MAY 2019
PUBLISHED BY Business Media International REGISTERED OFFICE: Office 10, Sharjah Media City www.bmi-digital.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Raman Narayan narayan@smartsmb.net Mob: 971-55-7802403 SALES DIRECTOR Ankit Shukla ankit@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706, Mob: 971-552572807 EDITOR Diksha Vohra editor@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706, Mob: 971-506395616 CIRCULATION MANAGER Bhawana Bhatia bhawana@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706 TELE MARKETING MANAGER Jennefer Mendoza jennefer@smartsmb.net Tel: 971-4-8825706 FINANCE Akhilesh Pandey akhilesh@bmimea.com Tel: 971-4-8825706 DESIGN Ali Raza ali@qnamarcom.com Tel: 971-4-8825706
EDITORIAL
THE JOURNEY FROM STARTUP TO A STAR Start-ups that have grown to register sizeable success in the UAE have done so because they perhaps brought in a unique business model or adopted a new approach to an old problem. The country has indeed been a thriving hub for entrepreneurship and several of the home grown companies are achieving noteworthy success globally. The ecosystem in the country looks geared to further build new successes on the road ahead. The story we feature on the cover in this issue is of a company that is achieving significant success in a segment with entrenched payers. The reason for the success Fetchr has seen in its business is because of the way it has reimagined the business model in its segment using Technology as a key enabler. The takeaway lesson is that there are enough opportunities even in those segments which are seemingly crowded at first look. This is certain, if indeed companies can introduce some innovations that help them stand apart from the established competitors and meet some of the overlooked expectations of customers. Going further ahead, if they can reimagine customer experiences and build in newer aspects into the customer expectations, which they are able and ready to fulfill, they will usurp a competitive advantage. Creating new user expectations from a service or product is certainly one of the key tricks of the trade to outwit the competition. On another note, this Month, Smart SMB Summit & Awards makes its debut in Kenya on the 23rd of May. The event being held at Crowne Plaza will be an occasion for mid-market CIOs to be part of a platform that helps enhance understanding of digital transformation strategies in addition to recognizing digital transformation initiatives of companies across verticals.
R. Narayan Editor in Chief Smart SMB
Management Chairman S.N. Tiwari
CEO Saumyadeep Halder
sn.tiwari@smartsmb.net
saumyadeep@bmimea.com
Publisher Raman Narayan
Managing Director Ankit Shukla
narayan@smartsmb.net
ankit@smartsmb.net
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to validate the accuracy of all information included in the magazine, the publishers wouldn’t be liable for any errors therein Copyright@2019 Business Media International LLC. All rights reserved.
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 03
CONTENTS MAY 2019
CONTENTS Vertical Focus
Cover Story
Experience Driven Retail Strategy - a shield against online shopping?
FETCHER - DECODING THE SUCCESS STORY
16
12 Talkpoint Feature The digital opportunity beckons Kenya’s Mid-Market
14
Firmly embracing the future
18
Is engagement a pre-requisite to retaining your employees?
32
In the control mode
21
A grand unification
26
Meeting visionary objectives
30
In Focus Top 10 SME trends in UAE in 2019
24
Vertical Focus 22 AI’s transformational impact on Healthcare
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Column Transformation in transportation
34
NEWS MAY 2019
MEYDAN ONE, SME DISTRICT LAUNCH JOINT PROGRAMME TO SUPPORT NEW ENTREPRENEURS
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eydan One, a next-generation lifestyle and retail destination, announced its partnership with SMEDistrict, the Dubai-based incubation platform, that aims to bring to life a comprehensive start-up development programme focused on the retail and F&B sectors. The initiative aligns with Meydan One’s strategic priority to offer unmatched opportunities for up-and-coming entrepreneurs in fashion, beauty and F&B to establish and grow their brands. SMEDistrict will oversee the new incubation programme that begins receiving applications for monthly or annual memberships from Q4 2019. Participating entrepreneurs will be able to rent retail space at premium locations in Meydan One at extremely competitive commercial terms. In addition, the startups will have access to a range of support services and benefits across four stages of the programme, including: • Mentoring – offering guidance on brand image and positioning as well as the overall sales and marketing strategy. The incubation programme committee will also share market insights to enhance operational performance and inform business decisions. • Evaluation – providing quarterly benchmarking on key performance indicators and areas of improvement. The incubation programme committee will consult each start-up to prime it for growth. • Evolution – helping the brands transition from limited retail space to a larger pop-up format or even a dedicated store, based on their performance during the programme. • Graduation – leading the successfully incubated businesses to the next phase of development as a fully operational retail or F&B concept, assisting them with technology adoption, franchising plans and strategic partnerships for expansion. Speaking on the benefits of the incubation programme, Fahad Abdulrahim Kazim, Vice President of Meydan Malls at Meydan
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Fahad Kazim Vice President, Meydan Malls Group, said: “Dubai is spearheading the region’s innovation drive and attracting some of the best start-up talent from around the world. Meydan One is committed to supporting this wave of entrepreneurship, especially in the retail and F&B segments, which are largely overlooked in the local start-up incubation ecosystem.” He added: “Our partnership with the incubation expert SMEDistrict allows us to tap into the right expertise to enable talented local entrepreneurs to realise the full potential of their businesses. Through offering affordable retail space right at the outset of the programme, we seek to encourage participants to gain real-world experience while they evolve their business models. We envision Meydan One as a place for everyone and a launchpad for homegrown brands that can make an impact in the region and the rest of the world.” For her part, Aynour Hussein, founder and CEO of SMEDistrict, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Meydan One on this exciting new incubation programme. The initiative levels the playing field through providing start-ups with a tangible platform to position their brands. In other words, it
allows them to skip the line on entrepreneurial hurdles, such as accessible infrastructure and guidance, that can prevent great business concepts from becoming a reality.” The incubation programme will encompass a fully enabled plug-and-play package, including marketing, fit-out, space rental, business development, workshops and business education, as well as business acceleration opportunities to connect with established private sector organisations and government entities. As part of the Meydan One tenant community, the start-ups will also feature in the destination’s events and have the chance to showcase their offerings at prominent entrepreneurship festivals across the UAE. Through a seamless set-up process, businesses within Meydan One’s Free Zone Program will be able to enjoy the benefits of operating as part of the Meydan Free Zone. This includes 100% ownership, and the ease of doing business in an enabling environment, with high footfalls and a multinational customer base.
MAY 2019
NEWS
KENYA
LIQUID TELECOM ENABLES TELEMEDICINE SERVICES AT AGA KHAN HOSPITAL MOMBASA
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iquid Telecom Kenya, part of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, has made telemedicine a reality for thousands of patients at the Aga Khan Hospital, Mombasa. Using its highspeed fibre network, Liquid Telecom has connected the main hospital in Mombasa to seven of its outreach centres in the coastal region bringing healthcare closer to the community. The roll-out of services started last August to improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in some of the more rural communities. This includes online consultations and diagnostic services. “Travel costs were often prohibitive for patients. For example, patients coming from Voi to Mombasa spend around Sh700 on bus fares, which is a major cost at a time when most of the population struggle to buy even basic medication, and often cannot afford to visit the hospital for
follow up appointments,” said Hemed Twahir, Medical Director at Aga Khan Hospital Mombasa. The hospital’s initiative comes at a time when Kenya is facing a shortage of healthcare specialists especially in dermatology (skin diseases and complications) and Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) diseases. “As healthcare providers strive to make specialists more accessible to patients in an affordable way through telemedicine, Liquid Telecom Kenya has been able to offer both the high-speed internet connectivity and software to enable uninterrupted two-way audio-visual and data communication in a delivery that aligns exactly with our vision of driving digital transformation across Africa,” said Adil Youssefi, CEO of Liquid Telecom Kenya. “When a patient at a clinic requires specialised attention, the clinicians logs a video request with the specialist and run a
video conference with both specialist and patient. They also use our newly installed digital medical equipment to make a diagnosis, with everything about the patient recorded in the hospital records system”, said James Siku, Head of ICT at Aga Khan Hospital Mombasa. Liquid Telecom’s high-speed Internet network has also enabled the hospital to run e-learning courses covering Continuous Medical Education (CME) and Continuous Nursing Education (CNE) between the main hospital and outreach clinics. It also includes public hospitals such as Rabai, Tsangansini and Mariakani, to exchange knowledge and discuss medical case management – in a collaborative process that drives best-practice treatment plans. The forums also help clinicians earn credits for their professional qualifications and credit transfers under Ministry of Health guidelines.
UIPATH RAISES $568 MILLION SERIES D FUNDING ROUND
DanielDines CEO, Uipath
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he leading robotic process automation (RPA) company, UiPath is blazing a path to an “automation first” era, closing its Series D investment round raising $568 million at a post-money valuation of $7 Billion, led by Coatue and joined by Dragoneer, Wellington, Sands Capital, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Accel, who led the Series A and B rounds, and CapitalG and Sequoia who led the Series C round, all participated in this round, as did other existing investors, including IVP and Madrona Venture Group. At the $7 Billion valuation, UiPath is one of the fastest growing and
highest-valued AI enterprise software companies worldwide. UiPath closed its Series A funding in April 2017, and since then has expanded on its most important milestones which includes the world’s largest Community in RPA, now exceeding more than 400,000 users worldwide across 200 countries as well as a worldwide customer base to 8 of the top 10 Fortune 500 Global, and over 50 percent of the top 50 Fortune 500 Global. The company has delivered six releases of the UiPath Enterprise RPA platform with defense grade security, launched UiPath Go!, integrated AI by adding new capabilities like AI Computer Vision, and created an open and extensible architecture that has made UiPath the platform of choice for third-party RPA and AI development. It has increased annual recurring revenue (ARR) from $8 million to over $200 million and grown its employee base to over 2,500, a 16x increase during the period. We are at the tipping point. Business leaders everywhere are augmenting their workforces with software robots, rapidly accelerating the digital transformation
of their entire business and freeing employees to spend time on more impactful work,” said Daniel Dines, UiPath co-founder and CEO. “UiPath is leading this workforce revolution, driven by our core determination to democratize RPA and deliver on our vision of a robot helping every person. I am humbled by the amazing support our customers, partners and investors give us every day, inspiring us to work harder to evolve RPA as the platform that not only unlocks the true potential of AI, but also other emerging technologies. We are just getting started.” Recent customer additions include American Fidelity, BankUnited, CWT (formerly known as Carlson Wagonlit Travel), Duracell, Google, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), LogMeIn, McDonalds, NHS Shared Business Services, Nippon Life Insurance Company, NTT Communications Corporation, Orange™, Ricoh Company, Ltd., Rogers Communications, Shinsei Bank, Quest Diagnostics, Uber, US Navy, Voya Financial, Virgin Media, and World Fuel Services.
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 07
NEWS MAY 2019
DUBAI FORECASTS 2.1% REAL GROWTH IN 2019, 3.8% IN 2020, AND 2.8% IN 2021 Government-led policy initiatives and investments, improved growth prospects in trading partners, and preparation to host Expo 2020 are providing the bedrock for increased private sector credit and investment in Dubai. As a result, real GDP growth rates in the short to medium term are projected to reach 2.1%, 3.8% and 2.8%, in the years 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Economic momentum has picked up at the beginning of this year with a surge in new business licenses and improved optimism on jobs and business performance. During the first three months of the year, 6,709 new business licenses have been issued, a 29% increase over the same period of 2018. Similarly, the first quarter Composite Business Confidence Index (BCI) climbed up 10.2 points from the previous year and 7.7 points from the previous quarter, indicating a marked improvement in business prospects and overall sentiment. The majority of businesses indicated their intention to place new purchase orders and subsequently expect volumes, revenues as well as profits to increase. The quarterly BCI survey conducted by the Department of Economic Development (DED) also indicated that 59% of companies are optimistic about growth in Q1 2019, compared to 41% for the same period of 2018, and 34% expect stability; 7% of businesses expect
a decline in growth, down from 8% a year ago. During the first quarter of this year, the Dubai Financial Market General Index gained 4%. Net foreign investment in the market during the first three months of the year reached AED 680 million and accounted for 65% of the total trade in DFM. Institutional investors accounted for AED 492 million of the first quarter investment, underlining their growing confidence in Dubai’s economy. Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai., and follow-up by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council, the Government of Dubai took decisive actions to accelerate the rate of economic growth in the Emirate that reached 1.7% in the first half of 2018. Major policy initiatives were introduced and contributed to reducing the cost of doing business, boosting SME liquidity, and supporting the tourism and the real estate sectors. Inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Dubai also accelerated and reached AED 38.5 billion in 2018, an increase of 41% over its 2017 level. These and other initiatives contributed to accelerating growth during the second half of 2018 to 2.2%, resulting in overall real GDP growth rate in 2018 of 1.9%. In light of the 50-year Charter and the strategic initiatives and investments that the Government of Dubai has embarked on, and taking into account regional and global growth prospects, DED’s latest economic study shows that Dubai’s economy is forecast to grow by 2.1% in 2019, and by 3.8% in 2020, and 2.8% in 2021
GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP TO PRIORITISE SAFETY IN THE FUTURE OF MANUFACTURING As new manufacturing techniques are increasingly adopted and automated, where control systems are autonomous, and where complex networks and the internet of things enable rapid wireless connections, the things we make and the people that make them are increasingly exposed to risk elevating unanswered questions on the safety standards of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS), a joint initiative by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), announced a new partnership that will set out the safety challenges for global manufacturing and support safe innovation for all. This new partnership will undertake applied research to identify and assess the knowledge gap, safety challenges, risks and opportunities associated with the deployment of 4IR technologies in critical manufacturing infrastructure.
