There are increasing signs that Thailand's software industry is preparing itself for the challenges of 2015, when the Asean Economic Community will become reality and Thailand will be just one part of a huge borderless market.

Local software company SSC Solution is the latest to restructure itself, spinning off four business units to become subsidiary companies, which, together with the original company, will become the five members of the new SSC IT Group.

SSC Solution's chief executive Trirat Chatkaew said the SSC IT Group wanted to set itself up for leadership of the wider Asean software industry over the next four years.

He said the old SSC Solution had many businesses that were quite different from each other, and the company was forced to focus on each business area. Hence, the decision to spin off four separate operations.

The spin-off companies are named Sense Water, SSC Integration, Knowledge Management Asia and Thai Software Outsourcing.

"Now, we have five companies including SSC Solution and we have grouped them all under SSC IT Group. The group plans to generate revenue of Bt70 million to Bt80 million by the end of this year, before increasing it to reach Bt200 million to Bt300 million next year," Trirat said.

Sense Water is expected to be the group's flagship company, since it has a strong track record in providing software for water management, not only in the local market but also overseas. It aims to be the leading source of water-management software in the Asean region - making Thailand the leader of this field - by 2015.

"This company has registered capital of Bt60 million. It is a global independent software vendor (ISV) partner of IBM's Smarter Planet-Smarter Water," Trirat said.

Currently, Sense Water provides water-management solutions for water operators in Malaysia, and is looking for customers in Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines, Finland and Indonesia.

SSC Integration specialises in systems integration. It is preparing to expand its services to include mobile platforms, according to the demands of its customers.

"This company has registered capital of Bt2 million," Trirat said. "This will be increased to Bt10 million in the next two years."

Knowledge Management Asia is focused on knowledge-management software, and area in which SSC Solution has recently developed the group's strength.

Meanwhile, Thai Software Outsourcing is the newest of SSC Solution's businesses. It has been launched with a view to capturing market opportunities after the Asean Economic Community is implemented.

Trirat said Thailand had the fourth-largest software-outsourcing industry in Asia, following India, China and Malaysia. The new company will look for opportunities in this market and will not only seek jobs as an outsourcer, but will then outsource those jobs to local software companies or freelancers.

"We will match customers and developers, and will also play the role of an outsourcer in big jobs where customers require a project manager. In this business we will work closely with the Software Industry Promotion Agency and Software Park Thailand," he said.

The SSC IT Group's preparations aim not only to prepare for the Asean common market, but also to drive Thailand to become the leader in the Asean market for water-management solutions, software outsourcing and knowledge management, Trirat said.

In another example of preparation for 2015, local software firm MFEC Group earlier this year acquired Soft Square1999 and its subsidiary companies. The aim was to pool the strengths of two large operations in order to provide a full range of information-technology services, such as end-to-end applications on mobile devices, support for customers ranging in size from individuals to large enterprises and outsourcing services.

MFEC Group's president Siriwat Vongjarukorn said the merged company began its full range of IT services on June 1 and it aimed to generate revenue of about Bt3.5 billion this year.

"The group aims to support its customers as full implementation of the Asean Economic Community approaches in 2015. I think we will, at this stage, focus our business domestically, so that we can create opportunities in the local market," Siriwat said.

He said the acquisition would create synergy, blending and combining the strong points of each business as well as transferring knowledge between the businesses before they enter the market. This will help to reduce operating costs and enhance productivity.

The group currently has about 1,500 employees and plans to cooperate with 28 universities in the training of about 5,000 skilled IT graduates capable of supporting demand within the next five years. It will link up with Mae Fah Luang University and Khon Kaen University as the first institutions in this programme.

"I believe the group is starting to create greater competitiveness for the country, so that local companies will able to compete with international companies in the near future," Siriwat said.