The recruitment by a construction collaboration technology vendor of a new sales guy wouldn’t normally prompt a blog post, but the vendor here is 4Projects and the target market is the Middle East. According to a news story picked up by my Google Alerts, the Sunderland, UK-based company has appointed Mohammad Irfaan as Vice-President, Middle East.
This is a strategic shift for 4Projects which avoided the mid-2000s rush to Dubai joined by UK competitors such as Aconex, Asite and BIW. When I interviewed 4Projects’ FD Steve Nelson late last year (post), he explained that the company was in a good financial position partly because it had consciously avoided its rivals’ over-exposure to the Middle East market and to the changing market conditions in Dubai in particular. The situation in Dubai has largely stabilised over the past year, of course, so with confidence gradually returning to the region, then it seems 4Projects figures the Gulf market is now worth targetting.
Irfaan is a University College London graduate in Information Management who has specialised in project information management solutions for the construction industry, having helped several UK and US companies establish a commercial footprint in the region.