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MAY 2019
These findings will then be presented at the next Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit 2019 that will be held from 9 to 11 July in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, and that will serve as a basis for the launch of a multi-stakeholder working group to engage experts from the public and private sectors as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academia. The working group’s collaboration will identify concrete action plans and recommendations for the safe integration of 4IR technologies in the manufacturing sector. As the world’s first cross-industry platform, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit unites manufacturers, governments and NGOs, technologists and investors, in a mission to transform manufacturing to enable the regeneration of the global economy. The partnership reinforces the missions of both organisations, prioritising safety from conceptualisation, and highlighting the importance of tackling some of the challenges presented by the 4IR to unlock their transformational impact on society. Globally, key sectors of the 4IR are expected to grow exponentially within the next few years. For the Artificial Intelligence (AI) market, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2016 and 2021 is expected to reach 55.1%, while a CAGR of 61.5% is predicted for the blockchain market. Moreover, 86% of the world’s top companies by R&D spend stem from the manufacturing sector. The factory automation market, meanwhile, is registering a CAGR of 8.8% from 2018 to 2025. Many of these technologies are still new, and in an already complex value chain, applying them presents a number of risks to manufacturers keen on embracing 4IR technologies to achieve greater productivity and commercial success. Privacy is one issue; an EY survey mentions rising employee concerns about being monitored when IoT devices were installed in facilities, even when it was done to reduce HVAC or utility costs. When surveyed, more than 60% of respondents cited privacy as a priority when deploying disruptive technologies.
NEWS
SAGE SURVEY REVEALS SHIFTING CULTURAL LANDSCAPE IN THE ACCOUNTING SECTOR Sage, a leader in cloud business management solutions, released its annual Practice of Now research report, revealing a shifting cultural landscape in the accounting sector driven by evolving client demands and the marketplace. Of the 3,000 accountants surveyed worldwide in 2019, 90% believe there has been a cultural shift in accountancy as it enters the next decade. This shift is driving significant changes in hiring practices, business services and attitudes toward emerging technologies across the globe. “Countries in the Middle East, particularly the UAE, have heavily invested in technology to drive innovation and become a thriving hub. Machine learning, robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are just some of the advanced technologies that will be an important component for the accounting profession. For accountants and companies that want to stay ahead of the curve, they need to start taking appropriate measures and integrate technology into their business models. It is critical that accountants embrace these changes and obtain the necessary training and skills to leverage technology in the best way to address the dynamic needs of the industry and clients,” said Mansoor Sarwar, Director Technical Services and PreSales, Sage Middle East. The Practice of Now reveals that accountants across the world are still facing challenges as a result of ongoing cultural changes within the industry. 82% of accountants said they are considering recruiting from a non-traditional background. Furthermore, 43% of respondents say that new accountants joining the profession should have industry experience outside accounting. The accountancy profession will need to bring in new skill sets and update business processes to meet customer expectations or risk losing out to competing firms. As skill sets such as technological literacy, relationship building and business advisory become increasingly important, 62% of respondents agree that today’s accounting training programs will not be enough to run a successful practice by
Mansoor Sarwar Director Technical Services and Pre-Sales, Sage Middle East 2030. Training programs will need updating so that firms can keep pace with innovation and evolving client demands. With a gulf in the talent required to build a modern, digital firm, what’s needed is a commitment to building a diverse workforce. But this year’s data identifies an underlying issue not yet addressed by many practices. Just 30% of firms say they’re actively seeking to diversify their workforce. Only 28% have a written policy on diversity and inclusion. Even fewer (23%) have offered training or have altered any policies or procedures to promote diversity and inclusion (21%). Accountants can see challenges ahead, and they’re preparing for it. 49% of respondents have formally examined their business practices in the last year, with an additional 26% stating they have formally examined their business practices in the last five years. All signs point to a profession building for the future. Still, accounting and bookkeeping remain the dominant service offering in practices worldwide (79%), however; business advisory services (17%) and outsourced CFO (5%) remain a significant growth opportunity. As accountants re-evaluate business models, 85% state that the profession in their country needs to pick up the pace of technology adoption to remain competitive internationally. Over half of respondents (56%) cite increases in productivity as the main benefit of technology adoption, with an additional 27% citing time savings as its main value. Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents look forward to adopting relevant artificial intelligence (AI) applications as available. May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 09
NEWS MAY 2019
DEMAND FOR UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS DRIVES VIDEO CONFERENCING Lifesize and SecureNet jointly aim to make deeper inroads for high-definition video conferencing solutions across the region Lifesize, a leader in providing modern video conference solutions extending from endpoint devices to video conferencing software is also well ahead in offering cloud-based meeting room solutions that feature video conferencing and wireless presentations. For the region, the company has a partnership with a leading value add distributor SecureNet and aims to make deeper inroads with extensive partner reach. Discussing the opportunity, Marco Michieluzzi, Sales Director, Easter Europe, MEA and TIA at Lifesize says,”Video conferencing has always been a significant technology opportunity because of the big advantages it offers in terms of services it offers in office productivity and cost savings. It is now growing at an accelerated pace now because of the cloud services on offer. Lifesize Communications is gaining on an average close to 300 customers quarter on quarter now. Especially now in the context of the growing demand for Unified communications as everyone needs a platform to collaborate and work together, video conferencing forms a key part of the solution. This is where Lifesize is helping out as a solution that can be easily integrated, especially with Microsoft software, which is used by most Businesses.”
The vendor has launched its new Icon 300 and Icon 500 meeting room systems, the latest in Lifesize’s family of next-generation devices. Purpose-built for Lifesize’s cloud-based video conferencing service, the Icon 300 and Icon 500 expand Lifesize’s portfolio of 4K-capable solutions, bringing immersive collaboration experiences to smaller huddle rooms and midsized meeting spaces as organizations expand video conferencing beyond the boardroom. Marco says, “Lifesize has always been the first to launch and make available new video conferencing technologies in market. Now, we have expanded our 4K-solutions with the new launches and this ability to be the first to make latest video conferencing technologies available has been our biggest strength.” Discussing market outlook, he says, “The growth outlook is quite healthy for us and we have been growing at a healthy 30-35% year on year. The Middle East looks to be the next big opportunity for us and particularly with the possibility of cloud services being more accepted. Securenet is our value add distributor partner in the region and we rely on partners like Securenet, who are key for our go to market strategy.”
MINDWARE ACQUIRES ARROW ELECTRONICS’ ENTERPRISE COMPUTING Value-Added Distributor in the reSOLUTIONS BUSINESS leading gion. Via this acquisition, Mindware will exFollowing approval by governmental authorities in the United Arab Emirates, Mindware FZ-LLC, a leading distributor of IT products across Middle East and North Africa, announced the acquisition of Arrow Electronics’ enterprise computing solutions business in the Middle East. The agreement includes distribution of Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions FZCO product and services portfolio in the Middle East The acquisition is part of Mindware’s growth strategy to advancing as the 10 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
Avinash Wadhwa, VP Strategic Alliances at SecureNet says, “Securenet is a value-add partner for vendors we associate with and our relationship with Lifesize is over a year and half old. There is a great value proposition in integrating video conferencing solutions from LifeSize with other Business productivity applications in collaborative work environments. Communications is key and integrating video conferencing with work and business applications helps companies in terms of better productivity, better recorded references for future and so on. Compared to audio, there is better attention span in video conversations. We want to grow together in the larger region we are partnering together.” The vendor is also biding its time for the market to open up in terms of adoption of UC as a cloud service as it has its solution ready to support fast adoption. Marco explains that cloud services will free up companies from investing in expensive hardware time and again.
said Philippe Jarre, CEO of Mindware. “Moreover, it significantly strengthens our position in this rapidly growing segment. We are delighted to welcome the Arrow team to Mindware,” added Jarre.
pand its Dell EMC territorial coverage and enhance its security portfolio with additional global vendors such as RSA, CheckPoint, Forcepoint, and TrendMicro. Arrow Electronics has recruited a large number of enterprise re-sellers, always operating as their trusted technology advisor and growth enabler. “This acquisition reinforces our strategy to support the digital transformation of the regional IT industry and the high demand for Storage, Cloud, and Security solutions,”
Philippe Jarre CEO, Mindware
MAY 2019
IN FOCUS
EXPO 2020 DUBAI EXPECTED TO CONTRIBUTE AED122.6B TO UAE ECONOMY EXPO TO SUPPORT UP TO 905,200 JOB-YEARS IN 2013-2031, EY ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY SHOWS Expo 2020 Dubai and its legacy are expected to contribute AED122.6 billion of gross value added (GVA) to the UAE’s economy from 2013–31, according to the EY report, ‘The economic impact of Expo 2020 Dubai’. The report states that Expo 2020 is also expected to support up to 905,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) job-years in the UAE from 2013– 31, which is equal to approximately 49,700 FTE jobs per annum in the UAE over this period. Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, Executive Director of the Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, says: “This independent report demonstrates that Expo 2020 Dubai is a critical long-term investment in the future of the UAE, which will contribute more than 120 billion dirhams to the economy between 2013 and 2031.” “Not only will the event encourage millions around the world to visit the UAE in 2020, it will also stimulate travel and tourism and support economic diversification for years after the Expo, leaving a sustainable economic legacy that will help to ensure the UAE remains a leading destination for business, leisure and investment.” Matthew Benson, Partner, Transaction Advisory Services, MENA, EY, says: “Expo 2020 is an exciting long-term investment for the UAE, and is expected to have a significant impact on the economy and how jobs are created directly and indirectly. As the host, Dubai aims to use the event to further enhance its international profile and reputation. The event will celebrate innovation, promote progress and foster cooperation, and entertain and educate global audiences.” Expo 2020 Dubai is expected to attract 25 million visits and participants from 190 countries from October 2020 to April 2021. During this period, the World Expo is expected to contribute approximately 1.5% of the UAE’s annual forecast gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are estimated to receive AED 4.7 billion in investment during the pre-Expo phase, supporting approximately 12,600 job-years, while also supporting Expo 2020’s aim to foster innovation and support small businesses. Jamie Torrens, Director, Economic Advisory, Transaction Advisory Services, EY, says: “Across the period of our study, spanning the Pre-Expo, During-Expo and Legacy phases between 2013 and 2031, Expo 2020 is expected to support billions of dirhams of Gross Value Added (GVA) and thousands of jobs in the UAE. Although the
Expo event lasts less than a year, the positive economic impact continues far beyond the event.” In the Legacy period (May 2021 to December 2031), the Expo site is expected to be redeveloped to District 2020, which is expected to include tenant companies and an expanded Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC). District 2020 has been planned to support the UAE’s future vision by supporting sustainable economic development, moving toward an innovation-driven economy and creating a business environment to help support key growth industries such as logistics and transport, travel and tourism, construction and real estate and education. Over 80% of the Expo built environment is planned to be retained for District 2020, and eventually expand into a city covering more than four million square meters. District 2020 companies will be focused on technology and innovation, including a mix of corporations and SMEs. The DEC is also expected to be a key facility in the site. The economic impact of the Legacy period is mainly expected to be driven by the development activity and operations of District 2020 and the incremental effects of the expansion of the DEC. ‘The economic impact of Expo 2020 Dubai’ report by EY considered ‘direct’ increases in economic activity, ‘indirect’ benefits of increased supply chain demand and ‘induced’ benefits from increased spending by employees of firms involved in Expo 2020. Expo 2020 Dubai is the first World Expo to take place in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region in the 168-year history of the event. More than 200 participants, including countries, corporations, multinational organizations and educational institutions, will gather in Dubai from October 2020 to April 2021 to explore Expo 2020’s theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’. May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 11
COVER STORY MAY 2019
FETCHR DECODING THE SUCCESS STORY
By Diksha Vohra
From a small office with seven employees to expansions in six countries with over 5000 employees, the journey of Fetchr has not been less than a roller-coaster ride. We unfold a few milestones of the Fetchr story to decode their success mantra.
