Doing Business In Saudi Arabia - Bna

Information Technology Equipment & Services (ICT)
Overview Return to top
Information Technology, specifically in the IT consolidation and enterprise-wide solution
market has tremendous growth potential in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This positive
outlook is a direct function of the tremendous financial boom that Saudi Arabia is
experiencing. Currently, Saudi Arabia is using this surplus cash to steadily move its
government and businesses towards a network-integrated future.
Whilst this IT boom occurred in the United States in the late 90s and early 2000s, lack of
Internet penetration and connectivity in daily life has slowed the pace of reform in the
Kingdom. As stated by leading Saudi IT professional, ‘companies are assisting both the
public and private sector to construct top-to-bottom IT infrastructures within their
organizations.’
IT service vendors are widening their services portfolio to meet future end-user demand.
This demand is shifting from traditional services like deploy and support to customization
and outsourcing. Spending on IT Services will increase for several reasons:
5/13/2008
High oil prices will have a direct and positive impact on the economy
The entry of new players in the telecoms, banking and government sectors will
boost demand for services
Customers are warming up to outsourcing services models
End users and services providers alike are investing in IT training due to the
skills shortage in the country.
It is difficult for service vendors to differentiate themselves in the provision of
commercially available packages applications such as ERP, CRM and SCM. As
customers shift their focus from infrastructure setup to solutions that bring business
efficiency, service providers that understand the challenges of customer’s business and
can assist in integrating business and IT will succeed.
Opportunities Return to top
The Saudi Council of Ministers has approved a national plan for the development of its
telecom and information technology sector with the objective of transforming the
Kingdom into a knowledge-based society and a digital economy.
The plan calls for the establishment of a powerful telecom and IT industries to make
them one of the major sources of income.
The national plan for telecom and IT has long-term and short-term objectives. The
Kingdom has already begun implementing some plans and programs for the
development of the sector.