An interview with Software AG's Gulf VP Bashar Yaish

When Bashar Yaish joined Software AG this summer as Vice President of the Gulf region, he brought his extensive experience into one of the fastest growing software solutions providers worldwide.  Just a month prior, industry analyst Gartner Inc. had named Software AG a leading application integration provider, and Software AG itself had acquired a string of critical platforms in their quest to expand their already comprehensive software solutions brand.

In August, Software AG announced the acquisition of Apama, alfabet AG, and JackBe. Apama is the market's leading platform for Complex Event Processing (CEP) and CEP-powered solutions, allowing users to correlate and analyze business activities across multiple data streams in real-time and take immediate action in response. Likewise, JackBe is a real-time visual analytics and intelligence software, enabling fast action and clear data integration. Both solutions form an integral part of Software AG's goal of enabling a full data enterprise.

"What Software AG does is build an enterprise. We go back to the basics of integration and the 'whole picture' to give companies a competitive advantage. A lot of companies have systems that are not documented or modelled.  We operate on the concept of modelling to execution," Yaish explained in an interview with Capital Business.

Apama and JackBe join Software AG's collection of big data solutions, including the Terracotta system for in-memory data management, and Aris 9, Software AG's wide-ranging platform for optimizing processes from data analysis to governance.

"Data has always been around and analysed, but with the amount of people now using the internet and these resources, the data is huge," Yaish said. "When people discuss big data, there are two senses to it. One is the sheer volume of data, due to internet use across the world as well as connectivity; and the other sense is of why data is 'big,' is simply its impact on business."

"There are many programs to capture big data, whether in a structured or unstructured sense," Yaish continued, referring to tools such as Terracotta that compile big data. "What is important is the analysis tools. Terracotta is for capturing, and JackBe, the latest tool, is for analyzing."

The process, Yaish says, is the most critical part of the Software AG approach to data and its solutions. With its end-to-end approach through Aris (documenting); Terracotta (capturing); JackBe and Apama (analysis), the German-based company is effectively integrating every step of the data analysis process.

"Why does big data matter? It's about a company's 'speed of going to market strategy." A group can react to consumer preferences, trends, and patterns in a real-time model," Yaish explained. One Software AG client, TurkCell, reportedly increased their revenue by 86 million after implementing Apama last year[SO1] .

From a banking perspective, effective real-time analysis can also have huge effects on security and risk management. More importantly for banks at the moment however is the looming cost of regulation compliance, from the United States' Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to Europe's Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

"All of the banks have been quick to react to FATCA. But many view it as 'I'll pay this amount for the compliance system, and be done.' The problem is; today it's FATCA and tomorrow it will be ten more [regulations.] Software solutions need to provide for governance, risk, and compliance," Yaish said.

Software AG's Aris 9 program is built to counter these future challenges. Current regulations are integrated into the platform, while "there is a quick turnaround for new regulations," springing from the company's trained solutions' teams in Europe, Yaish says.

Software AG in the GCC

With Yaish's recent appointment to the VP Gulf role comes a renewed focus on expanding the company into the GCC region, reportedly one of the world's fastest growing information and communications technology (ICT) markets.

"Software AG is investing heavily in the Gulf Region, which is very important," Yaish said, noting that the regional headquarters will be moved to Dubai in November from Bahrain.

"Dubai is a pool of resources, talent, and infrastructure that can't be compared in the region. It is a connection point globally," Yaish explained.

The rapid development of the ICT sector has many wondering what may be coming next on the technology platform front. For Yaish, "the nexus of forces is big data. Then there are the principle focuses of mobility and cloud. Mobile integration is one of the biggest things we at Software AG are focusing on." Currently, Yaish reports, all the company's solutions are mobile-enabled, a distinguishing factor for Software AG.

Regardless of the moment's hot topics in software, Yaish emphasizes that with Software AG the service is about the process. From end to end, Software AG's objective is to provide each step of a business' solutions. "For many companies, so much time and money is wasted at a later level [of growth] for point-to-point solutions development and integration," Yaish said.

© Business Islamica 2013