Microsoft and Distributors stress on availing of social media and digital marketing tools in order to reach out to SMBs

in line with the objective of empowering organizations to do more, Microsoft Gulf and it’s leading distributors including Aptec, Mindware and Redington Gulf; hosted an event at the Grand Hyatt on Nov. 16th . The event focused on enabling the channel community to be able to strategize better and reach the small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the UAE with the right tools , product offerings and effective solutions in order to increase their market share.

The event held under the theme “Inspire Business Growth In SMB” began with a keynote by Samer Abu Ltaif, Regional General Manager Microsoft Gulf, followed by a multidimensional overview of the SME sector in Dubai by HE Abdul Baset Al Janahi, CEO , Dubai SME, and then drove into interesting panel discussions where participants from Aptec, Mindware and Redington Gulf shared opportunities and Best practices in the SMB market. The day also hosted a very insightful keynote and workshop by guest speaker Carol Roth, International Business Expert and New York Times Best Selling Author of “The Entrepreneur equation”.

Carol Roth being small business advocate (named in Top 100 Small Business Influencer for 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014 by Small Biz Trends) shared insightful techniques that partners can use by leveraging Digital Marketing and social media in order to reach SMBs at Scale and help them in their IT Purchasing decision. 

“SMBs are the backbone of the economy because they are nimble, innovative and connected with customer values. At Microsoft, we want to empower every person and organization to do more and achieve more.  This inspires us to empower our partners to leverage the power and elasticity of the cloud to enable innovation, reach and cost effectiveness that can help them penetrate into the SMB segment effectively” Said Samer Abu Ltaif, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf.

Aloysius Fernandes, President, Redington Gulf said “SME priorities are to improve their operational efficiency, grow their existing businesses profitably and expand into new markets. Our responsibility as a partner community is to build our technology offerings for their adoption towards improving efficiencies, processes, services and effectively communicate the value using the digital marketing channels of social media, video, blogging, email and search engine. These aid strongly in rightly influencing the SME decision making cycle which is quicker than large organizations.”

Mario Gay General Manager, Mindware said “the market is transforming into a digital world where one must have effective marketing tools to be able to unleash their creativity and prepare for this challenge”

Bahaa Salah, Managing Director of Aptec, an Ingram Micro company said “SMB remains very essential to any distribution business, this is the area where distribution can add real value to Vendors and Channel community.”

With SMEs constituting 94 percent of all companies in UAE, Microsoft, through its wide network of technologies and partners, is determined to support their growth as they are an essential engine for the economy.