Kuala Lumpur, November 14, 2005 – IDC Malaysia publishes its latest study analyzing the IT services competitive landscape by profiling three local service providers – Dataprep Holdings, Kompakar Inc and Symphony House, that yielded the highest growth rates in terms of IT services revenue in Malaysia from 2003 to 2005. In this study, IDC analyzes their service offerings, financial highlights, strategic positioning, strengths, and weaknesses in the IT services market. The purpose of this study is to help services players, their customers, and their alliances/partners differentiate the capabilities of firms that provide a wide array of offerings locally. This study looks at the various capabilities of these firms in addition to their key growth strategies and future directions.

Today, the services industry is facing a myriad of challenges and an exceptionally tough competitive environment. Service vendors are increasingly encountering new entrants from the hardware and software sides of the IT industry and from lower-cost offshore service firms, especially with respect to project-oriented engagements. As a result, it has become more important than ever for service vendors to reassess their current businesses or operating models and strategies. "The services competitive landscape is growing fiercer. Service providers are not only competing for often squeezed-down IT budgets but also with enterprises' apprehensions about not getting enough value for their IT investments. The biggest threat to each service provider is the inability to transform itself as fast as the market in which it plays. Stagnation is service providers' worst enemy. Their own rapid and focused transformation will translate to the success of its clients," says Katherine Chan, research analyst, IT Services Research, IDC Malaysia.

In this study, IDC analyzes and highlights the fact that these three local players have adopted common strategies such as growing application services, developing intellectual property, developing strengths in outsourcing services, expanding through merger and acquisition, forming strong alliances and partnerships, and also venturing into overseas markets.

"Companies are investing heavily on business-enabling solutions that require near-100% uptime. To cater to high availability, companies are being forced to invest quite heavily on infrastructures and infrastructure-enabling technologies. At the same time, there are growing needs among the enterprises to automate their business operations and relevant processes to improve their operational efficiency. This opens a great opportunity for IT service providers that are capable of implementing selected applications and managing transition periods," says Ms Chan. "Moving forward and as the three companies' new organizational structures mature, IDC expects more intense competition among the said players and other tier 1 local players such as HeiTech Padu Berhad, Mesiniaga Bhd, Formis (Malaysia) Berhad, and Patimas Computers Berhad."

For more information about this research, kindly contact Hazmi Yusof at 603-2169-7522 or hyusof@idc.com, or Stephen Chong at 603-2169-7521 or ckchong@idc.com

Contact

Chee-Kian Chong
Events & Marketing Executive
Tel: +603-2169-7521
Fax: +603-2163-5098
Email:ckchong@idc.com