Having supported clients in the Americas, UK, and Europe for more than 15 years, WSN Consulting (WSN) is now broadening its reach. Committed to enhancing its services and expanding its geographical footprint, WSN is setting up its new APAC headquarters in Sydney, Australia.
WSN Consulting names Paul Sakr to head operations in APAC
WSN has named Paul Sakr as the new head of its regional operations, marking his return to Australia after a seven-year period at the company’s New York office. A Sydney native, Paul originally built his career in the financial markets. Group CEO Alex Ciccotelli remarked ‘Paul’s appointment is a natural evolution at WSN, given his deep understanding of APAC markets and extensive global operational experience’.
Over recent years, Australia has seen a steady increase in major institutions looking to build out their presence in APAC, something WSN is hoping to capitalise on. Paul Sakr comments ‘I think Australia’s stability in the region along with having a highly skilled and educated work force makes us an attractive option for organisations’. There are also economic factors at play ‘the relative strength of the US Dollar against the Australian is also seeing somewhat of a labor arbitrage particularly in our sector where our consultants and resources are more contingent and short term. At present, you can access like-for-like resources at an approximate 35% discount to a US-based headcount’.
The ability to have a more holistic offering is where WSN sees a strategic advantage to some of its competitors in this space ‘a lot of our clients have global scale, being able to cater to their needs in each region as well as offer what we call round the clock support puts us in a unique place compared to other firms our size’ Alex Ciccotelli comments ‘we are also starting to see a change in our clients demands in the region, which was historically focused on Singapore and Hong Kong now moving to Australia.’
The benefits are not only to their clients. Internally they are also able to offer greater mobility opportunities to their staff. ‘Australians tend to be quite nomadic by nature, having the ability to offer staff access to our engagements in major hubs like New York and London has proven to be an effective selling point for high-level talent both here and abroad’ says Paul.
There are certain resource types that lend themselves to global mobility. Traditionally, our bread and butter has always been execution-based staff like Project Managers, Business Analysts and PMOs, increasingly we’re seeing heightened demand for resources within the technology space, including Developers, Architects and Engineers. These specialised resources offer largely transferable skill sets between companies and can be huge assets as companies build out their own in-house technology capabilities and platforms and adopt transformation and data-focused projects’.
The world’s workforce continues to become more global and intertwined with every year. Finding a competitive advantage in a global market is becoming paramount to the success of businesses moving forward. Relatively untapped resource pools like Australia could be what helps these companies unlock greater growth and reach their goals more efficiently and at scale. Something WSN is banking on.
