CIO Saudi met with the VP for IT at Saudi Aramco, Abdulrahman Al- Wuhaib to discuss how he and his team are taking the enterprise forward through technology adoption and business best practices and how SAP is underpinning his enterprise efforts and how he's pushing hard for the company to implement e-business across the organization.

It’s probably the largest local company you’ve never heard of, but for the past two decades Advanced Electronics Company (AEC) has been a powerhouse in the Saudi technology industry. With strategic alliances with Cisco, Acer, HP, Oracle and an exclusive partnership with Indian giant HCL, AEC is a rising star in the Kingdom. In a one to one with CIO Saudi, AEC’s CEO Dr. Gassan Al-Shibl explains why the Saudi giant was present at Gitex, how Saudi end users are still not adapting enough to technology, and why research and development should be a top priority for the Middle East.

While Al Medinah may not be the economic or the political centre of the Kingdom, the city has become famous for the vision of its regional government. Initiated by then governor of Al Medinah His Royal Highness Prince Muqrin Bin Adbul Aziz Al Saud, the drive to transform Al Medinah into a smart city. Underpinning this drive towards the digital economy is one company, or, more correctly, one group of companies. Prior to February’s Smart Cities Forum 2007 in Riyadh, CIO Arabia met with Integrated Visions’ (IV) founder and visionary Alawi Baharoon to discuss where the project is headed.

There’s nothing more critical to life than water, especially when you live in a region which possesses scarce water resources. Over the last decade the demand for water has grown substantially against a scarce and dwindling water supply. Without additional water resources, the Kingdom’s economic drive may be put in jeopardy. It’s no surprise to those who know the country well that Saudi Arabia’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) has become the Kingdom’s leading utility firm as it looks to invest over US$50 billion on water projects up until the year 2020 to meet this growing demand.

Want to know how to take on the world’s largest networking vendor, win over the channel, and offer services for free? IT Saudi sits down with Jack Gauthreaux, general manager, Emerging Markets, ProCurve Networking by HP, and Ahmed Bawazir, Saudi Arabia country manager, ProCurve Networking by HP, to ask how ProCurve will be looking to build on a year of remarkable growth in Saudi Arabia and why the networking vendor thinks it can be more than just a thorn in Cisco’s side.

IT Arabia's and the country's leading HR expert Khalid Al-Harithi gives his honest opinion on what is needed in the human resources space, how to move forward with a dedicated strategy, and the emerging trends of business process outsourcing and why Saudi firms should be looking towards this trend today rather than tomorrow. Will Saudi firms finally adopt a comprehensive approach towards HR?