Tech Access Appoints Country Manager

IT distributor Tech Access has appointed Saleh Al-Mutairi as the country manager for Saudi Arabia. Al-Mutairi, a Saudi national with 10 years experience in the local IT industry, will be responsible for developing Tech Access’ channel partners across the Kingdom, while strengthening ties with the business community.

With a BS in Computer Engineering and an MBA from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Al-Mutairi has worked for Saudi Aramco, the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry and KFUPM. Prior to joining Tech Access, Al-Mutairi was the GM for Tejari in Saudi Arabia.

“Technology has always been a passion for me. It’s a field which empowers, which offers limitless opportunities. Tech Access is an enterprise distributor which has a very varied and interesting portfolio of products and solutions. My challenge is to prove the case to the channel and to enterprises that we can add value to their business,” said Al-Mutairi.

With an unprecedented level of spending on technology, Saudi Arabia is the largest market in the Middle East for software, hardware and services. IDC estimates that in the Kingdom, $2.59 billion was spent on technology in 2005, and that over the next five years the Saudi IT market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 12.8 percent. As the government plans to expand its e-government project, public sector spending is also expected to rise to hit a minimum of $3 billion over the next three years.

Wataniya Increases Saudi Stake

Regional mobile network operator Wataniya International has increased its investment in Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications market, raising its share in Bravo, the Kingdom’s only provider of push-to-talk wireless communication solutions, to 47 percent.

“Bravo has been a tremendous success with the business segment in the Kingdom. We are keen to continue investing in Saudi Arabia’s dynamic and fast-growing market, where the combination of sound governance, a clear regulatory regime and strong market demand create an environment where we believe investment in new market opportunities makes tremendous sense,” said Ahmad Haleem, CEO of Wataniya International.

Bravo won a 15-year contract to “build, operate and transfer” wireless push-to-talk service in Saudi Arabia and Wataniya International is the manager of that operation.

Orbit Satnet Apologizes

Orbit Satnet has apologized to its customers for the Internet outage that disrupted Satnet service at the end of December. The outage was due to the earthquake off Taiwan, which severely damaged the Orbit Satnet primary and redundant backbone connectivity. Orbit Satnet was unable to offer continuity of service to its customers. As a gesture of commitment to its customers, Orbit Satnet will be crediting their accounts with seven days of compensation.

Regional Headquarters Opens for SanDisk

The world’s largest supplier of flash storage card products, SanDisk, has opened its regional headquarters in Dubai, covering the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the Levant (Jordan and Lebanon), Greece, Turkey and Africa. Since 2005, SanDisk has expanded its store front network in the region from 2,340 to 6,705 to date.

“SanDisk products witnessed a significant growth in the Middle East over the past few years. Together with the distributors in the region, we are now in a situation where we have tripled our store fronts in Middle East countries and we are pleased to step up and open our regional headquarters in Dubai,” said Edward Moro, SanDisk’s vice president and managing director of EMEA.

Moro also announced that SanDisk is in the process of finalizing plans to launch Arabic language support for its flagship Sansa MP3 players in the very near future.