In the elevator with...

In the elevator with … Ong Sing Jye, vice president, Comba Network Solutions

Mr. ONG Sing Jye, Vice President, Comba Network Solutions division and General Manager, Comba Telecom Singapore. Mr. Ong holds a master's degree from Imperial College, London in advanced IT and an MBA from the University of Hull. He graduated with honors from the University of Birmingham, specializing in Electronics and Communications Engineering. He has more than 15 years of experience in the telecommunications industry and joined Comba in 2002.

Q:  In May 2007, Comba set up a new services-oriented business unit – Comba Network Solutions (“CNS”), can you tell us more about the background and motivation behind the creation of such a business?

 

A:  Traditionally, Comba has always been a hardware provider. However, that orientation towards hardware sales brought particular susceptibility to price-sensitivity of the market. In order to mitigate the situation and to ultimately bring greater value to our customers, we made a conscious decision to migrate from a position of pure hardware sales - where margins are lower with cut-throat competition and pricing, to that of a total solutions and services provider with better  margins. 

 

      As a solutions provider, we are able to forge deeper and longer relationships with our end customers and partners. We are not just selling one item of hardware to customers, instead we are supplying an end-to-end package of services and hardware required for a project – in other words, solutions.  This not only adds value to the company by driving higher-margin revenues but also distinguishes ourselves from other vendors by being a partner to our customers in understanding their needs and providing solutions to those needs as opposed to being a “box-mover”

    

 

Q:  You have mentioned services, can you elaborate about exactly what kind of services and the benefits you are bringing to the customers?

 

A:   Services can be delivered across a very broad spectrum of activities as we assist the customer in fulfilling their network   rollout requirements or resolving a series of quality problems.

 

As a knowledge-based solutions and services provider, we are able to instill confidence in our customers, offering them a complete suite of coverage solutions that maximizes their ROI of their capex.  We can broadly classify our services into: full-turnkey and semi-turnkey services for new or mature operator’s needs for specifically indoor and outdoor coverage for wireless networks.. We have network enhancement and optimization services, whereby we enhance the network performance and resolve persistent quality issues with our cost-effective and complete solutions.

 

With a growing service portfolio, coupled with the ability to work with third party vendors for products outside of Comba’s portfolio, we are in a great position to offer holistic technology solutions in the 2G, 3G and next generation network space such as WiMax and LTE. Our ultimate aim is to become the one-stop-shop solutions partner, providing services, to fulfill the unique needs of different clients.

 

 

- Continued -

 

 

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CNS Services Model