Infor keen to capitalise on Gulf growth potential

Top Stories

Infor keen to capitalise on Gulf growth potential

Published: Tue 14 Mar 2017, 8:21 PM

Last updated: Thu 16 Mar 2017, 4:26 PM

US-based technology company Infor is investing heavily in the UAE as it sees a huge growth potential in the Gulf region's key sectors such as manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and healthcare, its top official says.

Infor president Stephan Scholl, who is on a visit to Dubai, said on Tuesday that his company posted a year-on-year 131 per cent growth in first half of financial year 2016-17. The US tech firm builds business software for specific industries in the cloud and claims a strength of 15,000 employees and over 90,000 customers in more than 170 countries.

"Our focus in 2017 is primarily going to be the adaption of cloud by businesses and companies have to understand that they cannot have presence globally everywhere at the same time and that is where we make a difference for them," said Scholl. The company's focus in 2017 is going to be on big data and analytics coupled with digital disruption.
 "The UAE's small and medium enterprise, or SME, segment is not only expanding locally but are entering in global relationships and hence they need to be equipped as far as the digital exposure is concerned. Infor offers them the total cost of ownership and flexibility to interact globally with their clients," added Scholl.
 "Expansion in the Middle East and across the larger IMEA region is increasingly being driven by a healthy cloud uptake in what will likely be a decade-long ERP replacement market," said Tarik Taman, general manager of IMEA. This trend is in line with a recent report by research firm Markets and Markets, which shows the Middle East cloud applications market set to nearly triple from $888 million in 2015 to $2.4 billion in 2020.
 "The next few years represent the tipping point in the Middle East, India, and Africa with C-suite executives across industries and countries understanding the macroeconomic catalysts driving the necessity to embrace digital transformation," said Taman.
 Since the launch of the IMEA region in July 2016, Infor has added numerous marquee customers in the cloud including Arabian Centres, India's largest retailer Future Group and S.K.M. Air-conditioning.
 The company also announced the acquisition of Accentia Middle East, an Infor partner serving the Middle East, North Africa, and India (IMEA) region. The acquisition of Accentia significantly expands Infor's presence in the region, and comes amid a period of strong growth following the July 2016 announcement of a dedicated IMEA business unit at Inforum, the company's annual user conference. - sandhya@khaleejtimes.com 
 

by

Sandhya D'Mello

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

More news from