Channels of Expertise

The following article was published in the May - June 2008 issue of The British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce Magazine.

IVIS Group describes itself as “Multi-Channel Experts”. Chief Executive Qusai Sarraf says put in another way: “We help to make our customers leaders in a multichannel world. There are multiple means of connecting with your customers and we have the technology and expertise to help you achieve that in the most effective way possible. Our solutions can help speed time to market, improve customer relationships, increase market share, increase sales and reduce costs.”

Judging by its impressive list of clients and equally impressive financials, these are not hollow claims.

The company was founded in the UK in 1994 in the days when the Internet was only just emerging. IVIS spotted a niche in the market back then and began developing solutions that would capitalise on those emerging trends. In 1996, it landed a milestone contract from Tesco to help develop its Tesco.com online service, beginning a relationship that has continued to the current day.

Just over ten short years on, the entire business landscape has changed beyond all recognition. The growth of consumerism and the explosion in Internet technologies has revolutionised the marketplace. “Competition is fierce in any market one can imagine. Whether it is retailers, service industries, utility companies or local and national government, customers are expecting more from all types of organizations they deal with,” says Qusai.

“Customers are extremely well-informed, using a mix of channels to gather information on products before making buying decisions. Organisations must engage them through every available channel to stay ahead of their competition.”
Qusai explains that increasing the number of channels to market is a logical response to this but the multi-channel environment is an unfamiliar and challenging place. “A sound multi-channel strategy can be the difference between success and failure,” he says.

The progression of transition processes from store to mail-order to online, while it has helped grow organisations it has also created an Information Management gap between companies and their customers. The more channels to market that are set up, the more thinly spread an organisation gets and the more the distance grows. “This gap creates a challenge of consistency – product information, such as descriptions, prices, availability, brand image, and the experience of a particular organisation that its customers receive. That’s where we come in,” he says.

After some ten years of steadily building the business in the UK, IVIS Group started to look overseas. It had developed a suite of multichannel solutions (Sonnetto) which rivals the best of the big American firms. “We wanted to grow the business and we needed to expand our development capability in order to achieve this. We chose Malaysia for a number of reasons,” says Qusai. Chief among these were the fit between cultures, the ability of the people and the attractive Government support he explains.

Last April, IVIS Group secured MSC status and set up operations for a new E-Business and R&D centre in Bukit Jalil. The centre opened in June last year. Less than one year on, there are 30 staff employed at the centre, many of them working on assignments for UK clients.Qusai says they are looking to double that number by the end of the year.

Seemingly the business is there to support this growth strategy. Turnover last year was GBP7.8 million, more than double the previous year’s GBP3.2 million. This year, IVIS Group is well on the way to meeting its 2008 target - a cool GBP17 million.

(BMCC Magazine May-June 2008)