Are you local

As the Middle East continues to grow in importance to multi-national corporations, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a local presence. Whether this is a small branch office or a regional hub, customers are increasingly looking for the safety net of suppliers who can offer them local support. One company that has just gone down this route is macom international.

‘We know that it is a must to have a local presence,’ says macom international managing director, Norbert Hoenig. ‘Clients were always asking us where we were based, and saying come back when you have a local office, this was one of the major reasons for us to decide to locate here.’

Part of the macom Group, macom international is an A/V communications consultancy that offers solutions tailored to business centres, museums, universities, convention halls, and hotels. It has been a lengthy process to set up, but in January the company officially opened its new Dubai office. ‘I think Dubai is for us a hub to go to every country in the Middle East, our focus is the whole region, starting from the hub,’ says Mr Hoenig. ‘Dubai has a very good infrastructure – you can get all the services and materials you want here, so why should a client look outside for a consultant?’

macom international’s Middle East business development manager, Jamal Al Ashby, believes opening the office is a major step for the consultancy and can see a number of reasons for establishing the a local presence: ‘One of the major reasons to build a local office was to be closer to our clients and business partners. We want to provide the same quality that we do in Germany for services, design and concept.’

While the initial scope of the office is restricted, the long-term aim for Mr Al Ashby is to be able to offer macom’s full consultancy services from Dubai: ‘Our strategy now is to provide high-quality services locally, and that should happen soon.’ He knows that there will be a number of challenges and a lot of work that the consultancy has to overcome – particularly with the awareness of the service it can provide to the local market – but he is confident that the local office can provide the same level of service with full support from the German macom Group.

It will be a step-by-step approach to build up the office. While the first step was to set up the office and have a point of contact in the region for business development, the next will be to bring in technical support, which is initially being supplied from Germany. macom is currently working on a large-scale project at a museum in Iran, engineers from this project are currently providing a level of technical support, but when that has been completed they will be moved to a full-time role in Dubai. ‘In the end we will have a complete operation here,’ says Mr Hoenig. ‘Our plan is to have engineers, draftsmen and be fully operational to provide all services. This is a first step, it’s a very important step, but you have to be careful starting out and every day we learn more.’

Mr Al Ashby feels that to move the business forward in the region the consultancy needs to be able to provide a quick service and quick response to the requirements of the client base. He hopes that moving technical support and engineers to a permanent base in the region will help achieve this, but also stresses that it does not mean the consultancy will no longer draw on the skills and experiences of its European parent.

Education will be one of the key challenges for the consultancy. With tight project budgets, Mr Hoenig believes one of macom’s roles will be to express the need for good quality audio systems despite the restrictions. ‘We are not designing a living room, it is a professional communication system and there are totally different needs for that.’ This is a problem he has encountered in many countries around the world: ‘People have different mentalities, but for A/V they often think it’s not a big deal.’ Mr Al Ashby agrees that it will be a key part of the job to let people know they can have sophisticated high-end technology delivered to them from a local provider.

‘We are looking forward to bringing our German quality standards that we have developed for our projects to the region,’ says Mr Hoenig. ‘We need to make sure we have the right design and the client understands what they will get. The planning is not for us, it is for our clients,’ he continues. ‘We will bring our company’s experience and knowledgeable engineers to our clients so that they get the right application at the right price.’

While macom international is only taking its first steps with a local office, it seems to have the vision and backing of its parent to make a long-term success of the project. Setting up an office in the region is a sign of the confidence international companies have in the Middle East as an area for long-term growth. As more companies set up bases around the Middle East, it can only be a positive thing for the level of service and support clients receive. And in the end, that will be of benefit to the region as a whole.

www.macom-international.com

 Published in PAME March April 2010