By Amit Roy Choudhury

Confirming the fact that Singapore-based companies place a great deal of emphasis on strong IT governance, a just concluded survey shows that IT services management is the top concern of managers here.

The survey, part of a larger Asia-Pacific except Japan (APEJ) study done by IT research agency IDC, looks at the importance of 10 key solution areas touted by IT services vendors globally.

Around 1,100 top IT decision makers in the region were polled. Speaking to BizIT, IDC's Eugene Wee noted that 60.4 per cent of Singaporean respondents listed that network infrastructure solutions were either 'important' or 'very important' issues for them.

'However, the No 1 solution which Singaporeans were looking for was IT services management - 65.8 per cent of respondents indicated that they were either 'important' or 'very important',' said Mr Wee, who's IDC Asia Pacific research manager for IT services.

He added: 'The interest in a process-focused framework doesn't come as a surprise as the Singapore market is known for its strong IT governance.'

In the APEJ region as a whole, network infrastructure solutions were regarded as being most important, with more than 70 per cent of respondents in markets such as Australia, China and India indicating that solutions pertaining to the network were either important or very important, Mr Wee added.

Business continuity and disaster recovery came a close second among survey respondents in APEJ. In Singapore, network consulting and integration services as well as network management accounted for more than 16 per cent of total IT services spending in Singapore over 2007.

'Around US$309.4 million was spent on the abovementioned third-party services, and this is expected to grow at a rate of 11.1 per cent this year to US$343.8 million,' Mr Wee added.

The five-year CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is expected to be 7.8 per cent till 2012.

In the APEJ region, IDC estimates that total spending on network services, which include network consulting and integration services (NCIS) and network management (NM), will grow from US$4.7 billion last year to US$9.1 billion in 2012 - a compound annual growth rate of 13.7 per cent from 2007-2012.

'This bodes well for companies such as IBM, HP (Hewlett-Packard), and Dimension Data (including Datacraft), ranked by IDC as the top players (in terms of revenue) in APEJ for calendar year 2007,' Mr Wee said.

Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR), which includes a variety of activities aimed at protecting and safeguarding critical corporate information against unpredictable events, is another key area of importance to IT decision makers in APEJ.

According to the survey, end-users have stated that overall security concerns (51.9 per cent of responses) and past experience with security threats (44 per cent of responses) are the two key issues which have prompted increased focus on BCDR.

Mr Wee pointed out that in Singapore, only 55.9 per cent of respondents indicated that BCDR was either 'important' or 'very important'.

'Australia had 71.2 per cent, India had 68.8 per cent and China 68.9 per cent of respondents finding it either 'important' or 'very important',' Mr Wee noted.

He added that this could well be a reflection of how secure these IT decision makers feel about the markets (and its infrastructure) they are operating in.

'As the government in Singapore is trying to build up the island as a good BCDR centre, it may appear quite ironic that foreigners invest more in it than locals.

'But it is perhaps a reflection that Singaporeans, unaccustomed to unplanned outages or disaster scenarios, will continue not to worry about BCDR,' Mr Wee added.

Currently, most of the needs assessments and process improvement around BCDR occurs as an afterthought to threats arising, Mr Wee noted.

The analyst added that end-user organisations need to be aware of the potential losses which could occur when the problems arise.

It would, therefore, be in the interest of organisations to look at the root of the problem, which more often than not is the lack of governance and the absence of business continuity planning, he noted.

'This is very much akin to employing traditional Chinese medicine, which looks at the root causes of a problem and directly addresses them, rather than wait for symptoms to arise before repairing the damage.'

Making a general comment about the difference in perception among IT decision makers in the various countries across the region, Mr Wee noted: 'When you're talking about day-to-day operational concerns, I would agree that they would differ because of the infrastructure of the countries.'

He added, however, that when making strategic decisions about the infrastructure within an organisation, the differences will narrow.

'There is no doubt that lower costs, higher return on investments and high security will be paramount for IT decision makers in Singapore, India and China.'

While concerns around and subsequent investments in IT services management and business analytics are already on the horizon, companies need to look at Green IT, the analyst said.

'Rising fuel and electricity costs will undoubtedly be the primary driver for going green, but as we become more environmentally conscious, and as regulations around carbon emissions appear on the horizon, green solutions will not only be a selling point, but a requirement,' Mr Wee added.

This article was first published in The Business Times on 10 July 2008.