MindTree, a global IT solutions company, has announced plans to forge new partnerships in the Middle East region as part of its growth plans and objective of becoming a $1 billion organisation.

The India-based company has also embarked upon a major organisation-wide restructuring plan which includes setting up new business units, and new roles for senior management besides entering new market segments, the company said in a statement.

Anjan Lahiri, CEO of IT Services at MindTree, is in Dubai to meet current and potential customers and partners and also boost the growth and expansion of the company in the Middle East region.

'The Middle East has become a very important region for MindTree over the last few years. We have seen a significant increase in the demand for our proven and reliable solutions since we opened our local office in Dafza last year,' he pointed out.

'We have signed a number of clients in major financial centers in the region. A strong team of industry experts who understand the local market has been a key factor in winning new business and developing strong relationships in the region,” Lahiri noted.

“Companies in the region are increasingly looking at deploying high-end technologies to gain competitive advantage and save costs. Many verticals in the region including retail, banking and public sector have shown remarkable sustained growth,” said Shivkumar HS, who joined MindTree as its general manager and Geography head for ME last year.

“With a renewed focus, we are looking forward to making significant inroads in the GCC countries by aligning with local partners and leveraging on our strong global partnerships with Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and IBM,” he added.

Under the recent restructuring, Ashok Soota, who was the chairman and managing director, has assumed the role of MindTree’s executive chairman.

In his new role, Soota will focus on strategic initiatives and long-term development. Soota will continue to be the chairman of the Board of Directors.

Krishnakumar Natarajan, who was MindTree’s chief executive officer, took over the position of CEO and MD. He will be responsible for MindTree’s day-to-day operations and will look after the businesses and enabling functions.

With the objective of establishing leadership positions in each area of operation, MindTree will focus on five business areas - IT services, product engineering services, infrastructure management and technical support (IMTS), independent testing and the newly-formed knowledge services.

The initial focus of MindTree’s new Knowledge Services unit will be to provide analytics services to its clients.

Analytics will help companies gain deeper insight into their business, analyze risk, opportunity areas, customer behaviour and thereby improve sales and operational effectiveness.

Janakiraman S will head Product Engineering Services as president and group CEO of the business unit, which is comprised of R&D Services and Outsourced Product Development (OPD) Services.-TradeArabia News Service