Sage to set the agenda for Saudi decision makers at Riyadh Solution Day

With over 200 decision makers and channel partners set to gather at Sage's Riyadh Solution Day that will take place on the 12th of March, attendees will learn about business best practices in industries including the real estate, manufacturing, and maintenance and service sectors.

With the Kingdom's businesses increasingly turning their focus towards streamlining their operations, Sage's recently launched Saudi operations are set to capitalize on the rapid growth in industries not typically associated with technology spending.

"Sage has grown to become the largest vendor of, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Human Resources Management (HRM) software to medium sized organizations in the Middle East with over 10,000 users, but we're looking beyond today's market to see how we can deliver real value to organizations who may have not considered investing in technology before,"

said Marc Van der Ven, Managing Director, Sage Software Middle East.

"With the growth in the housing sector it's been estimated that over half a million people will need new housing annually. That's roughly 100,000 housing units a year. Similar growth is projected for the services and the manufacturing industries. By streamlining business processes, companies can deliver a higher return on their investment in a shorter period of time. That's the value that Sage can add to these industries," added Van der Ven.

Both customers and channel partners will also be present at Sage's Solution Day, including for the first time Digicom and Gold sponsors Experts Team who will be joined by existing channel partners Arabian Computer Systems and Silver sponsors SFS. As Saudi's market for technology solutions expands and with estimates by research house IDC that $3.76bn will be spent in 2008 on IT systems, Sage will be launching another first in the Kingdom - training sessions for end users.

"We can count among our present customers some of Saudi Arabia's most prestigious companies. We naturally want to keep them up to speed as to our solutions and how we're offering them solutions that are specifically tailored to meet their evolving needs, so that they can optimize their existing business processes rather than trying to conform to software developed for firms in other parts of the world. We at Sage believe that our industry specific software will prove to be extremely popular with businesses who until now have had little other choice, and we look forward to investing even more in Saudi Arabia," concluded Van der Ven.