Para-mounting cyber security

Premchand Kurup's pioneering focus on cybersecurity has enabled the creation of a solid industry in cybersecurity in the UAE.

There are few people who live with their passion, and Premchand Kurup is one such successful entrepreneur who has excelled by virtue of his acumen in the arena of information technology. With more than three decades of experience, he has risen as a pioneer in the cyber security domain and is a name to be reckoned with. His company, Paramount Computer Systems shows the way, and with a competent workforce of 195 consultants and engineers, it is one of the largest and trustworthy reservoirs of cyber security talent in the Middle East.

Premchand is a visionary at heart and is a great believer in talent and people. This leadership aspect has enabled him to do the best of cherry picking in the IT industry. His ventures have achieved unparalleled success as he focuses on niche technologies. He is the proud co-founder of three companies, namely Paramount, Barcode Gulf and Headstart FZ LLC, and moreover a mentor to more than 20 IT entrepreneurs. His expertise includes start-up and professional management, strategising approaches, sales, and technological innovations.

What makes him unique and interesting is the way he has simplified the business of the Internet; and has carved out an indispensable place for himself. His mission statement goes on to say, "Building People, Building Entrepreneurs, and Building Organisations.'' This is a doctrine in itself. It means accumulation of industrious talent and subsequently synergising it in managerial and technological realms.

The fact that he visualised the Internet industry as the future of the UAE and Dubai in particular, way back in 1998, goes on to make him a legend. Premchand's vision transformed the company from a PC supplier to a comprehensive cyber security partner organisation. He was confident that Dubai would scale new heights of success in Information Technology, and this motivated him to diversify Paramount and at the same time create two other entities - Barcode Gulf focused on Barcoding & RF-ID and Headstart focused on Retail ERP.

The smiling and prudent Indian entrepreneur excelled as he focused on Internet security and was the first to orchestrate a systematic approach to the complex issues of protecting against cyber-crime. Thus, his company drew respect for its services, and trust and integrity grew in leaps and bounds. Premchand remarks that his company's services enable customers to protect their information assets and infrastructure through a combination of people, process and technology. He says his specialisation is in making a difference by 'saving time, resources and money'. Paramount believes in providing the technical edge over its competitors.

"When we launched Paramount in Internet Security in Dubai, there wasn't a single cyber security expert. There was no CISO in town. We pioneered the concept, and we believe that as data increasingly moves to the cloud, security will have far reaching implications and will grow even faster than what has happened in the past decade," Premchand pointed out. That is why he believes in the power of deep customer insight being married with industry foresight.

"If you are running a business in which information assets are extremely critical, then it is expedient to go to a specialist Information Security Provider and Paramount is worthy of serious evaluation," Paramount CEO confided.

Premchand has ambitious expansion plans, as his company is already a major regional player. Paramount plans to set up its own R&D centre in India and move on to tap the European market. Paramount's customers encompass all major verticals including Banking, Oil & Gas, Government Organisations, Telecom Companies, Airlines & Transportation, Trade and Tourism. Premchand's piece of advice to the newcomers is to focus extensively on the future directions of IT namely Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Block Chain, Cloud and 5G. There is no dearth of opportunities and even the sky is no longer the limit. Likewise, he is all praise for the visionary leadership of the UAE, and compliments Dubai for realising the future beforehand. "Dubai manufactured opportunities for small and big entrepreneurs and that gave us the tailwind to fly."

Paramount and Premchand are synonymous with the knowledge-intensive cybersecurity space and seem set to lead from the front even as the industry goes through an inflection

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