Genweb2 plans big
says the company chairman
11 October 2012, 18:00 PM
Akhter AhmedGenweb2, a Bangladesh based global IT services and solutions company, recently signed a deal with Tata Consultancy Services, largest Indian IT services industry.
Genweb2 will represent Tata's products and sell those products in Bangladesh.
In an interview with The Daily Star, Akhter Ahmed, chairman and co-founder of the company shared company's vision and plans.
The company was set up with a vision to become the country's first global IT services and solutions company.
TK Group, a Bangladeshi conglomerate, is the investment partner of Genweb2.
Ahmed said Genweb2 plans for long term.
"The goal is not to just sell a product and disappear," he said adding "the goal is to become a trusted advisor and think about long term solutions. We are partners with many international service providers and product vendors. We can always pull in the partners, but we have to ensure that we are having dialogues with our clients to understand their business challenge. This is critical. We are not here to just re-sell some products. We are not in the 'agency' business; we are in the
'solution' business".
Genweb2 has clients in US, Middle East, Europe and also in Japan. These are very large companies in logistic section, banking and manufacturing sectors.
In addition to overseas market, Genweb2 is working with local clients in the banking other sectors.
Ahmed observed that Bangladesh corporate sector has the opportunity to not only adopt technology to drive efficiency, but they also have the advantage because there is not much legacy systems in place.
"Therefore, it will allow us to guide them to put together a technology strategy from a clean platform," he said.
About its products, Akhter said among others they have mobile wallet solution and Trust Bank is a client of that.
They are also talking to a number of other banks. They are looking for some other business models that can help the mobile banking sector.
"Mobile banking is not about just making money," he said. "It's about inclusive growth, as the Bangladesh Bank governor says that it's very important to bring all the people in the unbanked sector to get included in the banking system."
However, it is difficult for the banks to do that by opening up branches everywhere.
"But everybody carries a mobile phone, so if the mobile banking takes off that will be a great opportunity for the unbanked sector to come into the banking world and that what we are trying to enable by using our technology", Ahmede said.
He said Genweb2's business in Bangladesh is going well considering it's been only two years that the company started its journey.
Regarding challenges in the Bangladesh relating to technology adoption, he said the biggest challenge is the short term approach to buying technology or software.
"What is important is to have a long-term plan for the business strategy and align the technology strategy to that business strategy," he said.
"We often talk about what products to buy or not to buy, but the most important thing is to ensure that we have a roadmap of what we want to do over the next three years. If clients are able to put together the right architecture and strategy, then the decision around what product, what investment to make, and what timeframe will make much more sense".
Ahmede worked at Microsoft as president, new emerging markets for Asia Pacific. He said "from that vantage point I can tell you that the in the next ten to twenty years there will be lot of opportunities in all these emerging markets because of high population, and the economic growth rate.
To have the local IT industry to grow big in Bangladesh, he emphasised on five key facts. He said companies that are trying to grow big in this industry they have to have right management team; there has to be right investment; set up right partnership with other global companies; understanding how the customers buy in the global market and skill resources.
"If you put all this 5 things together it will be a much bigger industry than the garment sector and it can earn billion of dollars in revenue for the country," he said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments