Workday launches in Bangkok, Amazon touts cloud growth

United States-based Workday officially entered the Thai market last week with its cloud-based solutions for finance and human resource firms and divisions, while the head of Amazon in Thailand said Thai corporations are warming to the benefits and possibilities of using cloud services, which should translate into strong growth for service providers.

“Apart from startups, we saw more interest from traditional big corporations last year,” said Chawapol Jariyawiroj, country manager for Amazon Web Services (Thailand).

Because Thai corporations have been slow to dive into cloud services, Chawapol is predicting that the market for those services will grow rapidly during the next four to five years. He said industries such as the financial, retail, telecoms, manufacturing, media and entertainment, and digital businesses will lead the pack in adopting cloud technology and solutions.

“Changes in customer behavior and digital disruption have driven those sectors to adopt more cloud services,” Chawapol said, adding that adopting cloud services can lead to a transformational change in organizations.

“During digital transformations, corporations need to have an innovation culture of ‘learn and fail fast’ to launch new services faster, get customer feedback and reinvent new developments, then get back to customers,” he said.

Furthermore, companies providing other advanced technology solutions will also see a growth in opportunities in Thailand. “Data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence are highly interested in banks and retail, as they need to predict customers’ preferences,” Chawapol said.

American firm Workday hosted a panel discussion as part of its launch in Bangkok last week. The discussion, entitled “Engaging Thailand’s Future Workforce” focused on new trends in human resources and technology that will change the way people work. The panel included local businesspeople and academics.

Workday is providing cloud solutions to both local and international clients in Thailand including Agoda Thailand, Principal Healthcare (a subsidiary of Principal Capital) and Bangchak Corporation, a local energy firm. Glico Thailand, a subsidiary of the Japanese food giant, is the latest company to sign on for Workday’s services.

David Hope, Workday’s president, Asia Pacific, said the company wants to establish a greater presence in Asia as part of its global growth strategy.

He stressed that the way people work is changing and human resource professionals need to adapt to that. As an example he cited how millennials are increasingly attracted to the idea of on-demand work. This gives them more control over their working day, and contributes to the flexibility that millennials desire.

He said Workday’s products and services could help human resource managers better identify employees’ needs and desires and assist them in meeting the demands of workers.