Uh, hello. Can you guys hear me? Uh, if you guys can hear me, can someone just type something in the chat so I can just make sure everything's okay? Okay, I think everything is fine. So, we're just going to wait minute or two just for more people to join and then we can get started. Okay. So, good afternoon everyone. Thank you guys for joining our webinar today. And uh today we're going to talk about the pathway to success for our UDO partners. So I'll just quickly introduce myself. So my name is uh Had Asam. I'm a partner manager here at UDO in the uh UAE market and a quick overview of the uh presentation tonight. So, we're going to talk about understanding the UDO partnership ecosystem, the role of an UDO partner, uh key steps to success as an UDO partner, building a strong relationship with UDO, and then hopefully at the end we have time for a Q&A session. So, the different levels that we have here at UDO in terms of partnership levels, we've got four different levels. But just before we start and I get into this, I just want to make one thing clear and because this is a question I've been asked so many times that uh or people come and say, "Oh, we're an official UDO partner." So there's no level such as official UDO partner. So every UDO partner is an official UDO partner. There are just levels to it. So we've got learning, ready, silver, and gold. And then the differences between each level is the number of users they have and then the uh number of certificates they have. Our learning partners are mostly our new partners or the newly onboarded partners and then ready onwards. So our ready silver and gold are the ones that are published on to our website. So here are just a few information or this information can be found on our website as well where you can see the uh different levels or different uh requirements that are there for uh different levels of our partnerships. Now just a quick uh overview on our partner recruitments from uh January 2024 and January 2025 here in the UAE market. So in January 2024 we had 64 partners and in January 2025 we have 335 partners. That is more than double of the number of partners we've had. And as of today we have over 400 partners. So we already broke the 400 mark. And in terms of lead generations, we've had 4,000 leads in 2023. And in 2024, we have over 6,500 leads generated just by our partners. Now the uh industries to target. So in UDO we have different industries or UDO can be used for many different industries. Now in this graph that you got Oops, sorry guys. One second. Yeah. So the uh in the graph that you have over here so you can see at the bottom over here are industries that we have not or has not yet been um let's say tackled or people have interacted with in the middle here they're the middle ground where yes there are some sort of clients it's not that big yet and then over here at the top where are the big markets the big industries where where most of the client bases are so some of the matured industries let's say they're over here are retail manufacturing IT and communication and then the uh emerging or the upcoming markets are real estate education and construction and then ones that are open for you guys to tackle and it's a great industries to uh explore are the optic sorry optical uh services and transportations Now, what is a role of an UDO partner? So, this is a question where I want you guys to think about it. Ask yourselves, do you know what you're supposed to do as an UDO partner? So, I'll just give you a minute to think about it and then we'll continue with it. Okay. So, As an UDO partner, the first thing that you are supposed to do, let's say, or the first thing that you're going to want to do is sales and business development. How do you do that? Lead generation. So, which is identifying your potential clients and building relationships with them. Now uh consultative selling as well which means is basically tailoring UDO solution to your client's needs because that's the beauty of UDO. It is suppose the software is to is tailored to the client's needs and wants. Now proposals and negotiations where let's say you've got the lead, you've got the client, they're interested in UDO. Now the next step is to create a proposal, send it over and then negotiate the price and hopefully close the deal. Now the next thing is implementation and customizations. Once you've completed the and close the deal successfully, the next thing is to do the implementation. So which means setting up UDO, installing and configuring the solution and then uh business process mapping which is aligning UDO's modules with the client's operations and then customization. So in certain solutions uh development developing custom features for clients is necessary. Another thing that our partners are supposed to do is training and supporting our clients, which means you educate the uh end user on how to use UDO effectively and efficiently. And then the ongoing support once you're done with the implementation, for example, providing troubleshoot, update, and then system maintenance. And lastly is continuous improvement, which is knowledge sharing and staying updated with all the releases and innovations. uh newer versions etc. Now the next thing is key steps to success. So we already understood what you're supposed to do or what your role is as an UDO partner and now we are going to move forward to how to succeed basically. Okay. So the first and most important thing that needs to be done as an UDO partner or for any business is market analysis. It is very very important to understand the market that you are getting into. So for example here in the UAE the top markets or industries are retail, oil and gas, trading, real estate etc. Because without understanding what the industries are, it is very hard to know who your clients are going to be or who to target. Now the next thing is also competitor analysis which is understanding the strength and weaknesses of the other top ERPs that are out there as well as local solutions and the DS and MMC. So it's not just important to know the industries, it's also important to know the competitors out there. And why? Well, it's as simple as when a client comes and tells you, oh, but I can go for X solution. Why should I go with UDO? And this is where you get out the let's say the analysis that you have and tell him that listen, we're better in this, we're better in that. So you have everything already wherever you're facing a client, you are aware of the differences and the benefits that you provide. Now it is also very important to involve both your sales and technical team in such analysis. So you can also you can sorry so you can compare the sales and you can compare as well the features that we provide. And lastly it is partner analysis. So look at the partners in the ecosystem, analyze their strength and analyze their weaknesses, look at their references, see what industries they've worked in and see what industries they haven't tackled and try to tackle that industry. Find the gap for the opportunity. Now the next thing is leverage your network. So networking is the most important thing as a partner because it's free basically because again starting up as learning partners or even