Ernst & Young, a global leader in professional services, recently picked Singapore as its regional hub to host shared IT services for the rest of Asia and Oceania.

As one of only three worldwide IT hubs for the company, Singapore will serve as its central technology gateway to Ernst & Young's offices in 17 countries stretching from New Zealand to China and Japan.

"We adopted the hub strategy to help align IT with our businesses globally by providing core common infrastructure and product services centrally from our hubs," said Joseph Lembo, Director of Global Operations. "Applications that can be provided centrally to each region will lead to cost savings over the long term through consolidation of IT services and pooling of resources." These applications include collaborative, financial, time and expense, knowledge and global tools to aid Ernst & Young practitioners.

Ernst & Young chooses Singapore as its regional hub to host shared IT services for the rest of Asia and Oceania.

To help find the best location for the hubs, Ernst & Young Global engaged the services of BearingPoint Inc., strategic consulting and technology solutions consultants to Global 2000 companies and government organisations. After a three-month analysis, BearingPoint recommended Singapore as the best location for the hub based on Ernst & Young Global's criteria, which included acceptable performance of the hosted applications, price points, people skills, infrastructure, and a stable and business-friendly government.

All 17 Asian and Oceanic countries in which Ernst & Young operates were considered for hub status. However, many of them were eliminated for various factors, such as poor economic and financial infrastructure, and other risk factors. The shortlisted locations eventually came down to Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. Of the three countries, Singapore was eventually selected for its efficient and scalable infrastructure.

After assessing the major co-location players in Singapore, Ernst & Young Global decided to partner Keppel Digihub Ltd. "Keppel Digihub is very service-oriented," said Lembo. "We came away with the feeling that they were very committed to our success." To date, Ernst & Young Global has invested US$6.5 million in their setup at the facility and budgeted a yearly run-rate of approximately US$2.2 million. "With our investment in people, technology and service enablement for the region, it's likely that this number will continue to grow," Lembo adds.

The Singapore hub will play an important role in Ernst & Young Global's follow-the-sun model of IT operations. The Singapore team is responsible for overseeing the firm's global IT operations during the off-hours of the firm's two other hubs located in Stuttgart, Germany and New Jersey, USA.