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Cyprus ICT industry grows right through the pandemic – Cyprus Computer Society

cyprus it market
Cyprus IT market as presented at the Cyprus Computer Society

The Cyprus Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry is well and prospering; this became clear at the the Cyprus Computer Society Annual Meeting late on Wednesday.

For the Cyprus ICT sector:

  • ICT market, including telecommunications, reached about €692 million euros in 2020;
  • Excluding telecommunications, the market was valued at €230.91 million in 2020;
  • Both markets grew by 2.1 per cent from 2018.

Of Cyprus companies:

  • 61 per cent are planning to launch new services;
  • 30 per cent seek to enter new vertical markets
  • 44 per cent say that their response to the pandemic has been positive.

(Statistics are from IDC)

Deputy Minister to the President for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriacos Kokkinos spoke about the key role that the industry plays in Cyprus, and the considerable advancement of digital transformation in the public and private sectors.

It became clear that, for the Cyprus ITC industry, the pandemic created many new opportunities, as Josef Gemela, vice president for Consulting, IDC noted. “The world after the pandemic will be more digital than it used to be.”

Gemela, presenting a comprehensive report on the industry in 2020 and 2021, pointed out that  the pandemic crisis is quite different from those experienced in the past, due to the mitigating role played by technology. This is despite the challenges to the Cyprus economy in the crisis

“During the first lockdowns, companies equipped employees with technologies enabling them to work from home. They also exploited digital channels to stay in touch with customers and partners. The Cloud helped IT organisations to optimise costs. Business resiliency was based on building contactless services, and reconsidering supply chains.”

This created increased demand for IT equipment, including large shipments of PCs, Gemela continued.

However, the move to the Cloud has been relatively slow in Cyprus. “Most companies still prefer to work with on-premises solutions, using their own resources rather than outsourcing or using managed service providers.” Gemela said.

“Cypriot companies are beginning to see the strategic importance of infrastructure optimisation, consolidation, and transformation after some resistance to invest in ICT in recent years. They now understand that adoption of new technologies is necessary to remain competitive.

These initiatives will typically be driven by lines of business, and will demand the utilisation of solutions such as mobility, Big Data analytics, application programming interfaces (APIs) for new services, machine learning, and robotic process automation. Companies from the manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and retail industries, among others, will need to integrate Internet of Things (IoT) technologies as they optimise corporate IT operations in support of business needs. This presents services providers with great opportunities to become trusted advisors and implementation partners, and capitalise on the uptake of innovative technologies by addressing the concerns of companies around new technology adoption, business cases, best practices, and adding value to customers’ organisational goals,” Gemela pointed out.

The support and training services marketing circles reached €51 billion in revenue in 2020, making it the largest IT services market with 45 per cent. Spending on the service system was up 7 per cent  compared with 2018, with growth coming primarily from software support and maintenance services.

One of the major challenges for Cyprus ICT is finding skilled workers, Gemela said. “IT companies have the necessary professionals with skills to cope with the challenges of digital transformation. But there are too few to meet the demand of IT companies and sectors. It is possible that collaboration with fintech companies and startups can help to meet this challenge.”

 

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