Educating the customer a challenge in Thailand market

The systems integration business is becoming increasingly complex as technological advancements and decreasing product price margins create challenges. But apart from the obvious concerns, there are some issues that are unique to certain markets. In Thailand market, for instance, a major challenge is over-expectations from the end user.

“Actually, with the new technology, sometimes, the customer watches many movies [and] they ask for lot of high technologies, but in fact, the technology cannot answer every question, every requirement,” said Wissawat Chotbenjakul, MD of Thailand-based SI, Fit IT And Solutions. “Regarding accuracy, like in license plate reader, sometimes in Thailand the Thai letter is quite strange, quite different from English letter, so sometimes when reading it’s not that accurate. May be face [recognition], eye, actually is ok, but the budget is too high. I’m going to say that in Thailand, customer needs quite high technology, but in the real world, you have to think of budgets and accuracy.”

Hence customer-education is an important part of the business for SIs. Besides this, there are other challenges that SIs face in the country. Chotbenjakul said that a major concern has been the political situation of Thailand. This had hurt his business last year, but he expects the current year to be better.

“You know in Thailand we are in a special political situation,” Chotbenjakul said. “So last year was not that good, because of the investors. Actually, I almost got one project, from a worldwide manufacturer. They planned to invest in Thailand to build a new factory. I quoted the price to them and the project was almost done. One day I got a letter, saying they would like to postpone this project by three months and if I could confirm this price. I said yes. Another few months later this project was cancelled due to the political conditions. We missed the project, due to something we can’t control. So last year was not that good. But this year is doing better.”

There are also concerns on foreign investment. In Thailand, one of the main sources of the economy is foreign investment. Japanese and European companies build factories in Thailand, and that’s a major source of income for the country.

“If something happened and that kind of business or investment hesitates to do or not to do, we are unstable,” Chotbenjakul said. Finding skilled labor is also a challenge, Chotbenjakul said. According to him, in Thailand, people like to hold a pen, but not tools.