The Secapp road to the Middle East market started with the Airbus Apps Ecosystem and its SmarTWISP programme. The SmarTWISP programme is Airbus Apps Ecosystem’s programme which helps developers to enter in to critical application markets.

A match made in the SmarTWISP

Entering in to new market is always challenge and a risk, but it can also be very valuable. Here's one success story opened how a finnish application company Secapp entered to Middle East with a help of Airbus SmarTWISP program.

Secapp has a solution that makes it easier and faster to alert the right people with the needed skills and get them to the right location faster.

Airbus SmarTWISP programme is the gateway for app developers who want to get into the ecosystem. The programme provides full support to its members e.g. technical support, documentation, access to Airbus technologies and tools etc. to develop and finalize their solutions. To help developers to enter to markets, Airbus frequently publishes the apps catalogue which is available to all Airbus global sales & marketing channels. The most innovative companies of the ecosystem are also invited to attend industrial events with Airbus to showcase their solutions and get the right contacts for market entries. At the moment SmarTWISP programme has over 200 registered developers.

Secapp is a one of the good examples that got access and tap in to the mission critical market with the help of SmarTWISP program. Secapp joined the Airbus SmarTWISP at the very outset in 2017. The company had already worked with Airbus with TETRA technologies in 2015, so it was a natural step to widen that cooperation with the SmarTWISP programme.

Highly promising results

Secapp was asked to join an Airbus invitation-only event in Dubai in 2018 as a SmarTWISP partner. Regional retailers and end-customers also attended to hear about the exciting new innovations in the pipeline, which gave Secapp the opportunity to present its services and network with them.

After the Dubai event, Secapp was invited to negotiate with STC Specialized with the support of Airbus in the early stage. Secapp and STC conducted a successful pilot program using Airbus TETRA devices. The project was then opened to official bidding and the contract was awarded to Secapp and finalized in 2019.

Secapp technology was delivered to STC’s security classified data environment at the end of spring 2019. The operating system was modified with Arabic language support and several other useful functions. Finally STC published the Tari’ service after security audits.

Presently, Tari’ is in commercial use in a major hospital to help save lives. In addition, Tari’ is undergoing test runs in many other hospitals and crisis management organizations, and the results look very promising. 

Read more about Secapp

What does it take to succeed in the Middle East?

The key factor is reliability and trust. Processes must work properly and they need to be documented correctly.

“This is something that comes up at a very early stage. Most of the market operators want to check these kinds of details. Working alongside Airbus will create reliability. From our point of view, it was much easier to approach these Middle East organizations when we were part of this great ecosystem.” says Kari Aho, CEO of Secapp.

Nothing happens overnight. As Aho explains, it takes time and patience to build customer relationships in the field of mission and business critical communications.

“This market isn’t the fastest to proceed in, but when you get the lines open and you have something concrete to show, usually the customer relationships are long lasting.”

Also, Finland’s reputation as a trustworthy and high technology country is one of the many factors that helped Secapp to navigate in the Middle East market. However, according to Aho, the biggest influence has been Airbus’ long relation with the customers in the region, the reputation as a reliable and supporting partner. Without the SmarTWISP ecosystem, even this success story wouldn’t have been written.

Together, Airbus and Secapp are blazing new trails to the Middle East and worldwide.

Secapp is a secure communications company providing alerting and communications services from everyday communications to complex crisis scenarios. Secapp combines commercial and authority communication channels in one solution.

Secapp has forged strong cooperation in the Middle East with Saudi Telecom Company Specialized (STCSC) and its regional Tari’ alerting and communications service used for crisis management and for coordinating daily operations. Tari' is using Secapp technology.