Despite the AED 543B digital push, 64% of UAE SMEs run core operations on Excel

(MENAFNEditorial) Fortis, a software platform that helps SMEs run and grow their businesses, reveals that 64% of SMEs continue to rely on Excel to manage core operations, despite the UAE investing more than AED 543 billion into digital transformation.

Excel dominance is followed by the use of accounting systems (51%), CRM platforms (35%), delivery tracking tools (35%), and even dedicated POS systems (34%), according to Fortis data.

In the UAE, there are over 557,000 registered SMEs, contributing 63.5% of the country’s non-oil GDP, accounting for 94-95% of all registered businesses, and employing roughly 86% of the private sector workforce

While customer-facing payment systems have seen widespread adoption across sectors such as F&B, automotive services, and commercial laundries, back-office tech remains fragmented. Recent reports indicate that traditional SMEs rely heavily on legacy systems, driven by challenges such as infrastructure gaps, limited access to tailored finance, and software that fails to match real-world workflows.

Fortis’ field report found that over 60% of surveyed merchants actively manage their inventory outside of their own POS systems, defaulting back to spreadsheets.

“Retailers continue to manage inventory, reconciliation, and reporting through custom-built Excel sheets. This is not due to a lack of awareness or access to alternatives, but rather because many existing tools fail to align with how these businesses actually operate. Each business had developed its own customised Excel workflows, tailored precisely to its operations,” says Fortis’ Chief Marketing Officer, Ahmed Sameh.

Business owners consistently cited modern inventory modules as overly complex, requiring steep learning curves and high maintenance without delivering clear ROI. For high-volume operators, juggling disconnected systems results in frequent discrepancies and hours lost to manual reconciliation. Conversely, lower-volume businesses find Excel perfectly adequate for their scale, valuing its simplicity, familiarity, and absolute control.

“What small businesses need is software that earns trust the same way Excel did by being simple, immediate, and completely in the operator’s control,” adds Sameh.

This operational gap presents a critical bottleneck and a major opportunity as the UAE accelerates its digitalisation agenda to target one million registered SMEs by 2030. With sweeping regulatory shifts, such as mandatory e-invoicing and corporate tax compliance, actively reshaping the market, the demand for practical, unified operational tools is reaching a tipping point.

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