Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 30 | Page 44

FEATURE: SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has established itself as an increasingly popular model for the delivery of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. Since entering the UAE market two years ago, 4C has witnessed more and more businesses appreciating its benefits with a significant uptake in adoption. 4 C is on a mission to contribute to a customer driven society by building customer companies through Salesforce, data analytics and business consulting. With headquarters in Belgium and offices in London, Paris, Brussels and Dubai, the company is EMEA’s largest independent Salesforce Platinum partner. Intelligent CIO spoke to Jake Callaway, Managing Director, MENA at 4C, to discover more about the company’s move into the Middle East and the increasing importance of SaaS for enterprises in the region. Since entering the UAE market over two years ago, how in your opinion have businesses in the region changed when it comes to the adoption of SaaS CRM solutions? The market in the UAE for SaaS has matured significantly in the two years that 4C has been in the region. The key driver of this is the Government’s public sector push towards smart initiatives and innovations. Businesses want to become digitally mature and that’s why we’re now seeing companies across the UAE undergoing a full digital transformation. That drive has galvanised private sector companies into following suit, with many beginning to realise the potential benefits to them of early SaaS adoption. These benefits include lower cost of entry, rapid deployment, scalability and flexibility and the support of implementation and support experts such as 4C. Since cloud adoption is only now beginning to gain momentum in the region, what must organisations do to ensure readiness for SaaS CRM rollout from the perspective of management buy-in, network readiness, security, workflows, etc? As with any major cloud based implementation, ensuring business executives understand the true value around the adoption of a CRM platform like Salesforce is crucial. With over 20 years CRM experience across the 4C Group, we have the expertise and experience to demonstrate how a new CRM platform will help executives SaaS adoption for CRM solutions increasing in ME 44 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com