Samsung SDS President Hong Won-pyo. (Photo: Samsung SDS)

Samsung SDS, a system integration unit of Samsung Group, last year became the first Korean IT service company to post more than 10 trillion won in annual sales. On the back of rising revenues in IT services such as AI and smart factories, Samsung SDS saw annual sales and operating profit surge 8 percent and 20 percent in 2018, compared to the previous year, respectively.

An electronic document filing posted on Jan. 24 showed that Samsung SDS chalked up 10,034.2 billion won in 2018 in sales and 877.4 billion won in operating profit. The company logged 2,782.1 billion won in sales in the fourth quarter of 2018, a 15 percent surge over the previous quarter and 258.3 billion won in operating profit, the best quarter performance, a 29 percent jump.

Samsung SDS achieved 31 percent growth in 2018 over the previous year in four strategic IT businesses – intelligent factory, cloud, AI/analytics (big data analysis technology) and solution, contributing greatly to surpassing 10 trillion won in sales.

Samsung SDS, which once specialized in the mainstay SI business, declared it would become an IT solution company focusing on developing new technologies, as the company and other subsidiaries were banned from participating in the public SI business.

The company has been focusing on the four strategic businesses, including intelligent factory, cloud, and AI/analytics. Samsung SDS’s turnabout has paid off – the four business segments achieved good business performances. Samsung SDS said the company succeeded in changing from a traditional SI company into an IT solution firm.

Samsung SDS’s mainstay service in the intelligent factory segment is “NextPlant,” a smart factory solution, combined with IT. Samsung SDS saw the segment post a 46 percent jump in sales in 2018, compared to the previous year as the company had diversified the intelligent factory business to industries such cosmetics and food & beverages on top of subsidiaries of Samsung Group. NextPlant is applied to four major segments – equipment, process, inspection and materials and logistics.

The platform can discover trouble spots and take countermeasures by gathering and analyzing data via IoT sensors attached to equipment. Customer companies which have introduced NextPlant have seen an equipment operation rate go up and process quality improve 30 percent through optimized process.

A process outfitted with an AI inspection prediction model has seen default discovery rate surge 3.5-fold and a default classification accuracy rate shoot up 32 percent through deep learning, Samsung SDS said.

Samsung SDS’s customer companies include companies in diverse industries such as Hyundai Mobis, POSCO, AmorePacific, and Binggrae, besides Samsung Group subsidiaries.

Samsung SDS saw the cloud business log a 31 percent jump in sales on the back of rising demand for digital transformation from corporate customers.

The company has enhanced business competitiveness by forging partnerships with global could companies such as SAP. Oracle and Del EMC and expanded business scope by combining new IT technologies such as AI, IoT and blockchain.

Samsung SDS saw the AL/analytics business jump 45 percent in sales in 2018 over the previous year by expanding its own AI-based big data analysis platform Brightics to segments such as manufacturing, logistics, fining and marketing.

Brightics AI transforms large volumes of data into easy-to-understand visuals using artificial intelligence. Samsung SDS’s AI-based analytics platform drives informed decision making, empowering companies to forecast sales and future demand, assess risk in real time, and predict equipment failures before they happen.