MD & SVP, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, Middle East
As countries across the Middle East battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s increasingly clear that collaboration is key to achieving results. Technology has a fundamental role at the center of collaboration; providing a means for people, wherever they may be in the world, to connect and find solutions to our most pressing issues. Sharing knowledge and information has never been so important.
During our recent Huawei Middle East Virtual Eco-Connect 2020 event, it was also clear that the ICT sector is now stepping up to help empower society to find the answers it needs. Everyone from telecommunications companies to governments, healthcare providers, educators, retailers, and more are being affected by COVID-19. They are all having to pivot their operations accordingly. Within that context, it is paramount that we help equip the region’s ICT channel community with new service capabilities and talent ecosystems so that they can find success and continue delivering the solutions that their customers need.
Taking the learnings from early COVID-19 response scenarios, we have already identified some of the most valued technologies for enterprises today. Those include 5G connectivity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and remote collaboration platforms. We have the building blocks needed to help tackle today’s emergencies and keep businesses running even with physical distancing.
Consider telemedicine as just one example. At a time when the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic, technology is providing much-needed support to healthcare systems that are being inundated. Telemedicine has numerous applications that can be deployed for COVID-19 diagnosis, prevention, and ongoing remote consultation. Yet bringing telemedicine to more healthcare providers in more countries takes a collective effort—from healthcare experts to developers, hardware manufactures, and system integrators.
The uses of technology in the medical field go considerably further than this. Diagnostics, for example, can be assisted immensely with the use of AI. It can help to speed up diagnoses, determine relevant medication and treatments, and even track a patient’s progression. Nevertheless, these solutions require a real collaborative effort from the ICT community to realize. They must be tailored for COVID-19 response, easy to acquire and deploy, and capable of handling a broad data set from many different entities.
That spirit of collaboration is not just required in healthcare, but in all industries. Every sector—education, transportation, energy, you name it—faces its own unique challenges and needs its own dedicated solutions.
No single entity can bring all of these solutions to market by acting alone. Accordingly, we must reinforce a sustainable and healthy ICT partner ecosystem in the Middle East. It requires the sharing of knowledge, of course. But it also means sharing of risks and rewards. Even the ICT community is not immune to the wider macroeconomic situation. As a solutions provider, we believe that initiatives revolving around profitability, simplicity, enablement, and ecosystem enhancement will be crucial to maintaining partner confidence—as well as our industry’s long-term success.
None of us can predict the future right now. However, by leveraging our collective strengths and honoring the breakthroughs that are being made, I am confident that the region’s ICT community can design the systems that communities and businesses need to tackle this emergency together.
Source: ITP.net