During the 16th edition of the Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit, ZainTech was recognized for regional and global excellence, specifically for the Best Middle Eastern ICT Investment for its deal to acquire managed secure multi-cloud provider BIOS Middle East and Best Global Enhanced Service Provider awards for its Drone-as-a-Service arm.
In an exclusive interview with ZainTech CEO Andrew Hanna, he shared details on the company’s initial performance and progress since its establishment in October 2021, plans for 2023 and beyond, his outlook on MENA’s ICT growth, and the digital transformation trends impacting ZainTech’s products and solutions.
After a year of being launched, how is ZainTech performing and serving its markets across the MENA region?
It's been a very positive experience, not only for ZainTech but also for our customers, and the industry awards and accolades we have received since we launched are gratifying, reaffirming our strategic business growth strategy and the faith our parent Zain Group has placed in us.
We have gained significant momentum, proving that our vision to introduce leading-edge enterprise technologies and solutions in the region was well-placed.
ZainTech was established to provide enterprise and government customers across the Middle East with a complete range of quality products and services to enhance and protect their businesses. With significant investments in automation, partnerships with innovative global players, and our network of data centers, we are providing end-to-end multi-cloud capabilities across advisory, professional, and managed services that are traditionally delivered by global consulting firms for large enterprises, to regional mid-sized enterprises at price points tailored to them. We ensure our customers can solve their toughest transformational challenges today while future-proofing their businesses for tomorrow.
We will continue to grow organically through strengthening and expanding existing operations, as well as inorganically through acquisitions and strategic alliances with leading technology partners like Oracle, VMware, Amazon Web Services, Cloudera, and more.
The agreement to acquire BIOS Middle East, headquartered here in Dubai, is highly relevant and a critical business area for our region. With BIOS's established strong customer base, years of experience, and exceptional team, this strategic acquisition will supercharge ZainTech’s capabilities in hybrid and multi-cloud managed services and expand our offerings.
Can you explain how ZainTech empowers customers to embrace innovation, digital disruption, and future technologies?
At ZainTech, we have taken an integrated approach to our solutions, and our purpose is to empower customers. We stand as a regional digital & ICT solutions provider unifying Zain Group's ICT assets to offer a unique value proposition of comprehensive digital solutions and services under one roof.
The company is strategically positioned to drive the transformation of enterprise and government customers in the MENA region by providing a center of excellence and managed solutions, across the ICT stack, including but not limited to cloud, cybersecurity, big data, IoT, AI, smart cities, drones, and emerging technologies.
ZainTech leverages Zain Group's global reach, unique regional footprint, and infrastructure across its operations in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in other key markets in the Middle East, to achieve its objectives.
From your perspective, which digital transformation trends would require more of ZainTech's products and solutions, and how will you address this evolving demand?
We're witnessing a full spectrum of engagement from customers, from infrastructure modernization moving all the way up the value chain. We have clients seeking support in offering vertical solutions or securing data in transit and on-premise. We are also seeing clients looking to maximize the predictive capabilities of big data and analytics.
The pandemic and the restoration of the best normality possible thereafter have seen a shift in the expectations and operation of today's workforce, and all our products and services are geared towards supporting this new reality. Remote working and cloud computing, with the additional requirements around data sovereignty and cyber security, have seen significant interest and growth in this post-pandemic era, and we are catering to those requirements. We also see a rise in artificial intelligence and smart city applications, and we have the right products, services, and know-how to help companies maximize the business benefits in these important and expanding areas.
How does ZainTech plan to expand its regional scale and local presence in 2023 and beyond?
We are looking forward to 2023 and building further upon the strong foundation we have already established. As I am sure many of your readers will already be aware, we have entered into several technology partnerships and acquired companies to add to our overall portfolio of solutions and offerings. Our acquisition of BIOS Middle East is set to be fully integrated into our operations during the course of 2023, for example.
Furthermore, we are focused on working closely and supporting Zain’s local B2B teams across its footprint, to drive market development and cross-sell advanced ICT services to differentiate Zain's position in the regional enterprise market. The operations will continue to spearhead local execution, in line with the current successful model.
We will continue along the path we have already established, which is to deepen and widen our portfolio of products and services organically, and where it makes sense, look at inorganic growth opportunities as they arise, such as further partnering with technology stalwarts or assessing acquisition options.
What is your outlook on the ICT industry growth in the MENA region, and what is ZainTech’s key contribution to this?
I'm extremely optimistic about 2023. The region is certainly catching up with the most developed markets in the world with regard to digital transformation, and that's something we are well-positioned to drive further.
Forecasts from market researchers and analysts alike for the growth of business services and enterprise solutions across the board in our region of operation are strong, and we are dedicating resources to these areas at just the right point in time.
