ASEAN Business Summit
Prepared remarks by Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International
November 18, 2011 – Bali, Indonesia
Honorable Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, my fellow distinguished panellists, good
afternoon. I’d like to focus my remarks today on small and medium businesses, and how
technologies like cloud computing can empower these businesses to compete more
aggressively at home, across the region and on a global scale. Historically, it was only the
biggest multinationals that could compete in the global marketplace, but today, technology –
and cloud computing in particular – is levelling the playing field in unprecedented ways.
This is important news as the region works toward the goals outlined in the ASEAN ICT
Masterplan 2015. Those goals are number one, ICT as an engine of growth for ASEAN countries;
number two, recognition for ASEAN as a global ICT hub; three, enhanced quality of life for
people of ASEAN; and four, ontribution toward ASEAN integration.
As you may know, this plan was put in place in January to harness the potential and
opportunities of ICT for ASEAN. Here, ICT is a growth sector employing more than 11.7 million
people, contributing more than US$32 billion or more than 3% to ASEAN’s gross domestic
product.
SMEs represent 95% of businesses in most economies and often generate well over half of all
employment and anywhere from 30-60% of GDP. We believe that SMEs hold the future for
ASEAN and will help fulfil the vision outlined in the ASEAN ICT Masterplan 2015. While there are
big differences between SMEs across regional economies, the sheer number of businesses
makes them a huge potential source of further growth if enabled with the right technologies
and incentives.
Let me take a moment to briefly explain cloud computing. It represents a fundamental shift in
technology, where many of your IT needs such as computing power (servers) and storage can
be provided to you as a service, just like a utility provides you with electricity. Historically, the
capital expenditure required to create sophisticated IT infrastructure was prohibitive to SMEs,
however the cloud enables them to access world-class technology infrastructure, as a hosted
service in the cloud. Technology providers like Microsoft have built massive data centers
through which we deliver these cloud services to businesses, governments and consumers on a
pay-as-you-go basis eliminating their need to think about the technology back-end.
Today, the vast majority of SMEs are undercapitalized and underserved when it comes to the
technology tools needed to run their businesses. They do not have IT departments operating
these tools. And anything that takes them away from their core business costs them revenue.
In addition to simple compute power, companies like Microsoft are providing easy-to-use
cloud-based tools, at very affordable prices, to help SMEs organize the information that’s
critical to growing their business – things like Customer Relationship Management and HR
applications. These cloud-hosted applications can help to ensure business continuity in the
event of disaster, a lesson we have been reminded of several times recently.
Microsoft recently commissioned research from Springboard Survey which revealed that while
larger businesses in the region are embracing cloud services, SMEs are lagging behind with 62%
of organisations with more than 500 PCs either having adopted or planning to adopt cloud,
while 68% of organisations with less than 50 PCs having no plans to adopt cloud computing. We
believe this is a missed opportunity that could impact competitiveness for the region.
The research also highlights the key driver of cloud adoption is not simply managing cost, but
rather the ability to support unpredictable workloads. In the cloud, computing infrastructure
automatically scales up with demand. This is important for online retailers, as one example,
who may have higher demand during peak shopping periods like the holidays.
When looking at potential concerns in the cloud, the research shows that data security is the
biggest barrier. Clearly, regardless of size and geography, the need to address security is as
importance as reliability and cost. At Microsoft, we are deeply committed to providing best-inclass security through our data centers, with multiple layers of both physical and technological
security built in to ensure the integrity of our customers’ data.
Both government and industry have important roles to play to ensure the benefits of cloud
computing can be accessible to these SMEs in ASEAN and elsewhere.
Government can help advance the availability of affordable broadband and ensure the right
policy framework is in place on data protection, privacy and cybercrime, to promote
trustworthy and secure cloud services. It is critical that new regulations don’t impose
unintended restrictions on the flow of information from SMEs to cloud service providers.
Equally important are government efforts to overhaul legacy regulations that have the potential
to impede the deployment of cloud services, such as carrier licenses, interception laws and
other regulatory conditions that constrain the ability for global services to be launched in
certain markets.
There are a few excellent examples of governments working toward these goals including
Thailand’s Enhancing SMEs’ Competitiveness through IT Program – ECIT – and the Singapore
Productivity and Innovation Credit – PIC – scheme, which provide funding for providing
packaged cloud solutions to SMEs.
We also see an important role for government, often in public-private partnership, to help
provide skills training to SMEs in the safe and effective use of these technologies. We are proud
to partner with governments around the world to conduct this type of training.
On the industry side, we have a responsibility to provide stewardship for the cloud in areas such
as providing a trustworthy online experience that respects the privacy of users, secures and
protects information from misuse and maintains infrastructure and services with the highest
standards of security and reliability. We also believe industry must support interoperability of
data and applications in the cloud, including working on industry standards to promote data
portability and choice for customers.
Enabling ASEAN countries to benefit fully from the cloud cannot be achieved by either
government or industry alone. It will require the two groups to partner closely to help shape
the legal and regulatory frameworks to develop good cloud governance models, as well as
advance the development agenda for national economies.
Microsoft has a long heritage of investing in programs and projects that help transform the
provision of public sector services such as education, healthcare and public safety, fostering
local innovation and software ecosystems and enabling opportunities for individuals and
business to reach their full potential through IT skills training and more. We believe the cloud
can provide even more momentum for these programs to ensure ASEAN SMEs are better
equipped to compete on a global scale, and we are deeply committed to supporting ASEAN
governments and SMEs on their path toward the cloud.
The future growth of ASEAN will depend on the development and fostering of human capital
and a strong knowledge economy, especially in the SME sector. The arrival of cloud computing
is a real opportunity for governments to further extend IT adoption in the SME sector, helping
them to maximise their contributions to national economies. Furthermore, the cloud will not
only make existing SMEs more efficient and competitive, but spur the incubation of new
businesses and new business models and open up the region to greater trade in digital goods
and services.
Thank you for listening, and I look forward to taking your questions at the end of the session.