Dubai IT Security firm plans Malaysian entry

Jo Timboung
October 02, 2007

MIDDLE-EAST companies are not only interested in Malaysia's financial and property markets but its IT market as well, said one such company.

Dubai-based IT security consultant Scanit plans to expand its operations to Malaysia after it discovered a large talent pool here.

"We started investigating the market here about nine months ago and found a pool of untapped talent," said David Michaux, general manager of Scanit.

He said Scanit had initially planned to service the Malaysian market from Dubai. But it found that IT security experts in this country are as good as those in the Middle East.

"So we decided to set up shop here and leverage on Malaysian talent," said Michaux, adding that Scanit would also be paying its Malaysian employees better salaries than they can expect here, "but not as much as is in the Middle East."

This, he said, would create a win-win situation for Scanit and the Malaysian experts.

Also, Scanit felt that it would be difficult to get Malaysian experts to work in Dubai no matter how big a salary they were offered. "So we decided to come to the talent pool instead," Michaux said.

He said training programmes would also be conducted for its Malaysian employees, to boost their skills in project and time management, as well as in other areas. "We will need to train them so that they will be able to keep up with company expectations and image," he added.

Malaysia plan

Scanit, which was recently taken over by Saudi Arabian construction giant Oger Systems, offers IT security solutions to companies and teaches them to guard against viruses and other malicious software.

Michaux said that although IT solutions are good, if not installed properly, they can work against the company.

"Vendors tell customers that they (the customers) cannot live without their IT security solutions, so we came in to bust that myth," he said.

"Which is probably why a lot of vendors hate Scanit," he joked. However, he said that it is possible for an organisation to secure its network using the talents of IT security personnel, instead of investing heavily in hardware.

Scanit plans to capture the Malaysian and Indonesian markets after it sets up operations in Kuala Lumpur.

"We won't be going into Singapore for the time being because we feel it's a flooded market," Michaux said, adding that the markets in Indonesia and Malaysia are still growing.

It also hopes to capture a 25% share of the IT consulting market in Malaysia, focusing on the financial sector, by the end of next year.

But, Michaux said, it doesn't expect that to be an easy job.

One factor that will work against Scanit is its pricing, according to him. He said Scanit's services are three times more expensive than what is typically offered locally and -may not go down well with some customers here.

He said Scanit hopes to plead its case by showing that rival IT security consultants tend to overscope the jobs they are given by a factor of three. "What we do in a month, they take three months to do," he said.

Customers, he added, should be looking at quality instead of quantity.

Speed matters

"IT security is not something that should take up a huge amount of time. You want to be fast and up-to-date quickly," Michaux said. Scanit's strength, he said, lies in having the right person for the right job because different systems require different skills.

"For example, every bank has a different security system so we need a team to manage all those systems," Michaux said.

He said Scanit also knows its limits, and so won't be promising potential customers the moon when it cannot deliver.

"Delivering on what we promise is part of our image and we won't take on a job that we cannot do." he explained.

If Scanit cannot finish a job on time as promised, it will bear the cost of completing it late, Michaux said.

"When we say we will do the job in a specified amount of time, we'll do it. If we go over (that timeframe), then it is our fault and we take full responsibility," he said.

Scanit, which claims to be the largest IT security company in the Middle East, has a client portfolio that is made up of 28 banks, nine telecommunications firms, four airlines, and the majority of petro¬chemical companies based in the Middle East.

Its parent company has a turnover of US$35bil (RM122.5 trillion) a year.

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