Channel Post speaks to Kishor Chitale, the CEO of Local Business Services for India and Middle East at Capgemini, about the digital revolution that’s fast approaching, the pain-points CIOs face today, and the way forward for enterprises
How important is the Middle East region for Capgemini?
We have been working in this region for over five years now and for a good time we thought we should be investing in the direction wherein we are bringing in value to our overall marketing strategies in place. We have been talking about the digital enterprise scenario for over eight years now, and we published a book called “TechnoVision” supported through research by MIT.
We did a similar exercise in India and we saw our value proposition is completely aligned. The Middle East region is strategic for us because in addition to India, we are investing in this region after realising this is a fast-growth market. However, unlike India, the Middle East is a region that includes multiple countries. So we are being careful in investing in this market by understanding the culture of each country.
What kind of industry sectors do you focus on, in the Middle East region?
We know we are strong in the public sector globally. So we would like to definitely see how we can help embark the regional government organisations into the journey of digitisation. We are very strong on the energy utilities sector, too.
We have invested in a lot of smart energy technologies. So we would like to see how we can bring that global knowledge and India capabilities as a combination to regional and local companies in the energy utilities sector.
Retail sectors is also one of our main focus areas. We are currently speaking to large retail players in this region, to see how we can work with them. BFSI is also very good sector for us because we are very strong in the insurance industry.
We see many opportunities in Middle East market. We recently also invested in Oman and Saudi and we continue to find key markets in this region to invest in.
What message do you have for companies in the Middle East?
Well, I would say they need to get ready for the technology revolution that is fast approaching and will hit them pretty soon. Once that happens, there is no guarantee that a CIO will automatically get transformed into a Chief Digital Officer. Companies need to realise and understand the changes technology market is undergoing currently and adapt accordingly. If they don’t, they will be left behind.
What pain-points according to you do CIOs today face?
One of the key challenges CIOs face is many of them are not established within an organisation as a seasoned player. Getting them ready for the next revolution is also important because the way many businesses work today is very different.
Today, employees decide the way forward for technology deployments and so on, due to consumerisation of IT and the use of BYOD concepts. That is where we think we can be adding value by bringing in not only the technology layer, but also the consulting layer.
What sort of partnerships does Capgemini currently have?
We have a global alliance structure which is very well defined. Hence, we do not reinvent the wheel in any geography. We work very well with partners such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, EMC, VMWare, and so on.
As far as Middle East is concerned, we are seeing a good traction on the ground with enterprises taking good decisions as far as implementation of technologies are concerned. We are hoping for our strategy to work in a very focused way.
