ICT Competitive Advantages for Businesses


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CharlesExecutive Director Market Development

In our digital age, no longer can businesses create competitive advantages through the sole provision of superior products or services. ICT has become a must for all customer-driven businesses and entrepreneurs who are motivated to grow their businesses significantly. ictQATAR's Executive Director of Market Development, Charles Watt, provides his insights on such vital topic, while highlighting the core objectives and challenges that his team faces, in the process of integrating technology into Qatar's business environment. 

How do you define the term "market development" and what does it mean for Qatar in terms of ICT?
I passionately believe that the quality of lives of citizens, business competitiveness and government effectiveness and efficiency can all be enhanced through the use of ICT. So, for me, the term market development means striving and achieving those goals

Throughout my experience at The World Bank, I witnessed schoolchildren not having to walk miles for their education, the infirm being treated through videoconferencing and wealth being created by businesses growing and flourishing. Since our team in ictQATAR concentrates on the business sector we have defined our purpose as 'Accelerating the competitiveness of businesses in Qatar through the use of ICT.' 

What is your definition of a developed ICT market? What are the major development areas for such a market?
The term 'developed' is relative of course. Technological change never stops and even the most ICT 'developed' countries never stop innovating. Ultimately we want to see the social and economic benefits of ICT available to all.

In broad terms the main challenges in Qatar for my team are: first, to grow the ICT sector by attracting foreign companies and major 'knowledge in' projects, creating companies through business incubation and commercialization of research and growing the existing domestic sector. This is what we call the supply side.

The demand side, on the other hand, entails raising awareness and encouraging businesses to embrace ICT which will help them grow profitably. They will be able to reduce costs through e-procurement, improve customer service by reducing the turnaround of quotations and orders, increase their market knowledge through searches on their competitors, new products and markets, and develop national and international on-line sales channels. 

How do you define a country as connected? What changes should there be in the market so that Qatar becomes a more connected country?
I wouldn't define 'connected' as simply the availability of broadband but more in terms of, "Is ICT having a substantial social and economic impact". If one benchmarks Qatar with the best in the world there are issues we have to resolve. These include: the availability of advanced broadband services typically delivered via Fibre To The Home or Premises (FTTx), choice of service provider and services, which in turn will bring lower 'consumer' prices and a more robust international transit network which would reduce the chances of catastrophic failures such as happened recently and a year ago. 

In your point of view, how will the introduction of competition for the first time change the Qatari telecom market?
Greater competition brings benefit to citizens, businesses and government departments because they enjoy choice of supplier, lower prices and a higher quality of service. Demand then grows, prices reduce, innovative products are launched, demand grows.....and the whole cycle starts over.

Competition is also a huge opportunity for any service provider who is willing and able to embrace innovation, in a customer driven approach. Even if competition leads to some loss of market share, this will not mean slowing down business growth as the new market will continue to grow exponentially - like having a smaller slice but of a much larger cake. 

What are the major challenges that Qatar faces, in its way of becoming a connected knowledge society?
One major challenge is to create, in the medium to long term, a Qatari resource of world class ICT skilled individuals. Major projects such as FTTx should be regarded as social and economic investments by government and not necessarily as a source of revenues.
In a broader scope, we need to embrace a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. 

What segments, do you believe, are most crucial for the development of the Qatari telecom market?
The most obvious in the short to medium term are those sectors which are important to the current economy such as construction and tourism. To get the whole business sector 'connected' we do have to concentrate also on the large number of sole trader and SME's who would benefit substantially from simply having a basic web site and email.

The second area requires further work to define which markets in the medium to long term will be high growth sectors and where Qatar has a perceived competitive advantage such as ICT applications for energy efficiency.

The final area reflects how a nation deals with its disadvantaged citizens. The Assistive Technologies area is world class, we should be proud of it and we should continue to develop it further. 

What is your vision for the ICT market in the coming period?
Within the next three years I would like to see Qatar as not only the highest ranked country in the GCC against a basket of measures but also to be in the top 25 nations in the world. It's a tall measure but imagine the benefits to Qatar when we achieve this aspiration! Qatar has a committed leadership, the financial resources, short lines of communication and a clear vision so let's work together to achieve this goal; something we can rightly be proud of.

- By: Mina Nagy







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