B Swaminathan
The latest PwC Middle East CEO Survey highlighted cyber threats as the number one concern for Middle East CEOs – with 57 percent of those surveyed believing that cyber risks will have a negative impact on their business. Despite cybersecurity being a top-of-mind concern for the majority of business leaders, the lack of capable talent available means organizations remains vulnerable to cyber exploits. The UAE experienced one of the fastest recoveries from the COVID-19 pandemic, while foreign trade surpassed AED 1 trillion in H1 2022. The UAE expects 6.5% GDP growth by the end of 2022, including a rise of 4.3% for the non-oil sector.
Here are a few comments from a few IT leaders from various walks of technology life in the Middle Eastern Region.
Reda Bin Abdoun, Chief Digital Officer, Ajdan Real Estate Development Company:
After the COVID pandemic, the importance of data and real-time reports, and interactive dashboards become in high demand. In the Middle East, particularly in KSA, the problem is executives do not know what should be the underlying foundations to be able to have these dashboards and reports. Investments are there to reach accuracy in reports and data for the CEOs and owners which is not present now. Well-educated and mature businesses are going towards machine learning and AI and harnessing data really. Especially these companies are closely interacting with customers as they are majorly in the B2C model.
Abdullah Aldobaikhi, CEO, AJ Cyber, (By Ajlan & Bros Holding Group)
Cyber Security is the biggest chunk where the investments are happening in every organization. As far as the industry verticals are considered, I see industries like fin-tech, cloud companies, and smart cities are doing good in the investments related to IT as their dependency on tech is high. The reason for the increase is the increase in remote work and in my experience; no company had downsized the IT requirements. The need for IT and investments in IT are always on the increase. On the other side, there are also some challenges. There is a delay in the turn-around time for a product from the procurement to the implementation stage due to the challenge in the logistics.
Abdulrahman Majed, Sales, Advance International Company (ZKT Eco)
There is an increase in the concept of identity and access management. For example, we know many companies were interested in identification with facemasks on. Some of the key challenges system integrators like us faced were the increase in the shipping cost. We noticed that mainly during the pandemic period. Also, soon, we are coming up with more solutions in the IoT, as many OEMs are expecting IoT-related solutions. Being one of the listed companies in the region, we are more bullish on the market and we shall be coming up with new innovations soon.
Aakash Haldar, Enterprise Solutions, Key Information Technology LLC
We aim to help our clients run everyday operations and increase productivity with the presence of IT. I could say the pandemic had changed the way businesses were functioning earlier and now. On the other side, IT decision-makers are also becoming very particular about the investments that are made. No doubt, while they are moving towards new technologies and many IT heads had started looking at technology as a source of income. Keeping the lights on, to revenue to the organization after implementation is the key trend now.
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