FEATURE: NURTURING LOCAL PRESENCE
W
hile this failure has been
attributed to a long list
of well-worn excuses, I
firmly believe that with patience and
the right long term strategy, a locally
based IT organisation can grow to
just as successful in the region as a
global brand- this is after all what Help
AG has managed to do over the last
decade! Some of the key ingredients in
our formula for success are as follows:
Playing to your strengths
One of the key strengths for Help AG’s
has been our dedicated focus on IT
security. Far too many organisations
in the region endeavour to position
themselves as ‘one-stop-shops’ for
everything IT in the hope that this
would give them wider relevance in
the market and a greater scope for
business.
What these companies fail to
realize however is that strategic
specialisation does not lead to pigeon
holing, but rather allows you to
offer unmatched value and quality
in your area of expertise. Solutions
from the various domains of IT
such as security, network, storage,
ERP, and application development
are leveraged by all major industry
verticals and the growing complexity
of IT today encourages the utilisation
of best-of-breed point products rather
than single vendor architectures.
Finding your niche and investing
in your workforce to develop an
unmatched level of expertise is
what will set you apart from the
competition.
Addressing the regional skills
shortage
Lack of qualified professionals is often
cited as a major hurdle to growing
an organisation’s local presence.
However, I believe that the problem is
not lack of expertise but rather failure
to attract and retain skilled personnel.
INITIATIVES SUCH AS ROUND TABLES FOR CIOs AND
HIGH-LEVEL CUSTOMERS THAT FOSTER THE SHARING OF
INFORMATION AND BEST PRACTICE; QUARTERLY FORUMS
THAT OUTLINE AND DETAIL THE LATEST TRENDS AND
DEVELOPMENTS; AND EVEN WEBINARS AND TRAINING
SESSIONS ARE ALL VERY EFFECTIVE…
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