Oracle addresses Egypt's mid-market demand for enterprise-class technology

The enterprise vendor is hosting a series of events for the SME sector across Egypt on best IT practices and how to utilize technology to achieve a maximum return on investment.

With more than 50 percent of the Middle East business community comprised of SMEs, technology adoption has taken centre stage as CEOs and managing directors look to rapidly expand their operations. According to a survey by analyst house Datamonitor across the Europe and Middle East region, 53 percent of senior executives said that being competitive was their top priority. Through deploying enterprise solutions, SMEs can leverage their existing resources more efficiently and to greater effect.

Commenting on what SMEs have to gain from utilizing the latest technology, Atef Helmy, Managing Director of Oracle Egypt, said, "Enterprise-class corporations have long understood the advantages that they can accrue by deploying technology to support their operations, and SMEs are now beginning to realize that if they ignore technology then they will be overtaken by their tech-savvy competitors."

"What we have set out to do is to educate SMEs on the specific technologies that will benefit them the most and provide the greatest return on investment. We recognize that SMEs may have smaller budgets, but even with limited resources, technology can make a fundamental difference to the way they work," added Helmy.

Understanding the diverse requirements of the SME business community, Oracle has developed solutions that are affordable, easy to use, faster to implement and offer a lower total cost of ownership. Crucially, Oracle's SME applications deliver enterprise-class features and performance deployed through a platform that is simplified to meet SME needs. Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition is an integrated, end-to-end pre-configured product suite developed to scale up in step with the grow of the SME.

"Many vendors have taken their enterprise-class solutions and stripped them of features for a SME product. However, SMEs require a solution that is rich in features, and yet easy to manage. As competition in the Egyptian market intensifies, SMEs will require technology tools that enable them to make better informed business decisions, and to optimize the new market opportunities quickly and cost-effectively. Only with a tailored approach to the SME community and solution development can the IT industry contribute to the rapid growth of the mid-market in Egypt and other countries across the Middle East," concluded Helmy.