,200 end users in Washington, DC and across 10 regional offices in the US. Perot's teammates under the contract include Verizon and Accelerated Solutions.
EDS Corp Sees Revenue Of $630M Under Extended Sabre Pact
Sabre Holdings has renewed its IT services contract with EDS till 2014 under which the latter will continue to provide various IT services to support Sabre's business transformation activities such as migration to open systems. The contract is expected to provide EDS with revenues worth $63M.
Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems plans to shift 1600 jobs abroad.
According to a media report, T-Systems, the ICT division of Deutsche Telekom, is expected to relocate about 1,600 professional in Germany to other European destinations by end-2009. The workforce is expected to be relocated to destinations, such as Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
Unisys goes offshore to support Ciba
Unisys has won a deal to provide desktop, data centre, and applications support to 12,000 employees at Ciba Specialty Chemicals. The size of the deal was not disclosed, but it is global in scope and will see Unisys use its offshore delivery centres in Budapest and Bangalore to support Ciba's operations in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, including helpdesk services in nine different languages.
HCL Tech bags Hercules outsourcing deal
Hercules has awarded a multi-year global ITO contract to HCL Technologies for providing various IT infrastructure management services covering data centre, network, IT security, desktop, and helpdesk.
CGI obtains $110M contract from Océ
Montreal's CGI Group Inc. signed a $110M contract yesterday to supply a full range of computer services to Océ North America. The contract covers 10 years of services.	

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