Simon Royle discusses the software business in Thailand
By Jon Fernquest |
In Bangkok at the end of the month on payday, many people have trouble withdrawing money or transferring money to other bank accounts to pay bills.
Many ATM networks and banking systems have been pushed beyond their limits. Old technology can no longer handle peak loads.
Thailand also faces a shortage of programmers.
Today's Bangkok Post Database features an interview with Simon Royle of the Australian software company Hyro Thailand.
Simon Royle discusses the type of work his company does in Thailand. This should give students a good idea about where business and job opportunities will be in the future.
(Photo on right is of a Thai GPS system by Mobile Innovation Co. that helps drivers find their way and protects their car from theft.)
Here is the article in full:
Hyro sees shortage of coders on horizon
But Thailand provides the best balanceDON SAMBANDARAKSA
Wednesday August 06, 2008
Thailand faces a severe shortage of programmers in the medium term future, as legacy systems reach their limits and break under the load as a new generation of demanding users go online to use e-banking and e-commerce, according to a major IT outsourcing company, Hyro Consulting, that has invested in Thailand as one of its major development centres alongside Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Simon Royle, head of Asia for Hyro Consulting explained how Hyro Thailand started as a small web development company called Cyberworks Consulting in 1999, before being bought by Hyro Australia in 2003. It moved from generic web development to more focused development in the financial services industry and lately, to managed services, which is the fastest growing area in Thailand's ICT industry.
Digital media in Thailand today represents just one per cent of total advertising spent. On the one hand, this means that it is too small to support itself just yet. On the other hand, it means that there is a lot of work available for companies to put together campaigns involving the Web, TV, SMS and viral email, and tying them into the back end, payment systems and CRM (customer relationship management) systems, which is what Hyro does today.
However, the industry is set for a shake-up when ancient legacy systems reach their limits. Even today, at the end of the month on payday, ATM networks and banking systems are pushed beyond their limits and customers are often unable to withdraw money from other banks' machines. Royle says that the situation will be much worse when more of Thailand's mobile phone users go online and engage in e-banking.
Royle estimates that the number of capable programmers needed to re-write the legacy code base exceeds supply by a ratio of five to one.
In Thailand, Hyro's highest-profile customer is the Bank of Thailand. It is also one of the BoT's preferred vendors. Outside the financial sector, other clients include True, GMM, Osotsapha, Chevron and even IBM. Hyro is technology-neutral, working with IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. The development team in Hong Kong is focused around Java. The team here in Thailand is mainly .NET based. For a client in Tokyo it is currently supplying a major asset management company with a performance management solution running on SQL Server, accounting on Oracle and hardware from Sun, HP and IBM.
Royle noted that the computer market in Thailand is much more sophisticated than Shanghai, which is similar to Thailand 10 to 15 years ago. Systems integrators in Thailand are mostly small, with between five and 10 developers, or big players such as IBM and Fujitsu, with little in between.
Royle explained that unlike many outsourcers who take on a project and charge per transaction, Hyro is more traditional and supplies developers to go and work in the company.
One high profile client is IBM Global Business Services which took on the transformation of K-Bank's IT department. IBM GBS won the contract and then turned to Hyro for developers in key positions who now effectively work for K-Bank. He said that project in particular needed 40 or 50 developers and Hyro was one of the few companies who could provide the skills needed within the required time frame of eight to 12 weeks.
Another project was the back office system for Nissan Leasing Thailand. Nissan used to rely on GE Auto Leasing, which also supplied leasing services for its competitors. It was decided that since GE also supplied services to competitors Toyota and Honda, Nissan could create a competitive advantage by taking its leasing operations in-house.
In the past, applying for a lease took about a week. Now, Hyro's system can take in information, connect with the credit rating bureaus and provide a decision in less than two minutes. In practice, the scanning of paper and entering of data means that it can take up to 45 minutes, which is still a vast improvement than the competition.
That system in particular was a challenge as it was based on a system used by Nissan in Mexico, meaning it had to be localised from Spanish to Thai, a rather unique combination.
