COUNTRY FOCUS: QATAR
R
ecent news from a new report
issued by the Ministry of Transport
and Communications, shows
that the total ICT (information and
communications technology) spending by
Qatar’s “commercial sector” is projected
to increase to nearly $2.8bn by 2019. The
report, entitled, “Qatar’s ICT Landscape
2016: Business”, also details how the total
ICT spending by the country’s commercial
sector stood at $1.9bn in 2015.
Commenting on this news, Christophe
Meunier, Partner at advisory and investment
group, Delta Partners, which specialises
in the telecoms, media and digital space,
said: “The report underlines the importance
of ICT as a lifeblood to Qatar’s growing
commercial sector. Investing in such
technologies will help both fuel and protect
the future health of the business, and in
turn, the economy, with those that fail to do
so being unable to survive and thrive in this
new digital paradigm.
But just as there is a solid commitment to
embracing such technologies, it is critical
that there is a solid understanding of the
changing landscape, and the changing roles
enterprises will need to play within in.
The ICT business models of the telecom
operators and IT services providers are
about to get disrupted in the same fashion
as how Over the Top Technologies (OTT) are
remodelling the consumer ecosystem.
Businesses will need to redefine their roles
and decide on a game plan to play in
the new enterprise ICT environment. For
instance, the number of things connected
to the internet is expected to grow
exponentially from 4 billion devices today
to 12-50 billion by 2020, based on various
estimates. While most of the use cases
today are in the consumer domain, future
Internet of Things (IoT) growth is expected
to be mainly driven through use cases in the
business domain.
However, for IoT to cross the chasm from
early adoption to pervasive use – especially
in the business segment – gaps in the IoT
value chain need to be addressed particularly
in enabling security, device management
and aggregation. Businesses – particularly
telecommunications companies – will need
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to redefine their roles and understand how
they can supplement their central position
as connectivity providers with network and
partnership capabilities, to play a meaningful
role in addressing these gaps.
In addition, customer experience is
fundamentally poised for disruption. On
the one hand the digital era is enabling
completely new/ more satisfying customer
experience, giving back control to the
customer, and raising the expectation of
instant gratification/ on demand bandwidth.
On the other hand, the internet has also
introduced the concept of “good enough” to
the telecommunication world.
The operator will need to rethink the overall
customer experience, making sure they
achieve the minimum requirements and only
differentiate on what the customer values
and is willing to pay for.
As such there needs to be a clear
understanding of the differing market
dynamics at play in the ICT area. Deciding
on and creating a coherent business model
will be vital for local, regional and global
operators to thrive in this new environment
where ICT is king.
What is clear is that in this new ICT
landscape, and data-driven world, it is
vital for businesses to evolve to meet the
demand of the new digital economy. With
such investment already ear-marked in
Qatar, the route map for growth is poised for
the taking.”
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