The increasing competition in the UAE retail sector will lead to a rollout of heavy investment on enterprise application software (EAS) by 2013, said an expert.

“In today's developing retail environment, a robust ERP and CRM solution is witnessing a growing popularity as an essential tool to help local companies capitalise on prospects and deal with the challenges of their businesses,” said Vikram Suri, managing director, Sage Software, the leading global supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and human resource management (HRM) solutions.

“This growing demand, especially in the UAE, poses a major opportunity for us to expand the reach of our highly advanced and market-leading ERP offerings, given the success we have already seen in the country as reflected by our share in the local ERP market.”

“The country remains a key market for us and our goal is to help more businesses take advantage of the advantages of efficient management of resources within their internal processes through our solutions,” he added.

Currently Sage holds in excess of 30 per cent of the total UAE market share, after witnessing a rapid transformation over the last couple of years from offering desktop accounting packages to full-blown ERP and CRM solutions, Suri said.

He revealed that there is a growing demand from governments and enterprises across the Mena region for more powerful and highly customized EAS solutions in order to gain a competitive edge and enhance business efficiency in their respective industries.

According to recent reports, the UAE is one of the region's fastest-rising ERP markets, while CRM solutions are poised for growth especially within the country’s SME sector.

This year, ERP vendors are also expected to increase their focus on SMEs, given the rising saturation levels being seen in the corporate market.

Having successfully amassed over 6.1 million customers from across the globe, Sage Software is eyeing the $580 million the UAE is expected to spend on software this year according to BMI.

“As local companies concentrate on transitioning from manual environments to full automation of back-office systems with aims to boost efficiencies, our goal is to deliver robust technologies that can accommodate the diversity of all major markets,” Suri added.

“Through our solutions, organisations can build competitive advantages and increase their profits, which will effectively drive the growth of various markets,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service