I
ris is expecting an important shipment from the U.K. which is due to arrive today. At 8am, just as she is about to leave for work, she receives a message from a courier company asking her to be home between 9am to 12pm that day to receive the delivery. She is now in two minds. She has a really important meeting to attend and changing her address on the courier company’s website at the last minute may cause more delays in the shipment. She de-cides to cancel her meeting and stay home. Meanwhile, the courier deliverer is given an address near a shopping mall with no street names or numbers, which he finds difficult to navigate to. He calls up Iris and delivers the package at 12.30pm, half an hour late from the estimated time. Now imagine, if there was a way Iris could share her office location via WhatsApp to the courier company and he could deliver the package using the GPS system, all the hassle above could have been avoided. And that’s where Fetchr was born. The Dubai–based courier service compa-ny devised a unique solution to this problem with the use of cutting edge technolo-gy. What was it? Read on…
The start A Special Armed Forces professional, Idriss Al Rifai hit upon the idea of using tech-nology to help deliveries while working as the head of operations for Marka VIP which, at that point of time, was the second largest e-commerce company. An MBA graduate, Idriss who had worked for BCG before joining Marka soon found out that logistics companies neither had the requisite technology to cater to the demands of e-commerce companies, nor could they satisfy the demands of emerging markets. 12 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
Idriss Al Rifai Founder and CEO of Fetcher
The Gap The essential gap was between the customer and the deliverer with both facing much inconven-ience to execute a simple task. Identifying this gap, Idriss launched Fetchr in 2012 with seven employees. He had a two-fold motivation for starting his own company. The first was the lack of ability of logistics companies to design solutions targeted towards e-commerce companies and the second was their unwillingness to address the lack of ideas. The world was becoming increasingly ‘mobile’ so why should delivery companies be tied to a stationary addresses? They
should be able to deliver consignments wherever the consignee is at that particular point of time. Idriss realised this issue and that the field of e-commerce was expanding at a rapid pace but was in dire need of a technology enabler who would give it the last mile connectivity and solve the problem of delivery to the right customer at the right time.
The concept Alibaba, ZTO and YTO in China have expanded mainly on the strength of their technology and so have many delivery companies in India. Fetchr aims to become a similar company that is an e-commerce enabler
MAY 2019
fulfilling their delivery needs and which understands technology really well.
The innovation
Since long, delivery is a huge problem, especially in the Middle East. In countries like the UAE and many parts of the emerging markets, there are no post-codes and about 80% of deliveries are cash on delivery. Thus if the address can’t be located in time, it is a huge loss to the company and the client. Fetchr circumvents this problem by locking on the location of the consignee through the GPS on his smartphone.
The concept of the company itself is innovative, as it does away with the necessity of a physical address for delivery and uses the GPS functionality of smartphones to deliver your orders.
The challenges One of the major challenges that Fetchr encountered was the huge volume transacted through e-commerce companies on a daily basis. During peak seasons particularly, deliveries have been delayed, the ire of which had to be faced by the deliverers. Sometimes, however, the delivery company received the consignment late as the e-commerce companies were overwhelmed with orders. Understanding this, Fetchr solved the issue by creating a platform for seamless communication between the staff and the customer so that they’re informed well in time when and where can they expect to receive their orders. Moreover, more staff was hired to meet the growing needs of the e-commerce clients.
Going forward the company is working on a two-pronged strategy to make its ser-vices more efficient. On the operational side, it is working on having leaner and stronger operations with more control at every step of the delivery chain and on the customer side, it is extensively using data science to know the precise time of deliv-ery which will ultimately lead to shortening the time slot for delivery.
Tips for startups Idriss says that entrepreneurs need to realise how difficult it is not only to launch a startup but also to sustain it. He is of the view that startups should be ready to grapple with problems throughout their journey as no company can grow at 300400% per year and expect that it won’t face problems.
COVER STORY
The second tip is that the marketplace for funding is highly competitive so one has to strive hard and contact as many companies, venture funds and people as possi-ble, locally as well as internationally to raise substantial funds and lastly he wants start-ups to focus on human resources. Idriss is all for giving sufficient chances to people to succeed despite the fact that time is a precious commodity for any startup.
The verdict The future looks bright for Fetchr. Fetchr’s focus on technology has meant that it has a return rate of just 6% when compared to 25-35% non-delivery rate for traditional logistics companies in the e-commerce sphere. The rapid expansion of the smartphone market too should prove beneficial for a tech-driven company like Fetchr. A huge market is waiting to be tapped not only in the developing countries but also in the developed world for a technology-driven delivery system that makes your address irrelevant thereby delivering you whatever you want, wherever you want.
The expansion One can have a brilliant idea, but implementing it needs loads of money and private funding is one way of getting this money. In its initial years, Fetchr received a fund-ing of 11 million dollars from the Silicon Valley, the first and also the biggest fund-ing in the history of the Middle East at that time. Then in series B, Fetchr raised 41 million dollars and is now preparing for series C that will probably be announced in about two months time. This additional flow of capital meant that Fetchr could now expand geographically. It expanded its operations to Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Oman, and plans are afoot to enter Kuwait next. The company has set its sight on entering two other markets during the next year too.
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 13
FEATURE MAY 2019 His company seems to be an early adopter of disruptive technologies. Madison Groupo has implemented hyper-converged infrastructure from HPE, Qlik Sense business analytics, SAP ERP, Turnquest core insurance system, Office 365 on Microsoft Azure, and Infrascale disaster recovery as a service. Stanley adds, “We got value from these IT investments and achieved customer centricity. We are obsessed with the needs of the customer that leads to growth, profitability, and sustainability. We have achieved IT maturity and business alignment and we leveraged disruptive innovations. Two years ago, we were at level one of maturity. Currently, we are at level three maturity. Two years from now, we expect to be at level five where we shall be a disruptor. We shall remake existing markets and create new ones. This will lead to leads to growth, profitability, and sustainability.”
Stanley Chege CIO, Madison Group
THE DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY BECKONS KENYA’S MID˨MARKET Kenya is one of the most dynamic countries of the African continent and is often the gateway into the region for most Multi-National Businesses. With a stable political and economic environment, the country looks poised to accelerate its journey towards digital transformation. By R. Narayan
The small and medium size Businesses form the bulwark of many economies around the world and Kenya isn’t very different. Being one of the faster growing economies of the African continent, Kenya looks a certain candidate to grab the digital edge in its economy sooner than later and especially because Kenya with scarce natural resources needs to leverage the best of technologies to boost it Businesses in various sectors. Stanley Chege, CIO, Madison Group, Kenya 14 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
summarizes some of the issues that seem to be bottlenecks in the country’s march towards digital transformation. He says, “The Kenyan mid-market segment has responded well to the need for digital transformation. However, there are many challenges mostly emanating from the board of directors who are typically not tech savvy. Often, they are not moving fast on digital transformation initiatives by not allocating adequate budget.”
According to Oscar Corriea, Director of Technology, Maarifa Education, “Kenya’s economic future will dominated by the success of today’s SME. Kenya is a hub for trade in the East African region and the HQ for many multinationals seeking to get a foothold in Africa. In addition, an educated and English speaking population has helped bolster this reputation. Nevertheless, over the years it has become evident that the number of job opportunities is limited and with one of the largest youth populations in the world (15-24 accounting for 20% of the population in 2017) this represents a big challenge. This has led to a mushrooming of start-ups.” It is not surprising that against the backdrop of lack of multiple natural resources including oil, mineral resources, etc. in Kenya, most start-ups are founded in the goods and services industry with a focus on verticals including tourism, trading, financial services, transport, education and healthcare. Of the one natural resource that Kenya does have – agricultural land – this occupies only a small part of the country, approximately 11%, and is subject to uncertainties of weather. Oscar adds, “The mid-market has grown out of the small entrepreneurs of yesteryears. Many business have failed (46% close within a year of being founded). Entrepreneurs have started again and the cycle of business life has continued.
MAY 2019
Out of these a number of start-ups have survived and even flourished to draw foreign investment matching South Africa and Nigeria in investor funding. They now contribute more than 30% to the Kenya’s economy (starting from 13% in 1993) and continue to grow.” As the startups grow larger, they are faced with the need to increase size of Business without increasing overheads significantly. This is where Technology comes in as a key enabler. So while market and finance are key considerations for start-ups, later they start chasing objectives of customer acquisition by cost effective means, better profitability and so on. This is when Technology becomes a differentiator. Two digital technologies that have supported initial digital transformation in Kenya are mobile telephony and mobile payments. As is popularly known, the introduction of mobile telephony helps transform the economy and open up new opportunities. This created new business opportunities for airtime distribution and other related telecommunication businesses such as dealers, service providers etc. Further, it also enabled people to work from across long distances and stay connected. It also empowered access to quick information for communities such as farmers about the market prices. In addition to Telephony, mobile money has been a key technology that has been popular in the country and has become a growing contributor to the country’s GDP. The challenges towards adopting newer technologies remains quite a concern. Businesses don’t seem to be investing in strategic technologies that can potentially transform their Businesses for the better. A lack of awareness also a key factor and budget constraints aren’t far behind. Oscar adds, “Mid-market business rarely invest in strategic technologies and tweak them to their benefit – often following a copy-cat approach of competitors. In addition, the high-cost of enterprise solutions often has the mid-market balking at the cost and unable to pinpoint the real benefits. So while mid-level markets have adopted well to the low-end technologies e.g. mobile telephony and mobile money to overcome traditional barriers, they fail to understand how to take advantage of enterprise technologies (and their newer
scalable options) to their benefit. And digital transformation describes taking technology to all aspects of the business. And yet many mid-market companies are yet to get stable digital technologies into their core business – forget about all areas.” It is more or less clear that Kenya’s mid market segment needs solutions that offer enterprise scalability but costs comparable to mid-market positioning. This is a gap and opportunity waiting to be addressed According to Oscar, “There is a need to create a model of digital transformation that is simple for both businesses and practitioners to understand, make decisions against and measure. Models too complex to deploy in a real-world situation re of no use.” Stanley opines that most companies are already deploying some of the cloud technologies while newer technologies may be seeing a modest uptake as of now. “Cloud Technology adoption is steadily picking up in the region now as more and more companies adopt solutions such as Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365. Most companies are leveraging on social, mobility and cloud initiatives and so have we.” On Cloud, Oscar says, “Kenyans are slowly building confidence in the reliability of these remote models, the low OPEX versus high upfront CAPEX and build more confidence in their data providers. I would there that there is a high possibility that we are on the brink of a digital transformation explosion with gap to be bridged being how to match platform capability to customer needs.”
FEATURE
quick wins.” The challenge would be to ensure that these implementations are done to match relevant use case scenarios. Oscar says, “IoT and AI IoT and AI either together or individually have plenty of use cases in almost every industry. Nevertheless, there are also many grey areas that need expert consultation. But the brilliant thing about IoT is that it offers a relatively low cost testing cycle in most cases and this can lead to lot more experiments and quite a few successful solutions. I think that the key here will be awareness through the use of successful case studies and better access to the technologies that enable IoT and AI.” In conclusion, there is an opportunity that needs to be seized and companies that are wiser in terms of faster adoption of relevant technologies that accelerate their digital transformation journey will lead the country’s economy sooner than later, whether in the mid-market or in the larger enterprise segment.
“IoT and AI IoT and AI either together or individually have plenty of use cases in almost every industry. Nevertheless, there are also many grey areas that need expert consultation”
In terms of IoT and AI, these are tools that will sooner than later be seen in more abundance as part of project installations. It is inevitable that companies that need to compete in the global economy can continue to stay without some form of AI plugin as part of their customer facing or backend processes. And even IoT enablement will soon likely see momentum in terms of roll-out across manufacturing facilities or other immediate use case scenarios. Stanley opines, “IoT, artificial intelligent and in particular robotic process automation hold the biggest promise. They are definitely game changers and potential for
Oscar Corriea Director of Technology, Maarifa Education May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 15
VERTICAL FOCUS / RETAIL MAY 2019
EXPERIENCE DRIVEN RETAIL STRATEGY A SHIELD AGAINST ONLINE SHOPPING? With the increasing popularity of online shopping, retail brands operating through brick and mortar stores are in the quest for survival. We find out how retail stores are combating the challenge from e-Commerce and stay relevant in the market.
Evarist Rego Marketing Manager, Ajmal Perfumes
By Diksha Vohra hen talking about shopping hubs around the world, Dubai’s name tops the list. From the most expensive to the most affordable, Dubai’s market has something for everyone. Even in terms of the economy as such, the retail sector contributes to 27% of the total GDP (approximately AED 103.6 billion).
