IT firm advises businesses to tap open-source software amid digital transformation
Open-source software (OSS) is necessary for businesses to cope with digital transformation and drive Thailand's digital economy in a creative way, IT experts said on Thursday.
OSS is computer software that is released under a licence in which the copyright holder grants users the right to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose.
"Digital transformation is playing an important role in people’s lives and nobody can escape from it," said Supannee Amnajmongkol, country manager of OSS solutions provider Red Hat (Thailand).
She said OSS can facilitate business operations, as 77.8% of Thai people are now online, while 96.2% of internet users accessed the internet via smartphones.
"Thailand's digital economy value is expected to hit US$53 billion [1.83 trillion baht] by 2025 compared to $35 billion [1.21 trillion baht] this year," she said, adding that Thailand has entered the digital era.
She said the development of OSS has accelerated over the past three years, adding that 80% of IT leaders in the Asia-Pacific region were expected to increase their use of OSS, such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and internet of things.
OSS could also help businesses in ensuring safety among internet users, she said, adding that the company is developing its OSS to gain confidence among customers and meet international standards.
"We believe that OSS will become a mechanism that would enable businesses to cope with digital transformation in a creative way," she said.
She added that the company would offer OSS solutions to government agencies so as to enable people to access government services and develop Thailand's digital economy further.
OSS has enabled banks to develop services to meet customers' needs, said Government Savings Bank (GSB) and CIMB Thai Bank executives.
Echoing Supannee, they said a security system should be developed over time to deal with rapid changes in criminals' tricks.
Boonson Jenchaimahakul, GSB's first senior executive vice president of IT, said OSS is necessary in order to reduce inequality in society.
He said GSB has an idea to enable people to access banking services anywhere since 2011 when Thailand was hit by severe floods.
"Customers in other provinces made financial transactions more than those in Bangkok," he said.
"GSB is developing its OSS by studying customers' behaviour, so they can make online transactions similar to going to the bank," he added.
Meanwhile, CIMB Thai Bank's head of digital technology, Sathapanic Sriprom, said the cooperation with Red Hat is in line with the bank's mission to become a digital-led bank in the Asean region.
"OSS has enabled the bank to provide proactive support to customers and optimise banking services," he said.
He said customers' demand was varied in many countries, such as languages and functions. He added that this posed a challenge to the bank's OSS development.
"Hence, OSS should be developed over time to meet with changes in customers' behaviour," he added.
He also they would develop OSS further to meet customers' needs.
Related stories:
Thailand Digital Transformation Readiness 2022 Report (Part 2/2)
Micro Leasing embraces cloud computing as part of digital transformation