some of the ready partners we understand that um budget might be restricted or limited budgets. So again networking is for free and again part of networking is publishing customer success stories. So existing clients great implementation client is happy publish it for the public to see refer programs for existing client bases implement where you can give them commi commission for successful implement uh successful qualified referrals free or discounted uh AMC's etc. Strategic partnership with hardware vendors through clients where for example you can uh get a partnership with a POSOS provider attendance management commercial partnership with third party consultants partnership with government small business schemes and incubators and events events. So in every region we have events where it's workshop or uh road shows. We always always recommend our partners to attend to network with other partners to network with uh clients and even with their account managers. So enhancing your image is another important way of succeeding as an UDO partner by updating your website. Making sure that your website is up to date with your most recent projects, most recent uh solutions provided, most recent clients and it's always uh aesthetically looking for clients once they visit your website. physical and digital uh marketing materials, publish case studies and success stories, UDO certifications and training which we're going to get into uh later on in the presentation and then strengthen customer relationships, client testimonials, social media presence and engagement and participate in UDO related events. Here are more ways as well that you can enhance your image by for example feedback loops from clients and then um post implementation support and posting videos. The next thing we're going to discuss is building your foundation. So company structure is the most important thing. Why? Because for example, let's say how do we structure our company to manage deals and projects in the best way having projects uh or having the same person find the lead, qualify the lead, gather the requirements, get the scope of work, get the proposal ready and do the negotiation is just very let's say um could be hectic for one person and then would create lack of efficiency for that uh company structure. To help you with that, you have your account managers and your CST for sales and after sales support as well. Now, resource issues are the biggest choke hold for our partners. We'll define if their company will fail or succeed or grow. We understand that lack of resources is the most or one of the struggles that our partners face. So the typical resource challenges that our partners face are owner or manager takes on too much responsibility. Only hires resources when having specific projects or outsource for all projects. Use the profits to invest in company resources. Don't plan for this year or the next year. Plan for 5 years ahead. And then most importantly is research and development. Okay. So your account manager or your partner manager is your partner. And why? Because it's a hand in hand. It's a partnership. So it's not just your partnership with UDO. It's it goes hand in hand where your success is our success and our success is your success. So with your partner manager, it is best advised to have regular partner development reviews. So you review your past cues. You review um so again for example with me I have it every queue where I have reviews with my partners on the um deals that we've closed, deals that we've lost, why we've lost them. These are very important which brings us onto the next point which is regular pipeline reviews. always to be up to date on all the opportunities that you have on your pipeline just so that you don't lose out because you've left it or you forgot about it and accurate forecasting. Now with the partner management again the most important stuff are company profiles, internal resources, marketing activities, websites, certificates, partner needs, account manager needs, etc. Early engagement with clients, so validation from mother company to clients. When you upload a lead or you have a lead on your pipeline or you contact your account manager saying yes, I'm working on this lead. It is very important that you let your account manager know so that then we can get involved because this provides the client with validation that the partner is backed up by the mother company because this also helps us explain the role of UDO from an account manager's perspective and that CST also is explained to the client. So we explain both roles to the client. We can also get client feedback that is shared with the partner. We can get feedback from the client in terms of things that the partner needs to improve on or things that the partner did well. Strategic historical information regarding clients which have been prospecting the solution shared with partners. Valued added associated with account manager increases chances of multi-year contract closing. So again, having your account manager involved from early stages would help build trust with the client and then that would help maximize the profits out of the deal. And guys, be curious, ask questions. Your account managers are there to help you. If it's not there again, just go search online, read uh documents, read uh blogs, look what other partners are doing and ask questions. Now, how to maximize your partnership? So, there are few ways where we provide exclusive support for our partners. UDO certifications, our functional trainings, technical trainings, partner success, uh partner success packs, smart classes, and developers on demand. We're going to get into more details for each point right now. So, building trust and how do you build trust? Showing your expertise. So, proving your expertise for example by providing or having a UDO certificate published on your website. published on your signatures. So this helps builds trust with the clients, helps increases the rate of sales in terms of showing clients that okay, they know what they're doing. They understand what my requirements are going to be and they're going to be able to best help me um improve my business success. Now again in terms of certificates you can add it to your website add it to your email signature market on LinkedIn and as much and market on LinkedIn and social uh platforms and then e-learning platforms to help with the UDO certificates. We always encourage uh or recommend our clients our partners sorry to uh start with a PLO course. So what is a PLO course? So PLO course basically is a fiveweek course which we provide here at UDO by one of our or by our dedicated consultants to the partner teaching our partners and their team the core of UDO. So it teaches them what the main modules are, how to implement them, gap analysis and project documentations, helps them understand case studies and workshops and progress reports and how to go live successfully. Project success rate increases by 79% and acquiring new clients increases by 66% by partners that have completed the PLO course. Now let's say you already know the basics of UDO. You've already had few projects and implemented them successfully and you want to go on and take on the bigger