Challenger and Datapipe Target Singapore’s US$4.13 Billion E-Commerce Market

·  Singapore’s
leading electronics retailer Challenger looks to bolster its online presence;
key to this is secure, scalable IT infrastructures – deployed and managed by
Datapipe

·  Takes aim
at fast growing domestic e-commerce sector; revenues from e-commerce in
Singapore are pegged to grow to US$6.42 billion in 2020, up from US$4.13
billion in 2016, according to research firm Statista

SINGAPORE, 13
APRIL 2016 – Challenger Technologies Limited (SGX:573), Singapore’s largest
electronics retailer, has teamed up withDatapipe, a leader in
managing IT solutions for businesses and enterprises, to drive its e-commerce
transformation. Datapipe will support Challenger’s aggressive digital
transformation, integrating its in-store and online shopping experience. The
retail giant, which has grown to almost 50 stores across Singapore, looks to
online retail to complement its strong offline presence. Key to this is
ensuring its IT infrastructure is scalable, secure and compliant with local
regulations, an environment managed by Datapipe.

Loo Leong Thye, CEO at Challenger, said, “Consumer shopping
patterns are fast-changing .and with it, retail itself has evolved. Their
experiences and interaction with our brand is not just in the store, but also
on their smartphone, or their personal computers. Our goal is to be with them
every step of that journey. Working with Datapipe has helped us embrace digital
transformation. With their expertise in building IT infrastructures that are
robust, having complex backend functions and improved operational efficiencies
are key to us taking advantage of Singapore’s e-commerce growth.”

The B2C e-commerce market in Singapore is expected to grow from
US$4.13 billion in 2016 to US$6.42 billion in 2020; a compounded annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 11.69 per cent, according to research firm Statista. To
capitalise on Singapore’s booming e-commerce opportunity, Challenger has
shifted its gear to embrace digital transformation for its business. The
architecture and shift of its operational systems, including point of sales
(PoS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and online marketplaces, onto the
cloud was deployed and managed by Datapipe.

Datapipe moved Challenger’s IT infrastructure to an Amazon Web
Services (AWS) environment. –. This public cloud environment helped Challenger
to reduce its lead time for IT infrastructure when building new stores from 6-8
weeks to a matter of days. Challenger’s renewed ability to automate and scale
infrastructure easily on the AWS platform to meet rapidly growing online
demand, as well as a high level of security and compliance expected of a
digital-first business, has resulted from the Datapipe partnership. Moreover,
the company’s ability to shift internal IT resources from routine maintenance
to encourage innovation and revenue growth is more apparent than ever.

Joshua Woon, CTO at Challenger said, “Datapipe’s expertise in
designing, deploying and managing best of breed AWS environments has been
instrumental in solving our issues while guiding us on our cloud journey. This
allowed us to focus on our business and bring about improvements to information
gathering, ordering, fulfilment, and service.”

Robb Allen, CEO at Datapipe, said, “Datapipe has a rich history
in deploying and managing AWS environments for global customers and has
recently added a growing number of Asian customers into this strong portfolio.
Challenger has emerged from the transformation with a true Online to Offline
(O2O) model that allows for a more integrated shopping experience.”

“In the second half of 2015, Challenger was one the key
customers we moved onto the AWS platform.  It has been rewarding to see
this retail market leader undergo a major digital transformation. At Datapipe,
we enable accelerated cloud adoption, allowing businesses to focus on core
competencies while gaining the operational and cost benefits from next
generation cloud technologies,” added Allen.

Datapipe set up its Singapore office in 2014, with the country
being a key ASEAN and APAC hub for a number of large MNCs and enterprises. The
office serves as one of Datapipe’s two Asian head offices, with Hong Kong set
up to manage North Asian enterprise customers.  Asian markets are quickly
growing and driving global enterprise technology growth, particularly around
cloud computing adoption. To meet these market demands, Datapipe has grown its
headcount in Asia 30 per cent year-on-year for the last four years as it
continues to help mid-market and enterprise organization design, deploy and
manage public and private cloud solutions.