ejada systems

Al Rajhi Bank kicked off the year under review with a widely publicised new addition to its list of subsidiaries when it acquired Ejada Systems Company Ltd, an industry-defining IT services and solutions provider with a prominent tech footprint in the Kingdom and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The acquisition, completed in February 2022 following approval by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), was central to Al Rajhi Bank’s digital transformation and to achieving its overarching Bank of the Future (BOTF) strategy objectives.

A balanced approach to growing the business

Post-acquisition, Ejada’s strategy was reformulated around strengthening and expanding its digital offerings, particularly in business intelligence and analytics, and in establishing capabilities to support key banking applications and platforms.

New lines of business established by Ejada

• Open Banking offering
• Advanced Services Desk Management
• Cloud Migration, Operation, and Managed Services
• Cloud Application Modernisation

Ejada also established an advanced and scalable Application Development Centre as well as an Application Testing Centre for Excellence, further leveraging the company’s renowned on-site and off-shore agile development capabilities, with accelerated delivery times.

Based on its core competencies and new lines of business, Ejada enabled Al Rajhi Bank to streamline the execution of its BOTF strategy, engaging with the Bank and several of its subsidiaries to implement key strategic projects that were vital in achieving the overall strategic targets of Al Rajhi Group during the year under review.

Operating as an independent entity under its new ownership, Ejada also focused on strategically expanding its client portfolio by formalising multiple contracts with both public and private sectors. With a host of new clients from the public sector, Ejada completed a number of major national-scale government projects. These projects contributed towards several Vision Realisation Programmes (VRPs), greatly contributing towards realising the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 objectives. Existing clients were also ensured of the highest levels of continued confidentiality, as the subsidiary improved its benchmark in service quality and project delivery post acquisition.

Evolving as a key player in the tech-value chain

A number of Ejada’s existing tech partnerships evolved during the year under review; The subsidiary became the only Platinum Partner in the MENA region and the Gulf countries to Denodo, a global leader in data management. Ejada also became the only Premier Partner in the Kingdom to tableau, the US based interactive data visualisation company, the only Titanium service partner in the Kingdom and one of two Titanium service partners in MENA to AppDynamics, global leader in Application Performance Management, and one of two Premier Partners in the Kingdom to Alteryx, the leading data science company. In 2022, Ejada became a Platinum Regional Partner of Informatica, the California-based Enterprise Cloud Data Management company and one of the few Enterprise Platinum Partners worldwide. Ejada also entered a number of new tech partnerships as a Registered Partner during the reporting period.

The end of the year also witnessed the subsidiary expand its presence both in the Kingdom and in key markets elsewhere in the world. New competency centres were established to expand the size and capabilities of its off-shore delivery teams serving the KSA market; two new offices were set up in Egypt, one new branch opened in Jordan, and the Company is currently working on opening a new branch in India.