Measuring competitiveness of SMEs

AUSTIN, USA: National Instruments Arabia managing director Michel Haddad recently addressed entrepreneurs from Western Asia at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) expert group meeting in Cairo, Egypt. During his presentation, "Harnessing Technology for Enhanced Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises Productivity and Competitiveness," Haddad discussed how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can implement existing technology to keep up with increasingly demanding market preferences.

"An SME is oftentimes hampered by the lack of resources as well as access to research and development. The difficulties also lie in finding quality technical and human resources. Harnessing the capabilities of commercial off-the-shelf technologies (COTS) helps increase quality and process control capability in the organization, which is a key strategy for businesses of this size,” Haddad said. “By not tapping into available resources, small- and medium-sized enterprises run the risk of falling behind in a constantly progressive, highly competitive industry."

The ESCWA expert group meeting addressed institutional, financial and policy frameworks to overcome market failures and barriers associated with technology deployment and outlined successful technology tools for improving SME productivity at all stages of the production process.

SMEs in the ESCWA region dominate economic activities in numerous services and manufacturing sectors and are major sources of income and employment. The companies, however, face constant productivity, competitiveness and survival pressures, a situation that is further exacerbated by the rapidly changing arena of international trade and market preferences.

To compensate for small R&D budgets and teams, Haddad encouraged attendees to take advantage of the billions of dollars spent on R&D by leading technology companies such as Intel. One example was how the NI LabVIEW graphical programming for embedded control platform gives engineers all of the components for making measurements in a process control system.

The platform also gives engineers the ability to network and use both in-house and industry IP as well as implement measurement I/O modules such as temperature, vision, motion control and position detection. New technologies provide flexibility and adaptability advantages, increases in performance due to computing advances and new digital techniques as well as the ability to reduce size and cost.

ESCWA promotes economic and social development through regional and sub-regional cooperation and integration and serves as the main general economic and social development forum within the United Nations system for the region. The UN conference is a part of ESCWA activities aimed at improving the performance and competitiveness of small- and medium-sized businesses by facilitating access to new technologies and innovative practices.