Telkom eyes SMEs to boost revenue

JAKARTA. In a bid to boost its revenue in 2014, state-owned telecommunications operator PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) said it would target more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and offer them various services.

So far, Telkom only serves 150,000 SME clients of the nearly 4 million SMEs in the country.

Muhammad Awaluddin, Telkom’s director for enterprise and business services, said the company aimed to reap Rp 10 trillion (US$823.59 million) in unconsolidated revenue next year, of which 75 percent would come from large enterprises and the remaining 25 percent from SMEs.

 “Telkom will focus on large firms and SMEs because both segments will be the center of growth of the company’s unconsolidated revenue,” he said on Thursday.

He said that Telkom’s services to its current 150,000 SME clients had come about through the Indonesia Digital Entrepreneur (IndiPreneur) program, which was initiated in 2012 and officially launched earlier this year.

As of next year, the program would have three new market segments comprising small office home office (SOHO), business solutions for the community (BSC) and digital media solutions, he added.

Awaluddin said the three new segments were expected to generate Rp 100 billion in revenue and attract more SMEs.

 “We expect that more than 500,000 SMEs will join the program next year and that the number will double by 2015,” he said.

He said SMEs could enjoy free high-speed Internet access and free e-commerce software via smartbisnis.co.id through the IndiPreneur program.

 “We have collaborated with 20 partners, including our subsidiaries, in the program’s implementation,” Awaluddin said.

Its partner subsidiaries are Telkomsel operating the mobile enterprise solutions service; Telkom Sigma offering a data center, cloud and information technology (IT) services; PINS with customer-premises equipment (CPE) and a premises integration network; Infomedia offering contact center solutions; Finnet running an online payment application and switching payment solutions; and Metra Digital Media operating digital media and advertising solutions.

Awaluddin said that next year alone, Telkom would collaborate with another 10 application providers to more intensively tap into the SME market.

The local administration in Sidoarjo district, East Java, lauded the company’s initiative to turn its attention on the SME sector.

“Most of our SMEs do not know how to use technology, including how to market their products online,” said Sidoarjo’s Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Agency head, Fenny

Apridawati.

She said that Telkom had helped the district by assisting around 1,000 SMEs in the district to market their products online and so enabling them to enter the global market.

Awaluddin said the company would soon be opening 80 access points for IndiPreneur recipients in the district. (Koi/The Jakarta Post)