Digital transformation spending has increased up to 3 digits after the pandemic mainly because Mideast firms now realized that there is no other option but to adopt.

UAE and regional companies have started spending more on their digital functioning following the pandemic outbreak. Technology for the sake of improving business has become a big enabler within companies and the companies are more than willing to digitize.

“Digital transformation is about a new product, a new customer experience, or a new idea that can drive more revenues. Customers are looking for those outcomes which can pay back and give good RoI,” said Jacob Chacko, regional director for MENA at Aruba Networks, a subsidiary of HP.

“It’s getting us a lot of support in terms of investments and changing the culture of the organisation because digital transformation is not just about technology but getting a holistic change within the organisation. It was a bit difficult earlier because of the cultural barriers, but now things are getting better, thanks to the support of the board,” he said.

In this blog post, we will see why digital trends in the middle east affect the middle east marketplace, and what’s new in the UAE digital transformation.

MENA region should invest in business value, the cloud adoption

If you are a CEO, you may know of the cloud adoption implications especially post-COVID-19 but probably the move to the cloud is slow. This is because your management still needs a proactive approach. The adoption required investment in building capabilities and migration applications but has long term benefits. One of the biggest advantages is faster time-to-market products/services, easy-to-scale and reduced risk. Cloud platforms help deploy new and improved digital customer experiences in days and not months.

If you want your company to harness real business value from the cloud, your IT department or the service provider must be agile, if they aren’t already.

Pandemic has acted as a catalyst of change in post-COVID times; the spending on IT and digital transformation have raised by 3 digits because digitalization has become a necessity.

The hard-hit COVID time has triggered people to change their behavior and adopt the technology. Now technology has become an entity that no one can ignore.

Contactless payments in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is making conscious efforts in promoting contactless payments and we can say that they are leading in the NFC payments. A recently shared report as per Zawya news source shows a very high adoption rate (94%) of contactless payments through NFC. The rate is the highest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Saudi Central Bank published a Saudi Payments white paper ‘NFC contactless adoption in Saudi Arabia 2020’. The paper shows NFC penetration in the MENA region where Kuwait and the UAE had 81% adoption rate.

Saudi Payments started working in 2019 and made available secure and reliable backend electronic services in SA. They serve banks and fintech companies for payments’ systems standardization.

The strategy is reduction in cash transactions by raising electronic payments, up to 70% by 2025. For incorporation, the Saudi government started working on NFC payments from 2016. They deployed relevant infrastructure supporting NFC payments which is the main reason why they got the highest adoption rate in 2021.

E-payments in Jordan 2021

Jordan witnessed a rapid increase of 35% in e-payment during the first half of 2021. This is shared by Petra, Amjad Sadeq – CEO of Networking International.

He disclosed that the e-payments were weak during COVID crisis but as soon as the sector started reopening, e-payments saw a positive e-payment demand.

Sadeq also thinks pandemic helped in changing consumer behaviour and acceptance towards e-payment services. The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) contributed in making the e-payments channel available for public departments.

Remote teams, hybrid workplaces

Do you know almost ¾ of the employees in the UAE prefer flexible remote work options? This has prompted companies to think of securing cloud data but cyber attacks are on rise too which isn’t surprising.

Before we emphasize on remote teams and hybrid workplaces, let’s just get to the definition of what a hybrid workplace is? A hybrid workplace is the one where employees can work in-office and remotely. It’s a flexible workplace model designed to support a distributed workforce.

Companies are on a brink of disruption where last year they shifted to remote working and now moving towards a blended model of hybrid workplace.

“Over the past year, no area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work. Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker.” CEO Microsoft, Satya Nadella.

-How effective are remote teams in delivering digital services?

We are software development service providers and over the last one year we have evolved as a team. Primarily, we were on-site / location based but now we have adopted other workplace models like remote and hybrid.

One of the key benefits of hiring a remote team is getting access to global talent. When you hire a talent and they need to commute to their workplace, you restrict your access based on geographical area. Another advantage of hiring a remote team is you can cut costs by hiring a full-time engineering team from Pakistan willing to work at a reasonable rate.

Final verdict

The pandemic sharply highlighted the digital infrastructure disparities in the MENA region and how they can adopt automation. The region’s active start-up ecosystem is also a key driver towards the UAE digital transformation trend. MENA consumers are buying more essentials online because of ease and value.

We work closely with our clients who wish for digital automation in their processes or want any sort of development services. Cut short, we help businesses grow by adding value. Contact us.