SingTel consultancy arm plans to expand in Cebu

SingTel Group’s ICT services and consultancy arm, NCS Pte. Ltd is eyeing Cebu as the next site for its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and research and development (R&D) center.

In an interview with NCS general manager Lim Boon Guan, he said that Cebu will be the next target for site expansion of the company, noting Cebu’s ample supply of highly skilled ICT human resource, as well as in place infrastructure for IT company investments.

"I will be setting my first trip to Cebu to personally see the potential for the province for our expansion plan. We would also like to understand more of Cebu’s ICT industry, what kind strength the province has, so that will know the kind of operation we have to set up in Cebu," Lim Boon said in an interview.

NCS Pte Ltd, is a leading regional IT and communications engineering company in Singapore and a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel.

The company provides one-stop, end-to-end suite, if IT and communications engineering solutions to meet customers’ business and technology needs.

He added that Malaysia and China BPO facilities have a total of 200 seats. The company has huge requirement for backroom operations, he said, and that if the Cebu expansion will be pushed through, NCS still have to find out how many seats in BPO operations that will be established, depends on the supply of human resources, and building facility.

NCS has a satellite office in Metro Manila for two years, for marketing purposes. However, if the company were to decide in setting up facility here, it could be a software development, or BPO operation for human resource, of financial operation, as we as hardware and technical development.

The company offers consulting services in business continuity, e-Government, strategic organization, IT service management and IT applications and infrastructure.

NCS’ business solutions include business process re-engineering, application design, development, implementation and maintenance, ERP implementation and maintenance, and systems integration.

NCS is a leading vendor-independent IT and communications engineering solutions provider with some 4,000 staff in Asia Pacific & Middle East. It was established in early 1980s as the principal IT solutions provider to the Singapore government.

Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel – Asia Pacific leading Telco company, its portfolio of customers includes international blue-chip market leaders such as Citibank, Schenker Logistics and Honda ICVS, as well as governments in Hong Kong, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Middle East. NCS has the largest pool of Certified IT Project Managers (CITPM) in the region and is ranked second in Professional Services in Singapore (2003) by Gartner Dataquest.

Lim Boon attended the Cebu Business Month (CBM 2007) roadshow, held recently in Singapore.