According to the International Telecommunication Union, in the ICT report Kuwait ranked 65th after other GCC countries.  What is your assessment of the Kuwaiti telecommunications sector and what are the market opportunities and challenges in the IT sector in Kuwait?

I think one of the challenges is the regulation of the telecommunications industry and the governments role.  Landline communication is ran by the government and it is behind other GCC countries for this reason.  When services are run by the government the service will not be at the level people expect it to be these days.

What are the future drivers of IT demands in Kuwait and the GCC?

There are a number of drivers in the region.  One is the government spending and two is how solid the private sector is in Kuwait as well as how these organizations compete for business.

Which domains and areas would you like to improve to facilitate your operations?

The more privatization that takes place the more benefit to IT will happen.  Also, the more efficiency is demanded from the government side will help drive IT as well.

EMC corporation, the world’s leader in information management and storage, has recently awarded ITS as the best regional partner in the Middle East.  What does this award mean to you?

For the last three years we have received this award from EMC.  This means we are a large, highly reputable organization and we perform in accordance to the expectations of international companies.  We are playing a pivotal role in the development of Kuwait.

Being in a highly competitive market how would you characterize your competitive strategy?

Our strategy is composed of a number of things.  First, we are a people driven organization and we rely on people and knowledge of our workers.  We integrate the knowledge of our works as well as technology to offer services and solutions that cover the full spectrum.

How would you define your major challenges?

Challenges come with the opportunities.  One of the challenges is the worldwide economic situation and another challenge in globalization as well as government privatization.

What is your strategy for the next three years?

Our strategy is to get our products competitive throughout the globe and be able to serve countries in the US and Europe.  We believe we have solutions that can serve banks and financial institutions in the west like Islamic banking and ethical banking solutions and we think there is a global demand for these products.  This is different than traditional banking as a product because of the tools like loans, interest, and profit.   We believe we have a competitive edge in this industry because it originated in this region and not in the west and we have knowledge and experience from 25 years of experience that allows us to provide solutions worldwide. 

ITS has integrated IT products and services in twenty countries with its main office located in Cairo.  Can you give us an overview of your products and elaborate on your communications’ strategy?

Our latest product is Ethixs which is our product for Islamic banking that consists of a number of components to service both Islamic and conventional banks that want to provide Islamic windows.  These solutions will work with conventional banks to provide a new type of product to customers looking for an Islamic banking window.  Our communications’ strategy is mainly relying on participating in conferences in the industries that we serve.  We have gone to a number of exhibitions and conferences in Switzerland, Canada, New York, London, the GCC, and the Far East for Islamic banking.  We also participate in communications specialized for these industries.  The other industry that we serve is in telecommunications and we participate in all of the international and regional conferences and exhibitions.

How do you evaluate your expansion plans and strategies aiming towards going global?

I am happy with what we have done and I think we have had a successful plan to grow fast while also delivering what we are supposed to deliver to our clients.  We serve a number of clients globally from areas like the Caribbean, The Philippines, Malaysia, the Far East, Africa and the Middle East and we have done this efficiently.

What is your major challenge as the Managing Director of ITS?

Being a company who wants to be global the major challenge deals with all of the different global challenges politically and economically in the countries where you want to operate.  You can’t just look at one dimension, you need to see the whole world and see how everything impacts your business.  The economic crisis had a negative impact worldwide and you need to study and analyze its effect.  It really hit the financial sector and do a lot of business with this sector so it hit our business as well.  There are many consequences to be evaluated in these instances.

Do you have any final messages about Kuwait?

Kuwait is a country that is small in size but has big dreams and many entrepreneurial business people who can do and have done many things and will continue to do many things in the future.  It is a place of peace that has a friendly environment, good economy, and will see a lot of development in the future.  I believe the country will have a good economic future.