For companies looking to reach new markets in real-time, introduce efficiencies into their relationships with existing trading partners and ensure their own organisations are agile enough to fast-changing market opportunities, e-business is a powerful and attractive option, claims Tejari, the Middle East’s first business-to-business online marketplace.

Government and business organisations across the Middle East have recognised the importance of e-business to future growth and are investing in an internet-enabled political and technological infrastructure accordingly, says Yazan Hatamleh, Tejari’s   director for sales.
Launched in June 2000 in the UAE, Tejari is an online procurement service provider with a demonstrated knowledge of the unique challenges and traditions of the region’s business community, he says.
Presently, Tejari records a 250 per cent growth rate in the number of online auctions every year and its success, as an online trading service provider is an example of growing adoption of e-business principles in the Middle East. The portal lists over 1,000 online tenders every month and there has been a 100 to 150 per cent increase in membership, says Hatamleh.
Tejari is well on its way to building a comprehensive regional presence and has begun operations in five more countries – Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon and Syria. More are in the pipeline including the other Gulf states and North Africa.
Of its current membership of 2,471, 700 companies are related to the field of construction. Almost 80 per cent of these companies comprise suppliers and 20 per cent buyers, says Hatamleh.
Tejari’s major clients include Nakheel; Dodsal; all Dubai government departments, including the municipality, health department and Rulers Court; Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal), Emirates Airline, HSBC, and a number of leading regional conglomerates.
Outlining the benefits of online procurement, Hatamleh says: “Tejari replaces time-consuming, costly, labour-intensive ordering systems with fast, highly efficient, money-saving e-commerce tools and enables reduce overall operating costs.”
Its benefits include:
• Reduction in material costs by quickly locating the most competitive bids;
• Analysing supplier quotes by price, vendor, product, and specified construction codes;
• Shortening fulfilment cycles by communicating online instead of using regular mail or fax; and
• Lower administration costs by eliminating labour-intensive, error-prone paperwork.
Tejari gives suppliers a uniquely competitive selling edge. It provides exposure to a qualified base of customers for a fraction of traditional marketing and advertising costs. It helps access new markets, attain immediate exposure to large and qualified customer base, gain immediate access to Requests for Quotes (RFQs), generate bids electronically and reply to RFQs instantly and lower administration costs, he concludes.