Digital heavyweight NCS NEXT looks to grow workforce by 10-15%

As if the rivalry for technology talent couldn’t wasn’t challenging enough, Singapore-based NCS has established a firm foothold in Australia - and has ambitions to grow the workforce of its digital services arm NEXT by 10-15 percent by 2025.  

“We are confident in the outlook and strong take-up of digital tech, despite numerous layoffs within our local tech market,” stated NEXT joint-leader and ARQ Group chief executive Tristan Sternson this week. “As such, the expansion of NEXT in Australia will see a 10-15 per cent increase in new tech roles created by 2025.” 

NEXT now boasts 2,000 people in the Asia Pacific region, with nearly half in Australia. NCS CEO Ng Kuo Pin trumpeted the business as “one of the largest end-to-end digital powerhouses in the region.”

NEXT focuses on digital data, cloud and platforms, and opportunities in responsible AI, multi-platform digital world, “robots as your colleagues, “meta-everywhere” and “digital humans”.

Its digital services dovetail with NCS’s applications, infrastructure, engineering and cybersecurity services.

Leading NEXT with Sternson is Wynthia Goh, who has led regional digital teams in Asia Pacific for companies such as Aviva, SAP, eBay and Nokia. 

NCS NEXT held its launch event this week in the metaverse, as well as at in-person events in Melbourne and Singapore.

Australian acquisitions

NEXT's staff numbers were boosted by a string of NCS acquisitions, including ARQ Group, 2359 Media, Riley, ClayOPS, Velocity and Eighty20 Solutions.

Earlier this year, the Singapore-based NCS Group bought Melbourne digital services company ARQ Group for $290 million.

The ARQ purchase was the Singtel subsidiary’s fourth Australian acquisition in 15 months. Since December 2020, NCS has purchased Dialog Group, Google Cloud consultancy Riley and a majority stake in 2020 Fast 50 No. 4 Eighty20 Solutions.

At the time we reported the buyout, Arq Group was expected to bring 560 staff to NCS, boosting the NCS headcount to 1,900 across in Australia.

The Dialog purchase added capabilities ranging from strategic IT consulting through to application development and managed application services to long-term operational support. 

Riley is a cloud consultancy and Google cloud applications specialist, and Eighty20 Solutions is a cloud transformation specialist with Microsoft cloud platform capabilities.
NEXT’s leadership team is bullish about the opportunities ahead.