Middle East and African (MEA) government organisations are increasingly grappling with the need to gain executive-level support and funding for technology investments amid increasing end-user expectations and service delivery requirements.

“MEA government IT departments are increasingly being asked not only to ‘do more with less’ but also to ‘do new with less’,” says Mukesh Chulani, regional program manager for IDC Government Insights. “This raft of increasingly complex new demands includes expanding the roster and reach of various services, ensuring operations are well governed, and minimising the risks arising from the intensifying security threat landscape.

“Consequently, many IT decision makers are keen to evaluate new engagement and business models.”

Results from IDC’s Annual Middle East and Africa Government CIO Survey 2014 show that in terms of investment focus areas, over one-third of MEA government sector respondents have plans to initiate investments in various ‘Third Platform’ technologies such as enterprise mobility, big data and analytics, and private cloud computing over the next two years.

In particular, a growing interest in enterprise mobility will feature as a critical area of ICT market growth and opportunity within the region during this period.

“Nearly two-thirds of MEA government IT decision makers expect to see an increase in the ratio of their organisation’s mobile workforce,” says Chulani. “Beyond driving investments in mobile devices, connectivity, and various software solutions, we also expect this trend to result in greater emphasis on developing wider enterprise mobility strategies and support policies for the increasingly popular bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon.”