#526 Digitizing Business in Dubai: Moosa Alavi on ERP, Cloud, and the Future of SMEs

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Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the CTO Show with Mehmet today. I'm very pleased joining me here from Dubai. Like when I, you know, guys, I get excited when I have guests from here, from the region, uh, from the same city where I am. I have Moosa Alavi, who [00:01:00] is the founder and CEO of Techbot, uh, just to give it.

Teaser for the audience. We're gonna talk a lot about ERP solutions, right? And, um, the evolution of this. We're gonna talk about, you know, the market here in, in the ue and I know like, uh, probably Moosa you have, uh, been recently and in, uh, conference, so you can tell us of course about the latest and the greatest.

Uh, but without further ado, the way I like to do it pusa, I keep it to my guests to introduce themselves, so. Tell us a little bit more about you, your background, your journey, and what you're currently up to, and then we can start the discussion from there. So the floor is yours. 

Moosa: Thank you, ed. It is an honor to be here and my name is Moosa. I am the, since 20 last 28 years, I am in UAE and I run my business TechBot, ERP, last, since last five years. And I have been in this, uh, signage industry over 25 years. And, um, I live in Dubai since, uh, 38 years.

Yeah, so. [00:02:00] Yeah, that's about me. About me and, uh, talk, uh, about my company. Tebo is one of the, uh, leading du ERP partner. We are one of the gold partner of DU and, um, uh, you can say one of the top ERP partner. And when you talk about my signage industry, I am in the sign industry very long and, uh, we are one of the largest manufacturing.

Uh, signage company here in Dubai, and we deal with lots of, uh, companies, especially for the, uh, properties, uh, building developers and uh, uh, businesses in Dubai. 

Mehmet: Great, and thank you for being here with me. Um, Moosa, I appreciate also the time. I know, how can the schedule get busy, especially for a founder and CEO like yourself now.

You mentioned, you know, a few things, which, you know, it's kind of a leap. Um, and I know I did my homework, uh, checking, you know, your profile and [00:03:00] background. So I have a very long career in, you know, you said signage and advertising and printing, and then transitioning to be in the ERP business. So, and being into the software and automation.

So what inspired you to make the leap. 

Moosa: Uh, so m uh, I had a passion, uh, for technology since, uh, long. Okay. So, where I work, I, I'm always a person, like, you know, I need things to be very smooth, very clear, especially something we can able to automate and we need to, because, you know, we can reduce lot. Do hours, uh, because you know, when, uh, we got get, get, for example, any business, they start getting angry from an onward.

Cities like proposal, operations, finance, many re uh, repeated tasks we can avoid. So I, I am always passionate about the technology, how the technology will help us to, because, you know, if we focus on the [00:04:00] technology, we can focus in the different, our business, our day to day, other activities. So if something we can, like, you know, we can, uh, reduce errors, radio, reduce, uh, people task through the technology.

So that is the reason I jump into, uh, I not in jump during my signage business running. I started Techbot ERP, uh, since, uh, last five years. 

Mehmet: Great. Now, you know, it's a, it's a passion. It's something you mentioned a couple of things, uh, that you know, uh, you know. Led you to to, to do, uh, you know, this kind of new business and the new venture as, uh, you know, Techbot a RP.

Um, what, what, of course it's a passion, but as a, uh, you know, someone with experience in business, you must saw also an opportunity Moosa. And you must also not only saw opportunity, you must saw. Some gaps in the market [00:05:00] to do this. So what are like some of these needs and gaps you felt that you can come and fulfill with Techbot ERP?

Moosa: So Ed, uh, like when I was doing, uh, I started my, uh, uh, job. My, I don't start my business in, uh, very immediately, you know, on a time. Mm-hmm. Right? I was an employee and I start work as an employee, uh, during an employee prospective. The, you know, I have to do multitask. Okay. When I do this kind of multitask and, uh, uh, if I feel the pain where, because there is no sign in ERP for example, uh, we create quotation, we create, uh, uh, work orders and we send to the finance.

Sometime we notice that finance or accounts department did not send the invoice because there is a big communication gap. Okay. So when I see that gap, I thought, okay, when I start any business, I should do [00:06:00] the, uh, e software first. That is one of the very important that, one of the very important what I should do.

