Yesser wins for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia won the top award in information security for the Government Service Bus (GSB), an infrastructure project submitted for consideration at the third annual Government Technology Awards 2009 held in Bali. Known as the Oscars for Asia’s public sector IT, the Government Technology Awards recognize outstanding government projects across Asia. The GSB was considered to be among the most high-impact projects within the Saudi e-Government Program’s (Yesser) projects portfolio. Ali Al-Soma, director general of Yesser accepted the award on behalf of the Kingdom. To learn further details of the GSB please see www.yesser.gov.sa/documents/GSB.pdf

Saudi Arabia together with Australia, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam, each won an award out of the twelve awards for different categories, while Malaysia and India won two awards each and Singapore took three awards. Open to public sector organizations in Asia Pacific, there were 622 individual nominations from 16 countries spanning central and local government, healthcare and education organizations. From the Gulf Region, the UAE and Bahrain were also short-listed together with Saudi Arabia.

BSF fights threats

Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) has replaced its existing Intrusion Detection System (IDS) with TippingPoint’s Intrusion Protection System (IPS) to protect its IT infrastructure and corporate network from blended and malicious threats. TippingPoint’s IPS builds on conventional intrusion detection system technologies by not only recognizing malicious attacks, but also taking steps to actively block them.

To select the new security solution, BSF’s security and IT team conducted three “proof of concept” tests using solutions available from the top IPS providers listed on the current Gartner Magic Quadrant.

STC signs new agreements

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has selected technology from Motive, an Alctatel-Lucent company, to improve its customer services. Motive’s High Speed Internet ServiceView solution will offer a unified customer care environment providing end-to-end visibility and control of broadband services with automated problem analysis and resolution for STC’s network. Plus, Alcatel-Lucent will provide STC with a complete set of services encompassing installation, commissioning, project management and software customization and integration.

The High Speed Internet ServiceView solution will allow STC customer service representatives to quickly setup and manage new services. Customer service representatives will also have the ability to diagnose and resolve High Speed Internet service issues from a single consolidated view. This should dramatically improve the end-user experience by simplifying troubleshooting and repair processes for data services.

Additionally, STC has signed a five-year agreement with Software AG which will enable the telecom provider to use Software AG’s web Methods product suite. Specifically, Software AG will provide maintenance and support services focusing on Saudi Telecom’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and billing systems.

Zain’s disappointing results

Mobile telecommunications operator Zain has announced its consolidated financial results for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2009. The results showed significant growth in many key indicators when compared to the corresponding nine months period in 2008. However, the company’s bottom line was disappointing, impacted by currency fluctuations as well as increased financing and depreciation costs due to network expansion.

Zain saw a year-on-year customer base increase of 28 percent to 71.8 million customers. The company’s consolidated revenues jumped 24 percent to $6.169 billion. The company registered good operational performance, with Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) rising by 37 percent to reach $2.624 billion and earnings before interest and taxes rose to $1.576 billion. However the company ended up with a net income of just $677.1 million, far less than expected, reflecting a decrease of 17 percent with earnings per share of $0.18.

Commenting on the results, Zain’s CEO Saad Al-Barrak said, “the global economic crisis, unfavorable foreign currency fluctuations, particularly in many of our African operations coupled with reduced interest income and investment income plus higher financing costs, have had a significant impact on the company’s overall profit. Adding to these challenges are the associated ‘start-up’ capital and operational expenditures in two large and promising operations that were launched in the last 12 months, namely the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Ghana, as well increased fixed costs charges as a result of network expansion in many of our markets.”

During the first nine months of 2009 foreign currency fluctuations negatively impacted Zain’s net profit by $130 million, a 125 percent increase relative to the same period for 2008. “With improving currency stability in many of our African operations, we expect to attain better results in 2010 and beyond,” noted Al-Barrak. “Compared to the same period last year, interest income from investments as well as investment income for the period dropped 80 percent to reach only $19 million.”