Business

Saturday May 2, 2009

Software AG to grow workforce for KL hub

By YEOW POOI LING


IN less than two years in Malaysia, business infrastructure software specialist Software AG is expanding its Asia-Pacific regional customer centre in Kuala Lumpur.

“We started with seven staff members and now, we have about 25. We plan to expand it to 35 in the next seven months,” says senior vice-president of Asia Paul Henaghan.

The other two support centres are in the United States and Germany, where the group is headquartered.

Regionally, it has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan and Australia with a total staff force of 400 servicing 570 customers.

Henaghan says Malaysia is a suitable base to service its Asian customers as employees are keen to learn and develop new skills, while having a high level of language proficiencies in Malay, English, Chinese and even Japanese.

“Japan is the largest market for us in Asia with over 200 customers, hence the ability to speak Japanese is important,” he told StarBizWeek in a recent interview.

Its four key markets in Asia are Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. “These markets are mature and our customers there understood and valued our business,” he adds.

The financial sector in Indonesia, in particular, is moving up the value chain and demands new technology, strong processes and automated solutions.

China and India, meanwhile, are high growth markets where Software AG intends to have a significant market share, Henaghan says.

Its clientele include Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd, Bossini, Ping Ann Insurance, Institute of Technical Education Singapore, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motors Co Ltd, and STATS ChipPAC.

In Malaysia, its customers include Maxis Communications Bhd, Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and Perodua. A number of MNCs have centralised their IT infrastructure in Malaysia such as DHL.

Software AG’s research and development teams are based in the United States, Germany, India, Israel and Bulgaria. Its business infrastructure software offers data management, developing and modernising applications, enabling service-oriented architecture and improving business processes.

For the current financial year, Software AG expects to achieve 4% to 8% growth in revenue on the back of double-digit growth expected from the maintenance operations, which is recurring and comprise 60% of sales.

“Our target is to achieve 1 billion euros in sales by 2011. Malaysia will be part of that growth,” Henaghan says.

In the present crisis, the group’s services are able to help clients to leverage on their existing infrastructure, without adding additional cost, to develop new business capabilities.

He says there are certain sectors seen as “sweet spots” to the group such as telecommunications and financial services.

Besides corporate clients, Software AG also services various government agencies in Asia including Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, South Korea and the Philippines.

Its biggest competitors in the segment are IBM and Oracle but Henaghan believes Software AG differentiates itself by being an independent provider.

“There will always be those that do not want to work with a single vendor, like Disney, Apple, Maxis and Maybank. We’re a vendor that is neutral to any other technologies,” he says.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story