That and, and when I start a business, I should do software without anything. That is the first goal, what I have to do. So when I want to, uh, go with an EER EER, ERP as a company. I found, um, uh, because I came from with the lots of experience. Mm-hmm. And when I explain my requirement to uh, uh, certain people, it's very difficult for them to release and map that requirement to the system.

Okay. Like, you know, bring to the, bring to the, like especially see Mohammad, when we are talking about the ERP, there is lots of things we need to cover. Uh, the workflow, the process, uh, the requirement reporting and people how to use. So I did the implementation in myself before I give to anyone else. So I told my [00:07:00] team, this is the way we can work.

This is the process, this is the system. Then we can move, uh, go ahead with the, any, whatever the, uh, in the business. Without this, we cannot go ahead. So I started and I found a gap. In general there is people cannot understand what exactly what we need. So as a business experience, I have a business experiences along and I know what exactly need for my, my, uh, system, what need to be recorded.

So I. Learn myself, and I implemented myself. 

Mehmet: I love this because, you know, like it's, uh, you pass through the pain, probably that other business, uh, owners and other, uh, people who are in need, um. You know, this is, must have created some empathy also with, with your customers later because you, you faced the same thing.

So let's, let us now talk a little bit about, you know, the ERP market. So the a RP, you [00:08:00] know, for people who doesn't know it's, uh, abbreviation for enterprise Resource Planning. So probably every company in the world I would say, like whatever their sizes is, they need something which. Actually Moosa you mentioned a couple of minutes ago.

So they need things to track their processes, their, their, uh, you know, different key areas like maybe their finance, hr, manufacturing, supply chain, you just name it. So it's, it's, it's like a defacto thing nowadays to have ERP now. Talking specifically about DUEE, and this is, you know, some, uh, statistics and numbers there.

So the UAE market for ERP is projected to be like around three point 45. So let's say $3.5 billion by 2028. And of course the DRI driver is digital transformation. From your perspective, and you've been doing this now for a long time, what are the top drivers behind this high [00:09:00] demand? So of course we can say digital transformation, but digital transformation by itself.

Moosan, maybe you'd agree with me. It's just a big word, right? So everyone will tell you I'm on a journey for digital transformation, but really what is driving? You know, customers to adopt and look for ERP solutions. 

Moosa: So the main, uh, drivers for digital transformation is, uh, cloud adoption. Mm-hmm. And, uh, the government always push for the smart system.

Okay. The same time, uh, the UAE is moving towards, uh, complete, like, you know, A-M-L-V-I-T corporate tax, KYC. So this all, it's, you know, very competition and very forcing com. Uh, the company also companies has to, uh. Uh, the sort car, uh, uh, competition, uh, like, you know, what you call, uh, in, in business, there is a lot of competition nowadays.

So when business [00:10:00] need to, uh, cut the cost, they need a proper system. Mm-hmm. Otherwise, you know, see, I'll, I'll tell you an example. When I was in, uh, when I, when I was in, uh, my, uh, printing industry, like, you know, you can say like, uh, 15 years. Um, uh, I, uh, I used to work with Excel, you know, uh, like, you know, just imagine how we are working Excel.

So I used to, uh, create the quotations in word, Microsoft Word. Then what happened when we need to convert to pdf. Then send a as attachment as an E. Send an email as an attachment, okay? Mm-hmm. So just imagine how much my time I used to waste for creating quotation, converting PDF, then uh, sending as an email.

Then in every month I used to create report, like how many quotation I sent, how many is converted. And how many is in the production, how much is [00:11:00] about to complete the project? How many of them is invoiced? So this all report I should create in the month, every month end, and I need to submit to the different department like production.

Finance, uh, like operations. I need to provide this. I asked to do, and along with my colleagues also do. So in this time I rea I hear about, uh, software and I told my manager that, sir, I need a software because it's help it, it'll help me a lot and obviously, uh, uh, we can save a lot of time and everything and I can focus for something else.

Then he immediately, what he said, uh, without asking the how much will they cost, I will give you three more people to work. See, see, see what happened. See, so I, that time I realize that it, it is, uh, people, everyone is not looking for a so, but now at the doubt, this situation, everyone want the system. And because everyone is going [00:12:00] for the digital transformation.

