OKI Ramps Up Mideast Operations
OKI Printing Solutions is to expand its Middle East operations with the addition of personnel both at the company’s regional headquarters in Dubai and at its partner operation in Saudi Arabia, where an additional team of eight dedicated OKI Specialists has been recruited.
“I am glad to be able to note, once again, that our initial decision to invest in strengthening our resources and investment in the Middle East has shown through in an increasingly diverse and dynamic business for OKI in the region. We offer better value and smarter technology to customers and an increasing number are making the move across to OKI,” said John Ross, GM of OKI Printing Solutions Middle East. “That’s translating into strong growth for us in the region and we’ll continue to invest in driving that growth.”
The move comes as analysts have evaluated OKI’s market share against its competitors and pinpointed a year-on-year growth of the market for OKI at the expense of other players.
“We’ve seen strong growth, according to IDC, particularly in Saudi Arabia where we’re identified as the clear market leader in the high speed A3 color laser market, all the way across to the dotmatrix printer market, where OKI is also a leading player in the UAE,” Ross remarked. “Across the board, our market share has moved up several points and, despite it being early days, we believe this is a trend that can only continue.”
Kingdom Short on IT Skills Needed for Growth
Unless the networking skills shortage is addressed urgently, in just three years, demand for networking skills in Saudi Arabia will exceed supply by 33 percent and there will be a shortage of more than 33,900 skilled people required to help drive economic growth. This finding which was released under the sponsorship of General Organization of Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT) comes from a new report on the demand for Networking Skills in the Middle East, part of a series from IDC, commissioned by Cisco Systems.
In a press conference held to reveal the results of the study at the Cisco Academy in GOTEVOT, Dr. Ali Bin Nasser Al-Ghofais, governor of GOTEVOT, said that this study clearly shows the gap between the demand and supply of networking skills in the Saudi market. This requires a strategic plan be put forward immediately to address this critical problem.
Dr. Badr Al-Badr, GM, Cisco Systems, Saudi Arabia, added, “The networking skills shortage could become critical in hindering technology adoption and economic growth unless action is taken now.”
The situation is even more extreme when certain technology areas are singled out. For example, the shortfall between supply and demand in advanced networking technology skills (IP telephony, security and wireless) will be 40 percent in 2009. Again, this is in contrast to findings from Western and Eastern Europe that showed an average advanced networking skills gap of 15.8 percent by 2008.
IDC expects the ongoing economic expansion in the region to have a strong impact on ICT demand, including networking skills. As an example, IDC forecasts demand for IT in the Middle East to increase at a CAGR of more than 16.9 percent between 2005 and 2009. This has led to the unprecedented demand for general and more advanced networking skills. Insufficient training programs compound the situation and increased recruitment from local markets accentuates the need to address the issue through local training schemes.
There is also scope for Internet growth in Saudi Arabia. Overwhelmingly 99 percent of respondents in the region indicated they mostly use the network for e-mail and Internet access. They all indicated that the importance of the networking would increase in the future. The potential for network expansion is therefore very large, requiring significantly more skills to support such an expansion.
Middle East investments in hardware equipment are expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.6 percent until 2009, while investments in software products will rise by 11.2 percent and IT services by 10.8 percent. To put this in perspective, the Middle East is expanding at more than twice the Western European CAGR of 5.8 percent. The economies of the Middle East are clearly expanding at a very fast rate, and as a result investment in IT is increasing across the board.
While there are a number of regional initiatives currently under way in Saudi Arabia to promote further training in science and technology, the forecasted gaps highlight the need for more work to be done to provide the right training courses and to encourage student enrollment. The study findings represent a call to action to governments, the private sector, educators and individuals to do more to address these needs. If plans are not put into place now, technology adoption, business competitiveness and market growth will be placed at risk. Phillip van Heerden, senior analyst, IDC explained, “The business environment has evolved in recent years where supply chains compete against supply chains. Organizations are now, more than ever, interconnected entities that depend on the network for integration with their business partners. Not having sufficient networking skills available for this integration influences the competitiveness of not only organizations, but for the country as a whole.”
