Singapore CIOs need to adapt to IT changes

IBM's CEO, Ginni Rometty, noted in Singapore recently that the world is witnessing a historic convergence of technology shifts with a combination of mobile, social, cloud and inter-connected devices. This is having a profound impact on enterprises, many of which are struggling with the issue of BYOD (bring your own device) and the extensive use of non-corporate apps such as Gmail and Evernote. The question is, are Singapore's chief information officers (CIOs) ready for this tectonic shift with the right set of policies? There used to be a saying that you can't get fired for choosing Microsoft. While this may still hold true, the new complexity that technology has brought in has made the task of CIOs that much harder and resistance to change is not an option. As Khoong Hock Yun, assistant CEO (Infrastructure and Services Development) of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said last week at a roundtable organised by BT, a good organisation-wide mobile strategy needs to strike the right balance between usability, cost and security.

Microsoft has been the long-standing incumbent in the enterprise applications space. However, viable alternatives have emerged thanks to the same technology trends alluded to by Ms Rometty. Google offers its cloud-based Google Docs and email service as a low-cost alternative to Microsoft's cash cows, Office and Outlook. Google's Chromebook - a notebook running on its Chrome OS (operating system) which essentially puts everything in the cloud - has become quite popular and can be bought for as little as $300. A combination of low-cost hardware and excellent cloud services - available for a small fee - that run on any machine or OS makes Google a viable alternative for many small businesses at least. At its big event earlier this week, Apple officially put its hat into the ring by offering its Mac OS and iLife and iWork suit of apps for free to users who buy its hardware. While iLife is a suite of mainly creative apps for Mac OS and iOS devices, iWork is Apple's answer to Microsoft's Office. Combined with its push of the popular iPad into the enterprise through BYOD, Apple has now made a strong case for iWork for the enterprise.

To be sure, Microsoft Office is far more feature-rich than the Apple or Google counterparts. However, the two competitors are setting an example that software and OS should come for free and storage should be in the cloud and not on devices. Microsoft generates around 96 per cent of its operating margins from its OS and productivity software and so this move would certainly be a cause for concern for the Redmond, Washington-based company. It is responding to the challenge in its own way, by shifting most of its software into cloud-based services and producing new types of devices such as the Surface tablet.