Manda Banda is also Lynchpin Media ’ s Managing Editor of Intelligent CIO Middle East and Intelligent CIO Africa magazines .

The software market in MEA has continued to gain momentum with IT vendors increasing their focus in this segment .

For channel partners looking to serve this market segment , finding the right SaaS vendors and building a solutions and services-based approach is critical if your business to succeed in the most sought after market in the region .

The benefits SaaS brings to small and large organisations is undeniable , but challenges still remain as to whether an organisation should adopt a cloud-based SaaS application or maintain the onpremises system .

While cloud-based SaaS applications are getting more widely adopted in the MEA market , some companies are still hanging on to on-premises systems that remain core to their business .

With the SaaS market in the MEA evolving rapidly , industry analysts believe the growth the market is witnessing is driven by global vendors who are increasingly embedding technologies such as

Artificial Intelligence ( AI ), Machine Learning

and analytics to make their SaaS offering

more ‘ intelligent ’.

Businesses across the MEA region are

undergoing Digital Transformation initiatives

and are continuously upgrading their

traditional solutions by embracing much

advanced and scalable technologies such as

cloud and mobility .

As cloud-based SaaS have started

getting the market traction , there are a

lot of movements in the overall software

ecosystem . To support the growing demand

for SaaS-based business applications

such as ERP , global vendors have started

focusing on regional data centre build-outs .

The whole cloud movement has given

birth to the ‘ born-in-the-cloud ’ companies

and solution providers , systems integrators

and VARs that bring their expertise in the

cloud domain which traditional resellers

It ’ s undeniable that the SaaS market across MEA is rapidly advancing as organisations with the help of channel partners are being helped to digitally transform into intelligent enterprises .

are lacking currently will succeed in this market segment .

Clearly , it ’ s undeniable that the SaaS market across MEA is rapidly advancing as organisations with the help of channel partners are being helped to digitally transform into intelligent enterprises .

A recent study by Oxford Economics revealed that while 84 % of organisations value Digital Transformation , only 3 % have completed their Digital Transformation in MEA . About 75 % of the digital-leaders and about 60 % of all organisations in the MENA are currently investing in cloud , according to the Oxford Economics survey .

So why are organisations migrating and investing in cloud technologies ? What advantages does SaaS offer resellers over traditional on-premise solutions ? With a cloud-based SaaS offering , organisations can optimise assets , supply chain and customer experiences .

With the emergence of a new breed of enterprise-focused solution providers helping their end-user customers to maximise their investments in software segment , it ’ s critical that channel partners