Industry Financial services Company A payment and transaction processing services provider, Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) operates a nationwide infrastructure in Singapore that enables payment via ATM cards. Employees 226 IT staff 53 Annual IT Budget S$16 million (US$10 million) to S$17 million (US$10.7 million)

Today, its services can be found in more than 12,500 merchants and 30,000 points of access, including retail outlets, educational institutions and government agencies, across Singapore.

Perhaps, its most significant achievement can be found in its CashCard product, a smart card device capable of storing cash value and for use with various applications including retail purchases and Singapore's electronic road toll system. In addition, 90 percent of car parks in Singapore accept payments by CashCard.

To date, there are 4.5 million active CashCards and over 5 million NETS-enabled ATM cards in circulation. Every day, NETS processes almost 700,000 transactions.

And it continues to look for new ways to use technology in its business.

According to NETS CEO Poh Mui Hoon, the company plans to formalize an IT governance framework to improve its IT service delivery, ensuring that response time is quicker and projects run on time and within budget.

In the next year, NETS will plan and execute the renewal of its key IT infrastructure. "This revolves around identifying future capacity and technological requirements, and phasing in new technology in hardware and software to prevent technology obsolescence," she said.

Poh noted that while NETS is "heartened" that it has been named a ZDNet Asia Smart50 company, it is aware that the industry is still "very competitive".

The CEO said: "[We] cannot afford to rest on our laurels. Our vision is to become an organization that is as respected for its savvy use of IT, as it is for its payment solutions."

She also paid tribute to her IT staff for their "teamwork, dedication and agility in responding to changes in the business environment".