On behalf of Communications and Information Technology Minister Muhammad Jameel Mulla, President of Saudi Post Muhammad Banten opened the conference at Jeddah Inter.Continental, which was attended by more than 100 CIOs, businessmen and government officials.
Banten highlighted the remarkable progress achieved by the Kingdom’s IT sector and emphasized the need for making greater efforts to develop IT infrastructure of various institutions to ensure information security.
Abdul Aziz Al-Helayyil, country manager for IDC, the organizer of the summit, said the Saudi IT market has been experiencing speedy growth despite global economic depression. “Experts are expecting 20 percent increase in IT spending in the Kingdom,” he said.
He emphasized the role of IT managers in taking the right decisions and identifying priorities for their companies in order to cut down operational expenses and apply advanced IT systems that would enhance efficiency and ensure better services.
Zamil Alossaimi, general manager for application development at the IT department of Saudi Arabian Airlines, urged IT producers and service providers to provide greater support to end users. “Compared to North American and European customers, we receive less support from IT suppliers,” he pointed out.
Alossaimi emphasized the summit’s significance. “CIOs spearhead the service industry. This is the first time such a conference is taking place in Jeddah. It gives an opportunity for IT managers and service providers to exchange ideas and explore new trends in the industry.”
Mark Walker, IDC director for insights and vertical industries for Middle East, Africa and Turkey, estimated the Saudi IT market at $7.8 billion as more and more people, especially the youth, are using IT devices and services. He noted the tremendous growth achieved by the IT sector in terms of bandwidth availability.
Speaking about cloud computing, he said some clients are still hesitant to adopt it because of security concerns. “There is security. If they remain hesitant they will be left behind.” He said the conference helps CIOs to meet their peers, benchmark their services and make future plans, making use of latest trends. He also hoped that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would use IT to boost their businesses.
Several top IT executives were present at the summit. Nizar Abdul-Baki of Microsoft said his company was holding 25 percent of the Kingdom’s addressable software market. He said the company has invested substantially in its global data centers.
