DECLOUT CEO: How local firms can scale up and succeed in digital age

This article, written by Vesmond Wong (left, Group CEO of DeClout Ltd, a solutions provider of IT infrastructure services and vertical domain clouds), was originally in published in Mandarin in Lianhe Zaobao on 15 December 2016. This English version is republished with permission.

For DeClout, the sharing economy is a major disruptive trend that we just could not ignore.

We have chosen to leverage this trend within the IT domain to create a suite of businesses that form the building blocks or foundation of the changing IT revolution – what we term as “IT Infrastructure Services” while incubating a set of “next-generation” businesses that represent the new frontiers of innovation which we call “Vertical Domain Clouds”. 

From our perspective, this trend is likely to persist for at least the next decade and will usher in an abundance of opportunities for global enterprises.

The digital age presents an unprecedented opportunity for Singapore companies to disrupt the global markets and to grow and succeed much faster and with far less resources than traditionally needed.

In order to do so, we focus on these 4 areas to scale and thrive:

2. Leverage on technology to our advantage

Technology is a critical catalyst of success in the digital age. The speed of current technological breakthroughs has no historical precedence, and the pace and benefits are exponential. Those who have the ability to exploit technology quickly will be the winners.

Being a technology company, we are in the forefront of the industry. While we can quickly identify the changes that technology has disrupted the landscape and norm, we are challenged with the conundrum of whether or not to focus to build our own IT intellectual property, or leverage on existing technology to create a business model to address the gap in the market.

DeClout is a global builder of next-generation cloud, data centres, telecommunications, e-commerce, e-logistics and marketplace companies. Its operations and coverage extend to over 80 countries across Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa.(Photo: Company)
Our belief is that we should not reinvent the wheel where existing technology is readily available. Instead, we should focus on localizing and customizing technology to fill gaps in the market and address the specific needs. It is not about doing different things, but to do things differently.

4. Embark on mergers and acquisitions and forge alliances with others

Singapore’s limited domestic market makes it difficult to achieve sufficient scale without going overseas. In our experience, it is good to leverage Singapore as a test-bed to build a product, service or platform that can easily transcend cultural boundaries. It is also key to create value for multiple stakeholders within the value chain as this in turn creates longevity and “stickiness” for our business.

DeClout spinned off its IT asset recovery and independent maintenance subsidiary, Procurri, in a SGX Mainboard listing on 20 July 2016. (Photo: Company)
To truly “super-charge” the company’s growth, the key focus in our merger and acquisition strategy is market access or technology that we do not have. We are constantly on a lookout for possible partners which fit this strategy to have a win-win alliance with like-minded companies which can bring different value to the table.