Metanet (Chairman Choi Young-sang) made a prediction that it will become the first mid-tier South Korean IT company to make $929 million (1 trillion KRW) in annual sales. This will be a first challenge for a mid-tier IT company in South Korea’s IT service environment that is centered on large South Korean corporations and foreign companies.
Metanet made an announcement on the 25th that it has made $743 million (800 billion KRW) from its 12 subsidiaries in annual sales this year. It is looking to become the first mid-tier South Korean IT group to make more than $929 million (1 trillion KRW) in annual sales in 2018. It currently has about 9,000 employees from its 12 subsidiaries.
“We have diversified range of our services towards consulting, digital, technology, and operation (outsourcing).” said a representative for Metanet. “We have changed ourselves as a company that provides total B2B (Business to Business) services.”
Metanet’s major capability is its ability to provide ‘end-to-end’ services. It supports entire process for a company to innovate and grow into a digital transformation. It also takes care of difficult and inconvenient tasks such as consulting, digital, technology, and operation that customers do not want to do.
Metanet vertically integrated its corresponding businesses in order to increase level of synergy and its subsidiaries such as Metanet Global (consulting), Daewoo Information Systems (system establishment), Metanet Interactive (digital interactive design), and Comas (infrastructure maintenance) will help Metanet with such task. Metanet is going to present diagnosis and changes through consulting. It is going to implement systems through technologies and help with efficient management through operations. In a long-term, it is going to have cooperative strategic relationship with its customers and continue innovative managements with them.
Metanet, which was established in 2000 as a consulting company, prepared foundations for its growth by acquiring promising companies in IT field. At the time when it was established, it set up Metanet SNC (currently Metanet Interactive), acquired Metanet MCC and Billpost, and expanded range of its outsourcing towards contact center and business printing.
Metanet started growing faster after 2012 when it acquired Daewoo Information Systems and it quickly placed itself as a leading mid-tier IT service provider. Daewoo Information Systems is the top South Korean IT service provider excluding subsidiaries from large corporations and it does its businesses in public and SOC (Social Overhead Capital), finance, education, and manufacturing fields. It strengthened its IT capabilities in finance by additionally acquiring Comas and Nuri Solution.
Metanet strengthened its business capabilities by acquiring a consulting company called Accenture Korea in 2016 and it expanded range of its services towards front-end businesses of IT services and establishment of IT strategies by doing so. It changed name of Accenture Korea to Metanet Global and established partnership with Accenture. It is the only South Korean company to provide intellectual properties, professionals, and global delivery centers that are owned by global Accenture in South Korea.
Metanet set up strategies for its services in order to prepare for Industry 4.0. It established Metanet Fintech, Metanet Interactive, and Metanet Security so that it can deal with new FinTech and security technologies. Metanet is not going to just focus on external growth as it looks to change itself as a digital business platform business. It is going to support companies to make digital transformation through its capabilities in IT services utilizing major digital technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), Chatbot, Big Data, and Cloud.
“Although companies from all industries are hurrying digital transformation in order to prepare for Industry 4.0, it is difficult for them to have all of necessary capabilities.” said President Lee Tae-ha of Metanet Technology Service. “Metanet will become a platform that will globalize South Korean companies, create businesses that are applied with Industry 4.0-related technologies, and support digital transformation.”
Staff Reporter Shin, Hyekwon | hkshin@etnews.com