Outsourcing companies offer competitive Internet services

Outsourcing companies offer competitive Internet services

By Tantri Yuliandini

JAKARTA (JP): For companies with strong financial backing,
establishing electronic commerce facilities or making their
businesses available over the Internet poses no major problem as
they have enough resources to install the necessary facilities or
recruit information technology (IT) specialists to manage the
initiative.

But what about smaller companies?

Several firms, who call themselves outsourcing companies, are
now offering services that could significantly reduce costs for
small and medium companies wishing to join the so-called new
economy.

These companies include PT Aplikanusa Lintasarta, Biznet and
PT Jatis Solutions, to name just a few.

"The keyword is to outsource," Lintasarta's general manager
for value added service Zulfi Hadi said, adding that the term
means that small and medium-sized companies should allow other
companies to run their Internet activities.

Lintasarta, for example, is offering an Internet dial-up
system for Internet service providers (ISPs).

ISPs are companies that provide Internet access for
individuals or corporate customers.

Lintasarta, which defines itself as an ISP wholesaler, leases
out its ISP package for a monthly fee of between Rp 70,000 (about
US$7) and Rp 80,000 per user identification.

The package includes modem access dial-up, an ISP back office
system, a domestic and international backbone connection, and
network maintenance.

"All the company needs to do is provide the space, the
marketing and sales of the Internet service, and customer
service," Zulfi said.

To start an ISP using Lintasarta's wholesale solution, a
company only needs about $5,000 as an initial investment,
compared to more than $200,000 without it, he said.

The aim of the ISP package was to provide people with an easy
alternative for establishing an ISP company, especially those in
smaller cities across Indonesia, therefore extending the reach of
the Internet in the country, Zulfi said.

Currently, he says, less than one percent of Indonesia's
population of more than 200 million people have access to the
Internet.

Another company, Internet solutions provider Jatis, offers
small and medium-sized banks affordable Internet banking
applications.

"More and more customers have been known to ask their banks
when they will start an Internet banking service," Jatis director
Izak Jenie said, adding that one of the main hurdles to setting
up the service is the high capital costs.

Using Jatis' service, with a minimum initial investment of Rp
100 million ($10,000) and an additional fee of about Rp 35
million a month, a bank can have its own Internet banking
service, Izak said.

How much would a bank need to set up its own Internet banking
system?

According to Sugih Nugroho, senior web designer at web
development firm PT Indodev Niaga Internet (Dataon Corporation),
the Internet banking program costs about Rp 500 million.

"And that doesn't include the setup fee, hardware and
security," he told The Jakarta Post.

Software giant PT Microsoft Indonesia's president Richard
Kartawijaya said that smaller banks were usually inferior when it
came to security for their Internet banking services, making
customers reluctant to sample the service.

He said that using Jatis' outsourcing solution, the security
of every transaction was guaranteed.

"Furthermore, the bank doesn't need to assign a group of
people to maintain the service, Jatis will provide it for them,"
he said. Microsoft provides the software for Jatis' Internet
banking program.

Other services are also available with the sole purpose of
cutting costs for Internet-based companies.

One example is a data center, which gained popularity as
demand for storage space rose along with the increase in the
number of Internet-based companies.

At Biznet, a company can lease space for its server -- also
known as co-location -- at a minimum of $375 a month and a one-
off setup fee of $250.

"This service includes 13.2 centimeters of rack space, a
leased line with shared bandwidth of 128 kilobytes per second, a
300-watt power supply and an Internet protocol number," Biznet
president Adi Kusma said.

Without co-location, a company requires a leased line of 128
kilobytes per second at $1,950 a month to connect to the
Internet.