How is infocomm technology (IT) helping small and medium-sized enterprises compete with bigger rivals? How has your company benefited from incentives offered by the Infocomm Development Authority to help SMEs embrace IT?

Wong Chi Kong
Chief Operations Officer
Scrawl Studios

WHILE it is good to see such incentives in place, I think one of the fundamental infrastructure/schemes is sorely lacking - affordable and reliable Internet connections for SMEs.

One thing I fail to understand is: why should companies pay (a lot) more to have slower connections than home users? After all, the efficiency of a company is (in this modern day and time) VERY reliant on how fast and reliable are the Internet connection speeds we are getting in office.

What is the point of giving home users super high speeds when most of the time people are out at work in the day? All that bandwidth is gone to waste when it could have been channelled to better use in companies.

In some countries I know of, companies pay a much more affordable rate for a more reliable connection compared to the home users. Should this be something the IDA be looking into?

I think what's worse is that many SMEs are located in rather dated buildings (due to cheaper rents) which do not have the infrastructure to support connections of high bandwidth. This is a sad fact which goes unnoticed.

Internet connection is a monthly overhead, and it is definitely something which companies really need in this day and age. ISPs are also very rigid about their plans. I remember calling up my ISP to ask if I could re-contract my $300 per month plan (for only a two MBps plan), due to falling subscription rates, and it was a flat out NO. In the case of some SMEs, $300 per month is almost half of their rent!

Cheryl Tong
Managing Director (PowerPRO UPS)
Pursuit

INFOCOMM technology levels the playing field between bigger companies and SMEs in the online marketing and branding space. Initiatives like search engine optimisation and online digital marketing are cost effective strategies that SMEs can exploit in order to close the gap with their bigger rivals.

IT also helps SMEs globalise their reach with the help of the Internet - a task which would otherwise cost millions in establishing a physical presence in overseas markets. With the help of a fully functioning website and online business model, SMEs can target potential overseas customers. The fiscal economies and ROI are unmatched compared to physical marketing initiatives. Since the monetary investments are much lower, SMEs can undertake such measures to compete with larger global players.

The Infocomm Development Authority is doing a commendable job in providing SMEs with assistance and incentives to increasingly adopt IT to expand and grow their businesses. But they should also create greater awareness of such incentives so that more SMEs can benefit from them. For instance, we learnt about the subsidies in setting up a website for the first time only after we had already set up ours.

Patrick Liew
CEO
HSR Property Group

AS the first and only real estate agency to be the merit winner of National Infocomm Award 2008 from the IDA, we have been given the opportunity to be exposed to world-class technologies and to benchmark our use of and benefit from IT. We are more convinced than ever that IT will either make or break our business. As a result, we continued to develop our proprietary HSR Smart Plus, the first online enterprise resource planning system for a 8,500-strong multi-tier organisation. Through the system, we are able to enhance our competitive edge because it provides relevant and timely information, improves interpersonal and corporate communication, increases productivity, and enhances our financial as well as non-financial results on a more scalable and sustainable basis. Especially during the current challenge with H1N1, we are comforted by the fact that through HSR Smart Plus, our agents can access office support online 24/7. We can also deploy key staff and operate major operations from the home.

After a decade or so of concerted entrepreneurship promotion, do you think Singapore is better off in terms of the level of entrepreneurial activities here? What else is/are needed to encourage more people to opt for the entrepreneur's path?

This article was first published in The Business Times.