Armenia is a place to do business, and I want to see Armenia as a source of business development, Optym CEO Vic Keller said while he was addressing the representatives of Armenia’s vibrant IT community.
Mr. Keller is a CEO of Optym - a company specialized in automation and optimization software for transportation and logistics companies in the airline, railroad, trucking and mining industries. The Armenian office of the company was founded in 2007 and now has around 75 employees. As mentioned by its CEO, Optym has big plans in Armenia and wants to develop leaders and create more leadership opportunities for the staff.
Armenia should be a center of research, not outsourcing
When sharing his path and expertise in running eleven companies, Mr. Keller said the secret of successful business is hidden in five “Ps” – people, passion, process, purpose and positioning. The Armenian people is something that makes Armenia so attractive for doing business, he added.
This is the reason people working at Optym believe that Armenia should not be perceived as a center of outsourcing.
“Armenia is not a country for outsourcing. Armenia must be perceived as a center of scientific potential, a hub where mathematical problems can be solved,” Optym Armenia Executive Director Arthur Ghulyan told Armenian News- NEWS.am. “In the past we were working on projects for customers, but now we are developing our own SaaS (software as a service) platforms for final customers. We are specialized in transportation, but our models and solutions can be used in various areas, including health, finances and other fields.”
The company plans to work in Armenia and in foreign markets since our country has good geographic location and good relations with both the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union.
“We believe that Armenia is a great place for us not just to develop the products but also to grow business and to have business development capabilities that are stimulated through the Armenian economy as well. We are very excited about using all the resources that Armenia offers to serve the European countries that we would like to do business in,” Vic Keller told NEWS.am.
Optym is focused on education
After building its staff through very fruitful internship programs, Optym Armenia decided to be more focused on education in order to grow its business.
Optym Armenia employs 20-25 people who went through internship program, and this is a model that contributed to company’s growth, Arthur Ghulyan explained.
“We consider cooperation with the Armenian universities, and we have already met with our High-Tech deputy minister and IT community. We are discussing the opportunities to get involved in education,” he added.
Company’s CEO also believes that training and professionalism is the most important thing for your business.
“I based my business on training,” he said during his speech.
He assured that the company is going forward and would like to get more involved with some of the Armenian universities.
“We want to identify great talents. We want to create additional leadership opportunities for our staff, so that we can have succession strategy to make people move up and advance with Optym,” Keller said.
