Governments in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) will spend $11.4 billion (Dh41.9 billion) on IT products and services in 2015, according to research firm Gartner, Inc.
Telecom services, which include fixed and mobile telecom services, will be the largest overall spending category throughout the forecast period within government sector.
It is expected to be $4.7 billion in 2015, with mobile network services being the largest sub-segment with $3.1 billion in spending.
“The software segment includes enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise application software, infrastructure software and vertical specific software (VSS),” Anurag Gupta, research vice-president at Gartner, said in a statement.
Software spending is expected to grow 2.8 per cent over 2014 spending, to reach $1.2 billion in 2015
“VSS will grow 9 per cent in 2015 to reach $454 million. VSS are software applications that are unique to a vertical industry. In government VSS includes software that focus on agency-specific processes and domain areas, such as revenue and tax, case management,” he said.
He added that investments in citizen centric services under smart cities plans that provide consumer-grade convenience will be the driving force for government ICT in advanced states. Continued investments in core infrastructure and online services will be focus area in MENA government ICT.