AMITABH JHA

DOHA

HAVING secured a leading position in the country in the enterprise-level IT managed services and IT skills outsourcing fields, ABATS, the technology subsidiary of Ali Bin Ali group, has now set its sight on doing the same as IT services provider to the SME sector, a senior official of the company said on Wednesday.

Talking to Qatar Tribune on the sidelines of the QITCOM Conference and Exhibition 2011 organised by ictQatar, Ali Bin Ali Group Chief Operating Officer ICT, Mohamad AlEbrik, said the group believes there is a “big potential in the SME IT services space and there is big gap to be filled.” His opinion finds an echo in the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) report which puts Qatar’s ICT spending in 2010 at $2.55 billion, up 9.9 percent year-on-year.

The IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets.

The report also points out that the “SMEs constitute an increasingly important share of ICT spending in the country”.

It is this market that Ali Bin Ali Technology Solutions seeks to diversify into and focus on, AlEbrik said.

“With our own strong team of expert IT professionals and a stellar array of global IT technology majors like Apple, Microsoft, Dell and others as partners, we are rightly placed to fill that gap and help the country’s SME sector realise its full potential with the aid of IT services,” he said.

But that is not all.

The group also intends to expand its offerings in the enterprise level solutions market in which it counts the country’s well known oil and gas majors as well as the two telecom operators as its clients.

“In the enterprise level space we intend to offer an ever growing range of solutions with our partners like SAP solution provider SperrySwiss, Wipro and Columbus IT,” he said.

Moreover, in the retail space, the group, which is one of the country’s leading Apple products resellers and has gained the Apple Premium Reseller status by delivering on the promise of the Apple brand, intends to expand its iSpot stores from the present three.

Though he would not talk in numbers, AlEbrik said that further expansion of the iSpot stores is on the table.

iSpot stores are known as the best places in Doha to test any Mac product and get demonstration of any Apple offering.

With so much going for the company, AlEbrik is gung-ho on the prospects of the company, and intent on upscaling its business in all three areas of its operations on the strength of its personnel, product and solution offerings, commitment to clients and last, but not the least, the expanding markets aided further by Qatar’s successful bidding for the FIFA World Cup 2022.

“Despite being in the ICT space for less than a decade or so, we are successfully competing with firms which have been there for more than double the time.

And, now we intend to step up the gas to meet the needs of the expanding economy so that the consumer does not have to look beyond Qatar for his needs,” AlEbrik said.

“The company’s philosophy of giving the right technology for the right purpose at the right time at the right price has brought us here and will surely take us further,” he added.

Asked about the company’s QITCOM experience, he said the show, of which ABATS is a sponsor, has been an extremely successful one and has provided Qatari companies and entrepreneurs the right kind of exposure to global products, practices and trends.

“By participating in the show we have sought to support ictQatar’s laudable initiative and we will be happy to be there again at the next edition,” he said.