Digital transformation is set to drive further sales increases for Dell Technologies in the UAE, the company has said on the back of rapid growth in the Emirates during the past year.
Speaking at the recent Dell Technologies World annual gathering in Las Vegas, officials said that Dell was strengthening its position in the Emirates in sectors where it had traditionally not been a major player here.
In the wider Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region, Dell saw its staff headcount swell by more than 900 between January 2018 and January 2019, bringing the total to above 5,000.
Over the past two years or so, the company has increased its tally of customer-facing staff in the UAE by between 30 and 40 percent. Sales in the Emirates grew by double digits last year.
“With digital transformation in my region, I like to believe we read the future right and read our customers’ needs,” said Mohammed Amin, Dell Technologies’ Dubai-based senior vice president for META.
Another key reason given by the company for its expansion in the region is the 2016 merger of Dell and EMC.
Fady Richmany, Dell Technologies’ senior director and general manager in the UAE, said the merger had “played very well” by significantly increasing the scope of Dell’s offering to customers. Also, the customer bases of Dell and EMC had tended to be complementary, giving the merged entity a significantly bigger list of major clients.
“We’re uniquely positioned to deliver end-to-end transformation,” said Richmany.
In healthcare, he said the company had grown “massively” in the UAE, consolidating a market position that, until recently, tended to focus on other sectors such as telecommunications and the public sector.
“Across the board it’s been amazing. The areas we’re finding growth where we haven’t been as strong as we should be – it’s retail, it’s healthcare and energy,” said Richmany.
Worldwide, the digital economy is forecast to take a 15 percent share of gross domestic product, said Amin, who described the Meta region as having a “huge” appetite to invest in digital infrastructure.
“So many emerging markets like Turkey, Saudi, UAE [understand that] if you’re not part of the digital economy, you’re going to be left behind,” he said.
The UAE is “taking the right measures, making the right investments” to position itself at the cusp of digital transformation.
“They have the will, they have the money, they have the political authority,” said Amin.
Per capita annual spending on IT in the UAE is slightly above $40, according to Amin, who described this as the highest in the Meta region. He suggested that the figure would eventually approach the amount spent in developed markets such as the United States and Europe, which he said was approximately $110.
When it comes to training, Amin said Dell was “committed” to a tie-up in which it hires Emiratis who have completed their education at the UAE’s Higher Colleges of Technology.
Also, last year Dell signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UAE’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Omar Al Olama, which will see 500 Emiratis trained in artificial intelligence technology.
In May this year Dell signed an MoU with Abu Dhabi Ports with a view to Dell Technologies providing consulting services to aid digital transformation.
