Saudi Aramco, INVITA Win
During a ceremony held at the second annual HDI-MEA Conference and Expo in Cairo, HDI-MEA announced the winners of the Team Excellence Awards, which honor support organizations that have achieved the highest standards of customer service. The industry prizes went to Saudi Aramco’s IT Customer Care Center and INVITA, a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company owned by the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK).
The awards, presented by HDI-MEA, the world’s largest membership association for IT service and support professionals, recognize the contribution of the two companies to the enhancement of the call center, outsourcing and IT service management industries through their commitment to customer service and skills training. The awards also aim to improve the quality of IT service and support worldwide, by encouraging organizations to focus equally on customer service and technical support skills.
“These awards celebrate investments in both people and technology, as we cannot create a culture of excellence without first investing in a framework to provide first class customer service. These two companies are leading by example and have created a successful synergy between information technology and human talent to excel and innovate in their respective services,” said Moustafa Kadous, president and COO, HDI-MEA.
The Internal Team Excellence Award was presented to Saudi Aramco based on the company’s low staff turnover rate of five percent, high customer satisfaction ratings and a first call resolution rate of 92 to 95 percent. With Saudi Aramco’s call center staff handling a volume of up to 100,000 calls per month, the IT Customer Care Center provides first class services including service desk support, customer relationship, desk-side support, IT service management, incident management, problem management and change management.
Outsourcing provider INVITA secured the External Team Excellence Award, for its efforts in consistently achieving high ratings on all measures of customer service. A team of 65 staff at INVITA, managing more than 45,000 calls per month, has created a first-class outsourcing partner in the region that has recently achieved a 92 percent satisfaction rating from their client base.
STC Emerges in Global Telecom Market
Telecom advisory and investment firm, Delta Partners, has just released a white paper, “The Emergence of Global Industry Titans and Implications for Emerging Market Players.” The paper discusses the development of the global telecom sector and the potential for further consolidation in the industry, as well as the increasing levels of globalization in the telecoms world.
“The telecoms sector is fast becoming a truly global industry, similar to the financial services sector in the last decade,” said Kristoff Puelinckx, managing partner, Delta Partners and co-author of the White Paper. “Operators start to realize it is possible to run the business on a global level. Shareholders constant demands for new growth markets will make this globalization trend almost inevitable. With operator cash positions improving, the question seems no longer if it will happen, just when and who will start this trend.”
The paper outlines five categories of telecom players, clustered by size, footprint and hunger for expansion. The key operators are made up of the Global Titans, European Indecisives, Asian Tigers, Emerging Challengers and National Players. The paper emphasizes the relevance of understanding these trends and specifically the implications for operators in the Middle East and Africa.
“Regional operators will need to decide on their future direction and vision, and ask what type of operator they want to become,” said Puelinckx. “This requires a conversation between management and shareholders, as buy or being bought seem the only true alternatives. Both are valid strategies that if followed consciously can maximize shareholder value.”
Key figures and highlights from the paper are:
• Already today, the largest global players are seen to operate in 30 to 40 countries around the world.
• The total estimated cash available for merger and acquisition activity by the Top 5 Global Titans in the next two years is close to $170 billion.
• China holds the largest industry players in terms of subscribers, with over 200 million subscribers, and still growing aggressively. China Mobile is expected to build up a war chest of close to $100 billion in the next years, putting it in a position to buy anyone, anywhere.
• As penetration grows, global annual subscriber growth rate is slowing down, reaching six percent in 2010 — requiring operators to look for alternative sources of growth and concentrate on emerging markets.
• Many regional players are cash-rich and scouting for opportunities. Even local players such as STC with current cash availability of over $20 billion could be a player making very aggressive acquisitions and totally changing their profile overnight, in and beyond the region.
FSC Gains Ground in Middle East
The surge in demand for notebooks during the first quarter of 2007 has led to an unprecedented increase in market share for Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) in the Middle East and Africa, with Saudi Arabia witnessing a marked increase in sales. FSC has captured seven percent of Saudi Arabia’s notebook market share.
In the Kingdom, according to IDC, the company recorded 110 percent year-on-year growth in the commercial notebook sector, and a 198 percent tear-on-year increase in the desktop segment. Another growth area for Fujitsu Siemens Computers was reported in the consumer desktop segment, with 280 percent.
“Saudi Arabia is driving the region’s notebook market with a year-on-year growth of 56 percent,” said Samer El Sayed, country sales manager for Fujitsu Siemens Computers in Saudi Arabia. “Our growth during the first quarter of 2007 can be attributed to the upward trend in mobility, and expansion in wireless connectivity. We have recorded 116 percent growth in all form factors in Saudi Arabia, and 20.5 percent year-on-year growth throughout the Middle East.”
El Sayed stated that as a key component of its expansion strategy in Saudi Arabia, FSC has recently signed BDL and Nahil Computers to help penetrate the Kingdom’s small and medium business (SMB) market, boost sales and increase FSC’s presence in Saudi Arabia.
BDL Signs Deal With AMD
BDL (www.bdlsa.com/En/default.aspx) has signed a strategic partnership with AMD to distribute AMD’s portfolio of products across the Kingdom. With 228 staff members, BDL already distributes for vendors such as Acer, Lexmark and Lenovo. BDL has strategically located warehouses in Riyadh, Jeddah, Alkhobar and Cairo, serving more than 2,700 resellers.
“It is our pleasure to partner with AMD and we look forward to more joint initiatives that will help BDL reinforce its leadership in the distribution field,” said Tamer Isamail, GM of BDL in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking about the partnership, Gaith Kader, regional general manager of AMD in Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, said: “Saudi Arabia is one of our key markets globally. The Kingdom accounts for 40 percent of the IT spend in the Middle East and the market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2010. AMD is entering the Saudi market with full force as we witness this exceptional growth. The Kingdom is working hard on achieving its vision of becoming a major ICT hub and providing leading technology companies, like AMD, with the right infrastructure for growth and success.”
Regional Investors Now Trade Internationally
Mubasher, a subsidiary of National Technology Group (NTG), has launched of a new service through which regional investors can trade through one portfolio on major international stock markets such as the Nasdaq, Nikkei, London Stock Exchange and also Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX).
Mubasher’s new service also allows trading in the commodities, gold, silver and currency exchanges such as the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX), which will enable easier diversification of investment portfolios.