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brands, compare prices and specifications, and make an informed decision. Thanks to these benefits, there has been a significant increase in online shopping leaving retail stores unpopulated. In such a scenario, are retail stores able to cope up with the competition posed by online platforms?
“Unlike its counter parts in the West, retail plays a more integral part in a consumer’s life in the UAE/GCC region,” says Evarist Rego, Marketing Manager - Ajmal Perfumes. “Especially for the local Arabs, retail is a ‘recreational’ activity; to spend time with their families by visiting malls. And with this country pulling close to approximately 26 million tourists a year, retail is one of the corner-stone of UAE’s existence.” Be it because of the weather conditions or the infrastructure, the culture of visiting shopping malls as a family activity is more prevalent in this part of the world. Despite this, the reality of shopping has undergone a massive makeover during the last few years.
“The retail industry is constantly evolving and retailers need to make sure they keep up,” says Chris Naylor, General Manager at Leem, a Arab couture brand. For instance, retail brands are focusing more on providing a shopping experience to their customers by adding different elements to bring them to the store. Sacoor Brothers’, the Portuguese clothing brand’s store at the Dubai Mall is a perfect example. The store walls are surrounded by LED video screens going all around showcasing their latest collections. They also have a digital booth inside that displays the brand’s live instagram feed. Their in-house tailors working on alterations can be seen from outside the glass walls giving a true feel of the brand. From being a pure tailoring brand, the store today is much more than that. But why is there a need for such ‘experiences’?
Almost a decade ago, stores used to be crowded with people purchasing and bargaining on prices. Now, however, some prefer to shop online on platforms like souq.com, Noon, Namshi and more. Such platforms allow customers to choose from a variety of products from various 16 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
“Millennials are the key reason for the retail industry going experiential, says Evarist.
“Having been born in a hyper- socialized, Instagram fanatical digitized world, the millennials prefer everything that’s experience-driven. This is the generation that’s responsible for the changeover of ‘From Status Symbol to Status Update’. Since most millennials are dominating the consumer market today, retails brands are now focusing on an ‘experience-driven’ strategy. “Alibaba’s offline supermarket retail brand, Hema with digitized aisles, farm-to-store food tracking devices, service robots, etc is a classic example of how brands will be catering to these millennials,” he adds. There, however, are brands who had possibly foreseen this shift well in advance and planned their shifts well ahead of time. Merlin Digital is one such brand which believed in being different. “A google search will show that we were selling build to order assembled PCs along with Dell in 1999,” says Rohit Bachani, Director and Co-Founder of Merlin Digital. “We were the first brands in the Middle East to offer their own specialized brand ambassadors at one the worlds biggest duty frees back in 2006 with a live demo stand. And in one the biggest malls we had a live station demonstration showcasing wireless music back
MAY 2019
VERTICAL FOCUS / RETAIL
started off with brick and mortar entities to ensure we understand our clients, their shopping habits, their tastes and preferences,” says Chris. “We are planning on launching our e-commerce site and application in the next few months with movement towards full omni-channel integration between stores and e-commerce sites.”
Rohit Bachani Director and Co-Founder, Merlin Digital
With going omni-channel too, there is another challenge being posed by the expat population in the UAE. As Evarist says: “Since the primary reason of most expats to come to the UAE, besides having a better living and working standards, is to save money, the latter might become the key reason for the online industry to prosper in the longer run – as we’ve seen the two key reasons for the on-
in 2001. So emphasis has always been on experience driven and live demonstrations for us.”
industry to grow in the West are lower prices – to be read as discounts and convenience.”
But for a brand like Merlin, experience emphasis is more important because in buying electronics, the look of the product is not enough for a guaranteed sale. Similarly, for a perfumery brand like Ajmal, customers would like to smell and indulge in the fragrance first before purchasing. But in the fashion industry, where people are increasingly choosing to buy online, the dynamics are different.
So now retail brands are left with two options, which is about either adding different experiences to attract customer footfall which may be an additional cost, or to go online and sell at cheaper prices. If the latter is preferred by most, in the long run it would mean that retailers will have to compromise on quality or reduce their profit margins in order to survive in the market. But despite all these trends and predictions, retailers are quite optimistic that physical stores would never disappear completely and will still have their value.
A number of fashion labels, who couldn’t afford to offer unique experiences, have either completely gone virtual or are choosing to sell across different platforms including Instagram and Facebook. This, in a sense, has also pushed new brands to plan their launches keeping an omni-channel strategy, where a store has a physical and an online presence simultaneously, in mind before starting. Leem, for instance, was designed with an omni-channel integration on charts to match the latest shopping trends. “We
store in person to enjoy the overall purchasing experience and will buy online, called the ‘Brick and Click’ model. Rohit, however, is optimistic about the fact that in due course, traditional retailers will have the ball in their court. “I personally feel in a market like the UAE with the beautiful malls and infrastructure, it is still an experience to go out and buy a product and it will come full circle with the charm of online retail going down a bit and consumers would come back for the old fashioned experience.”
“Millennials are the key reason for the retail industry going experiential. Having been born in a hyper- socialized, Instagram fanatical digitized world, the millennials prefer everything that’s experience-driven”
Rohit feels that for technology products with simple models, online sales will work but a traditional retailer will still be needed for extended warranties, special accessories which are hard to find online and authentic products. A combination of the two seems to be the future of retail. According to Chris and Evarist, customers will choose to visit the
Chris Naylor General Manager at Leem
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 17
FEATURE MAY 2019 Our cloud Business is growing at over 90% over the past 6 quarters and now we are into the 7th quarter of growth now. There are some big competitors out there but our products are feature rich for companies in the distribution, manufacturing or retail business.” He concedes that there is room for improvement in enhancing challenges of brand recognition vis-a-a-vis some of the larger competitors but the company has a healthy Balance sheet and is possibly exploring growth through acquisition as well as continued R& D investments. “We have 250 million USD in cash and are considering acquisitions. We will stick to our 6 core industries and there is a lot of opportunities around in these 6 industries. The R& D budget has tended to increase; given the returns we are getting, we will do the same next year and thereafter.”
Steve Murphy CEO, Epicor
FIRMLY EMBRACING THE FUTURE Epicor continues to ramp up and consolidate its capabilities as an enable of digital transformation through new innovations By R. Narayan At its Annual Insights Customer Conference in April, Epicor unveiled several new landmark launches that pushes the ERP vendor into the forefront of being an enabler of digital transformation for its customers. Among the standout announcements, was the launch of Eva, a virtual AI agent that is included in the new Epicor ERP. The Enterprise Software vendor also unveiled its enhanced vision of the Connected Enterprise, with the rollout of its latest edition of ERP, the Epicor ERP 10.2.400 as well the latest edition of distribution software solution, Epicor Prophet 21. The announcements also included Epicor Retail Cloud, available for the US market. At the event attended by over 3500 attendees in Las Vegas, a gathering inclusive of customers and partners, the company provided an elaborate showcase of its products along with its partners. The 18 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
Solutions showcase at the event demonstrated use case scenarios for IoT, AI etc, providing attendees with key insights. Further, on stage during the conference sessions, select customers shared their successful deployment stories, helping attendees envisage how such deployments could benefit. Epicor continues to focus on its key verticals of focus led by Manufacturing and distribution, by delivering new enhanced releases of its flagship products for these segments. Speaking to the press, Steve Murphy, the CEO of Epicor shared an upbeat outlook. He said, “Business is healthy and margins are really quite good. The top line is growing in the mid-single digits and profits are higher. Our SaaS Business is seeing explosive growth. Our traditional maintenance and support business is still growing at 2.5 %.
Epicor ERP 10.2.400, its flagship product for the Manufacturing sector globally, builds on the vision of enabling the ‘Connected Enterprise’ and taps into a combination of AI, automation and analytics to enable efficiencies across all operational assets, enhances processes and optimize resources, both manpower and machines. Epicor’s vision is to enable a system that stretches the 360 degree view. Epicor IoT connects into the Microsoft Azure IoT hub, allowing companies to capture the vast amounts of data from IoT sensors and analyze that data to gain insights that support smarter decision-making. An integration between Epicor ERP and Epicor DocStar which automated the sales order entry process is also one of the breakthrough features. Himanshu Palsule, CTO, Epicor say, “Within the connected enterprise framework, Microsoft Azure IoT hub consumes data coming from all sources and our system talks to the hub via RESTful APIs and takes action, such as initiating preventive maintenance for instance. Benefits of the connected enterprise include quicker time to market, better asset utilization and reduced scrap.”
Epicor ERP includes top enhancements such as: Epicor Virtual Agent (EVA)— new enterprise-wide digital agent using artificial intelligence to help users work smarter and
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make better, faster decisions. Epicor IoT—Connects machines to the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub for Epicor ERP. Data is acquired directly from IoT sensors and visualized on the ERP home page and ERP MES shop floor interface, allowing manufacturers to monitor real-time production data and optimize their business operations. MES Expansion—Frequently used ERP MES screens have been modernized and refreshed, using the Epicor Kinetic Design framework, and a common shop floor interface to Epicor Mattec Advanced MES customers is being provided via the Human Machine Interface (HMI). User Interface (UI) Transformation— Utilizing the Kinetic Design System to improve ERP ease-of-use and customer experience, Epicor will be introducing new modern looks for many popular screens and applications. These enhancements include a new mobile time and expense application, a refreshed Gantt-based graphical project management board, and a job scheduling board. Automated Order Entry—Utilizing a combination of Epicor ERP and Epicor DocStar, common fields in forms are automatically completed. The resulting reduction in time, effort and number of touchpoints will enable accelerated sales and fulfilment velocity. Supplier Portal—Enables manufacturers to better manage their supplier relationships, enter purchase transactions, and process RFQs, using the Epicor Commerce Connect eCommerce solution.
operations across the business more easily. Developed to execute tasks and recommend, predict, and adjust actions within set parameters, EVA appears onscreen as a virtual assistant that users can access via text or voice. Along with cognitive skills such as text and voice, EVA transforms data into visual information creating an intuitive experience to complete actions on native devices. Powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP), users can access EVA from their mobile devices and the agent will deliver targeted information to help them make better, faster decisions. Epicor also showcased several industryspecific use cases for EVA at the conference. One of the examples featured was using EVA to detect an anomaly early on in a production machine that, if left untouched, could lead to unplanned downtime and sub-standard product quality. Data from machines and IoT sensors, combined with Epicor ERP, provides a virtual nervous system that delivers AI-driven alerts from EVA to a mobile device. With just a few clicks on the device, the production manager can confirm suggestions from EVA to schedule preventive maintenance for a machine and shift production to other available machines.
FEATURE
There were parallel examples discussed for use cases in distribution and retail. In distribution, it was about enabling outside sales representatives to obtain instant and easy access to product, price, and availability information, and create a quote on a mobile device while meeting with a customer. This time-saving process is made possible by EVA’s conversational user interface (UI), based on natural language processing. In Retail, the use case demonstrated was about making cross-sell and up-sell recommendations in real-time while helping a retail customer in the aisles to make a purchase decision, thanks to an AI-powered recommendation engine based on market analysis. For the Automotive Aftermarket, using AI can help evaluate a massive dataset of vehicle registrations and parts failure trends by region, EVA is able to notify an auto parts distributor of specific parts that need an immediate increase in stock levels for selected regions due to a projected increase in demand.
The Distribution focus Epicor’s latest version of its distribution software solution, Epicor Prophet 21 incorporates cloud-ready technologies. The
Automated Order Entry—Utilizing a combination of Epicor ERP and Epicor DocStar, common fields in forms are automatically completed. The resulting reduction in time, effort and number of touchpoints will enable accelerated sales and fulfilment velocity. Supplier Portal—Enables manufacturers to better manage their supplier relationships, enter purchase transactions, and process RFQs, using the Epicor Commerce Connect eCommerce solution.
Delivering EVA, the digital avatar EVA, the new enterprise-wide digital agent, has been designed to help users work smarter and accelerate pace of
Himanshu Palsule CTO, Epicor
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 19
FEATURE MAY 2019 president, international at Epicor Software said, “ All the markets present unique opportunities. Epicor 10 has seen good growth engine across the world and in this region. iScala is quite strong in the Middle East.”
new release also features a new enhancement with the addition of Epicor Rentals Management (ERM). Fully integrated with Prophet 21, this cloud-based solution enables distributors to capture new revenue opportunities and dynamically extend their relationship with existing customers seeking a compelling rental option. This integration helps distributors easily manage the scheduling and assignment process, from rental start to rental completion.
Epicor has also unveiled the new version of iScala ERP that includes a new reporting architecture, integration with Epicor Data Analytics, and additional country and region-specific localizations which today’s global organizations need to drive better business outcomes.
