By Francis Chan

SINGAPORE'S small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have found that it is much easier to capture sales in larger markets when they work together.

Businesses forging alliances under the International Enterprise (IE) Singapore's International Partners (iPartners) programme are clinching deals that may not have been possible if they had not teamed up.

'Hunting in packs is so much more effective than going into a new market alone,' said Mr Lau Shih Hor, chief executive of Elixir Technology, part of a five- company consortium tackling markets in the Middle East.

Called the Singapore e-Government Services Alliance, or Sesa, the iPartners-backed group is led by leading e-Government solutions provider Crimson Logic and includes Ditium Technologies, RSTN Consulting and V3 Teletech.

Since July last year, Sesa has been offering Gulf states e-Government services in areas such as labour management, judiciary services, land registry, identity management and health care.

With e-Government IT services flagged as a key catalyst for growth in the Middle East, the industry is believed to be worth some US$28 billion (S$40 billion).

Mr Lau said trying to make an impact on such new markets by himself would be difficult and would mean having to cultivate new relationships with unfamiliar clients and investing huge sums to establish a toehold in the region.

But thanks to iPartners, SMEs such as Elixir Technology - a local business e-solutions provider - can now grab a slice of the Gulf's e-Government business, said Mr Lau, who set up his firm 15 years ago.

'One of the big differences in this partnership with Crimson Logic is that we can leverage on their market access, track record and their people on the ground,' he said.

'Without iPartners, we would have had to start from scratch. But it's also win-win for Crimson Logic, because they have a bigger range of solutions to sell.'

Mr Francis Lee, chief executive of DP Architects and chairman of the Singapore Building and Infrastructure Consortium (SBIC), agreed.

'By forming a consortium, we were able to combine our capabilities and services to meet the massive market demand in the Middle East,' he said.

The SBIC operated from June 2005 to November 2006 and, before disbanding, consisted of 14 local infrastructure firms, including leading architects, cost engineers, specialist consultants, engineers, builders and suppliers.

Former SBIC members such as Meinhardt Infrastructure, KPK Quantity Surveyors, Tiong Seng Contractors and Lightweight Concrete Holdings provided a complete value chain for the building and construction sector - from master planning and engineering to consultancy, construction and procurement.

According to IE Singapore, that enabled SBIC to offer complete solutions that no single entity would be able to offer.

As a group with a combined annual turnover of more than $1 billion, the SBIC benefited from the experience and connections of members which had previously secured projects in the Middle East.

Mr Lee said the formation of SBIC in a record two weeks was also a reflection of the willingness of consortium members to work together.

'This enthusiasm is an endorsement of IE Singapore's iPartners programme, which has certainly catalysed this joint initiative...without (which) this would be very difficult, if not impossible,' he said.

The SBIC has handled projects such as the Dubai Marina Mall and several other master-plan projects throughout the Middle East.

'In the two years or so that the SBIC was operating in the Middle East, it handled in excess of US$300 million worth of projects,' added Mr Lee.

Even though the SBIC has been disbanded, Mr Lee said former members were still benefiting from the foundation laid by the consortium and some are still working together on overseas projects.

Sesa, which was initially bidding just for projects in the Middle East, has since expanded its presence into other new and emerging markets like Rwanda, Libya and Kosovo.

Mr Lau said there are some $15 million worth of e-Government IT projects on its books.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.