An interview with Mark Nakrop Niamnamtham, nForce Secure Founder & CEO: ‘We are the Gateway of IT Security Products and Services to Thai Market’

“We stick to agreed distribution models and play hard. This is how we earn trust from reputed vendors.”

You start a business. You grow your company from an idea to a fully functioning and profitable entity. With success comes clients and, as with most companies, you store personal information either to be used in marketing or from a purchase. As a result, you hold the keys to many of the things that your customers’ value and treasure in their lives and it is now your responsibility to protect their personal information. Additionally, your company has a myriad of confidential and private information internally that needs to be protected.

nForce Secure is a value-added speciality distributor of IT Security, Information Management and Network Solutions.

The company offers a diverse portfolio of security technologies through its resellers, delivering advanced software and hardware products for cloud and data center security, network security, advanced threat detection, data security, legacy modernization, data analytics and conversion of big data into security intelligence.

The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mark Nakrop Niamnamtham, nForce Secure Founder/CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

What kind of organizations will survive and flourish in the distant future?
Let me take you back in time, 15-20 years ago. Hardware vendors were so focused on engineering their products to perfection and they believed if they kept delivering those flagships -- masterpieces after masterpieces, people would be flocking to buy the boxes. And success would be there at the

finish line. It was true, for a while, until came along the idea of becoming ‘customer-centric’. Vendors started to realize they needed to extend their care of customers throughout those fruitful years of product lives. Product is then service. Support is then service. Still true even till today. Customers must be happy for they to keep doing business with you.

Now in the age of technology disruption, it’s even more important that you stay dynamic. Fast and adapt quick. Quick in welcoming the ever-changing needs of customers. We cannot rely on only one or two products and hope to compete in the game and serve customers well. It’s not possible. Hence keen insights in crafting product portfolios that pack the most punches are what really needed. And nForce has that.

We don’t need to carry around a barrage of hardware or software solutions. We have quite a few good things put together, of course with a razor-sharp focus on IT securities, to solve customer problems.

Also, we have helped build a thriving community of Thai IT security professionals. We share knowledge. We do CSR activities. It’s a well-known fact that Thailand is in a shortage of IT securities practitioners – demand is two or three times what we have today. So, we are proud to give back and contribute to societies.

That would sum up my vision of staying dynamic: being responsive to customer needs and reaching out to them through communities.
Be generous. Be bonded. And enjoy the power of togetherness.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?
Fourteen years ago, around 2004, while overseeing regional sales operations at a vendor company and frequenting all the major IT security exhibitions and conferences, I always got hit with this number one top-chart request from partners and vendors in industry: “I seriously want to go into Thai market. Where can I find a local distributor who really digs security?”

They all stressed ‘local’. They wanted to make sure they got someone that knew the terrain well and really could push through. They understood that countries in this SEA region had their own quirks of doing businesses. The picture of a regional office directing the moves from far away just didn’t cut it.

This went on to the point that got me curious enough. Then I did some serious research and found out that none of those in the IT securities domain was effectively run by Thais. Why so? I soon discovered that there were failed attempts earlier by other Thai distributors. People didn’t grasp what distribution model was. They didn’t know how to do the ‘channel’ work with partners. They all got mixed up and sold directly to end customers.

I knew right away this was a challenging opportunity. For the plan to work, we needed to build up our own technical expertise so that we could compete with those regional office-backed companies that could fly in foreign engineers from abroad any time. We had to have to our home-grown SEAL
team to deliver top-notch service support to customers as this was the only way we could grow. So, with my technical background, I heavily spent time on recruiting and building our engineering team. Remember that IT security is a unique business – clients would need your consistent care over the use of the products. It’s not a one-time thing. Networking changes less frequent; You could probably set-and-forget. But securities need fine-tuning as IT policies tend to evolve over time. Frauds, hacks and breaches come in many forms and shapes. We must be proactive with customers – excellence in tech support shall lead the way.

Our ‘nForce Got Talent’ program was born out of that also. We formed ties with top universities, sought out talents and groomed them into full-fledged IT securities professionals. This has been running successfully for eight to nine years now.

All the hard work of building up people paid off eventually. Our engineering team won so many excellence awards over the years. Trust grew.

Q. What do you feel are the reasons behind your company’s reputation?
The reasons behind we stand out from the competition is our team and all those trusted vendors. I am thankful for all the vendors and partners that have fought along, arms in arms, through the battles, big and small.

Q. If you have to list five factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?
Human capital – This is where we shine. We have the people who stick to the same goal and work as one unit. Their attitude is rightly aligned.
Innovation – We are quite innovative with products and services delivery. Numerous awards and market recognition speak volumes of the quality we deliver.

Business network – Fourteen years of cultivating the relationship is what speaks for us now – as our network has expanded with the time.

Trusted vendors – We stick to agreed distribution models and play hard. This is how we earn trust from reputed vendors.

Mark Nakrop Niamnamtham:  A Brief Background

Mark Nakrop Niamnamtham, founder, is the CEO of nForce Secure. Mark brings more than 24 years of executive and technical experience with leading IT securities and networking vendors and distributor. Previously, Mark was the regional Asia south product marketing manager of Trend Micro where he led marketing effort for many Trend Micro solutions including interscan viruswall, network virus wall and endpoint security.

Well-known for being conscientious and outcome-driven, Mr. Niamnamtham helped change the perception of IT security and cybersecurity landscape for many IT leaders and executives, propelling Trend Micro products and services to a new level of success in ASEAN.

“We intend to maintain our number one position in Thailand. We will expand more and become recognized as leader in the Indochina market. This is the most exciting time; opportunities are out there. We are gearing up!”