Interview with Mr. Khalid Faraj Al Said – GM and MD of ITS.
ITS was one of the exhibitors from the MENA region in Mobile World Congress 2011, Barcelona. Telecom Review caught up with Mr. Khalid Faraj Al Said – GM and Managing Director of ITS to get some insight about ITS’s portfolio and latest updates.
1. Can you give us a corporate background of ITS?
Established in 1981, ITS is a private company owned by Kuwait Finance House- KFH. We are an integrated IT solutions and software service provider for organizations to ease their business flow in an efficient way. We have 25 offices across Middle East and the GCC region, as well as Africa and Pakistan with our Headquarters in Kuwait. Earlier, we used to be technical distributors whereas now we are the leading providers of high-quality end-to-end solutions that enable our client’s businesses to achieve their full potential.
2. What does your portfolio of services and solutions include?
Our services include Enterprise Integration, Outsourcing, IT support and Facilities Management. We handle our customer’s hardware infrastructure environment by providing them with networking, storage management solutions, systems security, printing and output processing solutions that meet their specific corporate and cultural requirements. In the telecoms side we have our flagship customer care and billing system – TABS – that provides an end-to-end integrated solution for many telecom operators in the region. Looking ahead to the enterprise side, we have solutions named Enterprise content management, Enterprise Application services, Enterprise security management and Visual communications.
3. Which are the main segments you target?
Our main segments include telecoms, government organizations, banks, oil companies, educational institutions and retail outlets. With a broad solution covering finance, education, data center, telecoms and enterprise we try to support our customers with the best tailored offer.
4. What is your strategy to keep yourselves ahead in the market?
ITS can ensure to deliver on “partner for the future” promise for a number of reasons. Chief amongst these is that ITS is a solid organization with over 3,000 employees, 25 offices and a strong financial position. Aside from offering a reassurance about the long term viability of ITS as a partner, the financial strength of ITS provides the resources to invest to ensure it is a fruitful partnership. This means, for example, that ITS can continue investing in a regional presence, and work with global and local partners, to support existing and future customers. But it also means that ITS is able to continue developing its solutions, for the benefit of our customers. During the last 3 years ITS spent tens of millions in research and development (R&D) to provide its valuable customers with the latest technologies and most attractive business solutions.
5. Today here in Mobile World Congress 2011, what is ITS showcasing?
ITS came to MWC to show its state-of-the-art 3600 offering of complete end to end business solutions to address these needs through [3C] innovative platforms:
– Customer Retention Platform: this package aims to retain existing subscribers, monitor their activities and award them accordingly.
– Customer Care & Billing Platform: this package aims to offer the most attractive and flexible offering customized to the different segments, this efficiency gives ITS customers the power to keep pace with the current market dynamics.
– Campaign Management: this package aims to acquire and target more subscribers from competitors.
These solutions typically bundled with a package of professional services to assure best practice, faster and cost effective business transformation; this end to end offering relieve ITS customers from being involved in IT operations and give them the power to focus on their core business and win the game.
6. When we talk specifically about Telecom industry, can you elaborate more on your offerings in this segment?
TABS, is an integrated software package designed for the mobile, ISP, and traditional fixed network services. TABS convergent Customer Care & Billing system undertakes the whole billing process of a single converged system and rates all services against a single unified rating scheme. Our OSS offerings address the requirements of service providers, independent software vendors, and telecom equipment manufacturers. Our solutions enable telecom service providers to maximize return on investment (ROI), reduce costs, offer superior customer service, and accelerate time to market for new products and services.
7. How many telecom operators do ITS serve in the MENA region and can you name a few?
ITS has 42 telecom customers among which 35 operators run ITS TABS end to end solution. To name a few, we have operations with the biggest telecom groups like Zain, Etisalat, MTN, Orascom, Bharti, STC and Warid where TABS is handling more than 100 Million subscribers over more than 20 countries over three continents.
8. What are the main challenges you see in the market and how is ITS prepared to face this?
This year ITS is focusing on promoting point solutions that we can target wide spectrum of telecom operators. They all have the same issues regardless where they are or what technology they use. Investing in telecom business solutions is a major strategy for all telecom service providers, regardless of its size, location or market position. It becomes a clear fact the tough competition between telecom operators; due to the saturation in the market where most of the subscribers own more than one SIM card and the price war between several operators in the same country. This facts call for new strategy based on three main [3C] pillars:
1- Churn: Minimize the Churn.
2- Customization: Target different customers segments through customized innovative offering.
3- Campaigns: Attract more subscribers through targeted and monitored campaigns
9. Finally, what is next for ITS in 2011?
2011 target is to continue our success and helping our customers to compete in the tough market dynamics and expand our references. In order to enhance our market leadership, we continue to form strategic partnerships and alliances with only the best of information technology companies. One of ITS main targets is to offer new selling models like software as a service and to extend the managed service to its customers.