Okay, so when people are thinking about digital, like you know, when they need something, for example, in instant reporting. Like in through ERP, we can get instant report immediately, so mm-hmm. Even there's no reporting then cannot get that kind of report. It take lots of time. So now the main diverse cloud computing and government is pushing towards for digital transformation and companies need to cost cut because, you know, instead of three people, they can hire one, uh, person and a software.

So it's a very, uh, uh, uh, everyone is pushing toward the digital transformation in this, uh, current situation. 

Mehmet: Yeah. So just because my audience are like, uh, you know, from different parts even of, of the world, so just to, you know, push, and I think this applies across multiple geographies, but to, to put, you know, some, uh, my 2 cents, let's say to what you said, mua, which is very valid.[00:13:00] 

So. Uh, and this is an opportunity not only in the ERP business, I think in other businesses also as well. So, yeah, so the region in general and the UE in particular, um, they have pushed, you know, for, you know, paperless, um, you know, faster. Customer experience. I would say starting from the government, because everything today I think we can do through, you know, some of the portal that the government created it.

And of course, you know, the opportunity also because of at least up to few recent years. So maybe, correct me if I'm wrong, Moosa, the VAT came in 2018, I believe, or 2017, something like this. And of course, you know, imagine like people, they had to. You know, change their accounting softwares. Right? And even to your point, I still see, by the way, people using Word and Excel for sending codes and you need to add this.

So this is, you need to, to simplify things. The other thing, the tailwind that's driving this [00:14:00] transformation, and maybe we ca you can shed some light also on that. Moosa, is, you know, nowadays when you as a company, you still deal with. Paper. Paper and in a sense, printing. Do you agree with me, Moosa, that you are looked a little bit kind of old school people, they think that, oh, like this company, even they, they still use printing or maybe they still use Word documents to fill some forms and all this.

Do you agree with me that also this is one of the main drivers and it should be a drivers for, for other companies to adopt ERP solutions? 

Moosa: A hundred percent. Uh, why, uh, ma, I will tell you. Uh, when we have an system, you are showcasing as a professional, uh, professional in front of your customer or, or, mm-hmm.

In your team as well as, for example, uh, when you have a clear process, when you can see what is the [00:15:00] update, uh, when even you are pitching your customer. I used to do that. I opened my project, dashboard. You see this much production, production is going on. This is in my screen now. And, uh, I can see what is, the machine is available, what is the machine is not available.

So always people always, when they, one, they see, uh, companies utilizing the, using the, uh, software or, uh, uh, digitally. They're in digital. It is a. More, uh, you know, credibility I'm getting always. Mm-hmm. When we talk about customer, for example, imagine if you are my customer. You come to my production and you ask, um, uh, mua, I need so and so, uh, signage in my, uh, my so and so business.

So I will a, before I ask my contact, my accounts, uh, production department, I will just go through my system. I will understood, uh, understand, make, understand that how many machines are available now. Whether I can take this product, [00:16:00] uh, project or not. Then early I can talk, I, uh, I can start negotiating with you.

So these, if I show this to my customer, they always, uh, impress and they always, uh, uh, uh, ready to give the job. Even, uh, I will tell that, okay, my production I need in this week, it can take two more three days, no problem, but do the job. So this kind of, uh, you know, this kind of impression we are getting from the customer perspective.

And obviously when we are in the digital, uh, everyone will, uh, like, you know, easy for us them to understand and easy for them to, uh, track and, uh, make sure ma make understand, uh, how the process is working, how the company is working. It's given a more credibility to the company. 

Mehmet: Right. And one thing also happened, I think, you know, this is for people who are from, from mainly UEE.

If you are listening and you are a business owner, so there is a, [00:17:00] uh, mandate now from government to stop issuing paper invoices, this and everything should be EIN invoice. And I don't think you can do this if you don't have a proper ERP solution because you know. As simple, even if you are a one person company and I can relate a lot to myself.

Um. Like you, someone would come, they'll ask you for a quotation. So you need, you need a system as we, as we discussed with Moosa. So you need to put that into a system because you need to track it at the end of the day. Second, once the, you send the proposal, the code included, then let's say the customer accepted.

So you need to mark like, okay, like I converted this now this is a, a, an invoice that should be sent. I need you to track it also now. Before, like people were accepting to send them invoice by as simple as printing, uh, maybe typing it on a word or maybe a template from Excel. But now things should be [00:18:00] digital and even the payment.

