JAGGAER whitepaper supports Middle East start-up ecosystem with advice on digital procurement
- Research underscores the importance of digitalisation for SMEs to ensure operational and business continuity, particularly during and after the pandemic
- The whitepaper highlights the business benefits of technologically advanced procurement platforms
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 24 August 2021: JAGGAER has released its latest whitepaper, which provides a roadmap to recovery for SMEs in the region through the use of digital procurement following the challenges many have faced as a result of COVID-19.
Titled SMEs to the Rescue – Starting anew using digital procurement to compete in the digital economy, the whitepaper highlights problems faced by SMEs in the wake of the pandemic related to supply disruptions, shifting demand patterns, the drop in work, and economic uncertainty.
The report pointed to findings from the UK SME market, which highlighted that 80% of the 5.9 million SMEs in the UK private sector reported an impact on revenue due to COVID-19, with half of the respondents fearing they would be out of business within the year. Last year, a survey by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce saw 70% of respondents, of which 75% were SMEs, say they expected to close their doors permanently as a result of the pandemic.
However, according to a Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) poll, many within the procurement industry believe COVID-19 has spurred innovation, with companies adopting eProcurement to aid remote working and overcome supply chain issues by using increasingly advanced control, evaluations, and analysis mechanisms.
Hany Mosbeh, Vice President of Sales Middle East & Africa, JAGGAER, said: “Today, a sustainable business model depends on dematerializing and digitizing procedures and processes. Procurement faces constantly evolving challenges enveloping every element in the supply chain. Purchasing thus holds a central role in this context. The use of technologically advanced platforms for managing procurement is becoming strategic to rebuilding a resilient and agile supply chain.
“eProcurement simplifies purchasing activities, allowing micro-enterprises to manage the entire process of acquiring goods and services easily, from the initiation of the requestor requirement, passing through the negotiation or online tender, up to the formalization of the service and related order-to-invoice,” he added.
SMEs can leverage a series of benefits via digital source-to-pay solutions, including safe and secure content archiving systems driving efficiency and agility in information retrieval, faster processes across supplier qualification, proposal comparisons, contract and order management, and negotiations. Visibility and transparency across all information is another crucial factor, as is operational continuity, whereby the entire purchase cycle can be managed remotely, even in emergencies.
Other benefits include detailed reporting and assessment systems. These now include forward-looking predictive analytics driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). “This offers SMEs the opportunity to grow their business using similar technology to the major players, who are increasingly operating, with digital supply chains,” said Hany
“Our JAGGAER NOW sources to pay solution can support SME’s in the region by automating and formalizing management of the entire purchase cycle, ranging from a selection of suppliers to invoicing, integrating everything in a single online environment. This will be invaluable to SME’s from a staff productivity perspective, as well as creating savings on purchase prices,” Hany added.
JAGGAER NOW is available to small to mid-sized organizations with immediate effect.
