Ahmed Auda, MD, METNA at VMware, discusses technology consultancy market

1. How has the UAE tech consultancy market been over the past few years?

The tech consultancy market has grown at a rapid pace in the past few years, driven in large part by government-led initiatives in the GCC to transform and diversify their economies by encouraging the growth of a wide range of sectors to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and create high-quality employment opportunities for fast-growing young populations. The rapid growth we have witnessed across diverse sectors, from financial services to healthcare, logistics and tourism, has led to a huge demand for top-level ICT-expertise. Fast growing organizations need to embrace transformation across their operations in order to thrive and to cater to their customers’ needs.

2. What have been the fastest-growing tech consultancy markets in the region?

There is a high demand for tech consultancy within the government, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The UAE is committed to Smart Government and rolling out smart services, which is a key pillar of any smart city. Fast growing industries including financial services, logistics and healthcare are also strong markets for tech consultancy. Mega projects such as the new city of Neom in Saudi Arabi, and Dubai Expo 2020, will also continue to drive IT consultancy demand.

Organizations are looking for advice on how to simplify their operations, reduce complexity and build the right infrastructure for new projects or to facilitate expansion. They want advice that helps them to set the right priorities around technology and transformation projects, which in turn will help their organizations meet their targets and goals. This often includes strategic advice on the adoption of cloud models and the development, maintenance and deployment of applications.

3. Can you talk about any smart city/digital transformation projects you’ve worked on in the Gulf?

Last year we collaborated with Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA) to help the organization deploy smart services. ADDA’s objective is to deliver government-related services digitally through applications on Abu Dhabi’s unified government services platform, TAMM. With our range of solutions, based mainly around VMware Enterprise PKS, we were able to help ADDA streamline the development of the applications with the development team. Applications underpin digital transformation and their importance is only set to grow as a key pillar of smart cities.

4. Are you helping with any tech-related responses to COVID-19?

We have seen an increase in demand for solutions that help organizations operate their businesses flexibly, and which empower employees to work remotely using any device.

For effective business continuity amid the need for homeworking, organizations need to be able to provide their employees quick access to their desktops and apps, to continue their work and keep their organization functioning as normally as possible.

We have seen an increase in demand across sectors, but especially in education and healthcare for digital workspace solutions including VMware Workspace One platform. This allows organizations to provide their staff with immediate access to an entire set of business applications with seamless and secure access to all cloud and data center apps, including Horizon virtual desktops and applications as needed based on job functions.

We are also helping several organizations expand their operations with new CovID-19 related facilities, such as hospitals that are preparing to set up additional emergency capacity to help people suffering from the virus. One example is a large hospital group in Dubai that is establishing emergency hospital wards in a hotel. Of course, the patients and hospital staff need unfettered access to information that they would have in the main hospital. We help by providing secure and seamless remote access to all of the information that is required. Though the new hospital unit is technically “off site”, the staff experience will be the same as if they were working at the main site. This will allow the hospital staff to focus on saving lives rather than worrying about technology.

We are also working with various academic institutions to enable and enhance remote learning, as well as helping the administrative teams to continue other vital operations of their organization remotely.