John Keells IT expands its operations to Qatar and UAE

As a leading boutique consulting and professional services company fully owned by Sri Lanka’s largest and most diverse conglomerate John Keells Holdings (JKH),JKIT boosted its efforts to take world class technology practices to the middle east (MENA) region with two new office opening in Qatar & UAE

JKIT operated in these regions for over a decade serving international customers with core software solutions. With some technology practices deployed in JKH such as SAP and Azure being demanded by customers in the MENA region, the need to strengthen the company’s presence was imminent.

The regions were buzzing with opportunities to showcase cutting edge technology innovations, and Qatar and UAE were hot destination when it comes to digital transformation — the dynamic nations are heralded for its aggressive growth momentum in this space.

Global IT giants like Microsoft have also considered Qatar and UAE as focused strategic locations — Qatar has even been considered as the next location for the Microsoft Azure Cloud Data Centre. Hence, there was a major potential and opportunities for IT in these countries and JKIT is now in the process of capitalizing on it.

The office in UAE was opened 2017 and is led by Territory Head, Buddhike Perera and the Qatar office was opened in 2019 and is led by Territory Head Muzakir Nadim.

Nadim and Buddhike are testimonies to JKIT’s ability to promote its own talent to take on key challenging roles hand in hand with business growth.

JKIT has always held a distinct focus through its strategic approach for building solutions which enables a Smart You, Smart Platforms and Smart Eco-Systems, whilst forging global partnerships with key IT principals like Microsoft, SAP and UiPath.

Having established its own legal entities in Qatar since 24 October 2019 and UAE since 2017, the next set of commitments for JKIT revolves around having a strong in-country team for business development, pre sales, delivery and post-sales support.

JKIT is also in the process of securing partnerships with go to market establishments in Qatar and UAE to strengthen the eco-system it operates in and to which it strives to bring in Sri Lankan expertise.

In terms of partnerships, JKIT has been securing partnerships with global IT platforms such as MS Azure. And it will be bringing the benefits of these platforms to entities in these countries to help them modernise IT infrastructure and move large workloads to the cloud, along with the delivery of world class functional business applications such as ERP applications, supply chain management applications, customer experience management applications and HRM applications.

The company delivers these applications via SAP — the leading platform in this space;

Having being the integrator and implementer of SAP for JKH, JKIT is well experienced and geared to delivery best in class solutions. It will also be bringing in industry-leading practices to Qatari AND UAE businesses and will infuse clients’ business apps with advanced analytics, AI, Big Data.

Another pillar of the company’s IT solutions offering to Qatar and UAE will be the smart digital solutions landscape which will open many doors for organizations that have moved to the cloud, set up modernized infrastructure and implemented world class functions applications.

JKIT will enable clients to make their entities and eco-systems around them smart using various technologies in the space of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), IOT and AI cognitive solutions that are pre built and industry specific. For instance, a smart retail solution will be based on multiple touch points to manage smart queues, smart stock management, smart parking and smart check out. Another gem in its portfolio, JKIT is also currently developing a single platform that is template based, parameter based and catering to multiple industries to enable smart operations.

JKIT has repeatedly upheld its status as a world class technology expert. And it strives to bring this same proven capability and tested expertise to Qatar and UAE to create new dimensions in the smart digital solutions space.