Web solutions firm Icon to intensify internationalisation

Icon, the web application development company, expects to see a greater return from its overseas operation than its Malta business within 18 to 24 months, directors Gegè Gatt and Ian Castillo told The Times Business.

The San Ġwann-based company is currently working on positioning its products and services in other countries, following the inauguration of its first overseas operation in Milan. Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, Icon’s next five-year business plan involves ambitious internationalisation.

“We will certainly continue to be at the forefront locally, but the biggest shift will be an even stronger international focus,” the directors said. “This bout of internationalisation will be our game-changer. Transforming Icon into a company with a truly ubiquitous product and a more nimble international network will constitute the basis of our development in the next few years.”

Icon’s increasing international focus over the past few years has been coupled with expansion in a diverse portfolio of business segments.

Dr Gatt and Mr Castillo attributed Icon’s competitive advantage to its ability to adapt itself in an ever-changing market and its constant repositioning for growth.

They believed companies often put their competitive essence at risk when they fail to refresh their key building blocks, particularly when they continue to rely on capabilities that are no longer distinctive.

“Technology is a fast-moving industry. The internet is even faster,” they insisted. “Distinctiveness as we understand it arises not through focus on a single competence but through the mastery of a larger number of individual areas like business strategy, creative design, usability, conversion metrics and technology innovation.” The company’s major milestone – and to date its major opportunity – has been the cultivation of its team, brought together by an “insatiable quest” to bring creative, passionate and talented people on board. Icon, Dr Gatt stressed, defined itself by its people, who have shaped the evolution of the start-up into a market leader. Icon now has a highly specialised 25-member team.

“Our web development team has always grown steadily and continues to grow since this is a core part of our business,” the directors explained. “However, we’ve increased in two other areas since 2008: the business development team and the core projects team. The former knows all our clients individually and strives to keep the customer at the centre of all that we do. Our business development executives also play the ‘product owner’ role, as each has an assigned product. It’s their responsibility to create the vision for the product and ensure that it develops in sync with customers’ needs.”

Icon has also grown its core projects team. A strong head of software services leads the team to create robust, innovative, and market-focused technology; two to three new and innovative products are earmarked for deployment every year, allowing the company to diversify into different fields.

As Icon’s products and services widened their reach and technical competence, the company was able to bring several innovative business solutions to the market. Dr Gatt and Mr Castillo said being tuned in to customer requirements and delivering the best product on time made Icon successful.

“It’s not a secret – it just requires constant attention to our customers, keeping abreast of developments in the industry, and hard graft,” they said. “We were one of the first companies locally to truly understand the importance of web marketing and search engine optimisation not simply as another source of revenue, but as a way of providing customers with true return on their investment. We’ve since invested heavily in training all our staff regularly, we offer consultancy sessions to our customers. Each website we develop has a strong SEO focus from the ground up.”

Icon’s client list names 200 top firms and organisations; to some extent, the company’s growth has been characterised by a heavy focus on the hospitality industry. Its offering is “robust, innovative and powerful” thanks, in part, to a team which includes hospitality professionals who understand customers’ specific attributes. The technical team is able to customise products to suit specific operations allowing clients to rely on a stable operating base which still exploits their unique strengths.

Icon is very active within the retail industry for which it has deployed e-business solutions and has won business in sectors as diverse as financial services, healthcare and education. Reasonable market share has also been gained in the real estate segment as the economy climbs out of the recessionary slumber. Icon is also committed to its pro bono work to charities, causes and fund-raisers.

Dr Gatt and Mr Castillo explained the economic downturn encouraged the company to adopt a leaner approach: while increasing staff levels since 2008 and building new units within the company structure to focus on quality assurance, customer service, consultancy, and search engine marketing, costs have been kept to a “bare minimum” where possible. Over the past two years, Icon has built its team to strengthen its offering in preparation for the upturn.

“We are currently seeing a fair increase in business and we’re able to handle this with ease, so this decision has served us well,” they added.

“These two years certainly weren’t the best in our history, but they weren’t the hardest either.”

To coincide with its 10 years in business, Icon has embarked on a dramatic discounting drive to reward the client loyalty that enabled the company to flourish. Specific incentives aim to encourage clients to take up specific technology modules. The discounting is also an offer to extend Icon’s goodwill and to invite new working relationships at this juncture in the company’s history.