SME Bosses Discuss the Impact of IT and Globalisation at Computerworld Forum

Software-as-a-Service, information security and virtualisation remain the top three tech topics of the day.

Singapore (PRWEB) November 7, 2008 -- At Computerworld Singapore's final Forum of the year--entitled 'Grow Big the SME Way', and held on October 28 at the Marina Mandarin Hotel--the country's small and medium enterprise (SME) leaders met with technology leaders and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) to explore the growth opportunities from strategic IT use in today's increasingly competitive environment.

Among the concerns raised the most were rising business costs, the need for business growth to ensure survival, and the technologies or computing paradigms that could help them meet the demands on those fronts: software-as-a-service (SaaS), information security and virtualisation.

More than 75 business and IT heads from Singapore's leanest and most progressive enterprises attended the Forum, and met up with officials from ASME (Computerworld Singapore's official event partner at the Forum), as well as key representatives from sponsors EMC, Sophos, Kaspersky Labs, Sony's Storage Media, ParaDM, InfoSec Pacific and Astaro.

Head of Member Relations at ASME, Anne Tay was pleased with the turnout. "The event was very engaging and useful information was presented to the SMEs," she said. "We were also impressed with the creative idea for the lucky draw and we hope to be part of the Computerworld SME Forum again next year."

Keynote speaker Raju Chellam, Vice President, Asia/Pacific, Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, kicked off the proceedings of the day by giving delegates a broad perspective on the challenges facing SMEs on the global stage and in Singapore, and then honed in on the three key areas of operational costs that required their attention: manpower, sales and computing. All three areas have seen and will continue to see escalating costs in the foreseeable future, according to Chellam, but the costs of computing can be minimised substantially by leveraging SaaS.

Citing dropping hardware and infrastructure costs, Chellam pointed to software as the frontier that not just SMEs but also their larger counterparts and competitors should be breaching. Commercial SaaS offerings are now mature, stable, reliable and secure enough that companies today can safely use software as if it were a utility, such as electricity and connectivity, he concluded.

The presentation by main sponsor EMC South Asia's Senior Product Marketing Manager, Manish Bapat, was an examination of the information overload problem that enterprises of all sizes face today, and how they can harness the power of their information infrastructures to counter such a problem and turn their data into potent tools for growing their businesses.

HEAVY SECURITY MESSAGE:

Computerworld Singapore Editor Teng Fang Yih shared findings from research done by Fairfax Business Media Asia, Fairfax Business Research, PricewaterhouseCoopers, CIO Asia and MIS Asia, in the following areas: top enterprise IT business and technology priorities; the role of the enterprise IT leaders in Asia; and, the powerful proposition for both cost efficiency and strategic business growth. Teng said that the single most important take home point from his presentation is the fact that SMEs must act, and do so soon to ensure their own survival, if not long-term business success.

"It's important that SMEs recognise that they can no longer count on their size and relative obscurity to keep them safe and profitable, humming along quietly in one corner making a stable income," said Teng. "They have to know that rapid globalisation has brought their competitors from all across the world to their respective markets. And they have to learn to leverage the one, for the lack of a better word, 'equaliser'--information and communication technology--that will bring them up to parity with their global competitors, large or small. This is where they come to do that."

The rest of the event was focused primarily on information security issues, so Teng's message on the inefficacy of 'security by obscurity' resonated pretty much throughout the afternoon, as the two remaining speaking slots took a heavy infosecurity bent. Sophos Asia's Regional Manager for ASEAN, Andy Woo looked at how organisations should protect their continually expanding and increasingly open networks. And Kaspersky Labs Asia's Director of Channels, Southeast Asia, Gun Suk Ling, drove home the point that many organisations, and especially SMEs, typically fail to implement adequate infosecurity measures, usually end up paying for it, and should seriously be plugging whatever gaps in their infrastructures today.

For inquiries, please contact:

Teng Fang Yih - W: +65 6395 8028 - E: fyteng @ fairfaxbm.com

About Computerworld Singapore and Computerworld Malaysia:

Computerworld Singapore and Computerworld Malaysia magazines carry a stimulating mix of analytical reporting, in-depth discussions of current and emerging technology trends, enterprise IT, plus key technological developments and solutions that have an impact on regional IT professionals. Visit: www.mis-asia.com/magazines/computerworld_singapore

About Fairfax Business Media:

Fairfax Business Media Asia publishes MIS Asia, CIO Asia, Computerworld Singapore and Computerworld Malaysia magazines. It is part of Fairfax Media, Australasia's largest newspaper publisher with titles such as the Australian Financial Review, Business Review Weekly, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age, The Sun-Herald and The Canberra Times.

Online portal: www.mis-asia.com

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