ITWorkx
One company that is already exporting its intellectual capital is ITWorx, one of the most advanced high-tech fi rms anywhere in the world. With development centers in Cairo and Alexandria, ITWorx was called by Egypt’s Business Today magazine, the country’s "most exciting new company."
Much of that excitement is generated by Wael Amin, ITWorx cofounder, who in Bill Gates fashion began thinking about computers at age 10 and by age 18 had started
his own firm. The rest, as they say, is history.
ITWorx, which occupies a modern facility in the Nasr City Free Trade Zone ("free trade zones" are areas where companies pay only one percent tax and can bring in raw materials and equipment duty-free), now has 350 employees with expectations of 1,200 by 2008. Its clients include prestigious fi rms such as Panasonic, Microsoft, Vodaphone and United Technologies. Its reach spans from Egypt to Saudi Arabia all the way to the United States, where the company is marketing in the Northeast out of a base in Connecticut.
ITWorx is another firm with a sophisticated value system that stresses agility, innovation, integrity, quality and team play. It also has a culture that allows for creativity. Offi ces have a very open feel, and employees can just as easily be seen sitting on the floor in mini meetings as sitting behind their modern computer workstations.
With rampant growth comes the need for highly qualified personnel - one of the biggest challenges for all companies in Egypt. According to Sherif Amer, vice president of human resources and operations for ITWorx, "Egypt produces 5,000 graduates per year in IT. The problem is not as much in finding IT talent as it is in finding people with business and communications skills and the ability to work as a team."
These are traits that ITWorx, like many companies in Egypt, must develop on the job.
ITWorx is benefiting from the new across the board 20 percent Egyptian tax rate, guaranteed for 10 years. Amin also said his company is concentrating more on making strategic moves into Europe and Asia to wean itself off the U.S. dollar.
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