To catalyse its stride into Gulf market, Cisco will open an innovation and experience centre in Dubai, said company’s Vice President, Middle East and Africa, David Meads. While speaking at an event on Thursday, Meads said that the innovation centre will be the first-of-its-kind worldwide, combining innovation capability with a customer experience centre.
Cisco has already established customer experience centres in Europe, the United States and in the Asia-Pacific region. The Middle-East customer experience centres will focus on new technology like Internet of Things (IoT) and digitisation among others. “It’s targeted at being able to showcase to our customers and our partners what digitisation means to the public sector, what it might mean in education, healthcare, retail and finance,” he said. “It’s a statement of our intent and how important the region is.”
Cisco innovation centre in Dubai
UAE and Saudi Arabia are two of the 16 countries in which Cisco is currently undertaking a country digital acceleration (CDA) strategies. For this purpose, the company has partnered with the government, industry and academia, informed Meads. The to be launched innovation centre will serve as a hub to showcase what is possible with digital transformation and IoT, build solutions with partners and startups; Invest and partner with startups, accelerators, and universities, said Cisco.
Earlier Cisco had announced that as part of its CDA program it would be partnering with Saudi authorities to identify potential opportunities that include developing national IT infrastructure, accelerating business innovation, stimulating start-ups and enhancing the research and education sectors. Earlier in the year, the company conducted an analysis of the Saudi public and private sector which found a $124.1 billion value opportunity over the next 10 years – representing an additional 0.27 percent GDP growth.
