This Software Is Transforming Startups And SMEs In The Middle East Dubai-based tech company Loyica is accelerating the growth of SMEs and startups across the Middle East through Saphyte, its CRM product developed with intelligent workflow automation technology.
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
People are prone to being comfortable with repetition, but this can be costly in a business setting. It can add unnecessary workload and it can be mentally exhausting, too. This is the problem identified by the Dubai-based tech company Loyica, which developed software that eliminates repetition through the automation of workload, among others.
Saphyte is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software designed and developed to fast-track sales and marketing operations using tools and automation. It was launched in 2017 by Ali Homadi, who has seen gaps in the local market: inefficient work processes, the challenge of managing client-related data, and expensive software provided by foreign companies.
"Startups and SMEs in the Middle East have not been fully digitally transformed," Homadi says. "When Saphyte was launched, there was no home-grown CRM product in the UAE at the time nor were there CRM products on the market that were flexible enough to adapt to the unique needs of local businesses."
A report from McKinsey seems to support this. According to the report, despite the rapid social, political, and economic transformation across the MENA region, only 8% of SMEs have an online presence. Another report from McKinsey states that businesses in the region have not been fully equipped to realize digital opportunities yet, despite the consumers' readiness to lead digitally enhanced lives.
Accelerating startups and SMEs' growth
"SMEs need to be able to adapt to a growing market," Homadi says. That "growing market" has observed an increase in digital consumption, including consumer-seller interactions online, which led to the region being touted as one of the most digitally connected in the world. According to McKinsey, around 88% of the population in the Middle East use the internet daily.
But the missed opportunity to generate leads, foster good relationships, and trigger purchase behavior among consumers is one of the region's major problems that Saphyte wants to highlight. "Being able to systematically gather information from your leads and customers and reduce the workload of your staff is a key advantage to using Saphyte and other CRMs properly," Homadi says. "But most businesses aren't acquainted well with this technology."
"Reducing the workload" is a reference to Saphyte's smart workflow automation technology. "Our software eliminates unnecessary workflows and lets our clients relax and wait for the system to do the automatic recording and creation of clients in the CRM, conversion of system entities, and assigning of managers to entities," Homadi says. "Overall, the system can be configured to adapt to the unique work processes of every business."
UAE's first homegrown CRM
Saphyte is the first CRM developed and registered in the UAE. Today, Saphyte has served major clients in the retail, financial, real estate, banking, and insurance industries.
When asked what makes Saphyte different from software provided by international companies, Homadi says they "know the needs of local companies more" which allows them to "develop better-suiting tools and features for the businesses in the region." As for Homadi, the business culture in the Middle East, especially in the UAE, requires "everything to be flexible and to go fast and smoothly" which makes their software "a better fit."
The CRM market has ballooned over the years. In fact, by 2025, the global CRM industry revenues are expected to reach more than US$80 billion. The competition will naturally tighten. Hence, to distinguish itself, Homadi says that Saphyte had to be defined by its core features: its flexibility and scalability, which jives well with its tagline: "You don't have to adapt to Saphyte, as Saphyte adapts to you."
Easy, more affordable set-up
To make it easy for startups and SMEs to adopt the technology, Saphyte waives all the set-up fees, implementation fees, and customer support fees for its users. They will also only be billed according to usage. "Unlike competitors who are billed regardless of user inactivity, Saphyte is programmed to bill the users who are only using the system actively. This creates transparency between Saphyte and its customers," Homadi says.
CRMs are designed to make business-related information easily accessible. "For managers and owners to get full control over their business," Homadi says. "They can use Saphyte's multiple customizable dashboards so they can have a quick summary of all the sales and marketing-related information they need."
