EJADA
Out to dominate the Saudi market.
By ITP-Enterprise Computing Guide
Eliot Beer
Created form a merger of three separate companies in 2005, EJADA is celebrating its third anniversary with dramatic growth that puts at the top end of the Saudi integrator tree. It has expanded from its initial workforce of 150 to more than 550 employees, with access to further 300 around the region thanks to its partnerships with other Middle Eastern integrators.
Based in Riyadh, the firm also boasts offices in Jeddah and Khobar in the Kingdom, as wall as branches in Cairo, Alexandria, Amman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It serves major customers throughout the region, in particular much of the Saudi banking sector, including Al Rajhi Bank, SABB, Saudi Fransi Bank, Riyadh Bank and Arab National Bank, among many others.
EJADA also has a strong focus on other verticals including oil and gas, telecoms and government, boasting customers including a number of Saudi ministries and government departments, Saudi Telecoms Company (STC), Mobily, and Saudi Aramco. On the vendor side Ejada counts big names such as IBM, Oracle and Microsoft as partners, as well as more niche players, including HP ProCurve, Net App, 3I Infotech and Sandpiper.
Despite its regional presence, Ejada will continue to focus on the Saudi market this year, as it seeks to take advantage of the high levels of spending the country is currently seeing on technology projects.
It will also carry forward its strong focus on the lucrative financial sector, and at the same time will seek to extend its reach into other vertical markets, according to Fawaz Abou Nasr, executive vice- president for business development and corporate planning at Ejada.
"Saudi Arabia will remain our main focus market in 2008," says Abou-Naser. "As for industries, we have plans to sustain our focus on the banking industry, as wall as major plans to grow our business in the telecommunications sector in particular – there’s a lot of interest in that – as wall as government and oil and gas sectors. We also want to have a greater penetration in the education and healthcare markets."
KSA is certainly proving to be a successful market for Ejada – a 2007 IDC report on the Saudi IT sector listed the firm as the fourth largest IT services and solutions company in the country, the number one custom application development and applications consulting and customization firm, as well as being the number two application management player and the number four in information systems consulting.
The firm’s staff are justifiably proud of these achievements, which count for a great deal in the KSA's competitive IT sector. But Ejada is not resting on its laurels, and continues to add staff, vendors – and, most importantly, customers.
MORE COMMITMENT
In order to achieve its ambitious aims, Ejada says it needs additional support form global venders to continue to develop its business and expand into new markets, according to Abou-Nasr: "We would like to see a more proactive involvement in the market from technology providers and vendors in Saudi Arabia, giving a higher weight to the regional market.
Most vendors see the region as a much smaller market compared to Europe and the US. Vendors also need to show more commitment to supporting our services to enable us to deploy their technologies."
With vendor interest in Saudi Arabia growing exponentially, Ejada should be well set to receive the support it wants, and continue on its path to dominating the kingdom's enterprise IT sector.