I believe also because I was hearing the day before yesterday, uh, or yesterday, and we are recording on the, you know, at beginning, first week of October. So even UE is pushing for cashless, um, you know, systems. So you need to be able to pay now with all this osa there reason not mentioning that, uh, we must have, so if I'm a business owner, I need to have the system.

That can cover it all. Now, I know you, uh, and you mentioned this in your introduction, so you picked up, uh, one vendor specifically, which is du uh, and you became the implementation partner. So walk me through. Like first why I need an implementation partner for this second, what is, what is my journey looks like?

Like from the moment, let's say we meet for the first time as a company, and let's say I'm a [00:19:00] small company to make things like easier. Like how much do I do I need, not from money of course, but how much time do I need till I can say, okay, I have implemented the system, now I have something in track and now I can utilize it by myself.

So if you can also walk me through this. 

Moosa: Uh, so m the, the, uh, first of all, du why I chose Du Okay. Uh, du The reason why I chose du du the because of the, uh, user friendly, the ui. Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. The easiness to use the system, see any software, uh, because I, during my experience, I tried many softwares and, uh, every time we get just pay only and people are not adopting or people are not utilizing because of the complexity.

So when I, uh, discovered Odo, I found, uh, it is very u very easy to use, okay? Mm-hmm. For example, if someone know how to use Facebook or how to use WhatsApp. That, that, that, that much [00:20:00] easy. Now you don't want, you, you can imagine how much easy that the system Well, if it is a configured well, okay, if you didn't configured well there, the, when the configuration part is come like a partner side, I will explain to you later.

So that who do itself, it's a user friendly and uh, it is an open source. So the reason, well, open source, it's easy can customize and we can integrate with many other, uh, like in other, uh, uh, device. For example, you have attendance machine, we can easily integrate with attendance machine. For example, I do have a large, uh, like millions of expense printing machine in my indu, my signage business.

I can integrate, I can connect with my, uh, printers. To the system so I can know the maintenance and either machine, uh, like, you know, machines capability and, uh, machine performance, everything I can track. So this is, mm-hmm. So when we want that kind of, the integration, we need, obviously we need a system that is more easy, not complex [00:21:00] system.

Okay. Now, right now, when, why it is, okay, now I say it's a very easy why, why we should have, why customer should have a partner like us. Uh, you know that. Mm-hmm. Udu. They have a office in Dubai itself. They have a big office, but their main core is selling the license. Okay. But the implementation is taking care of the partners.

If I am right, 70 percentage of the business is generating by the partners. So, and there is a lots of partners like me here in Dubai, but I am the one of the top partner, mean we have lots of experience in this implementation. So then that, uh, when, why they need to choose the NA proper partner. I partner should understand the business requirement with the workflow.

The process and partner should have an experience how implement the system. For example, now we have a special industry, like we have a real estate industry and uh, we have [00:22:00] a render super under car industry. We have Indus insurance industry. So those industries we already implemented and we have the ready system.

So it's no needed too many, uh uh, too many customization, too much, uh, uh, like, you know, configuration because of the ready system available. Now, what is our next job? We need to map the process properly because, you know, you have very business, they have their own process. So we need to map those process and we need to train the end users.

So if the end user is not properly trained, they'll not use the system. They'll immediately drop and they'll go back to the Acceler word. So it's our responsibility. We handhold the, uh, the customer. To use the system and whenever the, when, what, whatever the support they need, we are providing the support on time and, uh, without any, uh, delay because, especially as a business and we need to give them the support always when they need the record so that what basically a partner should do and what we are doing, [00:23:00] 

Mehmet: this is the music to my ears, of course, because people.

Regardless of the vendor, but I understand, you know, of course you, you need a, I like to call more design partner and design in a sense. Not designing the ui, because you mentioned the UI is very easy, but you know, this is a misconception, uh, that happened in the technology. People think, okay, cloud is there.

I just put my credit card. And I start using the solution, forgetting that, especially for something, I'm not saying it's complex, but I mean, implementing an ERP is not like as, for example, I don't know, uh, downloading your Microsoft office on your laptop and just start using it because there are like some, uh uh.

You know, some, some moving parts I would say over this. Now, with this number of implementation that you have done, and this is why you are one of the top, uh, you know, implementations partner for, for du, [00:24:00] what is the common thing that you see, uh, from, you know, the business that you have dealt with, that they were facing before adopting the a RP and then.

