Mindware set to achieve 20% growth in 2008

The UAE's information and communications technology (ICT) sector is expected to reach $2.4bn by 2011, reflecting an impressive growth from $1.5bn in 2006, according to a market study conducted by RNOCS.

A research conducted by IDC recently revealed that the UAE follows only Saudi Arabia as the top IT spenders in the region due to its heavy investment into the sector in the past few years.

Mindware also announced that it recorded $200m in revenues in 2007, reaffirming the company's growing market dominance.

According to recent market studies, the growth of the IT sector in the UAE is due to the emergence of business-friendly regional trade practices and economic liberalisation, which has encouraged small, medium and major enterprises to make sizeable IT investments.

Specifically, research firm RNOCS has identified the rapid increase in the demand for ICT products and services by local and regional enterprises as the primary drivers of the growth, thereby establishing not only the UAE but the entire region as highly lucrative IT markets.

Mindware has successfully leveraged the tremendous opportunities present in the market, thereby resulting in its outstanding revenue growth during the past year.

Jacques Chammas, CEO, Mindware said:

"The rapid economic progress of the UAE, in addition to the government's strong strides in providing leading-edge IT and business-focused hubs such as the Dubai Internet City and free-trade zones, has fuelled the growth of the ICT sector. Looking ahead, we can definitely expect the market to continue it's upwards trend in the coming years. In line with this, our strategy for 2008 encompasses high impact marketing activities and partnerships with relevant global vendors to fully leverage the technological potential of the country and achieve our growth expectations for this year".

Undertaking the early stages of its 2008 strategy, the leading IT distributor has partnered with Alcatel-Lucent to market the enterprise IP networking and communications company's solutions to businesses throughout the region.

Mindware also entered into partnership agreements with Exinda Networks, Boxsentry and Neverfail, and expanded its market for Microsoft products in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Levant countries in 2007.

The distributor's success last year was also reflected in the recognitions it received during the year.

The company received the Dell 'Best Desktop Partner Award EM-EMEA', Microsoft's 'Best OEM Distributor' award, and also the 'Best Distributor of Symantec Norton OEM' award in the MENA Region.

"Successfully leveraging our strategic partnerships have always been a part of our game plan to bring a wide selection of advanced IT solutions to regional customers. We also believe that one of our most important investments lies in the effective training of our sales networks, which we intend to further enhance this year. With intense focus on providing a more extensive market reach to the global brands we distribute, we are optimistic of the prospects that 2008 will bring to us," concluded Chammas.

Catering to a large cross-section of the information technology community, Mindware is the first IT distributor in the Middle East to be awarded an ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Headquartered in Dubai Internet City, Mindware's mission is to be a leader in the Middle East IT value added distribution market through a pro-active approach in anticipating and servicing its clients' needs.

The company's broad distribution network is spread across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Cyprus, and North Africa.