It will be interesting to see how the Singapore IT scene pans out after the takeover.

The one Merdian team, led by EDS includes Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Microsoft, Frontline and SCS. EDS has been acquire by HP. Frontline was acquired by BT not so long ago and now SCS is ben taken over.

Not counting CISCO and Microsoft, the other 2 consortiums  were HP with ST Electronics, and the other, NCS, IBM, Lenovo, Singtel.

HP and NCS/Singtel were orginal in different camps - and with the takeovers, HP/EDS and Singtel/NCS/SCS are married.

 What are the other partners - IBM, Lenovo, Alcatel and ST Electronics going to do for the next phase of the SOE project?

Today, 5 August 2008, M1 enters the Fixed Broadband market providing further competition to Starhub and Singtel. M1 is leasing the home cable connection from Starhub as they do not have the “last mile” as it’s two competitors do.

I don’t know if this is good move on the part of M1 but perhaps it is out of options. More telling is that M1 is offering it’s broadband service at a discount in price to the incumbents. If this is a straight broadband services and you are competing on price against companies with deeper pockets then it is a dangerous game. I struggle to see how M1 can effectively compete in the fixed broadband market. Much will depend on how they can add value or creatively market the service as they have done quite effectively with their mobile service.  I hope M1 is successful since more competition will only benefit the consumer.

Virtual network operator Vanco has named Tim Sullivan CEO of its Asia Pacific operations. Sullivan will be responsible for all Vanco’s Asia Pacific markets.

Based in Sydney, Sullivan will work with teams in New Delhi, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo to increase sales in the region. Sullivan spent several years working for Telstra in Sydney before joining Vanco.

Hong Meng Lee, general manager for Vanco in Singapore, will report to Sullivan.

Jessica Tan managing director of its Singapore business. Tan, who is currently Microsoft’s general manager for customer, partners and employee experience for the Asia Pacific region, assume the managing director role on July 1.

Tan’s portfolio includes driving growth strategies for Microsoft Singapore.

A whopping S$1 billion is the amount of public funds that will be made available to private sector companies keen on taking part in the building and operation of Singapore’s upcoming National Broadband Network (NBN), which is scheduled for completion in 2015.

This figure will be split between S$250 million for the “operating company” (OpCo) and S$750 million for the “network company” (NetCo) of the NBN. According to the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), a larger sum will be devoted to the latter due to the larger investment in physical infrastructure involved.

When completed, the NGN is expected to provide users with surfing speeds that are at least 10 times faster than at present

Telecommunications solutions provider Ordyn Technologies has named Idris Vasi Senior Vice President for global strategic sales and alliances. Vasi is based in Singapore, and his role includes managing the company’s channel partnerships and overseeing revenue growth.

Vasi previously spent 11 years at networking solutions provider Cisco Systems, where he held a number of senior management roles both in the US and Singapore

Application delivery networking provider F5 Networks has appointed Joseph Signorelli Vice President, data solutions, Asia Pacific and Japan. The role is a newly created one.

Signorelli will be responsible for driving sales of F5’s solutions across the region. Based in Tokyo, Japan, he reports directly to Christopher P. Lynch, senior vice president, data solutions, F5 Networks

Stanley Ip has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at IT solutions provider Datacraft.

Ip’s portfolio comprises 27 years of financial management experience. Ip spent 19 years at Sun Microsystems before joining Datacraft.  His most recent position was Senior Finance Director, Asia Pacific region of Sun Microsystems, where he was responsible for six sub-regions (Japan, Australiasia, Greater China, Korea, Asia South and India) with annual revenues of US$2.4 billion.

Based in Singapore, Ip reports to Bill Padfield, CEO, Datacraft

Storage services provider Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has named Kerstin Baxter Director of Volume Channels, Asia Pacific. Baxter will drive the company’s channel business in the Asia Pacific. This includes partnerships with both large enterprises and small and medium businesses.

Baxter was most recently channel director of HDS in Australia and New Zealand. Before joining HDS, she spent ten years at Microsoft Australia, where she held various leadership and sales-focused roles.

Based in Singapore, Baxter reports to Glen Carroll, vice president of sales operations and acting general manager of Hitachi Data Systems Asia Pacific.

Information infrastructure solutions provider EMC has named Joe Ong Country Manager for EMC Singapore.

Ong replaces Richard Price, who is now director, commercial and channel sales and partner and alliances, for EMC’s South Asian operations.

Ong has been with EMC Singapore for eight years. His most recent position was district sales director for EMC Singapore. He held a sales leadership position at IBM before joining EMC.