Scarcity of experts hampers computer networking growth

JAKARTA (JP): Computer networking is a fast growing business in Indonesia which is limited only by the scarcity of experts, an executive of Novell Inc, a leading network company, said yesterday.

Rodney Yap, country sales manager for Indonesia of the Singapore-based company, said human resources was the limiting factor in networking business.

"Human resources development in Indonesia is slower than the progress of information and computer technology," Yap told The Jakarta Post at the sidelines of a road show to promote Novell's products at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Some companies in Indonesia were unwilling to introduce networking because the system required complicated expertise and they were not willing to pay the costs, he said.

Despite this, Novell's networking market in Indonesia has been growing at 35 percent to 40 percent a year, the fastest growth rate in Southeast Asia, Yap said.

Novell's share of the Indonesian computer networking business was more than 80 percent, he added.

"More than 70 percent of our consumers are large Indonesian companies, banks, and government offices," he said, citing Bank Bali, the state-run Central Bureau of Statistics, the state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkomsel and state-run Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) among Novell's major clients.

Bank Central Asia signed an agreement in January to spend US$650,000 on the installation of a Novell system, he added.

The road show is part of the Novell X-Net ASEAN Tour which also covers Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Novell offers solutions to network problems and reduces the cost of owning and managing a network system. It enhances business operations by increasing network reliability and user productivity.

Novell claims to be the world's leading network company, the top vendor in network operating systems and in networking software for personal computers, as well as the second largest in personal computer application software after Microsoft. (08)