COUNTRY FOCUS: SAUDI ARABIA
Dr Hatem Bakheet, CEO of SAB Innovation.
continents. By hosting its workloads on
the IBM Cloud, SAB Holding not only
enjoys a highly secure environment
but can scale instantaneously to
accommodate the growth of its data.
Since the implementation, SAB
Holding saw a decrease in the time
spent managing its IT environment
and launching new applications. SAB
Holding employees also benefit from
the new, automated processes for
gathering month-end closing and
status reports and can more efficiently
leverage their data to make faster,
better business decisions.
“Time constraint was a major challenge
for us. By selecting the IBM Cloud,
we were able to launch our mission-
critical SAP-based ERP applications in a
timely and seamless manner, without
disrupting our business,” said Dr Hatem
www.intelligentcio.com
Bakheet, CEO of SAB Innovation. “We
are very pleased to have a leader in the
cloud space such as IBM to support
us with this transformation which will
surely contribute to positive business
outcomes too.”
Tarek Zarg El Aioun, Chief Operations
Officer, IBM Saudi Arabia, said: “In a
traditional IT environment, businesses
may face a variety of challenges such
as complex environments that can’t
scale quickly or even a shortage of
specialised skills. IBM Cloud will not
only deliver the flexibility and scalability
the business needs, but will enable
SAB Holding to have its technology
subsidiary focus on highly strategic
initiatives, while IBM handles the day-
to-day management of the cloud.”
Founded in 1990, SAB Holding is
owned and chaired by Sheikh Salah Al
Belawi. Its technology subsidiary, SAB
Innovation, is an IBM Business Partner,
reselling IBM solutions across Saudi
Arabia. Intelligent CIO spoke to Dr
Hatem Bakheet, CEO of SAB Innovation,
to get the complete lowdown on the
new system.
What were the problems with the old
system used by SAB Holding?
In major construction projects, the
budgets are big and the stakes are even
higher. To ensure that building projects
are completed on time and to a high
standard, construction companies
depend on a clear view of finance,
materials, people and project status.
Ruwad Civil Construction (RCC),
SAB Holding’s construction services’
subsidiary, was at a disadvantage for
operating finance, payroll and inventory
INTELLIGENTCIO
39