Karim Elhanafi, the Founder and President of O
Karim’s venture, ONG-IT delivers a full spectrum of Video Analytics and GIS software, consulting and services focused on Europe, Middle East, and Africa ranging from governmental organizations to several Fortune 500 enterprises. With the new product platform SAIMOS® it aims making the complex technologies available to end users in the simplest possible way in order to enable effective situational awareness.
In the near future, Karim desires to become the leading vendor of GIS-based situational awareness solutions combined with video analytics and AI in the security sector for SME’s and private homeowners.
Landmarks of Karim’s Career Pathway
- Laying the foundation of Oil and Gas IT (1997)
- Implementation of the full GIS/CAD data management and automation during the design and construction phase of the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan Pipeline (2001 – 2004)
- Establishing the successor entity ONG-IT GmbH (2010)
- Establishing ONG-IT TechServ LLC in Cairo
- Developing the Pipeline Information Management System jointly with SynerGIS (2010)
- Entering the security industry by enriching ONG-IT GmbH’s portfolio with Intelligent Video Analytics (2015)
- Starting development of the new SAIMOS® Platform enriching GIS with security-related sensor data like Video Analytics and other real-time data (2017)
- First successful SAIMOS® implementations within the security industry in 2018
According to Karim, the greatest achievement of his career voyage for him is hiring own development team for the SAIMOS® development. The initial developments were co-funded by an Austrian R&D fund, which he is proud that their project was accepted.
ONG-IT: Providing Security as a Service
Incepted in 1997, ONG-IT GmbH is a system integrator for GIS and Video Analytics that provides the whole services portfolio, which includes design, development, implementation, data services, training, and consulting.
Its latest self-developed solution SAIMOS® (Situational Awareness, Infrastructure Management & Operations Security) is an integrated system for combining spatial data that is been built with a goal to develop a modular, open, map-centric software platform to support situational awareness and infrastructure management combined with AI based video analytics & -intelligence.
Apart from this, ONG-IT is the exclusive master distributor in the MEA region for WebOffice, a smart WebGIS platform developed by SynerGIS, and CartoPac®, a complete GIS field data collection solution delivering one platform for data, from collection to predictive analytics. Both the solutions enable implement enterprise GIS projects without the use of software developers as the customization is done by configuration only.
SAIMOS®: Security from Technology Perspective
Currently, the Vienna, Austria based solution provider is developing the business of SAIMOS® WatchBox, which is a next-generation alert system based on perimeter protection by video analytics. The easy to install and configure product helps detect human intruders and notifies the owner by alarming via e-mail or App. Moreover, bad weather or animals do not trigger the alarm.
While speaking about ONG-IT’s SAIMOS® platform, Karim states, “The novel approach of combining our GIS platform with Video Analytics for securing not only SME’s and private villas but also critical infrastructures is very much exciting as we’re entering a completely new field.”
ONG-IT’s new concept contains the WatchBox as the alerting system, the SAIMOS® Control Center for security operation centers to coordinate alarms and guards as well as the combination of its technologies for providing Security as a Service.
As ONG-IT has a higher interest in its SAIMOS® solutions portfolio and it believes that its target markets will gain an understanding of combining different technologies for optimizing daily workflows by digitalization. As already delivering its solutions to the world’s biggest vendors and system integrators, ONG-IT looks forward to enhance its international footprint.
Ingredients That Make ONG-IT a Perfect Dish
For any organization to become quintessential entity, it is necessary to have a perfect composition of its every part. In the case of ONG-IT, the most important factor, which make it complete, is its team. The President, Karim with highly expert and experienced employees of ONG-IT, make their outputs impeccable and of high quality. Furthermore, unlike others, Karim does not focus on only one technology. Together with his heavily seasoned team, they strive to unleash the undiscovered combination of different technologies to make an outstanding solution, as they have done with their SAIMOS® Platform. Apart from this, the flexible nature in terms of producing tailored solutions for a specific project as well as their cost-effectiveness makes them grow at a fast pace.
A Multi-Skilled Entrepreneur
Being a small company with start-up characteristic in respect of its security solutions, Karim is continuously involved in several activities such as administration, technical issues, business development, sales, and projects. Moreover, he also provides inputs to his developer team as per the aligned vision.
Speaking from his entrepreneurial tongue, he says, “Being an entrepreneur, I do like all these tasks but my favorite ones include, communicating with customers, listening to their needs, and designing solutions to heal their pain points and also for operational enhancements.”
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