Business & Money | Friday 24 November, 2017 6:15 am |

International Data Corporation (IDC) today hosted the 2017 edition of its annual IT Forum roadshow in Riyadh, with more than 150 senior IT executives gathering at the city's Four Seasons Hotel to hear expert advice on helping their organizations to innovate, disrupt, and transform their way to a sustained competitive advantage for the digital era.

 

With leading global IT vendors showcasing their pioneering new products and services, the IT Forum 2017 brought together IT professionals from across the Kingdom's government, oil and gas, manufacturing, construction, and BFSI verticals, to name just a few, as respected industry thought leaders outlined their unique insights into the game-changing opportunities that exist for organizations willing to embrace the very latest digital transformation best practices.

 

"In today’s world, the concepts of innovation, disruption, and transformation are heavily interlinked," says Ranjit Rajan, IDC's associate vice president for research in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. "With increased collaboration between IT and business functions, digital transformation is enabling organizations of all shapes and sizes to optimize their resources, deliver compelling customer experiences, attain previously unimaginable levels of innovation, and drive improvements in both their top and bottom lines. The business organization will always have a vision for what it would like to achieve, but it is the IT organization that ultimately needs to step up and enable the business to achieve its aims."

 

Rajan opened the day's proceedings by exploring these ideas further in his keynote address, before chairing an informative panel discussion on the role that digital transformation is playing in driving greater innovation and disruption across all sectors of the economy. The panelists for this session included Ahmad Barradah, executive director of health informatics and IT at King Fahad Medical City; Ahmed Mousa Al Zikan, CIO of Bank AlBilad, and Hadi Al-Maashi, vice president of technology and operations at Yesser.

 

The delegates then split into two side-by-side technology tracks, with the first addressing the topic of 'Transforming Today's Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s Businesses' while the second focused on the theme 'Breaking the Silos and Taking an Integrated IT Security Approach'. Each of these sessions culminated in interactive panel discussions that showcased the thoughts of Ibrahim Al-Faifi, executive audit manager at Al Rajhi Bank; Ayad Y. Aldaijy, ministerial advisor and director of IT at the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture; and Adel A. Algrain, acting director of cybersecurity risk and compliance at STC.

 

The focus then shifted to the cost-cutting challenges associated with Saudi Arabia's National Transformation Program, courtesy of insights from Rashid M. Al Ballaa, vice president of IT at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Abdulaziz Al Oraij, CIO at the Ministry of Housing, then explored the use of the .NET Framework as an open source for government enterprises, before handing over to Ahmed I. Albarrak, professor of medical informatics at King Saud University's College of Medicine, who examined the internal security risks posed by end users in the healthcare industry. IDC's country manager for Saudi Arabia, Hamad AlSaghir, then wrapped up proceedings by summarizing the day's major talking points.

 

A number of leading technology stakeholders partnered with IDC for the IT Forum 2017 in Riyadh, including Cisco and Xerox as Platinum Partners; Commscope, Nutanix, Detasad, MobileIron, LogRhythm, and Forescout as Gold Partners; Sophos, Drivelock, Sonicwall, Freshworks, and SquareOne (in association with OpenText) as Exhibit Partbers; and Carbon Black as Lunch Partner.