How their lives changed after using the solution. I like to hear these kind of success use cases. 

Moosa: Uh, I can't relate to my business itself, ma'am. Nice. Because no need to go to any other business because in my business itself, I'll tell you, I told you I am in the signage, manufacturing, and we deal with the top, uh, uh, uh, real estate developers in.

Uh, in the ua. Okay. You can say in UA, because we deal with Abu Dhabi developers, Dubai developers with, uh, in UA itself, we, we deal with lots of developers. So, you know, when, uh, real estate developer, they need a hoarding, a signage, or they are announcing a new project, they need to, uh, brand their sales center, or they need do [00:25:00] like, you know, ma ma mass kind of production.

What development? They will give me a call only. When, when the LA, maybe they'll wait for five o'clock to call me because they're getting the order from the top management in the very late time only. So what happened in this time? If we don't have a proper system, we used to go check whether we have stove, whether we can accommodate.

And whether we can do the job, uh, as per customer, uh, demand on time, we can deliver or not. We need, we need assume any assumption. We don't have any strategic, we cannot, uh, check any system. We don't have anything. So after I implement myself, I found a lots of. Uh, like, you know, you can say breathing space, like, you know, not last moment.

We can take the last moment order and, uh, sometime what, having customer call, uh, so and so here I did job. I need the same job repeatedly. Uh, you just come and install the job. So [00:26:00] in when, uh, and this has to be done within 48 hours or. 24 hours maximum, 48 hours only. They'll give. I need to do the job. So if I go manually, check everything by file.

Uh, I need three or four days. I, we used to do that way four or five days to check the, how much quotation we given because they don't have any measurement because the person who is calling, he's calling based on the record he have, he don't have anything in his mind. And so he immediately said the same location, same spec specs, you need to go and.

So we need to spend a lot of time, uh, to check the details and measurement and price and everything. So when we have a system, just one click, I can know all the information, what type of the, uh, uh, artwork it was there, artwork, maybe keep on change because especially you know that when they're launching a new project, they'll change their render color, everything they change, but the size is not going to [00:27:00] change.

The hoarding is the same. No, no, any changes. So I need to give them, first, I need to get the confirmation on the pricing. Second, I need to instruct my team to go ahead with this artwork. And the same says, please, we need to install so time and the date. So if I don't have the system, I cannot do take an action immediately.

So when I implemented myself, it's given a lot of space. And lots of time. And, uh, our production also increased. And another thing, my clerical work, you know, uh, I used to have four, four minimum four sales coordinators before I implement the system because they are doing Excel and Google Sheet and, uh, on software.

And, uh, when I implemented, uh, especially ndu in my business. Uh, three of them I give another job and only one person sub uh, do only all these tasks. So imagine how much time and [00:28:00] money I save. Because of the system I implemented. So this is the one of the, um, uh, myself, experience. And yes, commonly many pe many business owner there.

I say that, uh, we got, uh, 20 percentage improvement in our sales. Our performance is increased, customer response is increased. Uh, some customers, they don't have a cm. Okay? Uh, when there is no cm, what happened? We get every day. Ries, you know, in our common email we get lots of, uh, CVS supplier, uh, sales brochure, many things.

But sometime what will happen, our eng real eng will buried in that email, right? So sales team cannot, sales team cannot follow up and focus on that particular, uh, lead or the opportunity. So without CRM, it's very difficult for them track. When I implemented a system, one of the customer insurance company itself, [00:29:00] uh, instead they come and tell us, uh, told us that we have our sales has been increased.

20 percentage. Nice. Just imagine only because of the CRM they start utilizing. So this is the benefit I have seen and myself experience also our customers always coming and telling these stories. 

Mehmet: Uh, just to add, uh, to your point, Moosa, and this is why whatever the size of your company, whether you are like by yourself, but as you are a company or you are a, I don't know, 5,000 thousands of employees, you can't, and you mentioned something very important like few minutes ago about the reporting part.

You know, like, like you wanted to know how many quotes you have sent, you needed to know how many customers replied. So. Doing that manually is, you know, kind of a crazy, I would say, especially in this age. The second thing, the moment you implement a unified system, a you know, a [00:30:00] unified database where all the information is coming, then you have the visibility, and of course you'll be able to track your customers.