“Prophet 21 and Eclipse will continue to deal with different aspects of distribution. From a technology perspective, we have moved Prophet 21 to cloud. Eclipse is available on premise and hosted cloud. Eclipse is used by very larger electrical distributors and very small sized customers that reflects the flexibility of the product, “ says Himanshu.
Regional focus and road ahead Discussing the focus on the Middle East region, Andy Coussins, senior vice
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Andy adds that partners are key to their go to market strategy and hinted at facilitating a locally hosted, cloud delivery model soon, that would help cloud business gather speed in the region.
Andy Coussins Senior Vice President, Epicor
On the road ahead, Epicor looks poised to continue delivering breakthrough innovations and enhancing the intuitive character of its ERP software to respond to situations based on interplay of the technologies of IoT, AI, cloud and so on and meeting customer needs.
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TALKPOINT
IN THE CONTROL MODE Joji Jacob, CIO at Yusif bin Yusif Fakhro, a Bahrain based leading supplier of diverse product categories such as Professional Appliance, Contemporary/Modern Kitchens (Aran Cucine), OďŹƒce Furniture and security systems discusses briefly how Epicor ERP has helped the company streamline and get a unified view of operations since implementation By R. Narayan Please discuss your focus as a company briefly?
consulting company associated with the implementation?
We are into distribution of small and large professional appliances, Office furniture, Contemporary/Modern Kitchens (Aran Cucine), CCTV & Video Monitoring, A/V Solutions, Public Address & Voice Evacuation etc in the region. Mainly we deal with end users and distributors. We are the large distributors for the Middle East region for Brands we associate with.
Rheinbruck IT was the Epicor partner who deployed the solution for us. It took about 6-8 months to go live and we were live by end of 2016. Financials, Inventory Management, Purchasing Management, Sales Management & Manufacturing Management modules were live almost simultaneously but initially, we focused on , Sales & Service Management modules and then we focused on the inventory and Financial management modules. We have implemented Field service module from Epicor for our after sales service team.
Elaborate how you decided on implementing Epicor ERP? In the midst of purchasing an ERP system, there are multiple decision points and numerous factors, we considered company growth & efficiency goals. We considered how teh softer could meet specific needs of our various departments including Accounting & Marketing although by and large, all companies share general operations: accounting and marketing, for example. We wanted to go with a software that is based on newer technology, thereby giving more longevity in the long run and ensuring ROI. We also wanted to ensure that we chose a product that was competitively priced and not outrageously expensive. Concerns of who will implement and support were also key considerations. Finally, selecting Epicor was a team approach. We considered the needs of all the stakeholders and the needs of the rest of the organization including department heads. On all aspects Epicor was ranked ahead of other options.
When did you go live and who was the
Did you migrate all data into the new system? Data migration is a complex activity, deserving a separate project, plan, approach, budget, and team. We developed data migration approach and the approach was agreed upon and communicated to all business and technical stakeholders so that everybody is aware of when and what data will appear in the new system. We opted to enter opening balances, to ensure the accuracy of this information our accounting professional were involved. Moreover, we decided to run both systems in parallel for a period of time to confirm the accuracy of the data imports. To reconcile historical data, our internal IT team has developed a staging database, where we have both old and new systems data and with strong BI tools, we are able to achieve our objectives. So the old data isn’t lost.
What challenges did you face during deployment?
There were data quality issues that needed to be fixed. Further ERP implementation also required a change in Business Philosophy as it impacts the company’s conventional business model and the day-to-day practices it has been using for years or even decades. The new approaches such as in data reporting and mining and, thus, new managerial principles and practices had to be established. We have overcome these issues by keeping employees informed and engaged before, during, and after the implementation. Essentially, successful change management has delivered results for us. Our company is quite old and some of the processes were also old. It was the right time to modernists our processes and we were successful in these initiatives.
How did the Management support the decision to move to new ERP? The steering committee was involved from the beginning of the ERP projects. The committee was giving advice to ERP project team and solving issues faced by the team. Management support was always there and we were clear from the beginning to have proper processes in place.
Have you looked at cloud options? We started with our on premise implementation. We have implemented Epicor ERP 10.2 recently. Multiple upgrades have happened in these years. We have been thinking of moving into the cloud and hopefully in 2020 as part of our strategic roadmap, it is clear that there are pros and cons of a cloud-based ERP. What is important is to make sure your business will benefit from this system. May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 21
VERTICAL FOCUS / HEALTHCARE MAY 2019
AI’s TRANSFORMATIONAL IMPACT ON HEALTHCARE Striving towards paperless hospitals “Aster strives to be at the benchmark of digital transformation,” says Dr Sherbaz Bichu, CEO of Aster Hospitals. “Our vision is to become a paperless hospital for which we’ve started taking mini-steps by using automation and digitization techniques in the hospital’s day to day transactions and patient communication.”
Dr. Sherbaz CEO, Aster Hospital
The Healthcare industry is in the midst of digital transformation initiatives and the challenge is to ensure the balance in terms of technology deployments that enable automation without reducing the human touch By Diksha Vohra
A
s the clock strikes 2 in the afternoon, Latha’s phone rings. It is from an expert at IIT Mumbai to discuss the data they’ve been collecting from primary schools on malnourished and obese children and the ailments these could lead to in the long run, through Unite, a healthcare IT platform which helps predict healthcare issues in the future analysing today’s data. “The AI engine comes with suggestions on lifestyle changes / diet changes that can help the children grow healthier,”
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says Latha Shyam, partner - Castle IT Solutions, the developers of this platform. “Unite is a healthcare IT Platform that provides citizens, doctors, healthcare providers, insurance companies and government exchange data to manage the well-being of citizens.” She is now on a lookout for doctors and clinics who would be interested in using this platform to predict future health issues, and prescribe preventive measures accordingly. However, Latha is not alone in this spree. Over the last few years, since Artificial Intelligence (AI) and disruptive technology have been taking over the world, one of the sectors that has benefited the most from the same is undoubtedly the healthcare sector. Statistically speaking, according to a report, key clinical health and AI applications can potentially create a $150 billion in annual savings for the US healthcare economy alone by 2026. Imagine the global impact that AI would have. Regionally too, some of the most wellknown healthcare brands like Aster, NMC, Thumbay and more have begun adapting to the technological revolution.
From web chat options to online appointment bookings, online patient portals and online insurance approvals, Aster has embraced digitization with open arms. They have, in-fact, altered their recruitment strategies to suit the purpose. They are now hiring techno-savvy employees who’d be able to adjust quickly to the new systems and utilize them in a better way. Sherbaz believes that this move would save up a lot of time which was otherwise invested in non-clinical jobs like enrolling patients, scanning their documents and so on. “We aim to utilize automations to take away the non -clinical tasks from nurses/ doctors/ paramedics so their productive hours are spent in personalized patient care instead on doing clerical tasks.” Dr Reem Osman, CEO of Saudi German Hospital (SGH) seconds the thought. She says that previously a lot of time was wasted in doing the regular mundane tasks. Now that the patient can self-checkin for a particular service, that same customer service representative can be used to attend the patient in need of care or assist with waiting times. Aster has also implemented Smart QMS, digitally driven complaint management system, tele ICU, closed loop medication system, diagnostic equipment interfacing with HIS and more to facilitate better care for their patients. The SGH, on the other hand, has implemented the Robotic Pharmacy for Out-Patient operations, which helps the pharmacist to provide information about the medicines to the patients
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VERTICAL FOCUS / HEALTHCARE problem. Even within those, there are degrees of problems AI can solve. Hence, the failure rate should also be considered because there is not enough transparent information available to help doctors choose the right technology. “The failure isn’t because technology is bad, the failure occurs because the right technology wasn’t chosen and the right method of implementation wasn’t adapted,” says Reem.
instead of running to racks, Balanced Score Cards, Business Intelligence Dashboards and Patient Engagement Systems.
The Challenges But is there a need to be careful about the rapid digital advancements? With so many innovations happening around, it sometimes becomes difficult to choose what to say no to. Are hospitals being responsible enough to ask themselves if they’re actually ready for the transformations and the risks involved in the process?
Dr. Reem Osman CEO, Saudi Germen Hospital
According to Reem, the SGH has been a bit precautious before adapting to the digital transformations around.: “Digital transformation isn’t only the job of IT department, every business unit has its role. We can expect the IT department to guide us with the selection of proper technology and implement it but in order to have meaningful and effective use, all related departments have to be in sync.” According to Reem, the following factors need to be well considered before technological adaptations: - Adequate skills of business users - Adaptation attitude of patients
on a busy day, his KPI will be to finish the reporting first. Now, if technology helps the radiologists to separate the fractured ones, then his analysis will be more qualitative.” Indeed, when clerical work can be taken care of by AI, there would not only be more time on the hands of the doctors but the possibility of human error would be reduced to a great extent. The biggest challenge, however, is to understand which technology should be adapted. Not every machine will solve every
Precautious adaption is the cure While technological advancements are a boon to the society, hospitals must be prudent with regards to which technology are they adapting and how would the same be implemented. “Technology gives us opportunities for better collaboration, creating a synergy between patient, professionals, providers and machines. It also gives us better insights, predictive analytics to optimize services and eliminate wastes and real time entries contributes towards prompt treatments. In conclusion, I must say that technology plays a vital role in uplifting the entire healthcare ecosystem,” concludes Sherbaz.
While one may be able to recruit the right people to operate the latest technology, one cannot really predict the adaptation attitude of the patients, who are majorly still trying to get used to the systems. Moreover, patients still require human-touch as emotional comfort withthe doctor plays an important part in his overall recovery. To this, Sherbaz says: “The human touch to the patient is not taken way. Rather, we have made it possible for patients to fasttrack healthcare services using technology, as time is a very critical aspect in today’s world. We ensure that technology doesn’t camouflage our very purpose of existence which is empathetic services to mankind.” Reem too adds that the AI is usually adapted to assist the doctor and the nurses rather than replacing them from the scene altogether. “For instance, for X-rays (assuming to detect bone fracture), the initial need would be to know ‘Fracture’ or ‘No Fracture’ followed by in-depth analysis. Consider the radiologist has to go through 500 of them May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 23
IN FOCUS MAY 2019
Top 10 SME trends in UAE in 2019 A look at some of the key trends that SMEs need to factor in while managing their go to market approaches By Diksha Vohra
S
mall and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have a vital role to play in the economic de-velopment of UAE. According to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SMEs contribute 90% of jobs in the private sector. In addition, the SME sector con-tributes 30% to the national GDP, says a paper released at the second India-UAE Partnership Summit (IUPS). In view of the important role that SMEs play in the economy, we take a look at the top 10 SME trends in the UAE for 2019.
1) Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to make rapid strides across various indus-tries. According to Gartner research AI augmentation is expected to generate $2.9 trillion in business value and recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity, by 2021. The UAE leads the Arab region as far as adoption of AI solutions is concerned and is set to see an annual growth rate of 33.5%, according to a report prepared by the Dubai Technology Entrepreneurship Campus, in collaboration with ArabNet and startAD. It is anticipated that SMEs will begin to adopt low-cost AI like chatbots and machine learning into their businesses instead of broadscale AI integration.
75% of the global population by 2025. As millennials are not so enamoured by the typical 9-5 work day it is logical to conclude that as more and more millennials enter the workforce remote working will also rise and SMEs will have to adjust to this new reality.
4) Fintech will continue its forward march Bankers and analysts say that the UAE has taken a lead in fintech investments and banking technology adoption in the GCC and MENA region. This development will pay rich dividends for SMEs by significantly lowering their funding costs. The FinTech Hive launched by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a first-of-its-kind accelerator in the region that will bring together technology compa-nies and financial firms on the same platform, mentor them and localise and custom-ise technology is slated to play a leading role in this direction. Funding for fintech startups and projects in the Middle East has grown by 270% in 2017, according to Wamda, and the number of regional fintech players is forecast to more than double, from 105 in 2016 to over 250 in 2020. It is safe to assume that UAE will play a leading role in this growth.
5) Platform-based infrastructure Across the globe, an increasing number of SMEs will switch from their stand-alone, on-site software systems to an integrated, cloud-based software solution operating on global Cloud platforms. These platforms provide SMEs access to the best innova-tive software solutions and services which were beyond their reach till now.
2) Sustainable development will rule
6) On the go marketing will continue to gain momentum
In 2019 SMEs in the UAE can’t lose focus of the fact that sustainable development has become the global buzzword and that they will have to put environmental and ethical issues on the top of their agenda. Millennials see actions of businesses as crucial to combating climate change and other sustainability problems and are more likely to buy ‘green’ products. Thus SMEs will no longer be able to neglect the is-sue of sustainability.
