I can feel how engineers breathe and how they think, because I have known the world of information technology in which I have been for more than two decades, says Vladimir Perišić, new director of Prointer ITSS, a member of Infinity International Group.
 

Perišić, a graduate electrical engineer with extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, believes that, as an "operative", he will bring new energy to the already recognized IT leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina and further position it in foreign markets. All this is part of the reorganization of the group whose goal is to adapt to technology, which also means better conditions and greater opportunities for employees.
 

After many years of experience, how do you see the merging of engineering and managerial positions?
 

We are primarily a high-tech company, we work with numerous and important partners, from America, Israel, Germany, to China, and we offer our clients serious projects in various fields. That is why I think that everything we have imagined as part of the reorganization will be a good message to our clients, as well as to our partners and colleagues. In the IT world, I have gone through practically all phases and levels - from trainee engineers to systems engineers, sector managers, directors and I have always led the technology sector. For the last year at Prointer, I have been the director of IT infrastructure and I believe that all this is a big plus for this managerial role as well.
 

You have also been engaged at Cisco Academy for more than a decade. Are the certificates of the world's leading names in the IT industry one of the keys to success in this field?
 

For 15 years I have been engaged as a certified instructor at the Cisco Academy at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Banja Luka and in my career I have obtained numerous industrial certificates. Certificates are a formal validation of the knowledge and competencies of an engineer and that is why our company has strived since the first day to have top certified staff. Thanks to this, we are present in leading technologies and have the highest partner statuses of the world's largest manufacturers, such as Cisco, HPE, Checkpoint, SAP, Vmware, VEEAM, not to mention them all. We simply cannot do without each other, and the fact that we improve our statuses every year shows that we are on the right track and that world companies have recognized this for a long time.
 

How will the reorganization you mentioned affect this path, and above all the staff and experts in the company?
 

Our guiding idea is a technological focus on certain products, which means that our people in technology and sales will have a more focused view of the portfolio from their field of work, complete additional training, and thus gain more knowledge and opportunities. Our engineers are already participating in projects that are outside the borders of BiH, primarily in Northern Macedonia, where a member of our group has strengthened its staff and taken on big jobs. We also have all major projects in Montenegro, Serbia and Austria. All this is part of the reorganization of the group, which aims to continue the growth that we have already recorded in the regional market. I would call it the second step in the transformation of our business, which will further open positions where our experts will be able to recognize themselves, which brings better business results and integration in foreign markets.
 

What is the first thing you will focus on?
 

First of all, I want our company to remain open to top staff and one of my ideas is to take care of it ourselves, in a way. Employees are the greatest value of any company. In that sense, we have our training and testing center in which we already educate our employees, as well as clients and all other interested parties. We are in negotiations to expand the cooperation in that center with some other vendors with whom we have not cooperated so far. Also, in the area of ​​SAP solutions in which we have representative projects, we plan to expand. As one of the world leaders, SAP is among our biggest partners and the group has recognized that we have great potential in this fast-growing market. That is exactly why my colleague Gordana Kovačević, whom I replaced as director, took over that area, and that is a guarantee that we will make additional progress in this important and large sector.
 

When it comes to "recognition", how much is IT really recognized in our country? Is he still in the realm of cost, not investment?
 

There are still some outdated considerations in which IT is viewed as a cost. In the sense - what do I need it for and why do I need digitalization. This is a completely wrong attitude, and therefore a great challenge in cooperation with our clients. Investing in IT is really an investment that is sure to pay off in a certain period of time. The world is unstoppably moving towards digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotics and we cannot lag behind. That is why we have invested so much in our people and the conquest of technology, even though it was all a matter of politicization and some did not really understand us. Perhaps the most telling of this is the fact that global IT leaders who are our partners from project to project see our professional approach and business vision. That is why they give us confidence, showing that they have no place to politicize anything that is part of a serious business story with a serious partner such as Prointer and the Infinity Group in general.