Thailand's service industry operator, Minor Group has announced it is outsourcing its entire IT back-end systems and infrastructure to IBM, as it seeks to allow its own IT team the ability to concentrate on its front-end systems.
According to William Heinecke, chairman and chief executive, the 10-year contract will cover core applications, infrastructure, and the whole back-end systems of the Minor Group.
The move aims to prepare the Minor Group's IT infrastructure and management to support business expansion by enabling greater availability, flexibility and optimum efficiency. The company is planning to invest more than Bt10 billion over the next five years in acquisitions both inside and outside of Thailand. The expansion aims to ensure annual growth of 20 per cent. Quoted in The Nation, Heinecke said: "The outsourcing will allow us to enhance our IT systems and infrastructure much quicker and more cost-effectively than working on our own. It will also allow us to focus on our core business opportunities that will help us to achieve double-digit growth over the next five years."
The outsourcing covers all of its operational and support requirements, including datacenter and disaster-recovery service, network services, end-user support, application enhancement and maintenance service. It will provide greater flexibility and security for future applications. A transfer period of 12 to 14 months has been provided for moving the Minor Group's key IT systems to IBM's datacenter.