You'll be able to reply them faster, you'll be able to fulfill their needs faster. Now mentioning that Moosa also, um. And we are talking about data and we are talking about, you know, cloud computing and all this, and now we have the AI in the mix or the AI in the play. From your perspective, and, you know, doing this for quite some time, how, you know, AI is, uh, and automation of course.

How do you see, you know. This evolution into AI powered ERP systems changing even further because, you know, you mentioned like now how increasing the sales, you know, freeing people's time to go do something more important. How do you see, you know, AI inside the ERP solutions shaping businesses, especially in our region in the GCC over the [00:31:00] next few years?

Moosa: Uh, so Maad, the maad, the AI powered ERP definitely will transform the decision making. Okay. It, it is like, uh, what you say, um, uh, you will have a ANA analytics and, uh, uh, the decisions and the reports automated in your inbox. Or in your dashboard because the, you know, AI is working as a user. You know that, how the ai, the power of yes, the agent is working inside our system that he, you are instructing, giving the, uh, the command, uh, you're giving the input what you need, sponsor time, what you need, sponsor date.

So AI is giving you the information and it can be taken, decision can take immediately. So that is on. And also, uh, AI will give you, uh, lots of insight about your, uh, past year, your [00:32:00] ongoing, uh, projects, your ongoing, how the company is going at the moment. And how will you be your company in the features like in a three year you will be there and in the 10 year, five year that all a can easily predict because of the ai, uh, uh, uh, included.

ERP always will definitely give good help and it's a game changer for actually, and AI integrated ERP is going to not only game changer, it's given to insight about even your employees. For example, how their performance, because it's a performance, uh, evaluator. Also, it can give you the employee's performance, how their attendance, how they are responding, the emails, how they are, uh, the, their ac ac accountability, you can check through the ai.

So it is, uh, yes, really a game changer. And also in U 19, the new latest U 19, you give the prompt and yeah, I will create you a [00:33:00] quotation. You need to draft an email. You give the prompt ai, you will draft the email. So many features, uh, in the AI is in incorporated in Odo 90 or itself. 

Mehmet: That's very cool.

Exactly. You know, I was, uh, wondering or not wondering first. I know, but I mean, it's, it's like coming to the area where you can talk to your system similar to what you do with, uh, you know, something like, uh, chat, GPT kind of. Interface. And then you, you, you talk to it and say, Hey, like, show me this report or create this dashboard, or, and this is really, it's a game changer.

And again, in addition to the, you know, benefits that you just mentioned a couple of minutes ago, like, this is another big, big mile now. Uh, let's, you know, just, you know, out of Christie, and you know this, I wonder a lot, um. What is [00:34:00] next for Techbot ERP? Like where do, do you see any expansion? Do you see any maybe more into, uh, because you mentioned insurance, for example, and manufacturing, uh, are you planning like to, to go into like maybe some new, um, verticals that maybe you didn't touch?

So if you can share with us your plans. 

Moosa: Uh, so my, that is a very good question because this is, uh, our growth strategy basically. Okay. So we are in, uh, Dubai, but uh, we are already, uh, dealing with the GCC customers like, uh, uh, Saudi, Qatar, Oman. Uh, our next plan is to start operating from gc, uh, from Saudi, Saudi Arabia.

Mm-hmm. And, uh, we have a expansion plan, uh, like, you know, globally for the part of that we, in the second year, we are one of the exhibitor in du experience in Belgium, which is happened in the last, uh, uh, last [00:35:00] week. I just came back only so, uh. Why that? No, we are our focus to not only stay in the UA market, we need to expand to the globally.

So, uh, GCC as well as the other, uh, countries like, you know. Uh, we need to go to other, uh, European sites, other, uh, Asian part we need to touch and, and African also, because we already have a customer, all this region, but our local presence is not aware, not at the moment. There is no local presence. We are ma managing from Dubai, so we have a expansion plan too in their GCC as well as in the Asian market and also in part of the Europe and those area Also.

Mehmet: Very exciting indeed. Moosa, just shifting gear from talking about ERP. Uh, I know like also. You know, on the, uh, on the side or in addition to, to, to the work you are involved, uh, uh, with, with the tech pod, [00:36:00] um, you give importance for giving back, and you do this through mentorship and committee involvement.

