Singapore has emerged strongly as a key services and outsourcing (SSO) hub, with the local SSO market standing at US$1.53 billion in 2007. This represented a 9.14 per cent growth from US$1.40 billion in 2006, according to a 2007 Global Sourcing Study by Frost & Sullivan. Singapore was also ranked as the fourth most favourable location across seven industry verticals including the technology sector.

Ms Tham: IDA will focus its efforts on attracting high value-added activities to capture an even greater slice of the  global SSO market.

The demand for global SSO is expected to reach US$1.43 trillion by 2009, and Singapore is well-positioned to tap into the burgeoning opportunity with its robust infocomm infrastructure, excellent connectivity, political stability, strong intellectual property protection and a pro-business environment, said Ms Tham Ai Chyn, Assistant Chief Executive of Industry & Cluster Development at Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. Ms Tham was speaking at Frost & Sullivan's 2008 Global Shared Services and Offshoring Summit.

She said IDA will focus its efforts on attracting high-value-added activities such as financial services, supply chain management, development centres and centres of competency to capture an even greater slice of the global SSO market. It will work together with the Economic Development Board of Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Workforce Development Agency, International Enterprise Singapore and Ministry of Manpower to put together plans, programmes and initiatives to promote and develop the SSO sector.

As the SSO industry is a big buyer of IT-enabled services, 10 Singapore companies also showcased their offerings at the Summit, which was attended by more than 200 delegates from Asia including Malaysia, China, India, Philippines and Indonesia. These companies were Emerio ( http://www.emeriocorp.com/ ), ST Electronics ( e-Services ), Chio Lim Stone Forest ( http://www.rsmchiolim.com.sg/ ), Melioris ( http://www.melioris.biz/ ), TransFingo ( http://www.transfingo.com/ ), StarVision ( http://www.starvisionit.com/ ), Asiasoft Global ( http://www.asiasoft.net ), Zapper Services ( web.singnet.com.sg/~zapper/ ), NCS ( http://www.ncs.com.sg/ ) and Scientific Digital Business (www.sdbgroup.com). On the second day of the Summit, delegates were given a pre-organised site tour at either the MINDEF Shared Services Centre (managed by ST Electronics) or Trusted Hub Limited's processing centre.

Founded in 2001, Melioris, a business process outsourcing company specialising in finance solutions such as receivables, payables and communication platform for the finance industry, now counts as its customers Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific, Sony-Ericsson, DHL and Carrier.

"We are strong in our domain knowledge and the Web-based IT enabler we provide helps our clients with control, governance and visibility, all of which are critical for multinational companies," said Mr Mak Chee Wah, Chief Executive Officer of Melioris. "Being a Singapore company also helps as Singapore is a financial hub, a trusted brand known for its integrity. Singapore is the right place and right forum to draw people together."

Mr Chelladurai Devarajalu, Assistant Vice President of delivery at Emerio agreed. With Singapore as a trusted regional hub, it is easy to attract foreign talent here to provide high-end consulting solutions, which can then be marketed to the less mature markets, he said.

Mr Eddy Tan, General Manager, Business Process Outsourcing at NCS said the trusted hub concept promoted by IDA gives customers a strong and reliable image of a top-notch infocomm provider. "While we may not be able to compete directly with India and China in labour costs, we are able to leverage on the Singapore brand. Our pool of experienced process consultants focus on high-end business process outsourcing tasks such as design, transformation, re-engineering and business processes while the day-to-day operational delivery can be farmed out to our delivery centres in China to take advantage of the cost difference," he said.

Operating from Singapore gives regional customers confidence that "we have the expertise to implement their solutions," as IT adoption here is more advanced, said Ms Nicole Quah, Marketing and Communications, Scientific Digital Business.