"Traditionally, Oman is not known to be an IT spender. But in recent years, it has improved due to increasing competition in the telecom industry and the launch of e-government projects," says Sam Alkharrat, managing director, SAP Middle East and North Africa. But areas such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), which integrates internal and external management information across an entire organisation, have seen very slow adoption. Oman sees three to four ERP implementations a year, mainly by the large conglomerates, says S Jayakumar, general manager, International Information Technology, a unit of OHI Group.
The government projects in developing e-services, along with the infrastructure and manufacturing projects and the increasing needs of corporate Oman in a competitive global arena present a good opportunity for the IT firms to roll out products and solutions. With fields such as cloud computing, mobile applications, data warehousing and development of call centers being mulled, many in the industry are of the opinion that Oman's IT sector can take advantage of these developments by improving their skill sets and innovation to emerge as a strong competitor to global peers in the coming years.
As of today, small and mid-sized companies in the private sector have not looked at large investments in technology. "The main concern for many private companies is the funds required for investment. People are adapting products available off-the-shelf instead of demanding customised solutions," says Mohamed Moosa Ibrahim, executive director, Towell-Take Solutions.
Many large conglomerates in Oman have invested in IT upgrades, but they developed it in-house. Hence the potential for business for the private sector IT companies remain limited. International players like Microsoft, SAP, CISCO and 3i Infotech have partnered with subsidiaries of large conglomerates after discovering the potential in sectors like oil and gas, retail and distribution and manufacturing. But they have deferred from setting up a large base due to the small nature of the market, says Jayakumar.
In the last five years, the IT industry in Oman has grown at the rate of about 5-10 per cent annually. Yet it is still at a nascent stage, showing just one tenth of the growth seen in the neighbouring markets like Saudi Arabia. Aashwin Chowdhury, general manager, Mustafa Sultan Enterprises, says this is because the industry is not mature. Several smaller firms are still adopting accounting software. Others agree, saying that areas like web solutions, product development and software programming are yet to progress to international standards.
For several players, the size of the market has been a deterrent in rolling out customised products and solutions, resulting in a lack of innovation in the industry. "Some of us try to roll out software products, but in Oman the practice is to accept ready-made, off-the-shelf products. Customers are sometimes not very clear about their entire requirements at the time of award of the contract. They end up changing their specifications midway through a project due to factors not in their control. This increases the total scope of work and the development cycle," says Richard Lopes, general manager-business services, Imtac. "But yes, there some are some clients who have successfully implemented the solutions and products which are customised in specified time frame," he adds.
While a few solutions and products are customised for some big clients, practices like agile software development (where specifications to products can be incorporated even after implementation in the systems) and parallel testing procedures (where products and test cases for solutions are developed simultaneously), as seen in the developed markets of Europe, Asia and the US is nearly absent in Oman.
The next wave
In an effort to improve the deployment of IT in the government and private sectors, ITA has undertaken the Digital Oman initiative, persuading government agencies to develop their web portals, hence enabling ease of access of information for the general public. Another government agency, the Knowledge Oasis Muscat, the Oman's technology park, is now looking at attract companies in the area like renewable energy technology, creative industry, multimedia, games, mobile games to name a few.
For the IT industry in Oman, the next wave of growth is in the area of information communications technology, with the opening up of the telecom industry and increasing Internet penetration. Internet penetration in the industry has risen to 70 per cent from a mere 17 per cent three years ago. This also offers the potential for the development of mobile applications and solutions for customers, points out Riyadh al Balushi, an IT columnist and blogger.
Muscat municipality has already tapped into this segment by developing a mobile application to get parking tickets. But enforcement of standards and regulations by the government in the industry is equally important for the sector to evolve, says al Balushi. ITA's e-services initiatives and projects in infrastructure, oil and gas and manufacturing have existing international names like SAP and Microsoft keeping their strategy for growth in Oman consistent. "We will continue to invest in the Omani market, scaling our operations and ensuring close alignment on key areas of focus including our work with ITA, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education," says Tareq Hijazi, country manager, Microsoft Bahrain and Oman.
In the private sector, local companies are increasingly looking to implement ERP solutions, often seeking packaged products. "ERP will be the next stage of growth for firms, which will also lead to business intelligence," says Chowdhuri. This in turn brightens the prospects for data warehousing solutions, something which players like Towell-Take are focusing on.
The idea of cloud computing is also being mulled by many in the industry and some private firms will provide cloud solutions, says Janaki Raman, general manager, Bahwan IT. He, however, points out that there are some security concerns in the minds of customers, but today with security solutions available there is no need for customers to have any fear on this front and they can take to cloud now.
The thought of having data hosted elsewhere might put some fear in the minds of people but these fears are unfounded in today's situation when the cloud can be fully secured with access rights provided as required by the customer, adds Raman. Disaster recovery projects have also been a major area of focus for many private firms, after natural calamities like the tropical storms of Gonu and Phet that hit Oman in the recent years.
While these sub sectors clearly present opportunities, many in the industry say Oman can focus on specific areas to compete in the international market. "If we focus on niche markets like developing mobile games, local content and even attract more call centres, Oman can emerge as a gateway to markets like Africa," says Mohamed Hamed al Maskari, director general, KOM.
It is clear that most investments for the development of IT are being made by the government, but many executives say the private companies too should increase their level of innovations to tap into these areas. When it comes to competition, new players are seen entering the market, but they can compete with existing players only if value added services and products are introduced to the industry. "Many of the established players have been around long enough in the industry to understand the psychology of the customers and we know what they are willing to accept," says Jayakumar.
Be it from the public sector or the private industry, much innovation and development of local skills are needed in the IT industry in Oman for any remarkable progress to boost the sector. But with the players identifying untapped areas of IT in Oman to carve their own niches, the industry may well be on its way to witness a better growth in the coming years.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ramya DilipKumar
Quelle/Source: Zawya, 06.10.2011
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