Um, like, uh, I know you've been part of, uh, some big networks like B-N-I-I-P-A and others, uh, how important this is to you and, uh, you know. How this also contributed to your own personal and professional growth? 

Moosa: Uh, ed, uh, that is one of the heart touching question. Basically, uh, I am the, uh, uh, because I am part of lots of community, uh, yes, obviously.

Uh, we need to give back to the community. Uh, when we need, uh, someone need a support, we need to be there to support and customers also one of my cus community because we are solving a problem of a customer where there is a problem that why customer is approaching us. So we need to solve. So, uh, these communities, uh, helping me a lot in the terms of, uh, first of all [00:37:00] the learning and, you know, the, our network is your, your network.

So they're helping me not only in the business, my personality development, uh, I, I can call any, uh, in, in, uh, any or any one of the community member at any time. Uh, I have lots of, uh, real cases when I, because see we are bus doing business in business. We'll face a lots of problems, you know. Right. Maybe an S-M-E-C-I cannot have an uh, um, legal firm for my company, but when something legal issue happen, where, whom I should contact.

A person whom I, you know, or a stranger, maybe I need to build a relationship. Then I will start. So I already have a relationship with a legal consultant or a legal entity, and I know him already. I can immediately call and tell Si, I have this problem, I need a solution, and they will take. Like their own [00:38:00] company, their own problem, and they will help me to solve that problem.

For example, I have insurance issues. If I have an insurance, any issue. For example, you know, when we deal with the large scale project, maybe something happen in the project, maybe, uh, uh, many thing I can happen. So when there is any claim required, the insurance broker should be there. He is not only for collecting our premium and uh, every year collecting the premium, not only collecting the premium.

He need to be there to support us when there is a problem, he need to guide us. This way. You need to, uh, approach for the claim this way. You need to approach for the, for example, when we propose for a large scale project, uh, we need a strong insurance. For, to secure that project. So then I need to con, so these are people, these are, uh, through this community, I'm getting lots of, uh, connections, uh, not only customers, vendors, and they help me, uh, in my day-to-day business activity.

So I'm so proud [00:39:00] that I'm part of this community. They always help me, especially in business as well as in my, uh, personal life as well as my per uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, per, uh, development and a personality development. Also, they help me a lot these communities. 

Mehmet: That's great. And yeah, to your point, like, you know, when you do business, you need business partners.

And these business partners, the way we get to know them is through, you know, being part of sub communities with networking. To your point, your network is your net worth a hundred percent on that. Uh, and, um, you know. Uh, because especially when we, we are still, you know, uh, maybe a and you know, for me I like, you know, the kind of of personalities and, and companies like you who said, you know what you did with Techbot 'cause you started this.

Out of passion, out of your own problems, and then you grew it. And then of course down the road, like you cannot bring everything from day one. You can't have, as you said, you, you gave a brilliant [00:40:00] example, having the legal, you'll not hire a full-time lawyer for your company from day one because that's make no sense because you never know if you, if you, they're gonna have actually work every day.

Right? So, so maybe it's just as per the need, and this is where you need someone to rely on, maybe you need someone. To your point, when you are bidding on a project, so you need some kind of insurance, maybe you need to know a banker who can help you in maybe, I don't know, line of credits or you know, all, all these kinds of things.

So this is a must have, which people, you know, who, especially this is for the young generation, like guys, you need, you need to kind of do this, your pre-work when you start, because this is where you can. Have someone on your back, of course, like, I'm not saying everyone will be doing your job, but I mean to take, you know, these, uh, small things out of your way so you can focus on your strategy.

So a hundred percent on this Moosa Moosa as we are almost close then. And any final words, any final thoughts you want to [00:41:00] share with us? And of course, my traditional question where people can get in touch with you. 

Moosa: So they always can, uh, touch with me, contact me through my, we have a website called, uh, uh, tech body rp.com, and we have, uh, our, uh, 24 by seven, uh, email available.

And, uh, they can always find our contact information through our. Website and email always be a response. Response, uh, always, uh, give a response. And finally, I want to tell those who Aren to grow their business and they want to scale their business, they should not, uh, think about, uh, not implement an ERP.

