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How NCS is tackling the enterprise IT market
The technology service provider is counting on its government experience, global expert network and cyber security capabilities to penetrate the enterprise IT market
NCS, a Singapore-based technology service provider, is looking to grow its footprint in Asia-Pacific’s enterprise IT market through bespoke services that address specific industry needs.
Leveraging its extensive experience serving the Singapore government and building a network of global experts, the Singtel subsidiary is positioning itself as an alternative partner to enterprises looking to drive digital transformation initiatives.
Howie Lau, managing partner for corporate development and partnerships at NCS, noted that the company’s sweet spot in the enterprise space lies in its ability to tackle complex business problems with a pragmatic approach.
“Our track record of delivering complex solutions for the Singapore government has instilled a level of trust among enterprise clients,” he said. “They recognise our ability to use a combination of technologies to solve real-world problems.”
This trust is bolstered by NCS’s efforts to build deep industry expertise by recruiting former CEOs and senior executives from sectors such as healthcare, transportation and banking. These industry veterans, part of a global expert ecosystem dubbed Gems, provide NCS with the specialised knowledge needed to navigate the nuances of each sector.
At the same time, NCS is leveraging its portfolio of successful projects to drive further growth. “We’re fortunate to have notable lighthouse customers,” said Lau.
The acquisition of four Australian technology service providers, whose client rosters included prominent ASX-listed firms, provided significant credibility and opened doors to other customers, he added.
Read more about IT services in APAC
- Vietnamese IT services provider FPT Software is seeing significant growth in its business across the Asia-Pacific region, driven by its diverse workforce, and focus on modernising legacy systems and building AI capabilities.
- Indian IT services provider HCLTech will open an AI lab in Singapore next year to help businesses across various industries deploy AI applications, cementing the city-state’s position as a regional leader in AI innovation.
- TCS played a major role in the design and implementation of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s new system for settling the National Electricity Market every five minutes.
- Telstra plans to acquire Versent for A$267.5m in a bid to expand its enterprise IT services business and support the digitisation of businesses and Australian industry.
With each customer, NCS then adopts a “land and expand” strategy where it addresses specific client needs initially before expanding into other areas based on evolving requirements. “We start with what the client needs and then advise them on what else might be useful,” said Lau.
NCS is currently focused on serving enterprise clients in the healthcare, transportation and financial services industries, as well as industrial and commercial customers. “Financial services have been a strong area for us,” he said, citing recent work on intelligent automation for a major regional insurer.
The company is also seeing strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and data-related services. Beyond improving productivity and optimising costs with AI, it expects enterprises to increasingly focus on revenue-generating AI applications in the next 12 to 18 months.
James Chong, innovation lead at NCS, said these applications could include personalised marketing where organisations can use AI to deliver targeted offers and improve cross-selling and upselling.
“We’re testing AI-powered services that can personalise offers based on customer history and behaviour,” he said, adding that these services will help bridge the gap between generic programmatic advertising and the labour-intensive work done by relationship managers and customer-facing teams.
Data governance
That said, Lau noted that the journey to AI-driven revenue generation is not without challenges, with concerns about data governance, AI ethics and the hallucination risks of generative AI models driving companies to involve people in operating AI systems.
NCS is also heavily invested in cyber security, offering a suite of services ranging from penetration testing to security operations. In engaging enterprises on cyber security, the company adopts an application and infrastructure-centric approach, ensuring that cyber security measures are integrated with existing systems and only recommending security products it has tested and implemented for itself.
Beyond cyber security, NCS is championing a broader view of digital resilience, encompassing data governance, application robustness, infrastructure scalability and operational responsiveness. The company has developed frameworks to assess client readiness across those dimensions, helping them identify vulnerabilities and prioritise investments.
In financial year 2024, NCS’s revenues grew 3.9% (4.5% in constant currency terms) to reach S$2.84bn (US$2.1bn). In its annual report, Singtel noted that with the acceleration of digital transformation in Asia-Pacific, NCS faces increased competition from new and existing local, regional and global technology service providers. “It is imperative that we continuously innovate and adjust to the changing needs of the markets,” it added.