Right now, Thailand provides the best balance for Hyro but in the future, Royle says that he views Vietnam, as well as the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and even Burma as possible locations for investment.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Database section, 06-08-08, DON SAMBANDARAKSA, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
ATM networks - the networks between banks and their cash withdrawal machines (located in convenient places)
pushed beyond their limits - when a system or machine is given more work than it is designed to handle
peak load - the largest amount of work that a system must handle (for example, the evening of a hot day when everyone has their lights and air-conditioners turned on)
code - computer programs, software
coders - programmers, software developers (people who write the computer programs used for different tasks such as Photoshop, Word, games, etc)
on the horizon - in the near future
the medium term - a period of three to five years for investments (between short-term and long-term)
legacy systems - a company's older existing computer and software systems (that must be accommodated in building new systems)
e-banking, online banking - software systems that allow customers to do their banking conduct on the internet safely and securely (See Wikipedia)
e-commerce - the buying and selling of products and services over the Internet (See Wikipedia)
outsourcing -
generic, generic, generic versions - a version of a product without a special brand or trademark, usually much less expensive
focus - dealing only with one or a few things (and not a lot of other possible distracting things) (See glossary)
the financial services industry - the banking, insurance, and securities industries
managed services - a company that sells software services to other companies via the internet (See Wikipedia)
the ICT industry - the "Information Communication Technology" industry, includes all digital devices and services from computers to networks and servers to mobile phones (See Wikipedia)
viral email - a kind of email which rapidly moves from person to person, like "word-of-mouth" advertising (See Wikipedia)
the back end - in software the front-end is the part of a software system that interacts directly with the user, and the back-end processes and stores data and information entered via the front end, includes servers and databases
CRM (customer relationship management) systems - a computer system for improving a company's relations with its customers, "processes implemented by a company to handle their contact with their customers. CRM software is used to support these processes, storing information on customers and prospective customers. Information in the system can be accessed and entered by employees in different departments, such as sales, marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance management, human resource development, and compensation. Details on any customer contacts can also be stored in the system. The rationale behind this approach is to improve services provided directly to customers and to use the information in the system for targeted marketing and sales purposes" (See Wikipedia)
payday - the day when employees are paid by their company, for work done last month
capable programmers - programmers that have the skill and experience to do the work successfully
preferred vendors - the small set of companies selling goods and services that the BOT turns to first
technology-neutral - willing to use any technology, does not specialise in or use one technology exclusively
IBM - a major US software consulting firm, and in the past hardware company (See Wikipedia)
Microsoft - the most famous software company in the world (See Wikipedia)
Oracle - a major US database company(See Wikipedia)
an Application Programming Interface (API) - ther set of functions that a programming language or operating system provides to support requests made by computer programs (See Wikipedia)
Java - a popular computer programming language with a very large and useful API (See Wikipedia)
.NET - the API that supports the Microsoft XP operating system (See Wikipedia)
SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server - a relational database management system (RDBMS) (See Wikipedia)
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) - the most popular software technology for storing data (See Wikipedia)
Sun - a major US computer manufacturer and orginator of the Java programming language (See Wikipedia)
HP (Hewlett-Packard) - a major US computer and electronics equipment manufacturer (See Wikipedia)
a systems integrator - an company that builds complete computer systems by combining components from different vendors, customized for a particular customer's needs
a vendor - one of the companies that sells a good or service that your company needs
a time frame - the length of time during which an event happens or develops (See glossary)
in-house - done withint the company (instead of hiring outside company to do it) (See glossary)
taking its leasing operations in-house - start doing the "leasing operations" within the company (done outside by another company in the past)
credit rating bureaus - companies that provide information about how well people have paid back money they owed in the past (this indicates how risky they are to loan money to)
localise software - adapting computer software to different languages and regional differences, translating the language in the software to another language (See Wikipedia)
localised from Spanish to Thai - translating the language presented by the software from Spanish to Thai
