In an interview with Faiz Askari, Head—Online & Features of Network World Middle East, Zafar Shabdiz, Managing Director of Secureway discussed some of the unique attractions and market dynamics of Middle East.
What are the unique advantages of being in an emerging market of mobility and security in a region like Gulf?
We are gaining market leadership on being a first mover specialist value added distribution.
Regarding opportunities in enterprise sector it is very important for one to highlight that it’s an emerging market governments want to use IT to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.
Some Middle East governments have unique opportunities to build systems that are more efficient and effective than the older ones used by more developed nations. The Government have the opportunity to build their systems from scratch to provide more effective services and lower cost. The good thing here is there is no complex legacy systems.
Emerging markets will continue to be innovative and aggressive in implementing government systems, when best-in-class technologies along with resources are available to them. The growth factor in Internet usage we can expect over 1000% compare to rest of the world 300%
What is the status of this market, can you share the size of the market?
The increasing number of IT security attacks, ongoing vulnerability discoveries and the need to comply with new legislation are helping the growth of global IT security market.
The region's economic growth and wealth creation is astonishing. Spendings of around $200m in the GCC with an over 25% year on year growth is happening whereas globally this figure is at 15%. While with government and banking segment spending more than 30% and 20% of the amount, it is going to reach $500m by 2011.
What will be your priority areas for next one year? Can you also share some of your strategic roadmap for the future?
We will be focusing on delivering more business value, more resellers are becoming specialized in niche technologies, helping them with adapting their business models from pure reselling to solutions provision is our key value proposition. Proactive skills transfer, mentoring, pre and post sales support are crucial for developing their specialist businesses segments and important for those entering new segments for the first time. When entering complex niches such as IT security and application optimization, the learning curve can be very steep.
For next couple of years we are also going to enhance further the DNA of our new channel program, it will be the most end-user centric and channel friendly model offering a suite of programs and promotions which not only reward partners for their commitment to Secureway and assures exceptional end-user satisfaction. Our vendors will be the active partners in the creation of this DNA.
We will also be focussing ourselves in growing and strengthen our regional presence, realistically this means spreading our technical expertise and getting more people on the ground, getting closer to individual Middle Eastern markets.
What opportunities do you see for your business till 2010?
Gaining more market share with our leading vendors and introducing fresh start-ups in IT security with innovative offering to the Middle East's fast and aggressive marketplace.
Export our success and extend our reach to other immerging markets apart from Middle East.
Which all business verticals do you target?
Education, government, finance and military are some of our prime focus verticals.
