Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian Airlines announced that it has awarded a long term next generation IT infrastructure transformation contract to Wipro Arabia Ltd. Wipro Arabia, a joint venture between Wipro Ltd. and Dar Al Riyadh Group, provides IT Solutions & Services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The 5 years agreement, which is valued at over $100 Million, was signed in a gala ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

As a part of its privatization program, Saudi Arabian Airlines has undertaken an extensive business transformation exercise, which will create an organization designed around innovation, agility and customer centricity. An IT Master Plan aimed at overhauling central IT was developed for supporting this transformation. By leveraging cutting edge Information Technology, Saudi Arabian Airlines will effectively transform into a world-class service provider to maintain its position as the leading airline in the region.

To enable Saudi Arabian Airlines realize its vision, Wipro Arabia will deliver a futuristic, scalable & efficient managed infrastructure platform based on industry standards and best of breed technology choices. This will become the bedrock for driving all operations and business transformation at Saudi Arabian Airlines. The scope for Wipro Arabia includes data centre consolidation & management, integration and management of a highly secure converged network and comprehensive enterprise wide Managed Infrastructure & Security Services.

Speaking on the occasion, Khalid Almolhem, Director General of Saudi Arabian Airlines said, “Building a customer centric organization culture and systems is a key priority area for us. This is what will differentiate Saudi Airlines from its competitors and ensure market leadership for us. It is highly reassuring to have Wipro as our partner in this transformational journey. We will extensively leverage Wipro’s innovations in technology lifecycle management and service delivery to create an agile and empowered organization.”

Suresh Vaswani, President – Wipro Infotech & Global IT Practices said, “We are delighted to be partnering Saudi Airlines at the cusp of their transformation. Wipro will combine its service delivery excellence & deep technology expertise to deliver a seamless experience for the customers of Saudi Airlines. We value the partnership with Saudi Airlines and are committed to making this initiative a success.”

Mowafaq Jelaidan, VP – Information Technology, Saudi Arabian Airlines said, “We required a strong technology partner to architect an effective and efficient managed IT infrastructure, enabling enterprise wide customer-centric services. We selected Wipro because of their strong service delivery processes & frameworks, breadth of technology talent, immense credibility with technology principals and customers, and industry leadership in Managed Infrastructure Services.”

Saudi Arabia is making efforts to cut software piracy that cost an estimated $200 million in losses in the kingdom last year but the Interior Ministry needs to give its full backing, software producers said on Sunday.

Mohammed al-Dhabaan, Saudi representative of a body grouping global software firms, said more could be done.

"The involvement of the Ministry of the Interior would help definitely. We asked the Information Ministry many times to try to arrange something so that police accompany inspectors in their tours," Dhabaan told Reuters.

"Until now we didn't get approval. Such a move would be good for everybody. It will spread fear and people will comply with the law," he said, citing losses in 2006 valued by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) at $200 million (750 million riyals).

Dhabaan said the Information Ministry has set up an intellectual property rights' unit which is now promising to bring the full force of the law into play in coordination with a state prosecutor charged with handling copyright issues.

He said at least 52 percent of Saudi businesses are still using pirated software, citing a general perception that the issue is not serious.

There are few Saudi software makers and many Saudis see no harm in copying U.S. and other foreign products, Dhabaan said.

"There is no culture that says this wrong," he told a news conference, adding that some government departments are using pirated materials and municipality officials often take bribes to supplement wages of only around 1,000 riyals ($267) a month.

Legislation specifies fines of up to 500,000 riyals and prison terms of up to six months.

"We'll start to demand implementing these sentences. Judges will see no reason for mercy or leniency in these cases," Dhabaan said.

Dhabaan said the government regarded piracy as a threat to attracting foreign direct investment, which the authorities have said is an economic policy priority.

"If Arabic speakers used copied material, do you think Microsoft would pay hundreds of millions to Arabise (software)? It's healthy for Saudis to implement the law because it's good for the country," he said.

The world's largest software maker loses billions of dollars to software piracy every year.