SDS focuses on mutual growth
Officials from Samsung SDS talk with employees from its partners at SDS’ collaboration center at the company’s main building in Gangnam, southern Seoul. / Courtesy of Samsung SDS
By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung SDS, the information and technology solutions unit of Samsung Group, is making greater efforts to develop programs that ensure balanced growth with its partner companies.
To that end, the company has set "sustainable growth throughout innovation and creation’’ as this year’s top phrase.
Under the initiative, the firm plans to spend more to help its local partners as SDS believes more educational and financial support means higher returns, said company spokeswoman Kim Mi-ri.
SDS’ consistent push for balanced growth come after the Samsung affiliate has earned more overseas as a result of its efforts to cut its reliance on the local market and to diversify its business territories.
This year, SDS plans to reap more than 7 trillion won in revenue, up from the previous year’s 6.1 trillion won.
Of this year’s projection, the company hopes to increase the portion of its revenue earned outside the Korean Peninsula to 40 percent, from last year’s 35 percent.
The spokeswoman said SDS has established a new division to handle its overseas business.
"Our overseas businesses will be expanded to smart infrastructure and e-government businesses. Support from SDS’ local partners is crucial,’’ she stressed.
Since 2005, Samsung SDS has stayed ahead of its local rivals such as SK C&C and LG CNS by running an online collaboration system with partners ―
. Via this site, the company has offered fair business chances and sought to improve management transparency.
It also holds its own job fairs to help partners find skilled workers, and SDS offers various educational tools for its partners to strengthen their competitiveness.
``We are paying our partners only in cash when purchasing equipment from them to prevent them experiencing a bottleneck in cash-flow. We maintain a mutual fund sized at 45 billion won. The fund is mainly being used to help our partners create better eco-systems,’’ Kim said.
The "sGen’’ competition is another example of SDS’s efforts and systematic approaches to mutual growth.
The program is an SDS-sponsored idea competition that targets international markets through Facebook.
The annual event is aimed at helping start-ups and local venture firms that have good business ideas for Samsung SDS. SDS is expanding the event as it seeks to expand its global business.
Those initiatives are yielding visible returns.
"We are winning more lucrative overseas deals by joining hands with our local suppliers. Last year, SDS won a deal from Costa Rica to handle electronic procurement systems. We partnered with SoftiTek, one of our top suppliers,’’ Kim said.
Mentioning previous overseas deals in Saudi Arabia, China and countries in South America, Kim said SDS would take trusted local partners to international exhibitions to help them introduce their solutions to bigger clients.
Gartner, a leading market research firm, ranked SDS as the world’s 33rd information technology solutions provider in the world, up from 50th in 2009, citing the firm’s increased revenue from international markets.
In Asia, Samsung SDS ranks seventh. In China, which SDS has identified as the most critical overseas market, SDS was ranked fourth last year, up from 18th from 2011.
"SDS has been consistent in investing in overseas projects and it is getting faster to diversify its business portfolios. It’s no surprise to see the company’s external growth in international markets,’’ said Lee Ji-un, vice chairman at the Korea Information Technology Services Industry Association.