JEDDAH – As many organizations race to adopt new mobility policies in the workplace, representatives from Saudi Arabia's government, healthcare, and education sectors came together in Jeddah to evaluate how new ‘smart mobility' advancements can be used in organizations to improve employee productivity. The leadership roundtable—hosted by global ICT solutions provider Huawei—was organized as a prelude to this week's IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit 2013 which kicked off Tuesday at the InterContinental Hotel in Jeddah. Roundtable participants included Asfar Zaidi, Principal Consultant at Huawei Enterprise Middle East, as well as Paul Black, Director of Telecoms at IDC. Held under the theme of “Jumping on the Mobility Bandwagon Without Falling Off', Zaidi opened the discussions by reaffirming how the growing Bring Your Own Device (BOYD) culture is empowering employees to do more on-the-go through secure access to corporate information at anytime, anywhere, from any device. “The fact is that many employees would prefer to use their personal mobile devices for work purposes, and some businesses are still being challenged to fully capitalize on this potential while keeping their corporate data secure,” said Zaidi. “Over the years Huawei has built strong capabilities in mobile security and management. Forums like this are essential in allowing local stakeholders to share their views on the opportunities they see in the market, and what challenges they need to overcome in embracing mobility in the workplace,” he added. Huawei' BYOD solution boosts enterprise network mobility and security by combining multiple technologies into one comprehensive offering. IDC estimates that enterprise mobility will become the main driver of enterprise transformation over the next decade, with some experts predicting that about half of the world's companies will enact BYOD programmes by 2017. This is in part being fuelled by the expansion of the worldwide smart device market, which is forecast to grow 27.8 percent year over year in 2013. As an official Summit Partner of this week's IDC Saudi Arabia CIO Summit 2013, Huawei will also be supporting industry dialogue on hot topics such as big data analysis and improving security assurance within enterprise networks. The company provides a wide range of enterprise ICT solutions to organizations across the Middle East spanning the government and public sector, healthcare, education, transportation, energy, utilities, and more. The Summit organizers IDC have predicted that IT investment in the region will reach $32 billion in 2013, with one of the largest market being Saudi Arabia. The most recent Global Innovation Index 2013 – which Huawei supported as a Knowledge Partner –further found that Saudi Arabia together with the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait lead the Middle East in overall innovation performance. “Huawei is committed to helping organizations in Saudi Arabia capitalize on opportunities brought about by ICT convergence without constraints of high costs and security challenges,” said Tony Shi, General Manager of Huawei Enterprise in Saudi Arabia. Huawei hosted a keynote discussion titled “Cashing in on Big Data” with the company previewing new ICT tools which allow local businesses to make sense of their ever-increasing digital assets through more effective storage and analytical processes. – SG
