Since the company’s setting up, how has the world of ICT changed and how has DataByte adapted to meet new challenges?

This is the colourful question which reminds us of the diverse building blocks of present day technology. It is a privilege that we can boast about having journeyed through this exciting technology revolution since 1986. We started with MS-DOS, a purely character based PC operating system for standalone PCs which had monochrome screens. We saw the birth of many technologies that support today’s technologies. We saw Windows and its subsequent 20 or so version upgrades coming in 1986.

We saw a total revolution in processor development and spreadsheets and word processing coming to life. We lived through the introduction of e-mail, text messaging and pagers, the first mobile phones, the first network operating systems. We saw the very early stages of data bandwidth which were gauged at bits per second at the time – a far cry from the Gigabit ranges of today.

We also experienced the birth of the internet, touch-technology, apps and widgets and the evolution from the kilo to mega, giga and tera – soon we will have the peta range for data storage volumes at our client sites.

The only constant feature in IT is change. Like anything else in life we saw the good and the bad side of IT development. Essentially the IT world has developed into smarter, faster and smaller processors, faster and more wide area mega networks, faster data communication, much improved user reach and availability, miniaturisation, an extremely wide range of software product availability, and human resource development into the new sciences related to ICT.

ICT has revolutionised the world and the process is ongoing. Regrettably IT also has its risky side, in the form of cybercrime, breaches of confidentiality and personal identity, data security. IT risk management is now a complex and specialized science.

Since we started the business 30 years ago, we have specialised in bespoke software development and we do this till the present day

At DataByte we have helped our clients deploy most of these technologies through the years while helping them mitigate most of the ICT risks by ensuring that our team is up to speed with the latest in knowledge and technology to help us deliver top solutions to industry.

We also partner with external resources to ensure the necessary body of knowledge is available to our clients and our development team. We adapted through constant personnel development and our keenness to embrace tried and tested technology domains.

While we respect the past, we focus on the exciting future that deploys the very latest software development toolsets and cloud infrastructures.

IT has changed the way most businesses operate. Do most business acknowledge this and invest accordingly?

In the early stages I recall we had to convince even the larger companies that computers will change the way they will run their business. We actually gave consultancy services to justify the shift towards the early IT investments. Today most clients know what they want and choose IT from a range of available options and suppliers who can provide their needs and solution.

It is the IT revolution itself that has helped bring about this change in customer behaviour. The internet is a relatively unlimited body of knowledge available to all. Most companies are now adapted to maximise on their IT investment and they do this in a commercially sustainable manner.

In what areas do you specialise?

Since we started the business 30 years ago, we have specialised in bespoke software development and we do this till the present day.

Although the demand for specific tailored software has declined, it is still there and we get requests on a regular basis.

This capacity of developing tailored applications and our exposure to clients’ software and operational requirements has also induced us to develop our own packages over the years.

We build these packaged systems from the ground up and our more popular systems are HR related, GPS/GPRS tracking systems, traffic management related systems as well as warehouse and third party logistics operations.

We are now launching our very latest suite of cloud based software related to human resource management. This is our most exciting project at hand and a landmark in our company journey.

What would you consider to be the main IT risks and what relative services do you offer?

The biggest risks today relate to cybercrime, with hacking, cryptolockers and ransomware just a few of the regrettably common security pitfalls. The risk of unknown attacks into IT hardware and software systems is steadily growing. We offer analysis and awareness support and we work closely with external specialists for the high-end risk identification and mitigation support services. This is part of a bigger sphere related to information security (Infosec) and business continuity.

Other risks from a very wide list include system downtime, data protection issues, and data correctness. Typically these IT risks belong to three major groupings: confidentiality, integrity and availability.

How critical is it to customise solutions according to client needs?

With today’s very wide range of systems and applications that are available, less companies demand tailored software development. However we get a substantial demand for very interesting projects that are quite specific to particular industries or practices.

We have regular requests to develop tailored projects and it is requirements like these that got us to develop software outside our shores. In many cases, package parameterisation nowadays allows companies to adapt and customise packages to their needs quite easily.

What are your challenges for the short- to middle-term?

We look at the future with a strong sense of excitement. Our biggest challenge for the short- to middle-term is the launch of our latest suite of cloud-based applications that relate to HR management services. This runs on a framework that we have developed ourselves and built to take cloud-based systems. In fact we are launching Workforce, our cloud-based suite for HR management on the occasion of our 30 years in business. This will launch us to local as well as online based clients.

Growing the business, forming synergies and alliances are also strategic objectives set by our board and currently going through execution. These are very interesting times for us as we get very encouraging internal commitment and external feedback and look to the future with enthusiasm.