(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) They say that having a sense of humour and appreciating a joke will get you very far in life.
For Tarek AlZubair, managing director of Synergistics, an offhand joke on fuel prices led to the creation of the Sayarti application.
Sayarti - My Car UAE is a driver app offering a comprehensive range of utilities such as fuel price updates, petrol station locator, parking payment in Dubai and much more.
"The idea came out of a joke to be honest," AlZubair says candidly. "When the UAE Ministry of Energy announced that they would be deregulating the fuel prices, me and my team asked if we should do an app for fuel prices, and we all laughed saying that it would not be a successful app."
"A few days later all of us had come up with sketches and designs for the app, and a few weeks later we had launched our beta version, and the response was overwhelming. Hence, we asked ourselves, how could be improve the app and what other services would people like to see on the app. Now, over a year later, Sayarti - My Car UAE is the app that you see today."
The Sayarti team would also go on to partner with key market players in their own respective industries to offer users the option of directly purchasing car insurance online; and requesting either new tires or batteries, at their home or office, with Dial-A-Tire and Dial-A-Battery.
"Our app complements all drivers in the UAE, as our key objective is to be the Siri of every person who owns or drives a car in the UAE. By that, if you look at all the apps that are available in the store today, none have consolidated all the services into a single platform whereby you only have to have one app to access all your needs as a driver," AlZubair explains.
For AlZubair and his team, designing and creating apps is nothing new. In March 2015, after seeing the growth of the digital and technology space globally and locally, he founded Synergistics, a startup software developer boutique.
"I decided to set Synergistics up, as there were no locally-based tech companies that could be reliable enough to build applications, other than the big five companies, and they would not entertain any small projects," AlZubair noted. "Synergistics is a little over a year old now, and, since our launch, we were able to do over 10 major apps for both our in-house projects, as well as our clients - you can say that we target to deliver at least one new project every month." Anyone acquainted with AlZubair will attest to just how busy a schedule he keeps, something all young entrepreneurs in the UAE have to deal with. "I have the responsibility to manage a team of over 24 people across three offices in three different time zones, so it is not easy. It requires a lot of patience and proper time management," he admits.
Besides the Sayarti app, Synergistics has developed a number of other popular applications such as My Goldtracker and Wajibati. However, AlZubair is quick to point out that while the public responses to many of the apps have been great, there were a few that took some time to get noticed.
"Some apps that we have built did not get an early response such as the gold tracker app, which we thought would be quick to grow," he recalls.
"We had really thought that we would have a great demand for the app from the sub-continent region. Against our initial thought, the growth surprisingly came mainly from Saudi Arabia and China. Hence, we had to make a few changes to accommodate the growth," he added.
AlZubair also doesn't shy away from saying that he has faced a lot of challenges in his entrepreneurial foray. Today, he no longer sees challenges as obstacles, but as learning experiences for him and his team.
"My advice to young entrepreneurs in the UAE will be in the words of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who said that those who neglect the new will remain at the back of the line, and those who wait for luck to make things happen will be disappointed," AlZubair said.
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Rohma Sadaqat I am a reporter and sub-editor on the Business desk at Khaleej Times. I mainly cover and write articles on the UAE's retail, hospitality, travel, and tourism sectors.Originally from Lahore, I have been living in the UAE for more than 20 years. I graduated with a BA in Mass Communication, with a concentration in Journalism, and a double minor in History and International Studies from the American University of Sharjah.If you see me out and about on assignment in Dubai, feel free to stop me, say hello, and we can chat about the latest kitten videos on YouTube.
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