Oracle addresses Saudi Arabia's mid-market demand for enterprise-class business applications

But far from being a preserve of the large corporation, senior executives at Oracle, the world's largest enterprise software company, predict that it is the kingdom's small to medium enterprise (SME) sector that is set to drive spending on IT applications over the next five years.

Abdul Rahman Al Theheiban, managing director, Oracle, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said: "Decision-makers at enterprise-class organizations have long understood the business advantages that can be gained by deploying intelligent technology to support their operations. SMEs are now beginning to realize the same thing, that if they ignore technology, there is a very strong chance they could be overtaken by their tech-savvy competitors."

Technology adoption has taken centre stage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as CEOs and managing directors look to rapidly expand their operations. According to a survey by analyst house Datamonitor, 53 percent of senior executives across the Europe and Middle East region said that being competitive was their top priority. Through deploying business solutions, SMEs can leverage their existing resources more efficiently and to greater effect.

With more than 50 percent of the Saudi business community comprised of SMEs there is potentially a massive demand for enterprise solutions. Over the coming weeks Oracle is set to address this need by hosting a series of events for the SME sector across the kingdom on best IT practices, and how to utilize technology to achieve a maximum return on investment.

Al Theheiban explained: "We have come up with a series of seminars for executives from small and midsize businesses, to educate them on how industry-specific technology solutions can help the kingdom's businesses to compete more effectively against domestic and overseas competition. We recognize that SMEs may have smaller budgets, but even with limited resources, choosing the right technology can make a fundamental difference to the way they work, providing a much better ROI on their IT spending."

Understanding the diverse requirements of the SME business community, Oracle has developed solutions that are affordable, easy to use, faster to implement and offer a lower total cost of ownership. Crucially, Oracle's SME applications deliver enterprise-class features and performance deployed through a platform that is simplified to meet SME needs. Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition is an integrated, end-to-end pre-configured product suite developed to scale up in step with the grow of the SME.

"Only with a tailored approach to the SME business community can the IT industry contribute to the rapid growth of the mid-market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and other countries across the Middle East. Stripped down versions of enterprise-class solutions, a model which many vendors have adopted, will not suffice. As competition in the Saudi market intensifies, SMEs require technology that helps them to make better informed business decisions, enabling them to optimize new market opportunities quickly and cost-effectively," concluded Al Theheiban.

Simply Business, Oracle's forums for small and midsize businesses, will be held in Riyadh at the Sheraton Hotel-Ibn Turki on the 13th September 2005, and in Jeddah at the Intercon Hotel-Assultan Ballroom on the 14th September 2005.