IMAGINE computing without the complexity and the prohibitive costs - this is the promise of a new infocomm paradigm that enables businesses to subscribe to software rather than buy it, store their information online so that they can access it anywhere, and make use of computing power and other infocomm resources as and when they need them.

Ng Chee Yong, director of Web design firm Adverite, can attest to the benefits of this utility-based approach. Since January 2008, the company has been paying a monthly subscription to use electronic leave (eLeave) and electronic resource (eResource) management services from justlogin, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider.

eLeave helps the company to track leave records, entitlements and the leave balance for all its staff, and allows it to set leave policies according to its needs. 'We do not need to worry about statutory changes such as the new enhanced child care leave and extended maternity leave introduced recently, as the system will take care of such changes automatically,' says Mr Ng. Adverite also uses eResource to book office resources such as meeting rooms, projectors and other facilities, enabling the company to optimise the use of these resources.

Convenient access

'Our staff access these services from anywhere via the Internet. We can be in the office, at a client's place, at home or overseas, so long as we are connected to the Internet, the services are always available,' says Mr Ng. 'It is really convenient as we do not need to invest in any hardware server, software and hosting. We also do not have to worry about maintenance and support, as we can simply pick up the phone, e-mail the service provider or use their live chat service whenever we need help.'

He estimates that the SaaS model saves Adverite at least $20,000 a year. Without it, the company would need to set aside manpower to take care of the maintenance issues such as daily backup, security patches and support. It would also have to invest in hardware, software and hosting. 'If not for the availability of SaaS model, we might not even consider such applications as the manpower required to support them and the costs involved would not have been justifiable,' says Mr Ng.

Besides software services, SMEs like Adverite can also tap other infocomm resources such as storage and computing power over the Internet. This model of delivering and using infocomm services on a subscription or pay-per-use basis is known as grid computing.

For example, Web application and design company Accolade Global subscribes to online storage and processing power from nGrid, one of the three consortiums that are currently providing services over the National Grid, a national effort to bring together commercial grid service providers to offer pay-per-use access to computer, storage and software facilities.

With the Online Drive service, Accolade Global is able to share files more efficiently with its clients, says managing director James Ho. 'Previously when our clients wanted to send us picture files, logos or content for their websites, they would use e-mail or burn a CD and send it to us. Now, we simply create an account and my client is able to upload whatever they want to pass to us, and we'll download it from our side.'

Besides storage, Accolade Global also uses CPU resources from the grid service provider to power e-commerce websites that it hosts for its clients. 'If we use our own dedicated server, we would need to monitor it and make sure we can cater to peak traffic. With the grid, resources can be automatically adjusted to meet the needs of individual websites.'

Mr Ho cites the example of an e-commerce website selling cosmetics, which attracts peak traffic between 7 pm and 11 pm every day. 'With the grid, it is easy for us to allocate more processing power to this site during this period; and for corporate websites, we adjust for more resources during working hours.'

Besides the ease of management, cost was another factor that prompted Accolade Global to go with the grid. 'If we have a server in-house, we will need to buy our own software licences and set aside a fee for IT administration every month. Stability is also an issue because the power supply in our office premises may not be stable, and the temperatures may be too high. If we rent space in a data centre to put our server, we have to pay $300-500 every month to maintain it there.'

According to Accolade Global, it costs about $700 a month to tap the grid services' CPU resources, and less than $10 a month for online storage. If it were to invest in its own server, the monthly cost to locate its server in a data centre and the manpower effort to maintain it could work out to about $3,800, says Mr Ho. This allows the company to offer the same services, but at less than 20 per cent of the costs that it would incur if it were to opt for having its own server and storage.

Grid computing services and software as a service are just some of the services that are delivered on a next generation IT infrastructure. This provides SMEs with just a taste of what is to come. With the rollout of Singapore's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN), which commenced in August and is expected to cover 95 per cent of all residential and non-residential buildings by 2012, SMEs can enjoy broadband access speeds of up to one Gbps. This will enable them to make use of a host of innovative new online services such as high-definition video conferencing, remote collaboration, advanced CCTV, interactive digital signs and many more.

On the go connectivity

Already, the wireless counterpart of the Next Gen NBN, Wireless@SG, is allowing businesses and employees to have broadband connectivity 'on the go', enabling them to communicate via e-mail, video conferencing and collaboration software easily.

Wireless@SG is a popular service with 1.3 million subscribers and 7,500 hotspots islandwide, and the network is still growing with the help of operators and businesses. The free Wi-Fi service will continue till 2013 and speeds have been doubled to one Mbps to meet user demand for higher Internet access speeds.

Wireless@SG will deliver a host of new applications to SMEs, such as digital signages that will allow them to broadcast advertisements and promotions; location-based services that enable retail and F&B SMEs to promote their stores and send location-specific retail messages to specific consumers; and cashless payment systems that enable merchants to provide cashless payment at hawker centres, events, roadshows or mobile kiosks.

SMEs can opt to take a more proactive approach to infocomm adoption and leverage on available technology such as next generation IT infrastructure to be more productive in their operations, to introduce innovative new services and to explore new business opportunities.

This article was contributed by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. Visit www.ida.gov.sg/sme to find out how the Infocomm@SME programme can help you adopt infocomm for your business.

This article was first published in The Business Times.