NEC Asia eyes bigger slice of services pie

SINGAPORE--NEC Asia plans to aggressively step up its IT services business in the region, according to its CEO Kiyofumi Kusaka.

Part of that growth plan includes expanding its services revenues in Singapore from between 10 percent and 15 percent, to over 50 percent, Kusaka told ZDNet Asia in an interview at the company's headquarters for Southeast Asia and India in Singapore.

Kusaka, who was appointed NEC Asia CEO in June, pointed out that the company would increasingly adopt a multi-faceted approach to different markets in the region. It will focus on hardware in emerging countries, concentrate on systems integration (SI) for maturing markets, and drive services-related income from established markets such as Singapore.

In Singapore, [for] sure we have to shift to services from systems integration, but like in Thailand or Malaysia...systems integration would probably be the core business," he explained. "For Indonesia, Vietnam or India, [NEC's] main portfolio should be hardware."

The chief executive added that many of NEC's peers, including Fujitsu and multinationals IBM and HP, have also indicated greater emphasis on the services field.

According to Kusaka, SI-related income account for 70 percent of NEC Asia's total business revenues. The company's SI customers typically manage the systems themselves, with NEC currently managing systems for only "a few".

In line with the expansion plans, NEC Asia would be increasing its headcount in the region, said Kusaka. However, he noted that given the current business climate, the number of employees will grow at more "conservative" rate than the 20 percent forecast by the company's business units.