Oman vistas

INTEGRATED SYSTEMS LLC




Haitham Abu Nasser General Manager/Partner

Oman will have huge opportunities in the IT sector within five years, according to Haitham Abu Nasser, General Manager/Partner, Integrated Systems LLC. “By this time, more and more people will understand the true potential of IT in terms of achieving greater productivity and efficiency,” Haitham Nasser, who has been in the IT industry for the last 21 years (out of which 15 is spent in Oman), tells OmanVistas. Integrated Systems is an independent, locally owned company, established as a multi-division organisation in 1996 in Oman. The company is managed by a professional and highly experienced team focusing on fulfilling the technical and IT needs of major governmental, industrial and commercial potential of Oman. “Our mission, vision, goal and motto are entirely dedicated towards a successful long term partnership with customers aiming to be partners in progress. Our obligation is to provide the Omani market (government and corporate) with state-of-the-art technologies, support and services. It has been an exciting time to be involved with the industry and we are looking forward to thecoming years and being able to provide systems and products to meet the demands of the future,” Haitham enthused. Excerpts: How has Integrated Systems grown over the years? We managed to build a long-term relationship with our customers, and companies began to realize that we are the right partners for them. And in this manner, we grow slowly, but steadily. Our annual growth is between five to ten percent. Plus, we have more than 300 customers, both in the local and the overseas markets. We also have customers in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the AGCC countries. But, has competition been tough? Of course, we have always faced stiff competition. Especially, with products like Fujitsu-Siemens. We also have good competition with products like HP, IBM, Acer, Dell...But, in the other security, services, outsourcing, etc., the competition is far less. What about the clientele? Most of our revenue comes from the government sector, while 20 to 25 percent comes from the corporate customers, banking, oil and gas and public companies. How would you compare the growth in the six months of this year with the corresponding period last year? Our aim was to achieve eight percent growth for this year, but I guess, we have exceeded that and are comfortably placed at around 12 to 14 percent growth, as compared to the second quarter, last year. Oman has also registered good growth. Foreign investments have also been coming into the country. These range from companies from Europe, the USA and even to the Far East. What is the structure of the company and also the Omanisation percentage? In total we have 24 employees. We have achieved our Omanisation percentage and have in fact, exceeded the percentage required by the government. The IT companies in Oman need to have 20 percent Omanisation percentage, but Integrated Systems has achieved more than 25 percent. Some of our Omanis are senior engineers. Plans are also afoot to have them in the management. And the Omanis are doing well? Yes, the Omanis are doing quite well. Those Omanis who have joined us in very juniour levels are now in senior posts. Their salaries have also equally increased several folds from RO200 to RO700. What do you think of the current IT scene in Oman? It is a tough market. The problem we face with people is that we are not seeing tangible services. So, that is why when we are awarded a project, the implementation and execution of that (project) takes a long time. How would you term the IT market here? Are we still in our infancy? Definitely! But, there are a lot of opportunities. It is a highly potential and fast growing market. And I think in five years, we will have huge opportunities in the IT arena because people will start realizing its value, in terms of achieving greater productivity and efficiency! What are the future plans of Integrated Systems? We have an IT company and we used to have food and beverages’ business too. We used to own the Tarbouche restaurant, but we have sold it off, recently. We try to diversify our business as much as possible. The IT business is not as mature as we would like it to be. So, we need to have different businesses to secure our operations and make the company survive longer. We hope to be in the top 10 in the next five years and we also have many other plans and other businesses which will come on stream in early 2008. What are the challenges ahead? The main challenges stem from slow decision making. This is an area that needs to be tackled as slow decisions are not helping us achieve our objectives. So, how do you plan to overcome such issues in the future? We are open to different businesses. In the IT, we are having four core businesses now. Plans are also afoot to rope in one or two businesses in the future in areas where we see lots of needs, in terms of services and security. Today, there is an increased demand for security. We find that lots of people want to secure their premises; their investments etc. So, the challenges are not from within? No. And now we are facing a huge challenge with regards to the expenditure of our employees. Look, we spend a lot to train our employees, but then neighbouring countries are increasingly wooing experienced personnel from Oman with promises of huge salaries and other emoluments. Most of them are offered double or triple the salaries offered here. This year we lost three to four staff – mostly expatriates -- to our neighbouring countries. Has Cyclone Gonu affected your operations? No. But, it affected our customers. They had not planned well. They did not have a disaster-recovery plan and they faced big problems in terms of equipment loss and the like.