Australia flit is sensible option - Software AG

By Stuart Finlayson

One of IBM's biggest rivals in the mainframe market has moved its Asia Pacific headquarters from Singapore to Australia to reflect its increasing presence in the country

Michael Hawkins, Software AG's general manager, professional services, Asia Pacific, said: "Basically, Australia is our biggest market in the region. There's just a lot more happening here for us, with organisations starting to spend on IT again.

"Secondly, our customer support centre, which is based in Canberra, probably has the greatest amount of expertise on our software and surrounding technologies in the region as well. We have been operating it as a central support centre for Australia and New Zealand for a many years, as well as specialised after-hours support for some of our large customers in Asia, so it made sense to move our headquarters down here too."

Hawkins admitted that the fact that business has been somewhat static for the company in Asia had been a key factor in the decision to move its HQ.

"Our business has fairly levelled out throughout the Asian countries and is not growing as fast as what has been happening in Australia. We have gone through a re-evaluation of our operations worldwide, and realigned our strategy to core competencies. By doing so, we saw that Australia had much greater potential."

Hawkins refuted the suggestion that by moving its Asia-Pac HQ out of Singapore would further diminish its chances of improving its prospects in the region.

"We don't believe so, as we still have our presence in Singapore, as well as the Philippines and China, and a lot of the staff here in Australia, including myself, have had our roles improved to have more of an Asian focus, so it's business as usual.

"We are working with partners in China on growing our business there, so we don't see this move as something that will hit our growth."

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