NEWS
KSA launches SAP Cloud Hub
Fujitsu opens call for
entries for SELECT
Partner Innovation
Awards
F
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and His Majesty King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud witnessed an
MoU to launch the SAP Cloud Hub.
W
itnessed by His Majesty King
Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,
the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques, and German Chancellor, Angela
Merkel, during her trade mission to the
Kingdom, SAP announced a plan to launch
the SAP Cloud Hub, in collaboration with
the Saudi Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology represented by the
National Digitization Office, to support the
acceleration of Saudi Vision 2030 and meet
the Kingdom’s digital transformation goals.
The investment of SAR285 million
will happen over a period of four years,
and the SAP Cloud Hub will be made up
of four key pillars: the establishment of a
public cloud datacentre in the Kingdom;
an open platform for local developers;
a co-innovation centre to support Saudi
startups and customers from both large,
and small and medium-sized enterprises,
and further localisation of SAP solutions to
support Saudi’s economic diversification
goals and government investment.
Saudi Vision 2030 and the National
Transformation Program 2020 call on
government agencies to deliver and
use more online and mobile technology
solutions, especially in the areas of
enhancing the citizen experience, talent
development and procurement.
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In this context, the National
Transformation Program outlines SAR285
billion (over $71 billion) in government
spending by 2020, driving public sector
cloud adoption. Cloud solutions, running
on a pay-as-you-go OPEX model, will be
essential for driving the Internet of Things
and Smart Cities’ innovation across smart
utilities, traffic, and security and defence.
As part of the announcement, the
Ministry of Economy and Planning, and
the Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology represented
by the National Digitization Office, will
work with SAP to explore integrating
the SAP Cloud Hub into the planned
government cloud, in order to further
enhance government efficiency, employee
productivity and citizen services.
SAP will be the first international
software provider to launch a public cloud
hub in Saudi Arabia by the end of 2017.
Organisations running solutions on the
SAP local datacentre can securely analyse
data in-country for real-time decision-
making. Analysts agree the datacentre
will make a major impact in supporting
the transformation of Saudi’s industry
verticals, such as banking and finance,
construction, manufacturing, the public
sector and retail.
ujitsu is now accepting
nominations for its SELECT
Innovation Awards for channel
partners. The awards are open to Fujitsu’s
more than 16,000 worldwide SELECT
Partner Programme members. One winner
and two finalists will be selected by a
committee of judges consisting of Fujitsu
executives, who will evaluate the impact
of each project in terms of furthering
Fujitsu’s vision of creating a human
centric intelligent society. The innovative
deployment of key technologies, such as
artificial intelligence, Internet of Things,
cloud and security will also be taken into
account. The winner will be awarded a
bounty of $10,000 in joint marketing
funds and two additional shortlisted
submissions will receive benefits including
a complimentary trip to attend the Fujitsu
Forum Munich 2017 in November and a
video case study of their project.
Last year, the Cutter Group was
named winner of the SELECT Innovation
Award for the digital transformation
of classrooms in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. The outcome was the creation of
unprecedented educational opportunities
for young women in the region. Also
shortlisted was BWO Systems for an
advanced biometric access control system
and Business Systems International for a
project to implement a reliable, scalable
end-to-end system to support a European
online retailer’s plans for growth.
All SELECT Partner Programme
members – both SELECT Registered
and SELECT Expert – are eligible to
submit nominations for the SELECT
Innovation Awards. Entries will be
accepted until 8 September 12:00 CET
and the winners will be revealed at an
awards reception during the Fujitsu
Forum Munich in November 2017. To
enter, partners should submit their digital
transformation projects via
www.fujitsu.com/select-innovation
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