Push to boost small IT firms bearing fruit in Oman

Muscat: With a vision to move forward in the field of Information Technology and nurture Omanis in the process, the Information Technology Authority (ITA) in Oman has been incubating over 30 ICT companies for the last three years.
Following up with their previous programmes to promote IT all across Oman, which includes teaching basic IT skills for women and the elderly and distributing free laptops to university students, ITA started the SAS program three years ago.
Under the programme, Omanis with business ideas in IT can approach the ITA and will then have to undergo a series of selection procedures, which include interviews and the testing of skills and ideas of the applicants. Existing SMEs will also be allowed to apply if they want to further develop themselves.
Hassan Fida Al Lawati, supervisor of the programme explained that what makes the SAS incubation different from other Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development programmes is the focus on IT.
“We are targeting only IT related SMEs, not the rest. We nurture and educate the SMEs for a period of three years and give them small offices in our premises with basic facilities and encourage them to go on and establish their own business.”
SMEs are given consultancy and training on various aspects of their businesses, as most of the applicants are into technical fields they sometimes need more support in administration and finance.
“We help them with their performance review, financial statements, business cases for tender offers, and how to compete in the market. They learn all these soft skills and graduate and carry on their businesses and we keep supporting them from time to time. Consultants are from ITA, and
are outsourced at times for specific expertise.”
Dhahi Al Mashifari is one of the beneficiaries of SAS, who has now graduated from the programme. He established Global Computers, an IT company which provides web development, software solutions and mobile application development.
Although he started the company by himself, he now has six people working for him, all fresh college graduates and has also procured a villa for running his new business. His client profile has also diversified to several government organisations, including the Ministry of Sports Affairs, Oman Establishment for Press Publishing and Advertising, ITA, Public Authority for SME Development (Riyada).
“We were more technical and so we really needed help on the finance and accounting part, something which we got in a very organised way from SAS. We were given all the support, including a lovely office space for the programme and I am more than happy about the way it has gone for us,” he said.
Al Lawati also highlighted the major challenges, which ITA and the applicants encountered.
“When we interview these applicants, we mostly receive ideas from the services part of the business and not the products side, which we would like to see more often. Also, the beneficiaries don’t have major trust in the market, they are unsure if they will get business and contracts.
“A lot of the businesses, which exist in the country, are because of government tenders and we are training everyone in the incubation programme to target government tenders, we don’t seek the big contracts, but smaller ones or sub-contracts from the government.”
Another challenge Al Lawati highlighted was the unwillingness of the applicants to modify their ideas sometimes. “Some of them stick to their ideas and it’s difficult to change their minds, but we try to convince them about this and change their minds to programme their idea differently to suit market needs.”
“According to the available statistics on the number of SMEs operating in the technology sector, 116 companies are registered in the ITA’s database and 35 companies with the SMEs Authority (Riyadh). We believe that the number is very good and it indicates that the ICT sector attracts a large number of young Omanis, both graduates and professionals or entrepreneurs to look for opportunities to work and to invest in this promising sector.
“We hope that these companies find their way in the business world inside and outside the Sultanate, and we urge the Omani youth to start up their own business in various fields in general and in the ICT field in particular,” Dr. Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, stated.
The process to register to be incubated in the Sas Center for Entrepreneurship is available on the Sas web page in ITA’s website www.ita.gov.om