Channel Post speaks to Rohan Tejura, the Associate Vice President at Focus Softnet about their plans for GITEX this year
How is the technology market evolving in the MEA region?
The current trend is an exciting one when it comes to Technology in Africa. Global not-for-profit organizations are investing heavily in various regions and sectors across East and West Africa, through regional and local governments to procure “Robust Governance” software solutions.
The trend brings about greater transparency and efficiency in the local Government machinery which inevitably will translate to regional growth, stability and invariably boost their local commerce as well.
The Middle Eastern regions in their own right have shown significant growth, not just over the past few months, but over the entire year. Private sector entrepreneurial outfits have invested heavily in upgrading their traditional accounting solutions to more complex business governance ERP solutions to keep up with the administrative demands of growth that they have observed, and also to meet with compliance standards of their overseas associations.
The corporate and government sectors themselves have been investing in upgrading from their own existing infrastructure to cloud-based and global solutions as well as mobility solutions, aiming for higher flexibility; not to mention the Analytics based solutions, bringing about a heavy dependence on Business Intelligence Systems.
All-in-all, the MEA region has been an exciting arena of I.T. activity, and it is primed for more!
Which ICT products are in demand in the MEA region?
On a macro level, the trend that we have observed has moved towards the implementation of more “Value-Added Services”, whereas on a micro level, the trend has been towards the adoption of higher complexity administrative and governance solutions. There has been a significant shift over the past few years in consumer ICT demands.
The current trend is steered more towards catching up to globally accepted “mature solutions” as opposed to simply deploying the baseline infrastructure as has been traditionally observed over the past few years. This seems to be the era of “Specialized” and “Target Specific” solution deployment for the region with a demand for cloud-based and mobility compliant solutions allowing portability of information and control.
Which technologies are most-wanted, in sectors such as enterprise, SMB and end consumers?
In our opinion, the enterprise sector is currently demanding strong governance solutions, analytics solutions, and cloud based mobility compliant solutions. The SMB and end consumers are moving towards “entry-level” or “mid-level” ERP solutions capable of handling multiple locations, partially complex business processes, and basic governance automation solutions.
The trends overall point towards a growing need for governance solutions in order to maximize available administrative bandwidth to handle larger business volumes, or in other words, scaling up business without increasing resource overheads.
What do you plan to achieve through GITEX Technology Week this year?
We have some big announcements at GITEX including the launch of our latest enterprise solution that will break the mould in Business Governance, Business Intelligence, and Information Control.
Our global growth story has also been an exciting one. Last year, we grew into North America, Australia and a few African countries, and we have received an overwhelming positive response from those markets. It is clear that our current global footprint of 17 countries isn’t enough, and we hope through the GITEX Technology Week, to be able to establish strong ties and relationships with new markets.
Most importantly though, we would like to welcome the MEA region players to our Partnership Program, which has seen a tremendous response and success this year. We are proud to have been able to create a business platform that provides innovative entrepreneurs a strong technological platform to create business opportunities for themselves as well as provide cutting edge innovative solutions to their clients, adding value not just commercially, but through business ethos as well.
What’s going to be your theme at GITEX Technology Week this year?
Our theme will be “focused” on our new ERP product. We will, of course, showcase our entire spectrum of solutions, but the principle “focus” will be on our new launch.
Do you have plans to conduct raffle draws, give away gifts and so on for end consumers this year?
Yes, we do have plans to conduct some draws and provide give-aways, but you’ll have to come visit us @ GITEX Hall 7D/20 to know more.
Tell us about your channel strategies this year.
We have seen tremendous growth and success in our Channel Partner program, and have matured the model to a whole new level. The current format provides an unparalleled level of interaction and support that our partners enjoy, coupled with one of the most lucrative revenue programs enabling our channels to operate on a hugely successful entrepreneurial format, providing a very strong value proposition for themselves and their clients.
We welcome potential partners to come visit us and our program experts will be happy to talk you through the opportunities at hand. We are providing attractive benefits to our Channel Partners who enrole during the GITEX event. Come visit us for details.
