Short answer. An SME does not digitise in one project but in four steps, one per quarter, in an order that is not negotiable. First quarter: collect and invoice, CIB/Edahabia card, QR, compliant invoice, reminders, because the 2027 finance bill rewards electronic collection and it is the step that pays back fastest. Second quarter: the one flow that loses you money every month, orders, stock or field, equipped end to end. Third quarter: the team and the customer, web back-office, field app, then an ordering app or site. Fourth quarter: AI, reminders, support, alerts, daily summary, last because it needs the data of the first three steps. What is identical in every company is bought by subscription; what makes your trade is built.
This guide answers the SME owners who write to us with the same sentence, “I want to digitise my company but I don't know where to start”, and it draws on the cases we detailed: a real-estate agency on WhatsApp and Google Sheets, a pharmacy with three branches, a carrier with fifty employees, a restaurant that wants a till.
The four steps, in the order they pay
Most SMEs start at the wrong end: a customer app, or “some AI”, because it is visible. Both fail for lack of data underneath. Here is the order that holds.
Collect and invoice first, because that is where the money is. The 2027 finance bill, still a bill amendable until the vote, plans a 10% tax reduction for taxpayers under the IFU or BNC regimes whose receipts are at least half electronic, and a cap on stamp duty for invoices paid in cash. Whether your company is directly concerned or not, depending on your tax regime, to check with your accountant, your customers and suppliers will be, and the direction is clear: electronic collection and compliant invoicing become the norm. The online-merchant file, through your bank and GIE Monétique, takes weeks to months; it starts in January.
The flow that loses money next, and only one. For an e-merchant it is orders refused at delivery. For a pharmacy or a wholesaler, stock and expiry dates. For a carrier or a maintenance company, field staff. You already know it: it is the one you talk about on Sunday evening. The team and the customer third, because a customer app without a back-office ends up administered in Excel. AI last, because it follows up from a schedule, answers from your rules, alerts from your numbers: without the three steps it has nothing to read.
«AI first has nothing to read; a customer app first has nothing to deliver.»
What to buy by subscription, and what to build
The second common mistake is to oppose “off-the-shelf software” to “custom” as if one had to choose for the whole company. You choose by function.
Accounting, payroll and filings are bought, always: your accountant already uses software, and no company has a special trade when it comes to VAT. A point-of-sale till is bought as long as there is one site and standard products; we detailed the restaurant case where several sites, the kitchen, delivery and loyalty must be linked. Invoicing is bought for a few invoices a month and built from hundreds, with schedule, reminders and online payment built in.
Orders, multi-warehouse stock, the field and the customer app are built as soon as volume or the specificity of the trade exceeds what generic software plans for, and that is the case for most Algerian SMEs beyond a certain size: twenty orders a day, two warehouses, ten employees on the road, a customer who pays or tracks something. Custom is not a luxury: it is what lets the flow work with your rules, in Arabic and French, offline in the field, with payment in dinars. A project of this kind is scoped in writing with a total price before starting; we explained it in can you know the total price before starting. If you still hesitate between existing software and development, our guide to IT solutions in Algeria compares both by sector.
The full stack, at the end of 2027
Here is what the SME looks like at the end of the four quarters. Each layer exists because the layer below exists.
Customers keep WhatsApp, but a company WhatsApp Business, with a number, template replies and hours, not the owner's personal phone; orders, tracking and payment go through an app or a site. The team works in an offline mobile app in the field and in a web back-office at the office; the owner reads a dashboard instead of calling. Money is collected electronically or recorded when in cash, invoiced cleanly, followed up automatically. Data lives in one single base, hosted in compliance with Law 18-07, backed up, with traced access. AI follows up, answers in Arabic, French and darija, alerts, and produces the daily summary every evening.
What changes for the owner fits in one sentence: at the end of 2027 they no longer know everything by heart, and the company keeps running when they are not there.
«At the end of 2027 the owner no longer knows everything by heart, and the company keeps running when they are not there.»
The roadmap, quarter by quarter
Twelve months, four deliveries the company uses the next day. Nothing waits for December.
First quarter, January to March: collect and invoice. The merchant file starts in the first week of January. While waiting for the card, three things are set up without software: one single register of sales and receipts, kept by one person; a company WhatsApp number with rules; a compliant invoice for every business customer. By the end of March, CIB/Edahabia cards and QR are accepted, and the share of electronic collection is measured every month.
Second quarter, April to June: the flow that loses money. Written scoping in April, development in May, go-live in June, with existing data imported. One flow only: the result must show on one number, refusal rate, value of expired stock, billed field hours.
Third quarter, July to September: the team and the customer. The web back-office consolidates what the flow started; the field app replaces calls; an ordering app or site opens as a pilot to your best customers before September. We detailed the seven decisions of a mobile app in 2027.
Fourth quarter, October to December: AI and review. Payment and order reminders, support in three languages from your rules, alerts on anomalies, daily summary for the owner. And the review: share of electronic collection over the year, the number of the chosen flow, the owner's time recovered. That review is what decides 2028.
The mistakes we see in SMEs
- Starting with the customer app or with AI. Visible, but with no data underneath. Collection and flow first.
- Six pieces of software that do not talk to each other. Till, invoicing, stock, delivery, each with its own base. One base for what makes your trade, bought software for the rest.
- Digitising everything in the same quarter. The team gives up, and so does the owner. One step per quarter, used the next day.
- Keeping the owner's personal phone as the customer channel. The company stops when they are away. Company WhatsApp Business, then an app.
- Starting the merchant file in June. The card arrives in October. It starts in January.
- Not importing existing data. A wrong stock or schedule on day one loses the team's trust within a week. Import is part of the project.
- Measuring nothing. Without a number per step, nobody knows whether it worked. One number per quarter, read every month.
Frequently asked questions
- Where do I start to digitise an SME in Algeria?
- With collection and invoicing: CIB/Edahabia card and QR through online-merchant status, compliant invoice, reminders. It is the step where the money is, and the 2027 finance bill rewards electronic collection. The flow that loses you money comes next, then the team and the customer, then AI.
- Off-the-shelf software or custom?
- By function, not for the whole company. Accounting, payroll, a simple till and a showcase site are bought. Orders and delivery, multi-warehouse stock, field staff and the customer app are built as soon as volume or the specificity of the trade exceeds what generic software plans for.
- What does the 2027 finance bill change for an SME?
- The text, still a bill, plans a 10% tax reduction for IFU or BNC taxpayers whose receipts are at least half electronic, and a cap on stamp duty for cash invoices. Whether your regime is concerned or not, to check with your accountant, your customers and suppliers will be: electronic collection becomes the norm.
- How long does digitising an SME take?
- Twelve months for the four steps, one per quarter, each used by the company as soon as it is delivered. The merchant file starts in January; the flow that loses money is live in June; the team and the customer are equipped before September; AI and the review close the year.
- Should I stop using WhatsApp?
- No. It becomes a company WhatsApp Business, with a number, template replies and hours, and it broadcasts. Orders, tracking and payment go through an app or a site, where they are recorded and measurable.
- When does AI become useful?
- When it has data to read: a schedule to follow up, rules to answer from, numbers to alert on. That is why it comes in the fourth quarter, after collection, the flow and the back-office. Before that, it has nothing to read.