Seated: Mohammed AlBakri (left), Executive Vice President of Finance, SAUDIA; and Ahmed Al Faifi, Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia. Standing from left: Abdulaziz Al Hazmi, Deputy Director General, SAUDIA; Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP; Eng. Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, Director General, SAUDIA; Sam Alkharrat, President, SAP MENA; Saleem Abu Taha, Account Executive, SAP Saudi Arabia. SAUDIA, the Kingdom's national carrier and global enterprise software leader SAP, signed on Wednesday a Memorandum of Understanding to boost the Kingdom's economy and employment opportunities. In the Kingdom, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 90 percent of all businesses and 60 percent of total employment – but only 33 percent of total GDP, according to research firm Aranca. In anticipation of the need for SMEs to boost their productivity and for the Kingdom's workforce to be trained in the latest technology, SAUDIA will deploy SAP's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to SMEs. “As the Kingdom's aviation sector continues to take off, we want to ensure that small- and medium-sized enterprises and high-flying university graduates will share this growth,” said Muhammad Ali M. Albakri, CIO & CFO - Saudi Airlines. “This business partnership with SAP demonstrates our commitment to helping train the workforce of the future in the technologies that will not only transform the aviation sector, but the Kingdom's overall economy.” Demonstrating the strong demand for technology skills, 60 percent of the Kingdom's executives and employees said analytic skills would be needed over the next three years, and 44 percent said cloud capabilities would be important, according to the recent landmark survey “Workforce 2020” by Oxford Economics and SAP. “We're extending our business ties with SAUDIA for technology to unlock the Kingdom's economic growth– particularly in SMEs enhancing their supply chain, management, and talent,” said Ahmed Al-Faifi, Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia. “We're entering the Networked Economy era in which organizations not only need to have the right software in place, but also the trained employees to drive business transformation.” Boosting employment opportunities for young Saudi nationals, SAUDIA aims to enroll high-achieving university graduates in an advanced SAP professional certification program. SAUDIA has embarked on business transformation focused on improving customer experience, achieving greater operational excellence, and enhancing its competitive advantage. Since 2008, SAUDIA has used SAP ERP software to manage day-to-day business, including SAP Customer Relationship Management for sales, customer service, and marketing; SAP Hybris for multi-channel e-commerce; SAP HANA, the in-memory data platform for real-time insights; and SAP Master Data Governance for centralizing data distribution and access. – SG
