The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) recently organised a seminar entitled “The Digital Evolution of Business” to help inform companies of the latest business technologies and digital trends.
The seminar, which was part of a series organised by the Ministry, aims to help young Qatari entrepreneurs explore business transformation strategies through local and international case studies, presentations, and discussions.
“Data is the new store of value. For companies to remain competitive and evolve in the coming years, the way they identify, manage, and monetise data will be key. The ability to grow will depend largely on their digital innovation capacity, which means every company will, to some extent, become a software company,” said Reem al-Mansoori, assistant undersecretary for Digital Society Development at the MOTC.
“A significant percentage of businesses here see government as a driver for digital transformation and the Ministry of Transport and Communications is supporting that drive with strategies and polices that will create an environment where businesses can leverage new innovations and technologies,” she said. 
According to an MOTC research on the state of the local ICT landscape and the current challenges and opportunities, 83% of companies in Qatar believe that ICT has benefited their businesses, and almost 50% said ICT helped them access customers in new geographies. 
A research released recently by Trading Economics indicated that digitalising Qatar’s economy, by expanding e-Commerce, growing SME’s share of employment, and developing advanced ICT offerings such as cloud computing, will increase GDP by 3.4% or QR38.2bn by 2020. Seventy six percent of companies surveyed indicated that they were aware of cloud services but actual usage is currently only 3%. 
On a global level, one third of the top 20 companies in every industry will be disrupted by digitally-transformed competitors by 2018, according to a recent report by IDC. 
“The message to business and industry is clear – transform or prepare to be disrupted. Transformational technologies will drive change across all of your sectors, creating competitive advantages in construction, healthcare, transportation, finance, and many more,” al-Mansoori added. 
The seminar featured local and international speakers, including Naim Yazbek, country general manger of Microsoft; Pedro Pereira, head of SAP Digital and Smart Cities, SAP Mena; and Hilmi Rifai, Gartner analyst, who discussed global digital business transformation across industries, digital transformation, and smart cities.