SMEs will have to devise strategies to make beneficial use of new technologies like smartphones, wearables, tablets, smartwatches and other gadgets that offer instant online connectivity. SMEs will have to bear in mind that this instant connectivity al-lows consumers to check facts, product details and reviews almost instantaneously and that this plays a huge role in their final decision.
3) Remote working will be on the rise
7) Visual storytelling will gain in importance
Remote working has grown by leaps and bounds across the globe and UAE is no exception. The two main drivers of this change in work behaviour are the advent of high speed Internet and the increasing number of millennials in the workforce. Ac-cording to the Dubai Statistic Centre, 50.9% of male employees and 51.7% of female employees in Dubai were millennials in 2016. According to a forecast by research site Brookings Now, Millennials will represent 24 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
Going forward as more and more Gen Z members enter the market as buyers it will become imperative for SMEs to deploy visual storytelling in their marketing narra-tive if they want to stay relevant in today’s world and connect with this increasing tribe. Visual storytelling is a major key to social media marketing success.
MAY 2019
8) Rise of digital technology Digital technology is changing the way people live and work in the UAE. It is an enabler for SMEs as it provides them with a level playing field vis a vis big compa-nies but at the same time, it presents challenges for the SMEs to remain innovative and continuously adapt to the changing market. SMEs need to make full use of digi-tal technology including drones, IoT and virtual reality to create a new entrepre-neurial landscape.
9) Banking will continue to change The global banking industry is already undergoing significant changes with a rapid push towards digitalisation. Digital banking is forecast to grow to over two billion users by 2020. In addition, massive disruption is expected in payment modes. Banks in UAE are set to adopt changes that will aid them to be in tune with a digitally aware population. The UAE Government and the Central Bank realise the im-portance of SMEs and are keen to increase
IN FOCUS
their contribution to 70% of the national economy by 2021. Keeping this goal in mind, the Central Bank of the UAE is work-ing on initiatives to help smaller businesses get access to fresh funding at more ac-cessible rates. Moves are afoot to revise rules and operating procedures for lenders who deal with SMEs.
10) Mobile focus The smartphone market is seeing a boom in the UAE. According to a 2016 Google research UAE was ranked number 1 in global smartphone penetration at 73.8%. SMEs are expected to make increasing use of mobiles – SMS and voice communica-tion – along with mobile apps. It is expected to not only help them reach an increas-ing number of customers but also make their operations cost-efficient. All of these are the important trends that SMEs in UAE would need to address this year as they strive to achieve new heights in their entrepreneurial journey.
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 23
TALK POINT MAY 2019
A GRAND UNIFICATION Anjan Mukherjee, CFO at Al Reyami Group gives fascinating insights into how the diversified Al Reyami group of companies has consolidated and centralized its Finance function to enhance competitiveness across companies By R. Narayan
What are the different activities of the group across its different companies? We have around 15 companies across different Business activities and Interior fitout is the flagship Business. We focus on corporate segment customers not retail customers. However, under the corporate, we have retail oriented Businesses, which however focus on corporate customers, for interior fit-out. In other words, we have retail showrooms in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, mostly targeting project sales from Business customers, not retail walk-in customers. In this we deal with Furniture, Fabrics and other materials that are required for fit out purposes. We deal with imported furniture, mostly high-end brands from different countries including US and Japan. On the other side, we are dealing with projects, mostly for interior fit-out, our flagship Business. All other Businesses have been built through backward integration. Over the years, they have built their own client base and have become independent companies. Nevertheless, they are under the umbrella of Al Reyami Interiors. We are one of the largest fit-out companies and as a group, we can do turnkey projects. From setting up office equipment, to setting up LAN, to setting up surveillance systems etc, we offer extensive range of solutions. We also have a Technology company Al Reyami Technologies that has deployed many surveillance projects in Dubai. Al Reyami Technologies also offer leasing of equipment as a service. 26 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
We have a logistics company with a large warehouse. Last year, we were recognized as the top freight forwarder from the UAE. We have a facility management company for manage Buildings. We have a signage business with a manufacturing facility. We have a joinery for custom made furniture in Jebel Ali and another company for only custom furniture manufacturing in Al Quoz, Dubai. There are very few companies that can match our capabilities. We are into healthcare, education, corporates including Banks and other offices, government and public sector etc with solutions deployed for many prestigious clients. We have done many projects across GCC. Some prestigious ones include RTA HQ, Dubai Metro etc. We are doing fit-outs of additional Metro stations that are coming up by 2020. We have done furnishing for almost all Banks operating here.
Within a diverse group, what are the challenges as to cash management? Cash management cycles are different in different companies. There is a different cash cycle, different structure for Business for retail vis-vis-vis projects based Business. Projects are of usually of 6 months long duration. They are working capital centric. They also include imported items which are long lead items. Therefore, working capital is all the more vital. The payments in these kind of projects are
based on milestones achieved and therefore comes with its own set of challenges as far as working capital is concerned. These diverse Businesses have different working capital structures, different requirements, different project cycles, different billing etc. Further there are also inter-group transactions. In short, because of the diversity of the Businesses in the group, working capital plays a very important role.
How have you structured your Finance and Accounting team? Earlier the accounts was decentralized and the Accounts teams for different Businesses worked in silos. There were gaps in information flow and lapses. We have centralized the function that has helped us lower overheads, pool all information on one centrally located server. We could reduce delay in inter-company transactions and we could also bring the focus on functional role rather than have a company centric division of Accountants in the team. For instance we have an Accounts Payable team for the entire group. None of the Accountants are assigned to a one single company. The Treasury interacts with all the teams and we have implemented Kyriba, a fine Treasury application. The cash flow is monitored on everyday basis and drawn up based on inputs from payables, receivables, other general managers. So this model is working in conjunction with all working together which was missing in the earlier model. we also have site Accountants who report into this office; this is under the corporate shared service which we implemented to which Finance and Accounts belong.
MAY 2019
TALK POINT
clients may have approved earlier. Making changes entail a lot of cost. So this area is challenging because payments are staggered and people are holding on to payments. If you are not collecting your payments on time, you end up paying more interest on keeping your Banking funding on. These are the few challenges in the projects Business.
What are the challenges with respect to balancing profit margins and cash flow? Typically, the bigger the job, the lower are the margins in projects. For instance, under these projects, there would be specified items that need to be used, a client nominated sub-contractor. So the margins are thinner. On the contrary, in smaller jobs, there are higher margins as the items are not specified. you have the option to choose the vendor and the sub-contractor. In this case, the toppling is lower but the margins are much better. In the larger jobs, while margins are thinner, the topline is higher and therefore, the cash flow is much better. Cash flow is more important than margins when the economy is going slow. In tough economic times, If the topline is healthy, it is better as there is cash flow. In better times, higher margins are preferable. The site Accountants are the first point of contact at individual sites to enable seamless movement of transactions. It is difficult for them to come here on everyday basis for handling local transactions. They handle the transactions happening locally and send them here. They have a certain reporting format to adhere to and they have to liaise with headquarters for all approvals.
A year after VAT, when you look back, was it challenging leading up to implementing VAT compliance? We didn’t face much challenges in VAT implementation. It was a straight forward case and we were geared up. We also took help from some VAT experts. One year later, we have had no issues.
Which vertical has been most
volatile? The most challenging vertical is projects based Business. In most case, you need some kind of advance from client for mobilization expenses at the start but looking at present market conditions, this is not always possible. Those projects will have requirements for items which are imported that need to be paid for in advance. These projects are usually under very tight schedules. You need multiple approvals from different entities and sometimes some of the approvals may not come within the expected time. Then we have sub-contractors who need to be managed. We work under the client directly but we manage many sub-contractors and sometimes who need to be paid in advance. The payments for instance with interior cutouts come towards the fag end of the projects because ‘seeing is believing’ for these customers and sometimes, there are instances of disputes even after
How do you manage gaps in working capital? When payments are staggered and delayed, there is a gap of working capital. We need to pay salaries for people at site, pay advances to sub contract suppliers, pay advances for procurement of materials. There is a lot of cash required. That gap is usually filled by Banks or other lenders. To get that funding, you need to get some approvals done. The happens on basis of cash flow and the kind of documents we provide. In present market scenario, all credit lines are not always available. That is one of the challenges as well, This is a scenario many face in present market conditions as payments don’t come in 60 or sometimes even 90 days. Since our projects are typically not longer than 4 to 6 months, unless it is a huge project, if the payments are coming by 120 days, there is an issue with the delayed payments. May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 27
TALK POINT MAY 2019 In projects, there would be 30 or 45 days from the date of certification of payments. Until the payments are not certified, the day count doesn’t start kicking in. So the payment due dates are 30 to 45 days from the day when the payments get certified, based on the contractual terms. There afterwards, the collection starts. There is always the challenge to make both ends meet in projects. There are the issues with projects business but this not there with retail or leasing. There are certain scenarios that are well covered by PDC facility. In retail, the issue is that if you need funding from Bank, you need a general credit line to procure material. You cannot specifically state to your lenders, which project the material will be used in or there it will be sold as in via retail. You are unable to procure material under a project basis as there is always a lead time of a month or two from procurement to when it gets sold. Then there is always the risk of piling up of stock and other issues. Projects need to be monitored very carefully. There is always the threat of a charge coming at the back end of the project if delayed. Then there is the possibility of 10% liquidity damage in which case, the profit is almost gone.
What expectations do you have from further IT system rollouts
28 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
and consolidation? In the past, our individual companies were run on information that are residing in bits and pieces or silos. The information flow is not integrated and therefore if a customer was being approached by a company of the group, that information was limited to the specific company and the information flow wasn’t available centrally, which could help seize any additional opportunity for other Businesses with the customer. Earlier, with traditional MIS, at the end of a month, the data was analyzed but this served no additional value as possibly the event has been done and opportunity had passed by then. We wanted a BI implemented. We need to only post exceptional information in real time on which decisions need to be taken by the Management. For instance, there is the need for real time monitoring of projects in terms of costs visa-vis reconciliation at the end of month. The implementation has not been rolled out as yet as we need to sort out a few other things before we go ahead. For instance, there are three ERP systems being used RBS (Reyami Business Solutions), SAP Hana ( for our Technology company) and Acsis for our shipping. We needed to unify al these since that would save costs and at the end of the day the reconciliation needs to be done via spreadsheets. We will try and wrap up this by the end of the year. As mentioned before, we implemented Kyriba- cash management as well as debt management and back to back integrated with our current system. There are Mobile
apps today for cash flow view of individual companies for those with access. We wanted to have these issues sorted before we went for BI. Once we unify all systems, we will have better flow of information available for Management to take decisions. Digital support is playing a key role in the changes. Transparency will get better across professes and functions. Overheads will reduce, processes will get faster under a proper structure. For instance in end of service benefits, we are trying to implement a funded plan that does not put stress on working capital. employees can see their end of service benefits information online. If we get a certain insurance cover, we can also go in for Bank funding and evolve a more holistic structure. So there are multiple benefits we can derive from IT.
Are you looking at any expansions? We have consolidated our Businesses, closing down units which were making losses or were into unrelated Businesses or merged the companies that were in the same domain, reducing overheads. The focus is now on our core strengths. Expansion plans will be around investing into consolidating operations. We have done a lot of structured financing and through that we have raised funds in past. We will still look for such funds to support defined purposes.
www.securenet.ae
www.lifesize.com
TALK POINT MAY 2019
MEETING VISIONARY OBJECTIVES Thierry Nicault, Regional Vice President for Middle East, Africa and Central Europe, Salesforce discusses how the company has stayed true to its vision of making enterprise scale software available for smaller organizations By R. Narayan
As the company celebrates 20 years, how do you look back on what were the key highlights of the journey with respect to customers? The DNA of the company has always been about democratizing enterprise software for the mass market, especially the SMB segment. It has been a focus for providing small companies the ability to use features that only larger companies could afford. We started off with three key disruptive introductions into the market. First, it was about introducing software as a service based on subscription fee instead of license fee. Second, we were the pioneers in delivering the software via cloud. The third disruption was related to giving back to the society as a successful company. In this direction, we pioneered the 1/1/1 model, which about helping the society to get better by contributing 1 % of our time, 1% of our products and 1 % of our profit to non-governmental organizations. This ethos is still quite strong in the company.
How have you enable mid-market keep pace with new features and functionalities? The cloud model helps us meet our key objectives towards democratizing enterprise software as we update our software three time in a year and the updated version of the software is available for all companies irrespective of their size. With every update, we added many new features and these feature benefit our SMB customers right from the word go. This was the case when we adapted the mobile, 30 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
when we introduced social media features and then omnichannel functionalities. This applies also to our introduction of AI in our platform over past couple of years with Einstein. With the Einstein platform, we democratized AI for the SMB market, making it possible for them to use across the board for their sales activity, customer activity, marketing activity or even plug AI into a software application they build. The past twenty years have been intense and the next twenty years would be driven by continued efforts to bring a lot of new technologies and help the market consume it easily. The SMB market is part of our DNA and almost half or maybe even more of our customer base is SMB.
