Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has announced the launch of an industry partnership programme to accelerate the development of business and consumer cloud applications. Through the SingTel Innovation Exchange (SiX), the company aims to attract local and global developers, as well as commercialise their applications and promote them to more than 249 million mobile customers and millions of business customers in the region.
The initiative, which is supported by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore), is aimed at establishing Singapore as a regional cloud computing hub.
The industry partnership programme will help accelerate the development of business and consumer cloud applications. |
Cloud computing provides business services on demand, such as hosted email, web publishing and HR applications. Customers enjoy these services in a secure online environment on a subscription basis, without the need to install software and purchase licences for their employees. They avoid high upfront investments in infrastructure and ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs.
To help companies enjoy the benefits of cloud computing services, SingTel has introduced an integrated online platform called SingTel Marketplace (mybusiness.singtel.com) for the delivery of business applications and services on a monthly subscription basis.
SiX will give cloud computing a further boost by providing software developers with access to resources like grid computing and technical consultancy from SingTel and its partners, which help to lower operational costs and shorten time-to-market.
IDA is supporting SiX through its infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Programme (iLIUP), under which it will help get independent software vendors and other developers onboard the platform to develop their capabilities, while IE Singapore will lend support to help developers internationalise by tapping on its overseas offices on top of SingTel's own business network.
“Increasing access to technology and markets to help our Singapore infocomm players gain new competitiveness and market reach is a cornerstone of IDA’s industry development efforts,” said Mr Andrew Khaw, Senior Director and Group Head, Industry Development of IDA.
“We actively engage infocomm MNCs (multinational corporations) and large local infocomm companies to groom smaller infocomm companies with their expertise and market network. In this respect, we are glad that SingTel has taken our collaboration to the next level, advancing from its Partners Programme to this larger scale Innovation Exchange. We hope SingTel’s latest initiative will serve to encourage other companies to join in the cause,” he added.
Under SiX, developers of consumer mobile applications can offer their solutions via the upcoming SingTel App Zone – an online platform for prepaid and postpaid mobile customers. App Zone currently offers over 1,300 applications for a wide range of devices including Android-enabled handsets. Solutions include educational, multimedia, communications and lifestyle applications.