Last November, our Sedona Asia entity has expanded and opened a new office in Singapore.
Landry LE RAY, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sedona Asia, discusses with us on the reasons behind the decision, his ambitions on this new branch as well as the future projects for Sedona Asia.
When was the Singapore office established ?
The project of launching the Singapore branch started back in 2020. We signed a data warehouse deployment project for a Singaporean sovereign fund company. Our Hong Kong team was going on-site to carry out the project, so we planned to take this opportunity to build a team in Singapore. Due to Covid, the borders between Singapore and Hong Kong were closed two weeks before the mission starts. The project was eventually suspended (it was a time when remote working was completely unconceivable). This is the reason why the opening of our branch last November is of a particular importance.
Why did you choose to expand in Singapore? What are the advantages of this new location ?
There are multiple reasons for choosing Singapore. First of all, the great majority of our clients in Hong Kong are represented in Singapore. So it was only a logical step for us to represent Sedona locally. In addition, numerous regional projects require the establishment of hybrid teams between HK and SG, the two main financial hubs in Asia. Sedona Asia will start operating on this type of project.
The second and more political reason is that the focal point in Asia has shifted in favor of Singapore in the recent years. The tumult and the zero-covid policy of China have precipitated this situation. Numerous companies have moved their headquarters from HK to SG.
The last reason is that Sedona Asia’s core business, which is the asset management industry, is mainly represented in Singapore.
Are services offered by the Singapore offices the same, different or complementary to those in Hong Kong ?
The same way as in Hong Kong, we will offer four types of consulting services in Singapore:
- Development Projects on fixed-price basis: Cloud, Data Science, BI
- BPO: Our IT&OPS platform brings flexibility and expertise to our customers for a fixed and optimized cost (Data Management, Reporting, Middle Office and Operations, Users Support and IT monitoring)
- Management Consulting: Expertise in software deployment and integration, project management, process review and target operating model definition
- Digital: RPA, SAAS Solution Deployment, E-Commerce and CRM/CDP
What are your ambitions for this new entity ?
Our priority is to serve our long-standing clients and partners such as Simcorp Dimension, for instance. We already have projects underway in this regard. Our second step will be expanding our presence and client portfolio starting within the Asset Management industry. In 3 years’ time, we hope that the Singapore branch will reach or even surpass the Hong Kong branch in terms of business volume.
How are relations structured between Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and Paris entities ?
Presence in HK and SG allows us to reach a new target of regional clients, and similarly, our Singapore office allows us to bridge the gap with our teams in Europe.
Indeed, companies based in Europe which are planning to establish a presence in Asia currently have a preference for Singapore. Therefore it is a new growth vector for us, while relying on the network of Sedona Europe entities.
In particular, we will be able to provide our “Follow-the-sun” BPO offer more easily, allowing us to provide support from Asia with only a few hours’ time difference from Europe. This service allows our clients to extend their working span and, perform monitoring and corrective actions on their business environment during night hours. It is the guarantee of a faultless operational platform when starting the day in Europe.
Do you have plans for this new year ?
Definitely! We have also planned to open an Offshoring/Nearshoring center in Asia to support our HK and SG branches’ expansion. We will carry out development, Cloud, Digital and BPO projects. This development center will also support our Sedona Paris teams in order to optimize project deliveries and minimize costs for our clients. We are still considering the location but announcements will be made soon!
Landry LE RAY, Co-Founder and Managing Director @Sedona Asia