IBM regional head said that the IT industry is facing three challenges and some can call it as opportunities but it doesn’t matter, it exists in any way.
Speaking at the IBM Think Summit held in Dubai, Hossam Seif El-Din, vice-president for IBM Middle East and Africa, said that first is the technology itself, it is advancing at a much higher pace than ever, not only the speed of introducing new technologies but also the complexity and the numbers.
“We hear about cloud, blockchain and AI in every single meeting. We hear about quantum computing. Which one to use, when, where and how, and how to connect them together to get the maximum benefit. It is a question that needs to be addressed,” he said.
Apart from this, he added that 5G for enterprises is coming and that will bring a lot of opportunities as it brings the data and computing to the edge of the networking, known as edge computing.
The second challenge, he said is the consumer behaviour and clients are embracing the technology.
“We look at technology as an enabler and we accept it. Organisations are feeling the heat to integrate this motion – adding AI to different processes they have – and ensuring that they change the culture in a bid to change the behaviour. Consumers are asking to be served 24/7. They want to be served intimacy,” he said.
Organisations need to change their culture and processes, systems and the applications to align with their clients, he said, but it is not an easy task and they have to do this continuously.
Skills gap
The third challenge is the skills gap, El-Din said.
“If you think about how to bring the technologies together to serve your clients, it is not an easy task. You need lots of people, developers, architects, business administrators and data scientists and the list can go on and on.
“The big question is where to find them and even if you find them, you need to continuously enable them, train them and you need to retain them. It is a challenge that each organisation is facing today to cope with the technology,” he said.
All these are putting pressure on any organisation, he said, so how do “we prepare”.
“I believe that having an open strategy, thinking out of the box, be agile and having speed will solve part of the problem but you need a strong partner,” he said.
El-Din claims that IBM can address the three challenges and have been investing heavily in all the technologies such as AI, hybrid cloud and quantum computing and adds that the company has enough use cases to link the boxes to get the maximum benefit out of the different technologies.
