Security and IoT help fuel e& enterprise growth

As part of its ambition to be a global technology group, in 2022 e& established e& enterprise. Unburdened by connectivity sales, legacy or otherwise, e& enterprise focuses on end-to-end digital transformation across the public and private sectors. As it expands its footprint across regional and international markets, Salvador Anglada, CEO of e& enterprise, explains its strategy in an interview with Inform.

The digital transformation arm of e& group, e& enterprise occupies a similar niche in the IT services ecosystem as companies such as Accenture, EPAM and Wipro. The company uses cloud, IoT, AI and cybersecurity to deliver business outcomes and digital transformation to government and semi-public organizations, large companies headquartered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the regional subsidiaries of multinational companies.

Its business model took shape over several years. “We incubated [e& enterprise] in UAE eight years ago,” says Anglada, reflecting the UAE government’s investment in technology as a source of new economic growth.

“Inside UAE, we started providing services on top of connectivity, cloud, cyber security, IoT, and when it was mature, we carved out e& enterprise as a separate business vertical,” he explains, adding that it had to put in place different processes to that of a telco.

“Now that we act as a company, and we have our full profit and loss statement, we are able to create the right operating model to structure in the best way possible to sell to the market. This was absolutely necessary to continue growing at this speed, and [to grow] organically.”

For now, the emphasis on growth beyond connectivity is helping e& enterprise clock up double-digit growth: The company recorded revenues of 689 million Emirati Dirhams (AED), or US$188 million, for the first quarter of 2024, up 21% from the same period in 2023, when revenues reached 570 million AED ($155 million).

In contrast, incumbent telcos with long-established enterprise arms typically register growth rates of between 1% and 2% per year, according to recent TM Forum research. This is because revenue growth of between 15% and 20% from newer services such as security, IoT or SD-WAN tends to be offset by the ongoing decline in the larger base of legacy connectivity services such as MPLS and fixed voice.

Securing growth

Headquartered in the UAE, e& group, which is 60% owned by the federal government’s Emirates Investment Authority, benefits from its local relationships with government organizations and large companies.

Approximately one quarter of e& enterprise’s revenues comes from IoT, according to Anglada, with the company enabling customers to automatically process, analyze and use data gathered from sensors and machines.

Smart cities are a regional growth area, with some of e& enterprise’s biggest IoT projects including a smart policing solution for the Saudi police andDMCC smart district in the Jumeirah Lake Towers area of Dubai.

Security, however, represents e& enterprise’s largest sector, resulting in approximately one third of its revenues.

“Without security you cannot implement digital ecosystems and you cannot transform. The cloud, operational technology, IoT … are connecting to [enterprise] IT,” points out Anglada. “Many systems are not necessarily IT related, but you need security exactly the same, because if something happens it will collapse critical infrastructure.”

Examples of e&'s projects include the on-going digital transformation of UAE’s Ministry of Justice, to innovate service delivery to public and private sectors.

e& enterprise also has a fintech arm, called Haifin, which connects 18 banks and fintechs to improve the UAE financial ecosystem by using a blockchain-based platform to proactively spot trade finance frauds.

International ambitions

Today, e& enterprise - which operates in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Egypt - is on track to generate more than 10% of its revenues outside of the UAE by the end of 2024, according to Anglada. However, the ambition is to grow the share of international revenue above 50% within the next five years, thanks to investment in expansion.

At the end of June, for example, e& enterprise acquired Türkiye-based managed cloud, business continuity and SAP Infrastructure services provider, GlassHouse, which operates in Türkiye, South Africa and Qatar. “The integration of expertise will also advance cloud innovations as we seek to lead the delivery of MENA’s end-to-end digital solutions,” according to the company.

Prioritizing partnerships

Anglada also stresses the importance of partnerships in delivering solutions.

“We need to be on the side of the customer and combine very strong privacy with working with the best of the best technology.”

For this reason, “we are agnostic by definition … and [are] open to [working with] players in the market ecosystem. A good example of this are hyper-scalers such as Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud,” explains Anglada. e& enterprise’s Sustainability-as-a-Service, for example, leverages the ‘Microsoft Sustainability Manager’ to enable companies of any size to define and implement their sustainability agenda and reduce their carbon emissions.

The company is also open to working with consultancies that offer similar services in different geographies.

“We continue to accelerate the use of emerging technologies, leveraging strategic partnerships with major accelerators, scale-ups, and technology providers regionally and globally to drive innovation and digital transformation, tailoring our approach to each sector’s unique requirements and challenges.

“Our goal is always to deliver solutions that are not only technologically advanced but most importantly that align with our clients’ strategic objectives and broader societal needs,” Anglada adds.