Indian IT major aims to help Mideast firms adapt to new tech

dubai - Microland has plans to expand its presence in the Middle East

Indian IT services company Microland has plans to expand its presence in the Middle East (ME), its chairman Pradeep Kar said.

Speaking to Khaleej Times in an interview, Kar said the company had originally entered the ME market with a partner in Saudi Arabia.

"It takes time to enter the Middle East market; you need to understand and do your research on demographics in the market," he said. "It was only logical that we leverage what we have done in KSA and spread our business in the region. Our offices are in Dubai Internet City, and we will hopefully be expanding our presence more in the coming years."

Kar spoke about when the company first started operating in the region, saying: "We already have a lot of credibility, and in the newer world of IT services, we think we are fairly unique in the market."

But, more importantly, Kar noted that the timing to enter a new market has to be right. "The world's technology is shifting and we see a shift towards the cloud. The UAE is a unique country that is adapting and open to deploying new technology. I think we can play a very significant role in helping enterprises in the region adapt to that technology."

When it comes to the push towards digitalisation, Kar said several factors need to be kept in mind. The first has to do with the consumerisation of technology.

"What has changed in businesses across the world is that every enterprise caters to a consumer. Earlier, every enterprise catered to businesses," he explained. "Today, the end element of the consumerisation of technology is the single interface of the individual to his work. If you look at cloud service, then that is an example of the consumerisation of technology; you are essentially paying for a service. Services are also moving to become known as entitlement services. Service providers are finding it difficult to cater to the demands of what individuals see as an industry best."

Reliable bandwidth
The second factor, he said, has to do with the availability of inexpensive, reliable bandwidth. "You can't do things if your network is a constraint," Kar pointed out.

The last factor, according to Kar, has to do with the demographics of the worker today.

"You have to understand the mindset of the youth when it comes to the adoption of new technology. Businesses will have to look at an omni-channel approach that allows them to target both offline and online channels. The other shift we will see in the coming months will be regarding voice activation and assistance. A lot of things will be voice-activated very soon. All the big disrupters that have happened, have occurred outside the industry. For example, it was Tesla that came and changed the automotive industry," he explained.

Asked about his predictions for the future, Kar had a surprising point to share. "Flip phones will be back in fashion with users."

- rohma@khaleejtimes.com