IT for Dubai and UAE manufacturers, where OT meets IT and downtime costs money by the minute.
Manufacturing IT is not a back-office function. Plant uptime, MES integration, OT/IT segmentation, ERP reliability, and shift-pattern support are operational requirements measured in production minutes. We deliver IT services for UAE manufacturers from JAFZA to KIZAD to Al Quoz industrial, with OT-aware engineers and a service model tuned to your shift calendar.
- JAFZAIndustrial zones
- OT/ITSegmentation
- 24/7Plant cover
- ISOAligned baseline
Ten capabilities sized for plant operations.
MES support and integration
Manufacturing Execution Systems (SAP MES, Siemens Opcenter, Oracle MES, Plex). Daily operations, integration with ERP and plant-floor systems, downtime root-cause analysis.
SCADA and PLC environment support
Operating environment around SCADA (Wonderware, FactoryTalk, Ignition), HMI workstations, PLC programming workstations. We do not program PLCs; we keep the network and workstations running.
OT/IT network segmentation
Purdue model implementation, OT-IT DMZ, unidirectional gateways where required, plant-floor network isolated from corporate, vendor remote access via jump hosts only.
ERP support (SAP, Oracle, Dynamics 365)
Operating environment for SAP S/4HANA, SAP B1, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365. User provisioning, integration health, month-end peak support, custom integration maintenance.
Plant-floor connectivity
Industrial WiFi for handheld scanners, AGV/AMR connectivity, wired network to fixed scanners and printers, RFID infrastructure where deployed.
Industrial IoT and analytics
IoT gateways, sensor data aggregation, Azure IoT Hub, time-series databases, plant-floor analytics dashboards. Predictive-maintenance analytics where the source data supports it.
OT cybersecurity baseline
Defender for IoT or equivalent, anomaly detection on OT networks, asset inventory of OT devices, patching strategy that respects production windows, incident-response runbook for OT events.
Server and storage operations
On-prem and hybrid server estate, NAS for production-floor backup, virtualisation platform (VMware, Hyper-V), high-availability for production-critical workloads.
Cloud migration and hybrid design
Office workloads on Azure, plant-floor workloads kept on-prem with hybrid integration. Carefully designed split so the plant runs even if cloud connectivity drops.
Shift-aware helpdesk
Support cover aligned to your shift pattern. Three-shift operation means three-shift coverage; 24/7 plant means 24/7 IT on-call. Weekend maintenance windows agreed in advance.
Four reasons plant operators consolidate IT with GR.
OT/IT vocabulary in the same conversation
Most IT vendors stop at the corporate LAN; most OT engineers stop at the SCADA. The gap between them is where outages happen. Our engineers speak both languages so the conversation between plant ops and IT does not need a translator.
Production-window discipline
Maintenance windows planned around shift changes, plant cleaning days, and demand cycles. We do not push a Windows update during a production run. Patching cadence aligned to your operational rhythm, not a generic 30-day SLA.
OT-aware security baseline
Different controls for OT than IT: no agents on PLCs, no aggressive scanning on plant networks, but rigorous segmentation, asset inventory, and anomaly detection. Designed not to break the plant while still protecting it.
24/7 cover for 24/7 operations
Three-shift coverage if your plant runs three shifts. Named engineer on call during night-shift, weekend-shift, and ramp-up periods. ERP month-end and quarter-end peaks staffed with extra capacity.
Six manufacturing profiles we deliver IT for.
Discrete manufacturing
Auto components, electronics assembly, medical devices, white goods. MES, SCADA, RFID, ERP-integrated production.
Process manufacturing
Chemicals, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, plastics. Batch records, regulatory compliance (e.g., FDA-style GxP for pharma), high-availability process control.
Industrial zone operations (JAFZA, KIZAD, DIC)
Free-zone-licensed manufacturers with specific customs and reporting integration. Trade-finance system integration, customs platform connectivity.
Warehousing and 3PL
WMS support, RFID, mobile scanner fleets, customs-platform integration, dispatch-system reliability, multi-warehouse coordination.
Construction-product manufacturing
Concrete, steel, glass, cabling, finishes. Plant-floor system reliability, ERP-integrated despatch, project-based revenue recognition.
Engineering and fabrication
Design office (Autodesk, CATIA, Solidworks), CNC controllers, integration with ERP for job-cost tracking, custom-product engineering workflow.
Three approaches, with their trade-offs.
| Feature | GR manufacturing IT | Generic SMB MSP | In-house plant IT |
|---|---|---|---|
OT/IT segmentation expertise | Specialist hire | ||
MES vendor experience | |||
Shift-aware helpdesk | Business hours | ||
Production-window patching | |||
ERP support depth | Generic | ||
OT cybersecurity | Defender for IoT or equivalent | Basic | Specialist hire |
Industrial WiFi design | Specialist hire | ||
IoT analytics support | Varies | ||
Per-plant monthly cost | Predictable | Cheaper, gaps | Highest |
From plant walkthrough to ongoing operations.
- 1
Plant and IT walkthrough
1-3 days
Walk of plant floor, control room, server room, IT rooms. Interviews with plant manager, IT lead, controls engineer. Map OT, IT, ERP, MES, network, and identity.
- 2
Gap and segmentation report
5-10 days
Current-state assessment including OT/IT segmentation, ERP reliability, security baseline, network design, vendor remote access. Output: prioritised remediation roadmap aligned to your production calendar.
- 3
Phased remediation
4-12 weeks
OT/IT segmentation hardening, security baseline brought to standard, ERP operating environment stabilised, vendor remote access controlled. Phasing aligned to production windows and planned downtime.
- 4
Ongoing operations
Day 90+
Monthly KPI report tailored for manufacturing: plant uptime contribution from IT, ERP performance, MES integration health, OT security posture, change-window adherence. Quarterly business review with plant leadership.
“We are a discrete manufacturer with two plants in Dubai and Sharjah running three shifts. Our previous IT vendor treated us like an office. They scheduled patching during production runs, escalated trivial ERP issues to the vendor without triage, and had no after-hours cover. GR rebuilt the operating model in eight weeks: production-window patching, shift-aware helpdesk, MES-aware support. Plant IT-attributable downtime is down 70% year over year.”
What plant operators ask before engaging.
Adjacent capabilities that pair with plant IT.
Book a plant IT review and we will deliver a written gap report.
A one-day walkthrough of plant floor, server room, and IT operations followed by a written gap report on OT/IT segmentation, ERP, security, and helpdesk coverage. No commitment to engage further.
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