By Samar Yahya

Saudi Gazette

RIYADH —

“In Accenture we focus on different kinds of industries under main five groups; public sector, financial, telecommunication, oil and gas and retail and all the consuming related industries,” said Khaled Al Dhaher Accenture country managing director, Saudi Arabia, the first Saudi in the position.

This year, Accenture was ranked first for its digital transformation offering in the GCC Client Perception Study 2018.

Al Dhaher said Accenture provides five different types of services; strategic consultancy (Accenture is ranked #1 in GCC client perception study), consulting, technology, operations, digital transformation and innovation in the latest technology.

“Being #1 gives us great responsibility to make sure we continue to be #1. It means that we provide the right balance between the production of technology to the transformation from the business to the management and the people to make sure that technology is impactful. At the end of the day we do not want technology for the sake of technology, but we want technology, managerial and operational technological transformation to achieve better services whether it is a public service, financial or telecommunication service.”

“Clients chose Accenture in terms of strategy as they see that our task does not stop at providing the concepts or the digital transformations but also providing how to implement that. We also increase the internal operation objectives for our clients, through real knowledge of the industry of the client, the technology of the industry and capability and experience.”

Al Dhaher stated that Accenture works with clients to enable them to benefit the content in their organization and in the right pace as well.

“Based on the situation, economic status, time, availability of young talent in the market and so on, we also bring best practices from other countries, of course under our country’s vision and explain and advise clients on benefits and advantages and why we choose a strategy.”

On the importance of technology in the transformation and change the kingdom within vision 2030, Al Dhaher said that he strongly believes that technology is a very strong enabler for transformation and the move towards achieving the country’s vision 2030 and maximizing the value that is given through that vision with people, location and all vision elements.

On the impact of artificial intelligence, A recent report by Accenture early this year showed artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to boost economic growth in Saudi Arabia by 1.1 percentage points and add $215 billion to the national economy by 2035.

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The research found that in Saudi Arabia, AI will have the greatest impact on the manufacturing, public services and professional services industries, with increases of US$37 billion, $67 billion and $26 billion, respectively, in their annual gross value added.

On the value that Accenture brings, Al Dhaher said that it is the mix of the worldwide experience and the local market understanding. We need to see how the advancement of technology helps in providing better services in diverse sectors and fields to provide us with happier life for children and ourselves. On business, for instance, how to make sure that business teams have the right connection and communication without being on flights are the time, which is extremely valuable transformation.

Also to make sure to balance the introduction of technology with the transformation on the business side, and on the people side so we do not want to overwhelm them.

Accenture has renewed its partnership with the Dubai World Trade Centre for an additional two years as the ‘Exclusive Digital Transformation Partner of GITEX Technology Week’.