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IBM defines its strategy in Azerbaijan

18 August 2015 16:55 (UTC+04:00)
IBM defines its strategy in Azerbaijan

By Amina Nazarli

The American company IBM, which was opened in Baku this March, has identified key areas for activity in the Azerbaijani IT market.

IBM CEO in Azerbaijan, Ilya Kravtsov told Azerbaijani technology magazine InfoCity that the company will focus on areas such as analytic solutions, cloud technologies, issues related to information security, social interaction, and mobile technologies.

“We are interested in the development of these areas and making a strong emphasis on the development of competencies and services in consulting and outsourcing. IBM can offer decisions, in which hardware and software will be on the customer's premises, but will remain the property of IBM. It is a comprehensive solution that IBM also offers as a service,” he said.

In many countries, the IBM CEO said, the company is a strategic partner for the government and many important state tasks rely on technological and intellectual operations that IBM provides. The company's suggestions are used in tax agencies, treasuries, central banks, ministries, and in health care departments.

“Azerbaijan is rapidly developing. I will be very glad if we will support this development and bring benefit to the country. Azerbaijan aims to reduce dependence on oil and gas, increasing efficiency and competitiveness of the economy, ensuring its progress on the innovative basis. This matches with the concept of the IBM ‘Smarter Planet.’ We expect a strong demand for decisions that meet this concept,” he said.

Kravtsov noted, “It is also worth mentioning the active development of cloud technologies in the public sector. Many countries have either implemented the so-called ‘public cloud platform’ (G-cloud), or are on the way of their creation.”

The IBM CEO also discussed successful cooperation with Azerbaijani universities.

“One of the interesting trends in the development of such interaction is the IBM Watson, under which many leading universities train their students. We are interested in closer cooperation with educational institutions so that future specialists learn about IBM’s at the stage of training learned about IBM’s decisions and later will be able to apply their knowledge in practice,” Kravtcov noted.

Azerbaijan is now interested in the expansion of its IT sector and plans to increase its revenues. By 2019, revenues from the ICT sector are expected to increase by 33.5 percent and exceed 2.12 billion manats.

The country has established High Tech Parks in Baku and the country’s fourth largest city Mingachevir. Moreover, a business incubator center is functioning in the capital.

The Business Incubation Center at Mingachevir Tech Park is expected to be created before the end of this year modeled after the Baku location.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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