The large influx of investments made by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in newer and more sophisticated technologies has contributed significantly to the expansion of the UAE ICT sector, according to Allied Telesis, a global provider of secure IP / Ethernet switching solutions and an industry leader in the deployment of converged multi-play networks. In line with this, the company has announced its plans to consolidate its presence and penetrate the ICT sector while leveraging significant network upgrade opportunities in the region, with aims to boost its Middle East market share. The move complements recent industry forecasts that the UAE ICT market will continue to enjoy sustainable growth and will provide a strong platform for the development and expansion of SMEs.
Recent industry reports show that governments play a critical role in the region’s ICT sector; focusing mainly in investing on initiatives to develop more mobile, fixed and internet networks and reducing dependency on the oil industry as a sole revenue generator. Aside from this, Middle East governments have started to liberalize their ICT segments by introducing attractive incentive packages to encourage more investments from the private sector. Allied Telesis seeks to take advantage of this move by introducing its wide range of access, aggregation and backbone solutions for UAE ICT service providers. With a comprehensive product range that caters to the SMB (volume) markets, SME, enterprise and service provider businesses, the company offers innovative, standard-based IP networks that seamlessly connect users with voice, video and data services.
“The UAE’s strong focus to reinforce its ICT sector signals the most opportune time for us to showcase our award-winning and flagship network products and solutions, such as our networking switches, which are targeted towards the ability to transport converged voice, video and data, and are very well on their way to become mandatory requirements in today’s and future networks,” said Francesco Stramezzi, Vice President - Channels EMEA, Allied Telesis. “In addition, the remarkable developments in the region have led us to draw up aggressive investment plans to grow our presence in the Gulf region - starting off mainly with establishing ourselves in our new regional hub in Dubai Internet City. We are also keen on making channel partners realise the advantages of positioning our products versus the better known names by underlining our core strengths of total cost of ownership and product reliability.”
Despite the unprecedented growth in the region’s ICT sector, Allied Telesis has identified that 3G and WiMAX are untapped segments and the demand for more services and products for these market segments are rapidly increasing. In fact, mobile penetration in some Gulf countries has already crossed the 100 per cent marker, forcing mobile operators to launch advanced services like 3G to enhance revenue. Allied Telesis Group is committed to providing its customers in UAE with high quality products whilst minimizing the impact to the environment during both manufacture and product operation. Using the latest technology and a range of power saving techniques, Allied Telesis has reduced power consumption by up to 50 per cent over a wide range of its network devices. The company has also placed more focus on Triple Play technologies and is introducing innovative products to address data core network requirements.
"We strongly believe that by offering complete end to end solutions at affordable packages, we will attract strong interest among many IT decision makers in the UAE. Our initial focus for the first year is to establish our channel model - identifying distributors, developing value added packages, and implementing training modules for sales and technical teams. We cannot compromise on our support and services model and hence will treat this as a priority for the region. We have also started to secure key accounts in some of the region's top companies and organizations, and we are looking to appoint a new head for our Middle East operations,” concluded Stramezzi.
