Data solution firm eyes Gulf oil and gas market

Teradata, the world’s leading analytic data solution company, is expanding its business in the region and has acquired new customers within the region. “We are investing into the oil and gas sector in the GCC. We are entering into the oil and gas sector after we have seen a significant pickup of the Teradata products within the industry worldwide,” Peter Mikkelsen, vice-president, Teradata MEA, told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai. “Oil and gas companies get enormous volumes of data; they make investments to install intelligent devices that provide them with this data,” he said. “However, the question is now what they can do with that data; how they can use this data to make smarter more intelligent business decisions. That’s were Teradata can help,” Mikkelsen said. Teradata, the US-based company, focused on integrated data warehousing, big data analytics, innovative products and services empower organisations to integrate, analyse and profit from data for competitive advantage. It has approximately 8,600 associates in 42 countries besides having a strong diversified client base of over 1,200 customers worldwide and companies of all sizes. The company held its second Teradata conference recently in Dubai to address the developing business needs of the Middle East. “The Teradata Summit” addressed enterprise data warehousing, the value of integrated data, data management and analytics as a driver for differentiation and how organisations can embrace the opportunity presented by big data. Mikkelsen, who attended the summit, said that that was the reason there were oil and gas sessions at the summit this year. Addressing the summit, Mikkelsen described how companies in the Middle East can drive better business strategy and draw further competitive advantages through the use of advanced data warehouse technology and data analytics. “The GCC is increasingly important to us because it is a regional hub. We expect higher than average growth from the region in 2012, as we expand our Middle Eastern activities from telecoms and finance/banking into the oil and gas sectors.” He explained that Teradata can help organisations use their data to its full potential to improve business decisions and in the end their bottom-line. Mikael Bisgaard Bohr, vice-president, business development and marketing, EMEA said, “The companies that manage to harness the power and potential of their data to achieve unprecedented levels of business will be positioned to win.” Leading Teradata customers  including Mobinil (Egypt), Ziraat Bankasi, Komercní Banka, shared their data warehousing and business intelligence best practices.