Andre Conti (NCS)
Singaporean IT service provider NCS Next has launched a new physical hub in Melbourne eight months after first arriving in the Australian market.
Known as the cloud ‘Centre of Excellence’, the hub claims to offer governments and enterprises “greater support on accelerating their cloud initiatives”.
It will also allegedly “deepen” collaboration between Singapore and Australia, “helping both cities build up cloud expertise in a competitive talent market,” the company said.
NCS aims to grow the local team to 1,500 and create 500 new digital skilled jobs over the next few years.
Skills sought include those in artificial intelligence, 5G-enabled internet of things (IoT) applications, advanced analytics and cloud.
“We have witnessed the increasing pace at which both public and commercial sectors in Australia are adopting a digital-first approach to transforming the way in which we live and work,” said Andre Conti, head of NEXT Solutions, Australia.
“By tapping into NCS’ 40 years of experience in supporting the public sector in [Asia Pacific] and our strong partner ecosystem, NCS Australia will play an active role in nurturing and pushing the local ICT space forwards.”
Like local telco Optus, NCS is owned by Singaporean telecommunications giant Singtel. In December last year, NCS announced a partnership with Optus Enterprise in a bid to bring integrated IT and digital services to Australian customers.
As part of the launch, NCS also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state government of Victoria.
According to NCS, this will help the state government leverage cloud, drive talent development, and advance Victoria’s competitiveness in the technology sector.
