DOHA: Qatar’s digital landscape in Qatar is set to witness a rapid change in coming years. The pace of technology in Qatar will increase rapidly and at an unprecedented rate over the next three years, said Accenture’s Middle East Technology Vision 2016 report released recently.
“Our latest research has determined that digital success is based on five major technology trends, which are shaping the current and future business landscape in Qatar,” said Mike Sutcliff (pictured), Group Chief Executive of Accenture Digital. “Results show that if companies embrace digital, while also harnessing the power of people, they will be well-set to rise to their industry’s fore in the coming years,” he added.
In a survey of more than 3,100 business and IT executives worldwide, Accenture found that 33 percent of the global economy is already impacted by digital.
To supplement this report, Accenture interviewed more than 300 senior decision-makers in the public and private sectors of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The results revealed that close to 80 percent of respondents in Qatar are confident that the pace of technology will increase rapidly and at an unprecedented rate over the next three years. Around 44 percent of the respondents expect that the level of data growth in the coming year will at least double and 13 percent believe it will as much as triple.
As per the report, leaders are embracing automation to fundamentally change the way their business operates and drive a new, more productive relationship between people and machines.
Extensive automation strategies are already being implemented throughout businesses in Qatar, particularly with regards to customer-facing processes such as interacting and servicing tasks, and consumer experiences,. Organisations are expected to extensively increase their use of automation in the coming years.
Businesses in Qatar claim this anticipated growth is driven by a desire to cut costs and increase operational efficiency, boost innovation and create new business models, and redirect resources to concentrate on research and development, and new product development.
By exploiting technology to enable workforce transformation, leading companies will create highly adaptable and change-ready environments that are able to meet today’s dynamic digital demands.
Industry leaders are unleashing the power of technology by developing platform-based business models to capture new growth opportunities.
According to the report, 66 percent of organisations in Qatar are investing in digital technologies in select business units, while 17 percent are comprehensively investing in digital technologies as part of their overall business strategy, and 49 percent are seeking new digital partners within their industry.
The report added that the Industrial Internet and ‘Internet of Things’ will have a significant degree of change on industries in Qatar, according to 77 percent. Around 86 percent also believe that organisations are being increasingly pressed to reinvent themselves and evolve their business, before they are disrupted.
Trust is a cornerstone of the digital economy, said 80 percent of survey respondents in Qatar. To gain the trust of individuals, ecosystems and regulators in this new landscape, businesses must focus on digital ethics as a core strategy, better security alone will not be enough.
“The Middle East is at a tipping point in the development and adoption of key technologies, including artificial intelligence, platform ecosystems, predicative analytics and the internet of things,” said Omar Boulos, Regional Managing Director of Accenture in the Middle East and North Africa.