They need to. Uh, first they need to think about ERP because, uh, when we are operating a business in Dubai, we need relations copy. These are mandatory relations, obviously. Signage. Yes. Some of [00:42:00] them they do small or big. It's okay that also it'll go software. I say when you consider if you are planning to grow and you need to scale immediately, uh, ERB has mandatory.

And that is one of the mandatory tick point you need to be always consider that. I always, uh uh, always recommend people Go with an ERP and ERP will give you lots of insight and support, which you may not think also. So that is one thing, and sometime people think, well, ERP is too expensive. Why I should, uh, uh, go for an ERP expensive ERP.

See, uh, now everything is, uh, ERP is not an expensive nowadays, especially when introduced to du It can, uh, accommodate for any industry. Uh, we always, uh, we always, uh, consider not size of the, uh, company, size of the [00:43:00] requirement, what they have, the, the workflow that what are the report they need, what are the customization need?

Uh, based on that. So it can go with any size of, uh, company. So don't think that will be an expensive, this is an investment. ERP always an investment and that will give you a real, uh, result, ROE when you properly implement, when you start using ERP, uh, properly. So this is one of my, uh, last I can say that ERP is not, uh, always don't think it's an expensive, always Cancer is an investment.

Mehmet: Yeah. I, I, you know, I thank you for, for the, that Moosa and, you know, for, for technology in general. And we, and I'm happy you mentioned this, so we need to change a little bit, you know, the conception, it's just, it's just an expense. It's not an expense to, and I like you gave the example that you need. Yes.

You need your license. And you can't do business without a license, business license or trade license as we [00:44:00] call it here in the UE. So same thing, you can do business. And I'm very happy, you know, with the recent changes and regulations that, you know, it's pushing people to adopt the technology that once they thought it's just an expanse, why I need to do this.

Uh, and this applies not of course, to the ERP and you know, all the benefits you mentioned, whether it's, uh. You know, sending codes, the CRM uh, the, the accounting part, the, you know, you, you can do a lot of things with, with ERP, like you, your hiring, your payroll, like everything can, can run from your ERP. So it's basically the life of, of your business.

If, if I might say it lives there and I'm happy you, you said this, and we need more awareness, especially from SMEs. But guys, this is not a luxury product. It's, it's a must have product. I You like what you said? If you want to grow, yes. If you want to grow, you need to be professional because, uh, maybe you would agree with me, Moosa also on this.

Like, if you do that late, it, it's like a [00:45:00] harder task because you need to convert from all the manual work you were doing and then start, because, you know, when I decided to, uh, to use, uh, some systems. Uh, from the beginning when I started, you know, my own thing, people, they start, oh, why you are having a system?

I said, guys, like, yeah, I can put now on Excel. I know maybe I'll have one Cote month at the beginning, maybe every two months, but at some stage I know if needs comes, I need to be prepared. So it's like, you know, it's like the insurance to back to your insurance thing. So you, you, you buy the. Insurance before the accident?

Not, not after the accident, right? Because you want to avoid surprises. Moosa, like really, I appreciate the time today and I appreciate, you know, uh, being here with me today and, you know, the, uh, insight that you gave us about the industry in general and your story with the company and, you know, what's next?

Um, I can't thank you enough for this and um, you know, that was great and I advise people to go and check the website, which [00:46:00] will be available in the show notes and connect with Moosa. And this is how I end my episodes. This is for the audience. If you just discovered us, you know now, thank you for passing by.

I hope you enjoyed If you did, so, give me a favor, subscribe and share it with your friends and colleagues who are available on all platforms. Apple Podcast, Spotify, you just name it. And of course on YouTube. And if we are one of the people who keep coming again and again, you are a loyal fan. Thank you very much for your support.

Thank you for all what you did to the podcast this year. We are always trending in multiple countries at the. In the top 200 Apple Podcast chart across multiple countries. We, we keep changing in geography, but you know, that's good that we have a global audience, which is growing by the day. And finally, I, I thank you for people who are supporting with, with the book.

After now, it's been one month almost since it's launch. You can find it in. All in amazon.com. It's from nowhere to next. Let me just show it like this. So from Nowhere to next is available on amazon.com. [00:47:00] Uh, if you can also kind of a support, you know, get your copy, I try to share the insights that I learned from my personal journey and of course from my guest here on the podcast.

And then until we meet next time, thank you very much for tuning in and see you. Bye-bye.