FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
their new revenue streams and customer
experiences. By approaching them after
their innovative go-to-market offering
has been launched, it is already too late in
terms of being internally aligned with the
end user. But after the launch and when
the service is up and running, the next
opportunity appears in maintaining the
back end of a complex application.
“For this you will also need to have the
expertise of a specialised subject matter
expert. That is going to yield you another
business opportunity for 12 to 24 months.
But then in 24 months this part will most
probably have become a commodity, and
by then you would have already been
working on something new,” elaborates
Berner, on the successive technology life
cycles of innovation and commoditisation.
For first-mover system integration
companies like Help AG, making upfront
investments is standard practice.
Investments need to be made into quality
of service, including the right resources,
skillsets, back end and everything that
is related. “If you want to be a leader
you invest. I have hardly ever seen any
investment that pays back on the first day
and usually we have to make sure to provide
quality in the first place,” says Berner. “The
whole of Help AG as an organisation is run
on profitability. We are here to make profit.”
Some 15 months ago, Help AG launched
its latest offering in the regional market
place: its managed security services
for end-user organisations. The initial
expectation was that this service would
be profitable after two years, but it has
already started returning profits in less
than that time period. “If you look into
the contribution of managed security
services three years down the line, it will
heavily contribute to the profitability of the
organisation,” explains Berner. “But even
today, we are not interested in selling a
security hardware device. This is where we
have to walk away as Help AG, because we
cannot provide any added value.”
The Middle
East is rapidly
moving up the
innovation
curve, and is
increasingly
becoming
home to early
adopters of
the latest
technology
innovations.
Andrew Calthorpe, CEO
at Condo Protego.
Organisations are
focusing their IT
investments in areas
that will help them
drive down costs.
Sherif Fahmy, Marketing
Manager at IST.
UAE Vision 2021 and Dubai Smart City, and mega-events such as Expo 2020 Dubai, are major drivers for information management.
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ssue 08
NTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS