Going global still viable for local IT companies, says Todd

Speaking at yesterday`s ITWeb-sponsored Computer Faire keynote address, Prism`s marketing director Duncan Todd argued that SA is still the best place to incubate and develop new technology, and while going global is difficult, it is achievable.

Todd said that despite the challenges SA faces, it still remains an attractive location to incubate and accelerate technology with the view to take it global.

[VIDEO]Although Todd acknowledged that SA offered the First World/Third World mix to give local companies an edge when exporting their businesses, he also stressed that not enough emphasis is placed on growing the country`s own intellectual property.

"Historically, SA doesn`t have a culture of supporting home-grown intellectual property. If you look at some of the top companies within the IT space, many of them are either bodyshops or value-added resellers of other people`s intellectual property."

Todd said that although Prism is constantly pushing the boundaries to develop new intellectual property, it is not obsessed with patenting.

[VIDEO]"In the world we operate in, which is secure electronic payment, Prism has taken the view that patent protection is tied to the legal system which is tied to the justice system - and that system is just too slow.

"We believe the race is going to be won not by protecting yourself legally but by protecting yourself through innovation."

Todd argued that an organisation should place itself at the cutting-edge of development where companies create and "take things forward for customers in a way that gives them satisfaction in what you have to offer, not what you have protected".

[VIDEO]Todd said South Africans` "laager mentality" has given birth to self-reliance and self-sufficiency in the local psyche, a boon when it comes to developing new ideas and technology.

He added that local businesses could use the international market`s perceived paranoia towards SA to give them a competitive advantage by ensuring they embark on additional planning and double-checking.

[VIDEO]Todd warned that local technology companies have to focus on what they aim to provide to a global market, as a broad offering could lay companies open to too many big international competitors against whom they could never hope to compete.

"A niche proposition is the only one that will fly, certainly for foreign investors, and increasingly customers are getting used to dealing with many IT groupings and consortia that put together specialist skills and offerings around a solution."

[VIDEO]Dimension Data is the obvious success story of a local company making it big internationally. Todd pointed out that the company accounts for over 70% of the market capitalisation of the JSE.

"Coming from the South African market, everyone is under the shadow of DiData. There is a plus and a minus to this. The plus is that finally a South African company has hit the London Stock Exchange and is being taken seriously. And people have lifted up the South African stone to look for the next DiData.

"The negative side is that it completely dominates the index, and by implication, everybody else is really small in comparison. I believe, however, that there are diamonds in that dust under the stone that are doing their own thing with their own intellectual property that can be exported on a global scale."

Click here to read Todd`s keynote.