Mr Moonshi Mohsenruddin: We are working towards having an application store, a repository for our customers to subscribe to.

CommGate is riding the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) and cloud computing wave to launch a hybrid managed service targeted at small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
in Singapore.

“Cloud computing is here to stay,” said Mr Moonshi Mohsenruddin, Chief Executive Officer, CommGate. “With Next Gen NBN, bandwidth is now very affordable, and a lot of services can be pushed to the data centres.”

Called SimplyIT, CommGate’s offering comprises a traditional onsite server for file sharing, storage, and database as well as Internet gateway and security, but includes hosted business e-mail, remote backup, as well as security updates and network monitoring reports.

According to Mr Mohsenruddin, such a comprehensive package makes it ideal for companies with no or minimal IT personnel. “Our vision when we started the company in 2005 was to serve the SME market with companies fewer than 100 employees with critical IT applications,” he said. “Most of our clients ask us to manage their systems, and this is one effective way we can host on their behalf by offloading functions in a data centre and for us to maintain a high service level agreement.”

While managed services are still the mainstay of the company, its cloud offerings are poised to play a greater role in the future. “I expect cloud services to grow to 70 per cent of our business,” said Mr Mohsenruddin.

“We are working towards having an application store, a repository for our customers to subscribe to,” he explained. “Beyond hosted enterprise e-mail with calendaring, collaboration and Push Mail ability, we expect to offer various accounting and human resource applications in the near future, and we are working with partners like MYOB, Salesforce.com and Google as well to have their applications as part of our offerings.”

CommGate also expects to expand beyond Singapore and into the region. “We have a representative office in Malaysia, an office in India, and we are opening up an office in Thailand as well,” said Mr Mohsenruddin. “Within the next six months, we plan to get as many clients as possible on SimplyIT, and then replicate it in Asia Pacific.”

Beyond the business imperative, Mr Mohsenruddin also wants to ensure that CommGate incorporates the dimension of social responsibility in its operations. As part of this, it is working with Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1), a non-profit organisation providing support to poor people across the world.

“We are in a position to give to support people who are less privileged,” he said. “We chose B1G1 because they are registered and audited in Singapore and there is a lot of transparency, and we donate 1 per cent of the monthly subscriptions we get from our SimplyIT offering, allowing our clients to be part of our giving initiatives.”

“It’s about giving back to society around the world,” Mr Mohsenruddin added. “Currently, it is an informal agreement within the company, but we want to put some structure to it and develop a corporate social responsibility programme.”