The UAE’s IT services expenditure will exceed $1.8 billion by 2013, according to recent reports from IDC, a leading research company.

In line with this, Raqmiyat, a leading UAE-based systems integrator, announced that it is eyeing significant growth for its managed services division amidst a projected surge in demand in 2010. The company’s optimistic expectation is also being driven by IDC’s recent forecast that the UAE’s IT services expenditure will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 12.4 per cent within the next three years.

According to Raqmiyat, companies in the Middle East are increasingly relying on automation, which opens up excellent opportunities for the company to offer its outsourcing and managed IT services to enterprises across the region. As a testament to its commitment to the regional market, the leading systems integrator and IT service provider is leveraging its Offshore Development Centre (ODC) in Chennai, India, with the aim of harnessing its IT services capabilities as a part of a global delivery model.

The company is also currently looking at joint ventures and partnerships to expand the scope of its business in the GCC.

“Service Level Agreement (SLA) based infrastructure, operations, application support and management services are the key services being increasingly adopted by enterprises from the managed services portfolio. In line with this, we are taking significant steps to grow our team with a huge addition for our operations in the UAE,” said Navneet Tandon, vice president - ERP & Services, Raqmiyat.

As enterprises continue to explore and outsource their non-core services as a way to achieve strategic goals, improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs, managed services in the Middle East is geared up for continuous growth, he added.

“Amidst the current economic conditions, organisations are leaning towards models that can help them improve their processes through solutions that bring efficiency and value to their organisation. Now more than ever, it is crucial for companies to optimise IT costs, and we believe that Software-as-a-Service and cloud computing are some of the ways that help customers to remain competitive despite the downturn,” concluded Tandon.-TradeArabia News Service