Software Business in the Middle East

Some time back I got a trouble understanding why year 2000 is shown as Y2K. It’s good to have friends who refreshed my mind sending a link that describes some of the prefixes.

To continue the discussion about software piracy.

International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) published the report stating that Saudi Arabia has the highest level of piracy in the Middle East. The full article is available here.

I always knew that IT department and management have different opinions on the company Information System. But recently, meeting with a customer, I was really shocked from such opposite comments on Information System from their management and IT department.

There were two meetings – with IT Manager and General Manager. Loose translation.

Meeting with IT Manager

“We have cool system, everything is automated and online. We only print out receipts for our customers, as well as certain reports. I really have no idea, guys, how you could help us. We have no problems.”

Meeting with General Meeting

“What we have is a piece of shit – it was a mistake to develop Information System in-house. We have more problems than benefits. Ambitions of our IT department is a good thing, but we are not in software business. Frankly, we are ready to invest into the new Information System from the specialized provider.”

Without knowing they are both talking about the same system, you might easily assume they even work in different companies. The current Information System is of course a baby of the IT department, and I completely understand it – everything is done by them. But management in business organization has a final word.

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