UAE businesses set to digitalise in 2021 to unlock growth opportunities

Despite high levels of economic contraction around the world, the IMF predicts in a report that advanced economies, including the UAE, will experience a rebound to 3.9 per cent in 2021. But a rebound does not mean that all businesses will have an opportunity for growth, says an industry veteran.

Ali Homadi, founder and chief executive of Dubai-based tech company Loyica, said most businesses, especially those in healthcare, pharmaceutics, leisure, energy, tourism, and retail, will need digital transformation plans to successfully transition to a digital economy.

“Digitisation is need of the hour. We have been assisting local companies to go digital and adjust to the new business environment to avail growth opportunities,” Homadi said.

He said Loyica has created a digital ecosystem called Saphyte that provides its partners with the tools necessary to build automated processes around tasks such as gathering contact information from leads, sending emails to existing and potential customers, managing sales pipelines, and gathering insights from target audiences.

“Saphyte will help businesses, especially local ones, to hijack growth opportunities such as the observed accelerated shift to e-commerce, the increasing digitalisation of the economy, and innovation of data-enabled services— telehealth, online education, and remote working.

“It does this by providing free implementation services, one-on-one consultation, and preparing their partners’ workforce to use the technology to gain important data and insights from an ever-changing market and make data-driven decisions. It also makes their partners’ work processes more efficient by making the software perform the boring, manual processes such as recording contact information from leads and customers and sending emails to leads on their journey towards becoming customers, among others,” he said.

How digital ecosystems work
A digital ecosystem consists of all digital tools and platforms used within an organisation. It factors in processes used by an organisation such as those related to lead generation, sales conversion, and customer retention, and aims to automate these processes so that the user is left to concentrate on more important tasks that the software has yet to automate.

Homadi said digital ecosystems also continuously evolve to add more features and tools that would allow their users to respond to existing market conditions.

Saphyte, for example, has recently added its Landing Page Builder and Drip Email Marketing features that would help them capture and convert leads online, with the growth of daily active internet users during the pandemic.

“The Landing Page Builder would allow companies to enable their website to prompt visitors to fill out a form and register them automatically in the CRM database so that the company will no longer have to reach out to that visitor for contact information,” he said.

About the Drip Email Marketing feature, he said it would allow companies to schedule the sending of emails depending on desired times and days, or upon triggering set conditions. “With this feature, a company’s sales team can leave the job of welcoming new clients, thanking clients for their purchases, informing clients of new products and services, or sending clients weekly newsletters to the software,” he said.

“Saphyte as a digital ecosystem provides communication tools for the user, as well as project management tools, sales and marketing tools, and collaboration tools,” Homadi said.

Importance during the 2021 recovery
Many organisations’ strategies have recently prioritised the incorporation of digital transformation in their plans. Using a digital ecosystem has been proven to improve organisational performance as well as assist it with its interactions outside the company. It also enhances business value by helping companies consistently meet customer expectations.

This is important because consumers, especially in the UAE, have recently been recorded to have gone digital as well. A report by Simon-Kucher and Partners has found out that at least 73 per cent of the UAE’s consumers believe that the coronavirus pandemic has made them more positive about online shopping, with projections that the traditional means of making purchases would sooner be forgotten.

The report further claims that many companies have adapted to the situation with swift digital transformation. An emerging trend of increasing adoption of contactless payment technologies has also been observed, with SMEs looking for solutions to totally replace cash.

Despite the challenges in the aftermath of the pandemic, consumers in the GCC, in general, are reported to be amongst the most optimistic when it comes to the post-Covid future. It also helps that the UAE’s vaccine rollout is one of the world’s fastest.

“With the recovery in sight, businesses ought to create a strategy not only to survive in the pandemic but also to flourish after it, and the adoption of technologies such as a digital ecosystem is a safe start,” Homadi said.

“Saphyte continues to provide free implementation to new clients. It also provides an intensive training program to help users customise the software according to their unique needs and preferences,” he said.