Small businesses can benefit from gap in IT sector

Dubai: Small and medium businesses can benefit from a gap in the $13 billion IT market in the Middle East, according to the first industry white paper for the Middle East and Africa.

According to Dan Starta, a partner at A.T. Kearney, the management consultancy that conducted the research, the sector was expected to attract $40 billion in investments in the Middle East and Africa with $13 billion in the Middle East alone.

Starta said the rapid pace of development in Dubai and the UAE in all sectors including real estate, finance, telecoms, economics and finance provide a provided a broad base that would help drive IT growth.

"The level of growth in the region presents unique opportunities for growth in entrepreneurship that the region is moving towards a more dynamic, agile business environment, which needs IT solutions and creativity is what people what wants," he said.

"As business goes the IT sector has to follow need to support business."

The report was commissioned by Dubai Internet City and according to its executive director, Malek Al Malek, it identified specific objectives for small and medium businesses to capture part of the IT services market.

"The primary focus of this report is on the IT services market as we believe this is the segment of the regional IT market where the greatest number of opportunities could be available for these businesses. We also believe there could be opportunities for these SMBs in the hardware and packaged software segments," he said.

"The report seeks to identify the success factors for SMBs in this region as well as provide an overview of the common entry strategies and entrepreneurial environment."