Gilbert Lacroix

'I started Intel's operations in the Middle East and only left after 10 years when they wanted to send me back to Europe,' explains Mr. Lacroix who has brought some of his former Intel colleagues with him. 'Headhunters from CA called me about this new opportunity and I already knew and liked the company and thought it would be a success here.'

Now the challenge is to set up a regional operation for the US software giant Computer Associates in the next three months. That means staffing up offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, three cities in Saudi Arabia, Cairo and the Lebanon where a call centre will also be based. Already 50 staff are engaged, 80 per cent of them Arab, part of a policy to employ local nationals.

'We will offer direct support and knowledge of our products,' says Mr. Lacroix. 'We have beautiful products and are market leader in the network management, storage management and security fields. We have individual competitors in each field but no company offers them as an integrated 'one stop shop' as we do.

'That is the horizontal approach. We will also be taking a vertical approach and are recruiting specialists in banking, telecommunications and oil. This is all about the transfer of technology and knowledge and not just a matter of selling a product and leaving it to the client.'

However, Computer Associates already has around 100 clients using its products in the region from the past indirect marketing of its products. But Mr. Lacroix is starting his operation from scratch and says he will be reviewing all the previous marketing relationships.

'This is an important point. At the Gitex computer show next week we will be first aiming to establish our presence with a big stand. But secondly, we want to meet with potential partners both old and new, and will be establishing our own certification programme.'

Mr. Lacroix also promises to unveil a new security product during Gitex that will be a broad application aimed at the small and medium sized business, another crucial vertical market for Computer Associates.

Not surprisingly he has received a great deal of feedback from his old friends in the region about Computer Associates since joining, and he believes that the market is now mature enough to take up new products fairly quickly. Oracle is a longstanding partner of Computer Associates globally and its E-Business Suite is entirely complimentary to CA products.

'But we are not dreaming,' says Mr. Lacroix. 'We will have to sell great products and offer great support to win clients, along with excellent value-for-money which I know is very important in this region. And what attracted me to this job is that I was given great freedom in my remit and the flexibility to do what it takes.

'The Middle East is a series of linked markets and it takes long term commitment to succeed. Computer Associates has that commitment and I am happy to be working to make it happen.'