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.