Partnerships with Purpose: Our First Steps into the UAE

Partnerships are one of the most powerful driving forces in the world of business today and continue to deliver excellent results through the win-win outcomes they enable in a wide range of sectors.

System integrator (SI)?Accenture?surveyed more than 1,100 C-suite and VP-level executives in 2020 to identify four levels of operational maturity. ?Accenture refers to the highest level of operational maturity as “future-ready” and they found that this tier of organisation enjoys up to a 6% better profitability than the third.

Accenture cites ecosystem partnership strategies as a defining factor in these “future-ready” companies.

From the report:?

Being future-ready requires a flexible operating model—an optimized combination of multidisciplinary teams and technologies on demand that work across a broad ecosystem of partners. The goal: Deliver exceptional business outcomes at scale, from anywhere, anytime.

Two strong examples of partnership ecosystems really delivering are Freshworks which noted a 50% faster time to close by getting introductions from their tech partners into strategic accounts (and returning the favour), and LeanData, a sales acceleration service, who have themselves observed a 40% increase in Average Order Value (AOV) when partners have been involved as influencers.

Jay McBain, a leading analyst from Forrester ecosystems, partnerships, alliances and channels stated in a recent interview that his team is seeing a daily growth in job roles with the term ‘ecosystem’ or ‘partner ecosystem’ in them and that on LinkedIn there are almost 9,000 people with ecosystem in their job title.

This occurrence signals the clear and ongoing shift happening as the working world continues to evolve in terms of organisational complexity and multi-space working, but it’s mainly because partnering works.

Business.com cites a number of clear benefits to partnering including:

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So partnering, I hope we can agree, is a great idea and more and more businesses are doing it.

Including 2Data.

In this regard we are thrilled and delighted to be partnering with Lenovo as we expand our services into the United Arab Emirates.?

In fact we’re already there, and with purpose.?Our founder, Harmeet Assi, is personally developing our UAE business in Dubai as you read this.?Harmeet is there to guide and grow the business from the ground up, with the same passion and hands-on approach injected into getting our UK operation off the ground.

So, why Lenovo??Why the UAE?

Well let’s start with the UAE first.??According to GMI Research the Cloud Computing market in the UAE is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 38.2% to 2027.?That’s a huge, sustained growth rate by any measure.?The primary factor driving the growth of the UAE Cloud market includes the growing demand for cloud computing technology driven by its data value extraction capabilities using advanced technologies such as blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI).?

From GMI Research:

“The rising adoption of cloud computing across numerous industries such as BFSI, media & entertainment, hospitality, and retail & consumer goods, will drastically drive the demand for cloud computing technologies in the UAE over the coming years. In addition to this, the government has launched several initiatives, including the National Innovation Strategy which aim to develop a culture of innovation among individuals and organizations, and the TRA Vision focuses on promoting electronic transformation while encouraging innovation across the UAE. These initiatives are mainly focusing on technological innovation, thereby boosting the usage of cloud computing technologies in the region. Moreover, the other initiatives such as UAE Vision 2021, Dubai Smart City, and Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, will accelerate the demand for real-time operations to transform public services & experience, thus increasing the adoption of cloud computing across the UAE.”

The other reason we’re focusing on this region resonates incredibly strongly with 2Data’s main purpose of serving and supporting companies of all shapes and sizes and bringing our deep expertise to support SME’s - providing the sort of optimisation gains larger organisations usually benefit from.??

In essence the UAE is seeing a tremendous rate of growth being driven by the SME sector, which, for example, Trade Arabia has recently cited as being critical to the economy.?According to Trade Arabia, SMEs in the UAE represent 94% of total number of firms, provide jobs for 86% of the private sector's workforce and “play a critical role in the country’s economic growth and diversity”.

SMEs in Dubai alone make up 95% of all its businesses, producing 42% employment opportunities and contributing 40% of the emirate's gross domestic product (GDP).?

Trade Arabia reports:?

“Economic experts have pointed out that the percentage of the SMEs contribution to the UAE's economic gains will continue to soar up to higher levels in the coming years reflecting the country's commitment to elevating the entrepreneurship sector while also extending various forms of support to enhance SME growth.”

This contribution is both significant and working.?Fitch Solutions forecast the UAE’s growth at 6.0% in 2022, exceeding historical trends.?According to their latest report rising hydrocarbon output, robust tourism recovery, elevated oil prices, work on major infrastructure projects, and strong domestic demand will support economic activity.?

These critically important businesses will need increased flexibility using best-of-breed technology in order to scale efficiently and manage this growth.

Figure 1. UAE GDP Growth 1987 -2027 (source: IMF 2022)

So, the fantastic CAGR in Cloud Computing adoption combined with the, frankly first-class, performance and contribution of SME’s to UAE economic growth means 2Data has to be there to support them.?

But we’re not going to be there alone.?As mentioned, we are delighted to be partnering with Lenovo (who have recently awarded us Gold Partnership Status) who, importantly, have a similar mission and mentality as 2Data in supporting the SME sector and doing the right thing at the right time to boot.?We noted a great example of this in how Lenovo responded to the needs of the healthcare sector during the pandemic.

At this (incredibly tough time we’re all glad to be looking back on now) there was a marked increase in urgent demand from the healthcare sector and Lenovo leaned in hard to support its partners to ensure they could more readily respond to customer needs, developing a Partner Stimulus Package to help the rapidly changing and challenging situation.?

It’s notable how multiple partners went on record highlighting that Lenovo ‘stepped up to the plate’ at the time.

This sort of thing resonates with us.

Lenovo began humbly in 1984 at a guardhouse in China, when Legend Holdings was formed and in 1988 opened for business in Hong Kong, initially selling Televisions but migrated quickly to marketing personal computers.?Over the years the company has gone from strength to strength, steadily diversifying and growing through a combination of organic and acquisition strategies the most notable being acquiring and integrating most of IBM’s personal computer business and server-line business as well as creating their own smartphone.?As at 2021 Lenovo were the largest seller of personal computers based on unit sales.

Lenovo has received the prestigious Microsoft Device Partner of the Year Award. This recognizes excellence in building, marketing, or selling devices and IT solutions that champion Microsoft-based technology. ?In addition to that, Lenovo has received the prestigious Microsoft Device Partner of the Year Award. This recognizes excellence in building, marketing, or selling devices and IT solutions that champion Microsoft-based technology.

Currently Lenovo is keen to expand its Microsoft CSP business globally and working with 2Data in the UAE is a part of this plan.?And we can 100% state that our experience of working with Lenovo has been a good one.?Their commitment to fostering genuine and long-term win-win relationships with their partners, which then ultimately leads to the all-important third win for our clients, is something we can attest to.?

The last few years have been challenging for business people in all sectors but the future will be bright if we work together and choose to continue ‘stepping up to the plate’ as Lenovo did during the pandemic.?What’s clear is that businesses in the UAE are doing exactly this, standing out as a fantastic example of resilience and optimism with undeniably wide support in predictions of their strong economic growth.

2Data will be there to support them.

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