projects. This is where we provide the TCO training which again is a 4-week course this time. However, this is more in depth which helps with architecture and development environment where GitHub and UDOSH. So creating modules and uh module extensions again in this course it uh helps with we provide case studies and workshops. It's again in-depth technical development and customizations and if you would like also you can sell your developments on UDO's app store the project's delivery. So at UDU we have something called success packs. What are they? So our success packs are basically packs of hours where they're broken down into we have 25, 50, 100, and 200 hours. Those hours are then are there to help our partners with uh multiple projects and implementations. Can be used for functional and technical questions. They can help our partners for example to uh gap analysis. Let's say if they have a project or they have a client where the requirement might be a bit too big or too tough for a new partner, they can get on a call or the consultant can help the partner qualify that client or gather the requirements that the client is going to need. These are more options of our success packs that we have here available at UDO for our partners. You've got pre-sales analysis, gap analysis, ROI analysis, and technicals consultants. So there are also hiring UDO developers for custom uh or for developer for c hire udu developers for custom codes which is basically let's say you're requiring a custom development for a certain client where there are features that are not on the standard version of UDO. However, it can be implemented through customization and development. You can also hire a developer where you leverage UDO's experience managing large complex projects. Trained offshore resources will keep your development under control. Protects and deliver uh projects on time and within budgets. Extending teams ability to implement large projects and you can build your customers directly for the developments. These are just more of the services that we provide for our partners in terms of developer development where we have automated testing, collaborating on specifications, um deploy developments quickly and easily for mobile apps, automated tests, new modules and data importing and exporting. So this is just a quick overview of the um services that we provide here at UDO that we just spoke about. Now becoming industry experts. It is not recommended to partners to just branch out to as many industries as possible because then you can never be a let's say a guru of that industry or that industry is your expertise. Clients would feel more comfortable and confident when going to a partner saying that yes this is my area of expertise. I've already got five or 10 or 15 references in that specific uh industry. And how do you do that? We've got advanced training courses where we call them our smart classes. So smart classes basically are the in-depth of a specific module that you would like to uh specialize in. So here are a few examples of the smart classes that we have. We've got our accounting, inventory, MRP and point of sales. These are just few of them. However, we have much more than that. And most importantly is to believe in what you sell. If you go to a client and you're not even sure why you're pitching UDO or why UDO is beneficial for them, then if you don't believe it yourself, they're not going to believe it either. So optimizing internal subscriptions. Create an internal subscription for the team to use for building a website, a CRM, sending quotations and managing projects as well as marketing activities. It is very important that you guys see the value in Udu before going and selling it to clients because as a client why am I getting confidence in a partner that is not even using the software themsel or doesn't even believe in the benefits that the software provides. So this will also help in learning more about UDO and identifying your departments and exploring the software. also helps getting more users because internal subscriptions go under your total user count. Now the next thing is everyone's favorite topic is increases your profits. Pricing strategy recommendations. It is very important to communicate with your account manager on average hourly rate or mandates. understand the market you're targeting as well as the competition. Because if I'm targeting a market where the average price is, let's say, 10,000 dirhams or 50,000 dirhams, and then I go quoting my clients 200 or 250, I'm not going to get any deals. I'm not going to get any clients. And then I can't go and complain saying, "Oh, UDO is a bad software or you guys are not helping me enough." Because you have to understand the market you're targeting and your competitors as well because having understanding what your com your competitors are pricing, you can then fall within the same range and then be you being an expert in that industry is the upper hand that you have on your competitors. Be competitive yet valuable. So we're not saying go much cut under their pricing or go over. No, it just be within the same range but valuable because this brings us back to the same point where having that extra edge in being an expert in a specific industry. Use UDO's multi-year contracts. This is the best way to make the most out of your commission for something that you just basically do for closing the deal. And with that, I highly highly recommend aligning with your partner manager. Try to have them involved from the start of the deal so that then that relationship of trust is built between the client, yourself and Udu and your account manager from UDO. Avoid discounts. Communicate your value, expertise and services. Do not just provide discounts for the sake of trying to close the deal or being afraid of losing out on a client. No, show them your value. Show them that this is the solution that is going to help them and this is the price that you are pricing for your effort and hard work. Not just that, but this is also going to help them. So, show them the value for them from their side. Don't just go off, okay, the easy way out where you just give them a discount so you can close the deal and focus on long-term relationships, upselling and AMC's. So the top voices another thing which I really like to do is look at people that are um well in the uh ERP system. So for example you have Fabian. This is our founder and CEO for UDU. Just going and looking at the posts that they post uh speeches talks they make. Not just that. Um, for example, we've got Eric Kimberling, which is an ERP consultant. Again, these are people that I just like to go and see their insights on what they think of ERPs, softwares, and what is new in the market. Always staying up to date with uh what is happening because again in the ERP software and ERP world, every single day things are changing. Every single day new things are coming up. Um, so thank you guys for joining me today and if you guys have any questions and just open the floor for uh questions. Okay, there doesn't seem to be any questions. Everything's everything seems to be clear. So, if everything is clear, thank you guys so much for joining me today and best of luck. Thank you.