Open Innovation Plays A Key Role In ASEAN Economic Community

Following the emergence of a new economic bloc called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), tapping the open source platform is already non-negotiable for enterprises who want to venture in Southeast Asia’s free market.

In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Damien Wong, senior director and general manager for ASEAN of Red Hat, an American multinational open-source software provider, stressed the need for open source adoption to help local businesses innovate faster and gain competitive advantage in the midst of the ASEAN integration.

Wong noted that this economic bloc is designed to bring down barriers of trade and investments. As such, companies in the Philippines must embrace this opportunity and gear up for the regional demand.

Launched on Dec. 31, 2015 during the 27th ASEAN Summit held in Malaysia, the AEC is the third largest market in the world — behind China and India — with a population of 622 million.

The AEC creates an integrated market which will allow free flow of goods and services, investment, credit and skilled workers, and the freer movement of capital among member nations.

“As companies are being forced to innovate faster, a lot of them have to do more with less IT (information technology),” said Wong.

“Access to open source lowers the barriers of the use of technology for these companies,” he added, noting that open source allows for scalability.

Wong said that leveraging open source can give that IT agility and automation needed to put entrepreneurs in a good position to scale up.

“Many companies, especially mid-size ones, do not use technology as much to power the business. But, as business grows and scales up, automation and the use of IT systems are going to be more pervasive,” he stressed.

According to Wong, the cost to drive innovation with open source is low due to its shared development model, thus leveling the playing field for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“As budding, growing companies, they might not have the same budget as the Fortune 500 companies, and therefore they need to have access to cost effective technologies,” said the Red Hat senior director.

Wong said that embracing open source should no longer remain an alternative but a non-negotiable platform to strengthen the capabilities of enterprises.

“The Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia and we see a lot of investment in enterprise IT. We expect many companies to adopt Red Hat technology,” Wong said.

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technology. (PNA) LAM/FMC