NEWS
KSA
Saudi retail market to top
USD 142 billion in 2021
Saudi Vision 2030 will drive its retail
market to a record-high of USD 142
billion by 2021, industry experts
announced at the Saudi Consumer
Forum hosted by digital transformation
enabler SAP.
Thanks to an increasingly brand-savvy
local population and tourists, the KSA is
the GCC’s fastest-growing retail market,
growing 28% to reach USD 142 billion
by 2021, according to Alpen Capital.
Research firm AT Kearney says the KSA
has the third-highest retail potential in
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“For Saudi retailers and consumer
brands going online is not enough.
SAP is committed to driving the co-
innovation partnerships that can enable
organisation-wide and employee-led
digital transformation to support Saudi
Vision 2030 economic diversification
goals. A real-time digital core can deliver
new levels of omni-channel customer
engagement, talent development, and
innovative new products and services,”
said Ahmed Al-Faifi, Managing Director,
SAP KSA, Bahrain and Yemen.
SAP solutions inter-connect with
emerging technologies such as artificial
intelligence, blockchain, machine
learning, and the Internet of Things.
In the Middle East, SAP co-innovates
with leading retail and consumer
brands, including Saudi engineering and
construction firm alfanar, Edita Food
Industries, and SOUQ.com.
Ahmed Al-Faifi, Managing Director,
SAP Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and
Yemen presents at the Saudi
Consumer Forum
Two thirds of KSA organisations
rank cybersecurity as top IT priority
As Saudi organisations drive digital business competitiveness
in support of Saudi Vision 2030, connecting applications
and devices to networks is exposing them to more complex
cyber-threats. Research from VMware finds two-thirds (64%)
of Saudi organisations rank cybersecurity as their top IT
priority, with businesses in the region increasing funding for
cybersecurity across data backup (74%), encryption (66%),
threat monitoring (64%) and firewalls (60%).
Jean-Pierre Brulard, senior vice president and general
manager, EMEA, VMware, said: “Despite increased spending
on cybersecurity, traditional security models need to change.
Two-thirds of IT decision-makers in Saudi Arabia rank
cybersecurity as their top IT priority. About half (46%) of
Saudi organisations still expect to be hit by a cyber-attack,
almost three times the amount of respondents in the wider
EMEA region (16%).
This is according to research from VMware, a global leader
in cloud infrastructure, announced at the IDC CIO Security
Summit 2017 Saudi Arabia.
www.intelligentcio.com
“To better protect business brands and customer trust, IT
departments should shift their spending focus to securing
applications, which are at the heart of business success
and competitiveness.
“That is why we have added VMware AppDefense™ to our
security transformation portfolio, to enable organisations to
further secure the interactions between users, applications,
and data.”
INTELLIGENTCIO
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