Dubai SME sector's contribution to GDP may surge by five per cent by 2015-end, which is currently estimated to be around 40 per cent, said the CEO of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development, Dubai SME.
"We are planning some new initiatives to boost the ecosystem of UAE's SME sector in first-half of 2016. Currently there are about 300,000 SME firms in UAE, out of which 4,000 are registered with Dubai SME and we selected 100 such firms to honour them. The selected firms have posted double digit growth and are expanding further," said Abdul Baset Al Janahi on the sidelines of a Microsoft hosted event, under the theme 'Inspire Business Growth' on Monday.
According to a Dubai SME report, around 21 per cent of SMEs in Dubai use advanced IT systems in their business operations, and 26 per cent of SMEs in the service sector use IT systems.
Approximately 27 per cent of SMEs in Dubai have a dedicated IT employee or department and 70 per cent of SMEs deploy basic (software for specific functions) or advanced IT systems. Both Microsoft Gulf and its leading distributors - Aptec, Mindware and Redington Gulf - stress on availing of social media and digital marketing tools in order to reach out to Small and Medium Businesses, or SMBs. The event stressed on the importance of having a well planned business strategy with a combination of the right tools, product offerings and effective solutions for SMBs in order to increase their market share.
The event began with a keynote by Samer Abu Ltaif, regional general manager, Microsoft Gulf. He said SMBs are the backbone of the economy because they are nimble, innovative and connected with customer values.
"At Microsoft, we want to empower every person and organisation to do more and achieve more. This inspires us to empower our partners to leverage the power and elasticity of the cloud to enable innovation, reach and cost effectiveness that can help them penetrate into the SMB segment effectively."
The guest speaker at the event, Carol Roth, international business expert and New York Times best selling author of 'The Entrepreneur equation', said: "We live in a world which is without boundaries and Microsoft is here to connect those dots globally helping the UAE's SME sector to tap opportunities and expand and tap potential opportunities."
"The UAE is dominated with huge family businesses, and if they try and blend the new generation with the latest technology with their domain expertise, it will help further boost the potential of any business as it opens new avenues. Leveraging on digital marketing and social media will help in IT purchasing decision immensely."
SMEs constitute 95 per cent of all companies in UAE. The sector employs around 42 per cent of Dubai's workforce. Microsoft, through its wide network of technologies and partners, is determined to support their growth as they are an essential engine for the economy.
"There is a strong commitment from the UAE government to build and invest heavily in the SME sector," added Roth.
Aloysius Fernandes, president of Redington Gulf, said SME priorities are to improve their operational efficiency, grow their existing businesses profitably and expand into new markets.
"Our responsibility as a partner community is to build our technology offerings for their adoption towards improving efficiencies, processes, services and effectively communicate the value using the digital marketing channels of social media, video, blogging, e-mail and search engine. These aid strongly in rightly influencing the SME decision making cycle which is quicker than large organisations."
Micro firms account for 72 per cent of the total business count in Dubai followed by small and medium firms accounting for 18 per cent and five per cent of the total business count, respectively. In terms of a sector-wise split, the trading sector accounts for majority of SMEs, followed by services 35 per cent and manufacturing at eight per cent.
Mario Gay, general manager of Mindware, said: "The market is transforming into a digital world where one must have effective marketing tools to be able to unleash their creativity and prepare for this challenge."