Datapro to focus on outsourcing

Bangkok-based systems integration company Datapro Computer Systems (DCS), which has been a part of Thailand's information technology industry for 23 years, has diversified its business and will focus on providing IT-outsourcing services.

The company says the past two decades have seen a continuous transformation in which it changed from providing systems integration services and solution customisation to offering total IT-solution services and finally to providing software services under a new model.

Managing director Viwat Phongsathorn said IT-outsourcing services generated one-third of the company's total revenue of more than Bt1.5 billion last year, with growth of 23 per cent.

"Our goal is to pursue growth in IT-outsourcing services so that this contributes most of the company's profits, and we will be able to grow continuously and sustainably in the long term," he said.

The company's IT-outsourcing services include hosting, co-location, service desk support, disaster recovery, professional services and software-as-a-service.

Viwat said global analysis firm International Data Corporation (IDC) had forecast that Thailand's total IT-service market this year would be worth about Bt30 billion, of which about 27 per cent represented the IT-outsourcing-service market. He said DCS was expected to grow at the same rate as the industry.

DCS has more than 10 years' experience in providing IT-outsourcing services, having served 20 large-sized companies of its parent, the Premier Group. The company has now expanded its services and expertise to outside customers.

 Currently, its IT-outsourcing service customers include about 20 medium- to large-sized companies in several industries, including finance, banking, insurance and telecommunication.

It has attracted its present customers by - among other things - achieving the international ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 standard for IT service management in 2008. This standard applies to the company's three main service areas - disaster recovery, data centre and hosting service, and service help support.

Its two data centres, one a 90-square-metre facility and the second covering 300 square metres, have been certified as achieving ISO/IEC 20000:2005 (ITS) standard.  

"This standard is to guarantee DCS's IT-outsourcing services and to generate customer confidence. We want them to feel confident that a Thai company can provide IT-outsourcing services up to the same standard as international players," Viwat said.

DCS plans to set up a third data centre in its 300-square-metre facility later this year, to increase its data-centre capacity.

The company will also provide IT-outsourcing services according to a new model, through the concept of software-as-a-service (SaaS), to allow its customers to enjoy lower IT costs.

"Customers in Thailand are showing more and more acceptance of IT-outsourcing services because their experience tells them that these services help them to achieve a better return on investment and total cost of ownership. There are huge opportunities in Thailand's IT-outsourcing market, especially for local service providers," Viwat said. 

DCS has seven business divisions, of which IT service is one. The other six divisions are enterprise system infrastructure, enterprise business applications, enterprise business intelligence, enterprise documentary management, digital content innovation and professional multimedia solutions.