EMC has released the findings of a survey that asked I.T. decision makers in UAE, for their perspective on I.T.’s role as an enabler of business change during the shift towards the megatrends of cloud, mobile, social and Big Data. The impact of the megatrends has fundamentally changed the expectations of consumers and end-users who increasingly want to interact online, anytime and from anywhere, making I.T. more strategically important than ever before. I.T. has been focused on creating efficiency and driving down cost.
The EMC Forum Survey reveals that in UAE, I.T. is now viewed as a strategic enabler to grow business and better connect with customers. However, barriers will need to be overcome to achieve full potential.
IT is a business enabler
- 79% of respondents in the UAE report that their CXOs consider I.T. as a strategic lever to grow the business, now more than ever before.
- The top three business priorities when implementing new technologies in organisations from the UAE are: enhancing the customer experience (55%), automating processes (50%) and helping to win new customers (41%).
- 86% of respondents in the UAE agree that their organisation sees the increasing role of automation – such as software defined storage – as critical to business growth.
Taking advantage of the megatrends
- 88% of respondents in the UAE expect next-generation technologies such as mobile, social, cloud and Big Data to give their organisation a competitive advantage.
- UAE respondents say these new technologies will impact key aspects of the business, including: improving customer experience (53%), managing mission-critical business operations (39%), and building new products and services (38%).
- As businesses operate increasingly online today, 54% of respondents identified a need for joint public and private cloud services – hybrid cloud – as a means for greater agility and security.
Future of IT
Jeremy Burton, President, Products and Marketing, EMC Corporation
“Consumer expectations have undergone a radical shift. Consumers now expect to interact not only with each other, but with a multitude of organizations, via mobile devices and at the speed of now. To remain relevant and competitive, businesses across every industry are reinventing their business models to handle unprecedented levels of access, interaction and scale. For this reason, IT finds itself back in the driver’s seat, morphing from cost center to a true catalyst for change through the use of cloud and Big Data technologies.”
Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President and Regional Manager, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East, EMC Corporation
“The EMC Forum survey clearly highlights the ambitious nature of enterprises in the UAE who continue to turn to technologies like cloud, social, mobile and big data to better meet customer expectations. Enterprises today don’t just focus on IT to drive down costs but more so on using these advanced tools to drive agility and competitive strategy. As this transition to third platform becomes a reality, IT departments find themselves open to new opportunities to innovate and truly fuel business transformation driving it from a mere support function to a strategic enabler. EMC looks forward to working with many of these organizations to bridge the two platforms and redefine the role IT plays in the larger business environment to drive a competitive and successful future.”
Survey methodology
Collected during a non-mandatory questionnaire after completion of registration for the EMC Forum to be held in Dubai on November 17, 2014, this research polled a total of 315 business and IT management and executives, technical architects, data scientists and storage/infrastructure managers from a range of UAEbusinesses.
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