More and more companies are drawn to Singapore by the stable economy, robust ICT infrastructure and strategic location in Asia. iN.SG looks at some of the organisations that have opted to locate their operations in Singapore over the past year.

Drawn by Singapore's stable business environment, infrastructure and location, Research in Motion opted to set up its Asia Pacific Customer Support Operations (CSO) Centre at the International Business Park in Singapore

Research In Motion
Research In Motion (RIM), manufacturer of the popular BlackBerry, established its Asia Pacific Customer Support Operations (CSO) Centre in Singapore in October 2006. The new Singapore centre will support RIM's global geographic expansion and offer carriers, partners and BlackBerry customers 24x7 technical support services. According to Mr Gregory Wade, Director of Asia Pacific at RIM, the CSO Centre also provides RIM's carrier partners and end-users with regional and global access to world-class support focused on the technical elements of both the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry service infrastructure for improved levels of customer satisfaction.

RIM chose Singapore because of its excellent communications infrastructure, stable regulatory framework, strong talent pool, strategic geographic location and pro-business environment. The Singapore CSO Centre will work closely with RIM's CSO Centres in North America and Europe. Mr Wade added that Singapore's CSO was the first RIM Centre in Asia Pacific and this demonstrate RIM's commitment in Singapore and the Asia Pacific region.

Mr Wade also revealed that RIM plans to create up to 200 full-time customer support positions over a two-year period. They will also be recruiting technical analysts, technical account management, operator account management, and possibly service planning positions. New hires will be trained in either Singapore or Canada.

Lenovo
According to Mr David Miller – President Asia Pacific/Japan, Lenovo (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Senior Vice President, Lenovo Group – Singapore has served as the company's Asia Pacific headquarters since its opening in May 2005. It also serves as the worldwide headquarters for Lenovo's treasury function. "Lenovo's worldwide leadership for our Centre of Excellent, Supply Chain and Services are also based in Singapore," Mr Miller added. Having these functions based in Singapore serves the company well in terms of efficiency and access to key markets.

Mr Miller explained that Singapore offers many positive propositions for companies looking to base their regional or even global operations here. "The geographic advantages are often cited, but beyond these are compelling factors such as economic and political stability. Singapore recently topped an annual World Bank ranking of business-friendly countries, which takes into account among other factors the time and cost involved in meeting regulatory requirements for starting a business," he explained. Mr Miller added that advanced infrastructure and initiatives like Wireless@SG helped keep Singapore ahead of many other nations for businesses like Lenovo when choosing their base of operations.

Sybase
In March 2007, Sybase opened its Wireless Development Centre in Singapore. Designed as a R&D hub for Sybase's mobile and wireless software solutions, the new Wireless Development Centre will focus on developing new technologies in the areas of RFID, embedded software, and mobile middleware for the enterprise.

This is the third centre for Sybase in Singapore. The first is the Asia Development Centre established in 1998. The second is the Wireless Solutions Centre established in 2005.

Motorola has based its Global Supply Chain Control Tower (SCCT) in Singapore to manage Motorola's full value chain of activities in supply chain management

Motorola
Motorola announced in June 2006 that its Global Supply Chain Control Tower (SCCT) would be based in Singapore. It will manage Motorola's full value chain of activities in supply chain management across all businesses from mobile devices to networks, enterprise and connected home solutions.

Dr Simon Leong, Regional President for Asia Pacific at Motorola says that Singapore was chosen due to its stability, world-class business and infocomm infrastructure and strong talent pool. In December 2005, the company set up their latest Customer Solutions Centre for High Growth Markets. The centre is responsible for the localisation of mobile phones and related services for the company's operator customers in the region. Asia was also chosen due to its importance to Motorola as an operations hub and a growth zone.

Motorola is expected to invest about US$60 million over two years to establish the full operational capabilities of the Global SCCT. The company will also employ about 200 professionals in Singapore by end-2007.

Cisco
According to Mr Craig Gledhill, Cisco's managing director for Singapore and Brunei, the company's 500 employees here in Cisco's Asia Pacific headquarter serve in several divisions ranging from Singapore sales and marketing, regional human resources, finance, product management, technical operations and services. In February 2007, Cisco established a state-of-the-art Customer Briefing Centre in Singapore to showcase the latest innovations in Internet Protocol networking technology.

Mr Craig Gledhill, Cisco's managing director for Singapore and Brunei, is very impressed by the government's proactive use of technology as a key competitive edge for Singapore

Mr Gledhill said that Cisco sees Singapore as a very strategic location not just for Asia Pacific but globally. Cisco has also been very impressed by the government's proactive use of technology to gain competitive edge for the entire country. He added, "The people are incredibly talented and with more and more Singaporeans gaining experience overseas and a unique global-view, that will stand the country in good stead. If the Singapore government decides to provide every home and office with 1 Gbps connection, Singapore will be a formidable competitor to any other country."

Oracle
Oracle teamed up with the Singapore Management University to offer the first Asia Pacific certification programme for Enterprise Grid Architects. This programme certifies IT professionals in the design, build and management of sophisticated enterprise grid infrastructure. According to Mr Frank Koo, Managing Director of Oracle Singapore, "Collaborating with the academic and commercial R&D sectors allows technology vendors like us to develop new, exciting and often disruptive ideas. At Oracle we see such collaboration not only as mutually beneficial, but also as crucial to the future development of new and better technologies."

According to Mr Koo, Singapore is recognised as a leader in IT infrastructure standardisation and consolidation. Moreover, Singapore has a stable and sustainable economy, strong IT infrastructure, and a pro-business environment. "All of which enhances its competitiveness and was the logical choice for us to set up our Enterprise-g Centre," he said.

Qimonda
Qimonda was formed in May 2006, the company formed out of Infineon Technologies AG has its Asia Pacific headquarter and regional IT enterprise development centre based in Singapore. Qimonda also recently announced its new Global Distribution Centre in Singapore in February 2007. This Global Distribution Centre aims to streamline its supply chain management processes, and shorten delivery time to its worldwide customers.

Qimonda Asia Pacific's Regional President and Managing Director, Dr Daniel Wong, says that Qimonda's decision to base its regional headquarters in Singapore was due to the pro-business environment, political and security stability, and advanced logistics and IT infrastructures. In addition, the support and assistance rendered to Qimonda by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and other government bodies were also key deciding factors for the company.