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The inside guide to the needs of Middle East IT managers.
The financial crisis has seriously rutted the playing field for those working in the region’s truncating IT sector. CIOs are taking fire from the boardroom and facing up to the reality of reduced IT budgets, while at the same time having to show that the investments they do make go even further than usual — a scenario that you, the IT provider, are probably quite used to hearing by now. With the current financial climate increasingly forcing IT managers to account for every dollar spent, it is vital that the Middle East channel knows exactly what customers want and expect from an IT provider. With that in mind, we went straight to the source and asked six prominent IT executives from around the region to lay out everything that systems integrators need to bear in mind:
• Srood Al Sherif (SS) - CIO - National Bank of Abu Dhabi (Finance Sector)
• Grant Baxter (GB) - IT Manager - The Palladium, ICE (Entertainment Sector)
• Abdulsalam Al Bastaki (AB) - Director of IT and Services - Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (Government Sector)
• Paul O’Kirwan (PO) - IT Director - Dubai Mercantile Exchange (Commodities Trading Sector)
• Ahmed Al Mulla (AM) - VP Information Technology - Dubai Aluminium (Manufacturing Sector)
• Ashraf Hamed (AH), IT Manager Egypt and Middle East - Duravit (Furnishing Sector)
What do you look for when selecting an IT provider?
SS: One of the first things I look for is the people behind the IT provider — who they are, their backgrounds and track record in the industry. I also look for the quality of their offerings and the value proposition of an engagement with the provider, as well as their stability, users, presence in the area and, naturally, the quality of their deliverables.
AH: The longer the years of experience and the wider the experience, the better. Cross-platform experience would usually provide wider and deeper insights into innovative and agile solutions. They must understand and commit to service level agreements, under-pinning contracts and guaranteed response times. In addition to this, a provider must maintain a budget cycle, work within strict business constraints related to payment cycles and payment upon delivery requirements. They should practice a service-geared set-up that provides a clear and efficient escalation process and learn from unavoidable setbacks. We like transparent business which includes the ability to share bad news so that we can work together to solve any issues.
GB: They must be able to deliver on their promises. It is perfectly acceptable for parts to be out of stock or people to be busy, but what is unacceptable is when someone promises two to three weeks knowing it is going to take six weeks. It makes them look unprofessional and it damages my reputation. By far and away the most important thing to me is communication.
I’d be happy to pay a premium to a systems integrator who drops me a call each day as a project progresses to keep me up to date. If something is going to be delayed, the sooner I know about it, the sooner I can put measures in place to cope with it.
What are the biggest mistakes systems integrators make?
PO: I’ve had scenarios where SIs have basically ignored the scope or the specifications that we laid out initially. They were totally controlled by the vendor. You have the situation where certain partners are fed business by the vendor and that can be a problem because sometimes they follow the scope that the vendor has laid out.
AB: The biggest mistake they make is they look at the price and try to beat the others by being cheaper. They can’t give you the right solution that way and they end up losing and then complain, “We could have given you the higher solution too.”
SS: One of the biggest mistakes is thinking that they can get by without committing their very best efforts and resources to the work. Another equally bad mistake is not being completely honest and transparent. Relationships have to be built on trust and confidence. System integrators should avoid doing anything that could undermine a customer’s trust and confidence in them.
AH: We hate to see unsustained levels of service. Lack of transparent business processes can make a bad situation worse through delaying bad news until the situation deteriorates beyond. Another problem is the inability to cope with agile business requirements, changes in payment terms and business work flows.
