Businesses and organisations must adopt a holistic approach and utilise all of the tools at their disposal, if they wish to remain competitive, according to a number of experienced industry analysts.

“We are seeing a growing focus across the region on developing the infrastructure, innovation platforms, and skills required to support the expansion of digital businesses,” IDC group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa, Jyoti Lalchandani said.

“To set themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market, organizations need to leverage infrastructure, data, and skills alongside critical technology enablers such as 5G, the cloud, and AI,” he added.

Lalchandani further elaborated by stressing that only by applying the above principle will businesses and organisations be able to successfully re-invent their business models, craft novel and original customer experiences, as well as being able to facilitate innovation with their partners.

Lalchandani’s comments were made during the first day of the IDC Middle East CIO Summit in Dubai, which took place this week.

The summit involved the participation of more than 500 of the region’s most influential ICT decision-makers.

The two-day event, which this year ran under the theme of ‘Enabling the Digital Economy’s Leaders’, was opened by IDC’s global president, Crawford Del Prete, who delivered the summit’s keynote speech and presentation on ‘Strategies for the CIO and Enterprise Innovation’.

“As storms of disruption continue to gather, it is crucial that CIOs are clear on what they need to do now — and in the future — to create an environment for long-term sustainable innovation,” Del Prete said.

“Central to this is the need to build a culture of trust across the entire organization and its broader ecosystem of partners and customers,” he added

Furthermore, Del Prete said that the industry is increasingly seeing a move toward greater industry ecosystem-led innovation, stressing the importance for chief information officers (CIOs) to properly understand the consequences and implications of the decentralisation process that is currently unfolding.

“Enterprise leaders must view the increased line-of-business investment as a springboard to greater innovation and not an end state in itself,” he concluded.