How do you categorize your customer segments in terms of size? What is the scalability of your products? Between 1-50 users, we refer to it as SMB; between 50-200 users, it is mid-market and anything above is considered the enterprise. We have a lot of customers in the 20 to 50 users base and also have customers with as many as unto 60000 users. So there is no constraint on scalability and they can move from one version to the other as their company size grows. Easy to set-up, easy to implement and easy to consume Most of the time, Businesses need structured information about customer data, customer interaction and customer service in a single platform that enables a complete view of customers interacting with the company so that they can be
Thierry Nicault Regional Vice President for Middle East, Africa and Central Europe, Salesforce
serving the customer with complete familiarity of his profile and preferences including the channel of choice to interact with. This is what we enable.
Do you offer different versions for different customer segments? All products are based out of same platform. We have different editions however and we have a very specific and affordable edition for the SMB market called Salesforce Essentials. This provides an easy introduction to the Salesforce world for a company of small size with up-to 5 employees. They can use it efficiently just the same way enterprises could but of course the SMB version does not have the complexities that enterprises would need. So we deliver a easily usable, easy to implement version of the salesforce platform for the SMB market. Our platform versions includes Salesforce Essentials, Salesforce Enterprise Edition and Salesforce Limited Edition, covering entire spectrum of the market.
MAY 2019
How do you ensure customer retention? The whole organization works together to enable success of our customers. That is the key to enabling customer retention. We are always improving our customer retention. We have a customer success group that
interacts with customers touchpoints.
via different
What is important for us is that all that we share our customer success stories. For instance, we had a cloud success theater and the idea was to enable sharing of Best Practises. We have a community based on our platform - the platform of Trailblazersthese are who have good understanding of Business and technology and are taking
TALK POINT
the lead in using Salesforce applications in their organizations. We have an efficient tool for learning - Trialhead - that was introduced close to two years ago. It is free for anyone to learn on technology or Business and prepare for certifications. Now we have launched My Trailhead which you can buy, use, personalize in terms of learning path. This is an education platform for companies which offers a path of constant learning.
MYTRAILHEAD, A LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLATFORM Salesforce recently announced the general availability of myTrailhead, a learning experience platform that empowers organizations to create a culture of learning to continuously reskill and skill up their employees. With myTrailhead, organizations can skill up employees at scale with a reinvented and fun approach to learning that is customizable to their brand and personalized for every employee. With myTrailhead, companies can combine the power of Trailhead, Salesforce’s online learning platform, with their own brand, voice and tone in just a few clicks. Using the guided set-up, companies can easily pull in their existing content (including videos or presentations), create custom new content or use the existing free, public Trailhead content to create their own culture of learning. Using myTrailhead, employees can learn what they want, when they want, and managers have visibility into their organization’s existing skill sets and areas for improvement. Now, organizations can:
Scale Onboarding
— Help em-
ployees skill up at any level or stage in their career with custom learning paths called Trailmixes. For example, when an employee is being onboarded, their learning journey starts with an automated custom Trailmix assigned to
Assignments could include a welcome video from a company’s CEO, a trail on navigating the first few months on the job, or even an overview of a company’s history and core values. Once an employee reviews the content and takes a short quiz, they’ll earn points and badges, dges, which can be shared on their profile to showcase the new skill.
Empower Employees to Reskill and Upskill — Employees can learn what they want, when they want with bite-sized content that’s available on desktop or on the go with mobile. The free, public Trailhead library includes more than 500 modules spanning tech skills (like Blockchain Basics) to soft skills (like Cultivating Equality at Work), with new content added every six weeks. For example, a service agent can learn how to better leverage AI-powered insights within their console or take a module to learn how to build an Einstein bot.
Track and Measure Learning — Leaders have a complete view of their employees’ skills and expertise with Trail Tracker, an app available on Salesforce AppExchange, which assigns, tracks and reports on badges earned by their team with pre-built reports
and dashboards. Managers can also use Trail Tracker to drive and incentivize performance by giving employees real-time feedback and recognition for demonstrating new skills and inspire them to reach goals with assignments, ranks and leaderboards.
Create Integrated Learning Across Salesforce — Built on the Salesforce Platform, myTrailhead integrates with Salesforce applications like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud. In-app recommendations surface relevant learning with automated assignments, recommendations and notifications triggered by events. For example, if a sales rep is having trouble figuring out when to convert a lead to contact in Sales Cloud, a trail would appear that would help them learn the process.
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 31
FEATURE MAY 2019
IS ENGAGEMENT A PRE REQUISITE TO RETAINING YOUR EMPLOYEES? According to recent trends, employees are increasingly feeling insecure in their current jobs. On the other hand employers are having a hard time retaining their cream employees. In such a scenario, what can SMEs do to retain their employees and build enough trust? Is engagement the way forward? By Diksha Vohra On a Thursday afternoon, Nora Al Mheiri, CEO of IMD Group of Companies, walks into her office and holds a causal ‘catch up’ meeting with her employees. She discusses everything with them except their work. From their plans for the weekend to understanding what’s bothering them at work to how can she help them, she gets her employees to open up to her. “I started doing this since last year, 2018, and I have noticed a huge difference in the personality of my staff and the value they’ve added to our company,” says Nora. “Our finances underwent a huge change and I could sense that the employees are happier at work, and thereby I felt relieved too.” Nora is one among many CEOs who have chosen this path - to engage with their employees to make them feel more important and to grow together as a team rather than an individual. Unfortunately, not many employers feel the need of it.
Employee retention - a growing concern According to an employee retention report, 40% of employees who don’t rate their supervisors highly, due to the lack of engagement, are frequently applying for new jobs. And the cost of losing an em-ployee is a staggering 33% of his annual salary, which is a huge expense on its own. Imagine undergo-ing the process of finding a new employee, training him, revealing your operational secrets and then seeing him go because he couldn’t see a future with your company, isn’t it tough? With a tight 32 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
Murtaza Manji Managing Director, Kaizen Consulting Group
job market in the region, companies are constantly on a lookout for well-trained and honest employees. An employee you loose today can become an asset for your competitor tomorrow. Is that a justified risk to take? Perhaps not.
The need to engage “There are two kinds of business problems - process problems and people problems,” says Murtaza Manji, Managing Director of Kaizen Consulting Group. “Changing processes is easy. But when it comes to people, especially those the company has
entrusted with their reputation, changing them can have adverse affects for a very long term.” There are two kinds of employees. The first kind are those with specific skills like engineers and doctors. The second kind are the cashiers, accountants, sales executives and more who make up the bulk of the employees in any firm. Such people volunteer to work with these firms. “If I am going to tell them at the time of their recruitment that they’re going to be drowning themselves in numbers, will not get to speak with anybody and will just have to do their work, and if they agree to work then they’re not going to have a
MAY 2019
problem. But if I am setting wrong expectations in the beginning, then eventually I am going to be facing the adverse consequences too,” he adds. So setting expectations in the beginning is important, but is that enough? Jennifer Randive, Founder and CEO of Focus Direct Management Consultants and the brains behind the ‘Engagement Model’ which Nora implemented in her office says: “As a recruiter, you’re not hiring robots, you’re hiring humans. They have emotions and they respond to issues. When was the last time we stopped and asked them if they had any issues in their personal life? It shouldn’t only be about talking and talking but also about giving gifts, appreciation and applauses.” Statistically too, the chanc-es of losing an engaged employee is 87% lesser than a non-engaged one. By all means, employee en-gagement is important to retain them. However, the era we are living in is undoubtedly quite competitive and seems to be living the ‘survival of the fittest’ motto. Despite engaging with the employees, it is becoming harder to retain them during tough times. “Engagement doesn’t only mean applause and appreciation,” says Murtaza. “It also means to build trust. Why don’t companies open up and tell the employees about everything - cash flow situation, declining revenue and so on?” Jennifer too says that engagement is not only between the CEO and the manager. It is down to the office boy and back. Whenever there is ambiguity, employees talk, discuss the situation and predict the future based on their mental speculations. “Whenever there is a gap in the conversation, be assured that the gap will be filled by something negative. So why not be honest, fill the gaps yourself and let the employees decide what to do?” says Murtaza. This will help in-turn be beneficial for both parties as they’d both know what to expect from each other.
Creating a healthy environment the way forward “You get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace. If you don’t bring much value, you don’t make much money,” Jim Rohn You cannot clap with one hand. If the employer needs to engage with his
FEATURE
employees, the employees too need to add more value to the organisation. For this to happen, the following needs to be done: - Both the employer and the employee should set out clear expectations from each other - Set KPIs and review them regularly (preferably quarterly) - If an employee is not performing, sit with the employee and ask what’s not working and give him some advice. Review the consequences carefully before taking an action. - Engage with employees. Tell them the company’s situation clearly and ask for their feedback, sug-gestions and opinions.
Neha Gaggar Managing Partner, Rush-A-Way
- When things go south, better engagement = more trust. One may need to terminate 10% of the staff, but with low engagement the other 90% will mentally and emotionally check out too. - Keep your finger on the pulse of the team, identify and rectify problems quickly - Have an internal or an external coach to advise on changing dynamics
Team bonding - The Rush-A-Way challenge
Such team building activities help employees get over their stress, practice their hobby outside work and also learn to work together as a team. As Nora concludes: “One needs to be patient with employees and give them their space. There are times when they can perform really well and there are times when they cannot. But if you invest in them and show your trust, they’ll surely outperform your expectations.”
An example of a team building activity is the Rush-A-Way Challenge taken up by Oman Insurance in Dubai this month. To steer employee engagement, Oman Insurance launches a Corporate Challenge in partnership with LivFit and Rush-A-Way where corporate teams of more than 50 organisations will compete against one another over certain mental and physical tasks. “It’s a team bonding challenge,” says Neha Gaggar, Managing Partner of the Rush-AWay challenge. “Times are changing and work is becoming more demanding which leads to many employees being under extreme anxiety and burning out quickly. Hence it is even more crucial for companies and team managers to help in managing work stress levels as that ensures better productivity.”
Jennifer Randive Founder and CEO, Focus Direct Management Consultants
May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 33
COLUMN MAY 2019
TRANSFORMATION IN TRANSPORTATION Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, FarEye discusses the five myths about Transportation Management that’s Hurting your Business Gone are those days when managing transportation was perceived as an afterthought. And thanks to uncompromising customer expectations this arm of a supply chain and logistics is now as important as planning procurement, managing inventory, and optimizing warehousing. But seamless management of transportation is easier said than done. To begin with let’s clear the cloud that has been obscuring some important facts about transportation for quite some time now. Common myths like transportation will continue to be a cost center, it does not directly impact customer retention, the sector will remain unorganized, transportation management system (TMS) solutions are more than enough to optimize operations and that it’s difficult to track delivery fleet in remote locations should be put to rest once and for all.
Imagine this. Your business supplies heavy equipment to telecom companies responsible for setting up towers in remote locations. You have sent out a giant truck to deliver antennas and fiber cables to a remote location some 600 miles from your manufacturing unit. According to plan, it should reach the destination within two days. The telecom company has already assigned a team of engineers that will reach the remote destination on the day the antennas and cables arrive. But
1. Transportation and logistics will always remain a cost center Yes, only if you want it to be. By increasing visibility of delivery fleet, optimizing routes and capacity management, eliminating chances of theft, increasing driver productivity, guarantee ROI and ensuring accurate ETAs, modern cloud-based logistics platforms can significantly reduce the cost incurred on executing transportation activities and drastically boost profitability.
2. Transportation has little to do with customer retention Not true. Unless your customer is absolutely devoid of any sense of urgency, it’s not a smart idea to strike off the equation that says ‘good transportation equals greater customer retention and loyalty.’ 34 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
Gautam Kumar COO & Co-founder, FarEye
surprise, surprise! Your delivery truck reaches the locations a day late. A day late right? That’s just 24 hours. What could possibly matter? Except for the fact that the entire engineering team’s manhours for a day were squandered. The next set of engineers who were supposed to take over the task from the initial team is now on its way only to wait for another day. So, as the hours keep adding up, the estimated time to make the tower up and running goes way beyond the budgeted time. And for your telecom customer, this ripple effect can result in losses adding up to millions of dollars. So, if the average waiting time of a site engineer is 2-3 business days (say 24hrs), then the money value of the engineer’s time wasted will be €600 per site (24 hours*€25). Question is, how long will the customer invest in your services if this keeps happening? Not a tough question to answer.
