Shefiq Abdulla ,COO -Telephony Group of Companies – Channel Insight Oct-2019

What are the solutions or qualities that separate you from your competition? In what areas does your organization perform exceptionally? 

As one of the most respected names in the industry, in terms of innovation and quality, Telephony Communications Technology sets the bench mark for excellence. We believe that consumer choice is key and we provide solutions to optimize our clients requirements and experience. Our expertise allow us to cater to a diverse category of verticals and clients. We believe that every solution or architecture we prove should reflect our intrinsic learning, both in breadth and scope

What is your most reliable source of financial growth?

We are in our 16th year since inception and we believe our loyal customer base couple with exceptional services is and will be our most reliable source of growth. Our presence across the MENA region has helped us provide consolidated services to our clients and also replicate success from various regions. Dubai being a regional hub for Information Technology has played a key role in our growth and we have been able to ride on the success of the UAE.

Where do you excel so far as your employees are concerned? Is it your workforce development program or your organization culture? 

By embracing three core principles – modernization, expansion and employer of choice – our vision and mission is constantly being strengthened, thanks to team commitment, management support and the can-do spirit that characterizes Telephony in the region today. Our team comprises of business architects and solution evangelists that put their heart to the job. Our workforce development program is a reflection of our organizations culture.

We can proudly say that our man power and succession planning strategies clearly emancipate our success.

Opportunities 

What are your plans with regards to starting a new product line or expanding to a new geographical area? What are the new customers wants that you can meet? 

Telephony spend considerable time and invests in research and development. Growth in the IoT section has been considerable in the past few years and we are seeing a lot of traction in that segment. Our investment in IoT has given us considerable advantage in the market with Telephony being awarded exclusive projects from governmental agencies.

What are the technological trends that are creating opportunities for you?

Information Assurance and Information security is still a primary focus in the region. We have very niche solutions to cater to the requirements of clients. We have been very successful at securing the infrastructure for a majority of our large and esteemed clients, both governmental and non-governmental. The market for IoT along with the introduction  of 5G into the region is an exciting time. We have indigenous (Made in UAE) products ready for the market, lead by almost a decade of research in these platforms.

How has the media coverage impacted the growth of your company?

The media has had a very profound positive impact on our growth. We have almost always shared the limelight with our key clients and partners. The media has always been a very enriching platform for us at telephony.

Threats 

What are your biggest concerns about your customers? How simple is your customer’s ease of departure?

The current global market condition fueled by instability in oil prices has had profound impacts and the UAE is no exception. This is the order of the day and these are challenging times for the entire industry.

Having said that, the dynamic leadership that we have seen in the UAE, has cushioned the impact. The direct influence of UAE’s leadership on regulatory bodies and policy makers should be applauded. Most of our major clients in this region  are doing well in there business, enjoying a sustainable year on year growth. Our churn ratio has not been majorly impacted and we are happy to see it this way.

Who do you see as an emerging competition? 

The emergence of cloud platform has made it a lot easier for primary vendors to reach out to the end consumer and provision their services directly, eliminating the middle man has been one of the trends in the recent past. On the bright side, the primary vendor has created an interface to proliferate their products and services into the SMB market. But this has reduced the dependence on System Integrators and also affected our ability to provide these services to the SMB segment. We are also seeing that this model is being adopted by many of our distributors, but there will always remain a gap of providing the value-added services and integration capabilities.

General Information 

How frequently do you conduct partner programs? 

Partner programs are part of our regular operations. We owe it to our partners and clients to conduct regular programs, primarily to educate and create forms and opportunities for the exchange of ideas. We have regular monthly engagements in this regard. The partner ecosystem in the UAE is highly competitive and regularly challenged to bring in innovative products and optimized solutions.

What are the new products/solutions added to your portfolio this year?

We have a new generation of IoT products that are 5G ready and features robust quick deployment into existing infrastructure. In this way we protect the existing investment of the customer. We also concentrate on bring the next generation security solutions into the region. We have recently partnered with leading security solution vendors to provision products that are unique and sustainable. We have also introduced few products into the market that target the public infrastructure domain and those which have viable sustainable impacts.

What is the number of customers acquiring this year? Please share the names (Optional)

We experienced almost a 50% growth in customer acquisition compared to last year. We credit this mainly to our dedication to service, technical expertise and unique offerings that we provide in the UAE and the neighboring countries. We have been able to clearly address customer pain points and provide cost optimized solutions that are sustainable

Read more on  Channel Insights MEA October 2019