Enterprise Sigma Technologies, a company specialised in data storage and predictive analytical solutions, aims to boost its business size by 60% in the local market during 2017 by increasing the number of its projects and products. Last year, the company had a business size of some EGP 200m. Meanwhile, its mother company, SELECT International, currently holds investments of $50m. Sigma Technologies has 40 clients in several sectors across the fields of banking, telecommunications, petroleum, aviation, and tourism, according to the company’s general manager, Shady Samir, in an interview with Daily News Egypt.
What is your targeted growth rate in Egypt?
The company targets annual growth rates ranging from 30 to 35%, driven by increasing the number of our products and solutions. We have recently become a partner to DELL Technologies, after the merger between DELL and EMC in September 2016.
What are the main solutions offered by your company?
The company offers technological solutions in data centres and document management, next to other cloud-computing services, big data, and information security. We have been a partner of EMC since it entered the local market in 2006.
What is the size of your investments?
SELECT International, our mother company, has investments amounting to $50m in 14 countries around the world.
What is new in the partnership between DELL and EMC?
We will grant all our technological solutions and products to EMC.
What sectors do you focus on, and why?
We mainly focus on banking, telecommunications, petroleum, aviation, and tourism. The reason we focus on these sectors is their continued need for new technological solutions to help them gain better access to clients and more innovative products to offer at affordable prices. This keeps them competitive compared to other companies in local and foreign markets.
What are the main projects carried out by your company?
We carried out the Telecom Egypt infrastructure upgrade to cloud computing in cooperation with EMC. These technologies provide the best services at the most affordable prices.
The competition on launching cloud computing platforms will force the companies working in the field to provide better solutions with added value at lower prices.
We have technological solutions in managing documents and securing them electronically.
How do you judge the current situation of the market?
The new products we are set to launch will provide our local clients with even better prices that help us in this competitive environment, especially under the current economic circumstances related to the volatility of the exchange rate.
We now have about 40 clients in the local market. We provide them with the latest solutions of DELL EMC in all sectors. We believe that this could double our sales growth this year.
We have recently held an annual summit for the managers of IT departments in the banking sector, which extended over three days. During that summit’s several sessions, we presented our solutions offered to improve the IT departments through mainly relying on data security and contributions to offering products that improve productivity and operational efficiency and help customers manage and secure complex IT environments to enhance business performance in general.
This is the right time for banks to move into the digital world. Our company provides solutions that facilitate data management, which help banks save effort and time.
What are the main axes of your plans in Egypt?
Our plan in the coming period is to focus on offering solutions to the governmental sector, along with telecommunications, banking, petroleum, energy, and small and medium enterprises, in addition to education and health. We will be focusing on upgrading government services offered to citizens.
We have recently sent a team to DELL Technologies to learn more about the use of modern technologies for the benefit of our clients in the local market.
What was the impact of flotation on your business?
The high exchange rate of the dollar against the Egyptian pound was a problem for our company and all other companies operating in the field of information technologies. All clients have reduced their spending on projects by 40%, due to the volatility of the exchange rate.
The coming period will force everyone to adopt a smart strategy and innovative policies that rely on entering the digital age, amid the fast changing environment all around the world. The digital transformation helps increase competitiveness of companies and maximises the added value they provide to their clients.
Starting 4G services is also a golden chance for our company and all the companies operating in the same field to provide the newest solutions in upgrading their infrastructure.
Sigma is a member of SELECT International, which is the parent corporation for a group of fast-growing companies operating across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to provide advanced IT system solutions and services with a major focus on the data science concept. Sigma acts as SELECT International’s arm that provides IT systems for data storage, virtualisation, and analytical predictive solutions.
