The FINANCIAL — UGT, Georgia’s leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, is expanding its presence and activities to Dallas, Texas, under the name UGT LLC. The majority of the staff of the U.S. based company are American.
“There are several reasons why we chose to expand to the US market. Not the least of which is that America is a huge market for information technologies and host to approximately 20% of world telecommunication and IT company head offices.
We already have concrete partners and look forward to engaging in serious projects. We most certainly foresee market niches where we have the possibility to guide our operations successfully,” said George Chirakadze, President and CEO of UGT.
UGT LLC is 100% owned and invested by UGT. The company will participate in both private and public sector projects and will have the following directions in the US market – telecommunications, information technologies, software development as well as various hardware options.
“Our knowledge of working in a former CIS environment is something that UGT can use whatever combination and whatever team there is, giving the combined team a competitive, superior edge to those that do not have that combination,” said Wouter Metz, Managing Director of UGT LLC.
Chirakadze says that the project has a long-term implication for strategic company development, with a five year action plan and expects to break-even and start generating profits after 1.5-2 years.
“Success in America will give the opportunity to UGT to expand to more countries and markets,” said Chirakadze, President and CEO of UGT.
“Competition is not something to be afraid of but something to learn from, the more competition – the faster you learn. Our competitive advantage is that we come from a different background and have 13 years of experience working in post CIS countries,” declared Metz.
“What we are looking at is how we can cooperate with the big international parties in big international projects. This has dual advantages; we will learn from them and they will learn from us.
In America we will bring our experience of this region, working with Georgia and former CIS countries, we work with companies across the former CIS countries that have solutions that could be interesting to other parts of the world, so we play an intermediary role,” said Metz.
“The other side is to learn from American companies on how they deal with quality and with aspects that are necessary for a project’s success, such as marketing strategies.
We absolutely understand IT, which is about bringing solutions to business problems or governments. What is so wonderful is that you can learn so much from one another.
Many of the problems businesses or governments are facing are generic problems, problems that you see everywhere. This is an international aspect and down to globalization which really means there are no boundaries and borders in Georgia for IT, there are no borders in America, which is truly international,” declared Metz.
“We are engaged in many international projects, particularly in the neighbourhood of Georgia and we also have projects that are developing in several countries of East Europe, Africa, and post CIS countries,” said Chirakadze.
Venture Fund
UGT has created a Venture Fund, which aims to support innovative IT ideas and projects in Georgia. The company will allocate from 15,000 USD up to 100,000 USD per project for the IT initiatives of individuals.
“There will be two criteria when assessing a project: the first will be based upon the concept and project perspective, and second – the project should be commercially viable,” said Shota Abramishvili, Operations Director at UGT.
“There will be a 5 stage process before giving support to a project. In the first stage the individual should present the concept of the project, after which comes formulation of a business plan, in depth analyzing of the financial market and management side. In the final stage, a concrete description of the project will be needed.
From the experience of other countries, we can assume that 2-3 projects will be initially financed. The main factor, is to find interesting projects that will be considered successful so that there is no barrier to financing them,” says Abramishvili.
UGT was established in 1997. Today the company is the leading system integrator and provider of solutions in the field of information and communication technology, in Georgia. UGT primarily concentrates on providing services to corporate clients and the government sector.
The core business of UGT is the implementation, deployment, and support of solutions that are based on information and communication technology products and services. UGT is also known for the provision of high quality computer equipment and accessories.
UGT’s mission is to assist its customers in reaching their goals by providing them with information and communications solutions based on modern technologies, products, and services. UGT is constantly introducing itself to the latest technology resources and offers its clients solutions based on up-to-date achievements, which effectively aid them in successfully reaching their business goals.
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