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Published on July 1, 2007

The plan is to enable the company to maintain growth in the midst of a slowing economy.

Suphajee Suthampun, general manager of IBM Thailand, said these three areas were emerging markets for the company. They are growth areas even though the revenue portion of these new market segments represents only around 30 to 40 per cent, while around 60 to 70 per cent of revenue comes from the exiting market base.

The focus of this year's business is on consumer-driven and business-model innovation in industries such as retailing, media and entertainment, telecommunications and retail banking.

In media and entertainment, Suphajee said the company's strategy is to provide business-model innovation, designed to help targeted customers lift their efficiency.

"For example, we sold a business-intelligence package to RS Promotion to help it to manage information more effectively. Technology and service will help RS executives get faster access to information that helps them analyse and have increased ability to make strategic decisions," said Suphajee.

In the healthcare sector, it plans to introduce healthcare products to help the Thai healthcare industry improve its competitiveness in the medical tourism business. Its strategy is to provide patient-centric care.

"Patient-centric care is a concept to allow patients to access their own information across all parts of the healthcare supply chain including hospitals and insurance companies. The concept is designed to provide the most benefit and convenience to patients," said Suphajee.

For the retail market segment, radio frequency identification is IBM's flagship. It will bring the concept of the future store to Thailand to help the retail industry create a shopper-driven experience.

IBM has five business groups - Global Technology Service with  the highest growth, Global Business Service with the second highest growth, System Technology Group, Software Group and IBM Global Financial.

"To provide consumer-driven along with business-model innovation, IBM draws on its five business groups to enhance efficiency for customers. This is why we can still grow in the midst of a slowing economy as we know our customer's requirements and we offer them what they want and need," said Suphajee.

Asina Pornwasin

 

The Nation