NEWS
Saudi Arabia ranks as top digital banking market
in Middle East and North Africa
S
audi Arabia has been revealed in a new survey as the top digital
banking market in the Middle East and North Africa, with more than
three-quarters of banking customers using online or mobile apps.
In a survey of regional banking customers by research firm ArabNet,
76% of Saudi banking customers use digital platforms and 60% use
online and mobile apps, both ranking highest in the region.
Top Saudi digital banking offerings are loyalty programmes (53%),
mobile discount coupons (51%), and virtual prepaid debit cards
(50%), according to McKinsey.
“The kingdom is one of the world’s most digitally-advanced countries
and banks are leading their transformation with real-time digital
solutions to meet their customers’ banking needs,” said Khaled
Alsaleh, Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia.
“Saudi banks are driving new and innovative banking models in line
with Saudi Vision 2030 goals for economic growth and diversification.”
Among the kingdom’s biggest digital banking growth drivers are
moving to the cloud, which SAP supports with the recent launch of its
local public cloud data centre in the kingdom.
Khaled Alsaleh,
Managing Director,
SAP Saudi Arabia
“We are co-innovating with Saudi banks on breakthrough cloud-
based technology innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Machine
Learning, Blockchain and the Internet of Things to optimise costs,
foster innovation, and transform the digital and in-person customer
experiences,” said Alsaleh.
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SANS returns to Riyadh with training courses
S
ANS, a global leader in cybersecurity training, returned to KSA
for its SANS Riyadh July 2018 training event. The six-day event
took place from July 28 to August 2 and featured hands-on courses
that enable IT professionals to rapidly up-skill in fundamental areas
of cybersecurity including network security, threat management,
cryptography and defence against attacks targeted at Microsoft’s
Windows operating system (OS).
In the last two years, SANS has doubled its investment in Saudi Arabia
as large-scale cyberattacks exposed the dire need for a local pool of
professionally trained and certified cybersecurity professionals.
Earlier this year, the company signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Saudi Cyber Security and Programming
Federation to collaborate on SANS offered programmes to evaluate
and strengthen cybersecurity skills.
With the goal of empowering organisations and to protect the most
widely used OS in the kingdom, Ned Baltagi, Managing Director,
Middle East and Africa at SANS, said: “With nearly 85% market
share, Microsoft Windows is by far the most dominant OS in Saudi
Arabia, especially in professional environments. It serves as the
platform upon which all major verticals in the kingdom have built
their IT infrastructures which is why threats against it can cripple
business, and even disrupt critical services.”
www.intelligentcio.com
Ned Baltagi,
Managing Director,
Middle East and
Africa at SANS
INTELLIGENTCIO
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