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Hence, investing in technologies that enhance logistics operations and ensures greater control over long haul deliveries is absolutely imperative.
3. The transportation industry will remain unorganized, nothing can be done In fact, a lot can be done about it. It’s true that the transportation industry, especially in developing countries, is fragmented. The involvement of multiple stakeholders, belonging to very different economic and social backgrounds, does make the transportation industry a black box. But this problem can definitely be solved by leveraging advanced technologies. Advanced supply chain and logistics platforms can create a transparent environment where consignors, 3PLs, truckers, and consignees can seamlessly collaborate and share live updates to ensure all stakeholders are abreast with what’s happening on the ground. So, think of a situation where you, as a raw material supplier, no longer need to burn man-hours on receiving hundreds of calls every hour from customers asking where their shipments are and when it’s going to arrive. Pure bliss right?
mize logistics processes Your existing TMS has been very useful till now and we are extremely grateful for that. But what got you here will not get you there. Traditional TMS solutions have limitations when it comes to making your logistics proactive. A mundane problem that your business might be facing is intimating your customers with appropriate ETAs or arrival time of your shipments. We will not be surprised to know if you frequently deal with situations where your customers are disappointed owing to your inability to deliver on time. It’s something like ordering food for breakfast but receiving it at lunch. Obviously, you will eat it as you have paid for it, but still, you will feel cheated. Having said that, you would not have felt cheated if you were informed that delivery of your order will be delayed owing to heavy traffic congestion. Even better if you could have live tracked the person bringing your order. Modern transportation platforms use control towers that let customers track their shipments on a single pane of glass in real-time and empower businesses to generate accurate ETAs.
5. It’s difficult to trace the whereabouts of my trucks when they 4. Traditional Transport Manage- travel through remote areas ment Systems is enough to opti-
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Yes, it was, about ten years ago. The very prospect of losing sight of a truck that’s transporting thousands of dollars worth of goods is scary. But not anymore. Advanced IoT-powered logistics solutions can empower businesses to track delivery fleet even in areas where there is poor connectivity by leveraging the advancements in GPS technology. But, there is more to this than just gaining visibility of the delivery fleet in remote locations. Imagine your truck suddenly coming to a halt while crossing a location that has previously witnessed incidents of theft. But obviously, lack of handy information during planning the route had you oblivious about this fact. Now, when you can see the truck being idle for more than it should, all you can do is resort to prayers. Modern logistics platforms not only help businesses gain greater visibility of the delivery fleet but also eliminates chances of theft and pilferage by analyzing historical data of routes. In technical terms, such platforms can ensure businesses predictive visibility. While there are many such myths that surround the transportation industry, these are the ones that can really stall your business from making progress. We hope now you will have a different perspective while planning your transportation activities.
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TECH WATCH MAY 2019
ALARIS E1000 SERIES SCANNERS
LATITUDE 7000 SERIES
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leeker, more compact and easier to carry whenever and wherever, the 10th generation of Latitude commercial PCs from Dell Technologies has been completely reimagined to address the needs of the evolving workforce. The new portfolio of Dell mobile business PCs is designed with IT departments in mind and aims to get business users productive faster and keep them productive longer, no matter when, where or how they work.
laris E1000 Series Scanners are the latest addition to the award-winning IN2 Ecosystem, a powerful combination of best-in-class document scanners, imaging software and services ideal for small office/ home office environments, reception areas and workgroups, packing all the intelligence of a larger device into a streamlined, desktop scanner. The compact, quiet scanners deliver the Right Fit with seamless integration into customer environments; the Right Experience by streamlining and optimising workflows, enabling one-touch scanning directly into business applications; and the Right Results through superior image quality, paper handling and information accuracy.
Features • Productivity-boosting features include the ability to power up and start scanning in less than ten seconds and fast throughput. • The E1025 and E1035 models scan at speeds up to 25 pages per minute (ppm)/50 images per minute (ipm) and up to 35ppm/70ipm, respectively. • They are easy to set up, enabling users to scan right out of the box and integrate with existing business processes and applications, from network to Cloud, through Alaris Smart Touch Software.
• Alaris E1000 Series Scanners feature an 80-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF), the largest in their class, and offer exceptional media handling capabilities. Alaris’ proprietary Intelligent Document Protection feature ‘listens’ for problems and alerts users before jams or misfeeds occur, safeguarding valuable documents and further improving efficiency. The devices can scan a variety of paper sizes and weights and Alaris integrated flatbeds further expand the scanners’ capability.
• Alaris E1000 Series Scanners are backed by a three-year warranty and customers also benefit from expert repair and maintenance services to optimise uptime and productivity.
• The Integrated Passport Accessory and Integrated Legal Flatbed Accessory offer users more flexibility to scan a variety of document types. With the Passport Accessory, a passport scan can be completed in less than two seconds. Using the Legal Flatbed Accessory, customers can scan up to legal size exception documents such as folders, books and fragile items.
• No matter how challenging original documents may be, built-in Perfect Page technology dynamically optimises the image quality of every page for more accurate information extraction, often delivering higher quality images than the original. The new E1000 Series Scanners also support barcode reading in the box, providing accurate read results every time.
• Alaris scanners and software are designed to work together. The E1000 Series comes bundled with Alaris Smart Touch Software. Offering one-touch simplicity, this technology simplifies scanning, accelerates document retrieval and improves productivity and collaboration. Smart Touch functionality eliminates complicated multi-step scanning processes.
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The 10th generation Latitude portfolio is optimized for the new Dell Technologies Unified Workspace while giving workers a frustration-free, ready-to-work experience. In 13- and 14-inch form factors, the Latitude 7000 series are the world’s smallest premium business-class notebooks available5. Encased in durable new machined aluminum or carbon fiber materials, the laptops feature a variable-torque, drop-hinge design that enables easy, one-finger opening of the anti-glare, narrow-border display. Designed to minimize battery drain when in use, the innovative digital SafeScreen technology narrows the screen’s field of view for security while working in public. The portfolio also includes the Latitude 7200 2-in-1, which sports a thinner, lighter design, brushed anodized aluminum premium finish and backlit keyboard. This 12-inch, fully IT serviceable device is Dell’s most secure, manageable and
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feature-rich detachable Latitude, as well as Dell’s smallest, for those who prioritize portability in tablet mode. All the laptops can be equipped with up to 32GB of memory6 and up to an impressive 20 hours7 of run time on select configurations —up to 25% more than the previous generation. For the ultimate mobile professional, the Latitude 7000 also offer the first narrow border 4x4, CAT16, cellular antenna with dynamic antenna tuning in the PC industry, delivering gigabit LTE speed on the go for faster downloads.
TECH WATCH
D LINK DIR X6060 ULTRA WI FI ROUTER
Highlights: • The 7200 2-in-1 offers a range of features to take on the day’s workload even when you detach from the keyboard. • Keep the work flowing with a high-density battery and ExpressCharge, which allows an 80% charge in one hour2. With Dell Power Manager, you can choose between four modes to balance between optimal battery or power performance. • With Adaptive Thermal Performance, the Latitude 7200 2-in-1 senses what mode you’re in and adjusts performance to control the temperature accordingly. Our fan technology utilizes a Liquid Crystal Polymer material. This allows for the creation of thinner fan blades and provides maximum airflow for an overall cooler experience. • The latest 8th Generation Intel up to i7 4-Core vPro Processors increase productivity, manageability, and security for your business.
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he DIR-X6060 Ultra Wi-Fi Router is a powerful wireless networking solution designed for small office/home office (SOHO) environments. By combining high-speed 802.11ax Wi-Fi with dualband technology and Gigabit Ethernet ports, the DIR-X6060 provides a seamless networking experience with a high degree of convenience and flexibility for SOHOs. With its easy setup and management options, these features provide a fast and easy networking solution for your home or small office. The DIR-X6060 upgrades your network to the latest AX wireless technology to bring you lightning-fast Wi-Fi speeds of up to 6000 Mbps1 so you can meet the increasing demand from multimedia applications. Enjoy more simultaneous throughput to more devices for seamless high definition streaming media, VR gaming, and cloud storage throughout your home or office, through both wired and wireless networks. In addition, the 100/1000/2500 Mbps Multi-Gigabit Ethernet WAN port gives you fast paced Internet access, future proofing your Internet network. The built-in Quality of Service (QoS) engine allows you to prioritize traffic to your preferred client, ensuring that your favorite applications are receiving optimal bandwidth. The DIR-X6060 Ultra Wi-Fi Router brings a host of new technologies to create the best wireless networking experience to date. Featuring support for the 802.11ax technology, the DIR-X6060 provides Multi-Gigabit wireless connectivity with combined transfer rates of up to 6000
Mbps1 (1200 Mbps + 4800 Mbps). Featuring 4x4 OFDMA in both the uplink and downlink directions, the DIR-X6060 offers better data rates, fewer dead-spots, more coverage, and increased reliability.
Highlights: • 802.11ax wireless specification delivers blazing fast wireless connectivity with increased range and reliability • 100/1000/2500 Mbps Multi-Gigabit Ethernet WAN port for fast paced Internet access • Four 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports to satisfy bandwidth-hungry wired devices • One SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port to share media from a storage device Flexible Bandwidth • Concurrent dual-band wireless for connections up to 6000 Mbps1 • QoS engine to prioritize preferred clients and deliver uninterrupted bandwidth • Setup and configure your network using the free D-Link Wi-Fi mobile app • Intuitive setup wizard to guide you through the configuration process • Firewall and access control options to help prevent attacks and restrict access to your network May 2019 / SMARTSMB / 37
MARKET MONITOR MAY 2019
BUSINESSES WILL SPEND NEARLY $1.2 TRILLION ON DIGITAL TRANSFOR MATION THIS YEAR Enterprises around the world are making significant investments in the technologies and services that enable the digital transformation (DX) of their business models, products and services, and organizations. In the latest update to its Worldwide Semiannual Digital Transformation Spending Guide, IDC forecasts global DX spending to reach $1.18 trillion in 2019, an increase of 17.9% over 2018. “Worldwide DX technology investments are expected to total more than $6 trillion over the next four years,” said Eileen Smith, program vice president with IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis group. “Strong DX technology investment growth is forecast across all sectors, ranging between 15% and 20%, with the financial sector forecast to be the fastest with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4% between 2017 and 2022.” The two industries that will invest the most in digital transformation in 2019 are discrete manufacturing ($221.6 billion) and process manufacturing ($124.5 billion). For both industries, the top DX spending priority is smart manufacturing, supported by significant investments in autonomic operations, manufacturing operations, and quality. Retail will be the next largest industry in 2019, followed closely by transportation and professional services. Each of these industries will be pursuing a different mix of strategic priorities, from 38 / SMARTSMB / May 2019
omni-channel commerce for the retail industry to digital supply chain optimization in the transportation industry and facility management – transforming workspace in professional services. A CAGR of 21.4% will enable the professional services industry to move ahead of transportation in terms of overall DX spending in 2020. The DX use cases – discretely funded efforts that support a program objective – that will see the largest investment across all industries in 2019 will be autonomic operations ($52 billion), robotic manufacturing ($45 billion), freight management ($41 billion), and root cause ($35 billion). Other use cases that will see investments in excess of $20 billion in 2019 include self-healing assets and augmented maintenance, intelligent and predictive grid management for electricity, and quality and compliance. The use cases that will experience the greatest spending growth over the 2018-2022 forecast period are virtualized labs (108.6% CAGR), digital visualization (53.5% CAGR), and augmented design management (43.9% CAGR). From a technology perspective, hardware and services investments will account for more than 75% of all DX spending in 2019. Services spending will be led by IT services ($154 billion) and connectivity services ($102 billion). Hardware spending will be spread across several categories, including enterprise hardware, personal devic-
es, and IaaS infrastructure. DX-related software spending will total $253 billion in 2019. The fastest growing technology categories will be IaaS (35.9% CAGR), application development and deployment software (26.7% CAGR), and business services (26.5% CAGR). “Digital transformation is quickly becoming the largest driver of new technology investments and projects among businesses,” said Craig Simpson, research manager with IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis group. “It is already clear from our research that the businesses which have invested heavily in DX over the last 2-3 years are already reaping the rewards in terms of faster revenue growth and stronger net profits compared to businesses lagging in DX initiatives and investments.” USA and China will be the two largest geographic markets for DX spending, delivering more than half the worldwide total in 2019. In the U.S., the leading industries will be discrete manufacturing ($63 billion), professional services ($37 billion) and transportation ($34 billion) with DX spending focused on IT services, applications, and enterprise hardware. In China, the industries spending the most on DX will be discrete manufacturing ($55 billion), process manufacturing ($31 billion), and state/local government ($21 billion). Connectivity services and enterprise hardware will be the largest technology categories in China.