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elkom-Telstra, a newly launched joint venture between PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and Australian telecommunications giant Telstra Corporation Limited, aims to grab half of the country'€™s network application and services (NAS) market share, by targeting banking and financial institutions.

Telkom innovation and strategic portfolio director Indra Utoyo said it was possible for the new joint venture to achieve the marketing target for its NAS because Telkom already controlled about 60 percent of the country'€™s network solution market in the enterprise segment.

'€œThe services are cloud-based managed network services that will enable customers to manage information, communication and technology [ICT] in a simple way,'€ he said after the launch of the joint venture on Wednesday.

Telkom-Telstra would utilize a one cloud platform for multi users, compared to a one cloud platform for one customer, which was being used by Telkom'€™s subsidiary, Telkomsigma, he explained.

Combining Telkom'€™s established ICT infrastructure in the country and Telstra'€™s management of network services, the joint venture was expected to cash in billions of rupiah during the first year of operations in the country'€™s growing ICT market, Telkom-Telstra president director Phillip Sporton said.

The company was targeting 60 companies this year, both local and global, which were operating in the country, he told The Jakarta Post.

Adopting a bolder stance, Telkom enterprise and business service director Muhammad Awaluddin said Telkom-Telstra had targeted to pocket around Rp 50 billion (US$3.8 million) to Rp 100 billion in sales during its first year of operation.

The joint venture, which is 51 percent owned by Telkom and 49 percent by Telstra, was set up with start-up capital of less than $10 million, of which $4.9 million had come from Telkom.

Awaluddin said the market potential for Telkom-Telstra remained large, as Telkom was serving around 1,300 corporate clients, with many not yet using a type of service that Telkom-Telstra offered.

'€œThe market with the most potential for the service will be banking and financial institutions. The industry will require better cloud services, besides regulations on IT infrastructure for banking sector already being in place,'€ he said.

Banking, financial services and insurance will remain the largest ICT spender, with total spending of $1.04 billion or around 27 percent of the country'€™s estimated total ICT spending of $3.8 billion in 2019, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.

International Data Corporation (IDC) Indonesia head of operations Sudev Bangah said Indonesian enterprises had evolved dramatically over the past five years and the call for higher value ICT services had been made clear.

'€œOur research shows that approximately two-thirds of Indonesian enterprises plan to invest in cloud services over the coming 12 months,'€ he said.

Telkom-Telstra, based in Jakarta, provides managed solution services, comprising managed network services, managed cloud services, managed security services and unified communications and collaboration.