18 INTERVIEW
Unlocking the power of industrial big data for SMEs Egils Janis Rubenis, CEO of integrationWorks Asia
Thailand is moving forward to become a value-based and innovation-driven economy under the “Thailand 4.0” policy. The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly playing an important role in transforming the country with the new S-Curve targeted industries. Big data provides many opportunities such as cost reduction, as well as support for the efficiency of decision-making and the creation of new business ideas. The German-Thai Chamber of Commerce (GTCC) recently interviewed Mr. Egils Janis Rubenis, CEO of integrationWorks Asia Co., Ltd. He co-founded the company in 2015 in Bangkok as a joint venture with integrationWorks GmbH, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. In close co-operation, they have set up global projects, from Managed Project Outsourcing (MPO) over the implementation of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) architectures to software development projects such as the implementation of Microservices architectures. Established in January 2015 in Bangkok, integrationWorks Asia aims to become one of the leading integration specialists in Thailand. The company has been providing services to customers in the banking, trading and automotive sectors. The architecture and development team in Bangkok, led by specialists with deep knowledge of Industry 4.0 and various types of software such as IBM WebSphere Integration Bus, IBM WebSphere MQ, Java Software Development, Microser vices Architecture, and MindSphere (Siemens). In addition to implementing EAI solutions for global customers, the company is set to launch its new cloud-based platform, “OCTOBUS”, in August to expand its market to all industrial sectors, with the focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). What opportunities in Thailand motivated you to set up a company here? Back to 2014 in Munich, Germany, we signed a BMW project but did not have enough staff to set it up. At that time, it was very difficult to find software developers in Germany as the market was expanding and the costs were exploding. Thus, we started looking for a market somewhere else for outsourcing. After consulting with aThai company owner who had already operated an
UPDATE 3/2020
IT company for more than 15 years, we agreed to set up a new company in Bangkok, which mar ked the establishment of integrationWor ks Asia. We applied for Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) support from the beginning. We had to submit our business plan and other requirements such as how we would finance the company. However, everything went well. After the establishment of the company in Thailand, we exclusively suppor ted architecture and software development for companies in Germany, working on projects for e.g. BMW in Munich. Three years ago, we signed a contract with Siam Commercial Bank (SCB). SCB was in progress transforming to an OPEN Application Programming Interface (API) architecture and the use of a lot of multi-channels like mobile phones. A year later we signed our next Microservice project with SCB Life Assurance. Since then, the number of IntegrationWorks Asia’s employees has expanded to 34 with a variety of talented Thai IT specialists and European experts. Our philosophy is to hire top-grade people. In mid 2019, we started developing OCTOBUS with the aim of launching it at the end of August 2020. We are currently in the process launch preparation.
