One of the key initiatives central to Al Rajhi Bank’s digital transformation, and to achieving its overarching Bank of the Future (BOTF) strategic objectives was the acquisition of Ejada Systems Company Ltd in 2022. Ejada Systems, an industry-leading IT services and solutions provider with a prominent tech footprint in the Kingdom and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, reformulated its strategy post-acquisition, setting new targets and priorities for the year in review that largely fell under the following three pillars:

• Maintain Market Position and Client Trust
• Build for the future
• Expand Engagement with the Al Rajhi Group.

In order to proactively respond to the growing market demand in data and analytics given the stringent and rapidly evolving regulatory requirements, the year 2023 saw Ejada place emphasis on expanding to new lines of business by increasing focus on data and analytics, as well as new offerings and segments.

The subsidiary successfully managed to balance its expanding business with the technology requirements of its Parent Company Al Rajhi Bank and its subsidiaries, accelerating expansion driven by contracts from large government accounts and mega projects being initiated across the Kingdom. Such efforts saw Ejada successfully surpassing the forecast revenue targets for 2023 by 8%, with a leading operating income margin.

New lines of business

Ejada successfully launched several new Lines of Business (LOB) in 2023 to meet the evolving needs of clients, boosting market presence, while at the same time diversifying to achieve new business targets. These services include cutting-edge software solutions, innovative consulting offerings, and advanced data analytics services such as Open Banking, Cloud Migration and Modernisation as well as Service Desk services among other LOBs, entering over 60 new contracts during the year in review, actively growing a portfolio of industry-leading clients across multiple sectors.

Ejada also continued to expand its client portfolio within the public sector during the year, contributing to a number of Vision Realisation Programmes (VRPs) and other national scale projects falling under the Kingdom’s ambitious Vision 2030 goals. Ejada worked on a number of projects with the Ministries of Finance, Health, Culture, Human Resources and Social Development, the National Centre for Government Resources Systems, General Authority of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, Saudi Aramco, mega project NEOM, and other public sector and state-owned organisations, surpassing the forecast number of large contracts valued at over SAR 10 Mn. by 24% at the end of the reporting financial year.

Ejada’s core competencies and new lines of business also continued to enable Al Rajhi Bank to successfully execute the final phase of its Bank of the Future (BOTF) strategy cycle during 2023, while also supporting a few subsidiaries implement key projects that were vital to achieving the overall strategic targets of Al Rajhi Group during the year under review. Major initiatives for Al Rajhi Bank included its Cloud Programme, Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE), Telecom Operator Integration, Data Classification Project among many others, with the Data Management Platform project for NeoLeap, the Application Delivery Digital Factory for Al Rajhi Capital, Service Desk solution for Tanfeeth, Data Warehouse services for Emkan, and Counter Fraud Compliance Analytics and Reporting across the Al Rajhi Group being completed in 2023.

During the year in review, Ejada further expanded its geographic footprint, establishing a new branch in India, following the successful regional branch opening in Jordan during the previous year.

Transitioning into a mature business model

The year in review saw Ejada focus on enhancing its regulatory compliance and professional accreditations to strengthen internal systems and set an industry benchmark for operating standards, particularly across its Application Development Centre and Application Testing Centre of Excellence.

Guided and reinforced by such benchmark standards, the Application Development Centre (ADC) established by Ejada continued to exceed customer requirements with the highly talented on-site and off-shore development teams achieving a number of performance and delivery KPIs in 2023:

This performance was supported by Ejada’s Application Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE), expanding our team to over 170 testing professionals spread across 4 regions, including experts in market-leading commercial and open-source automation and performance testing tools. Over 50% of Ejada engineers are ISTQB/ISEB certified. Ejada’s TcoE executed automation, performance and regression testing, executing over 27,000 test cases, and 60+ SLA-based Managed Services applications.

Cementing pioneering role in the tech value chain

Technology partnerships was one of the main focus areas for growth at Ejada during 2023; The year in review saw Ejada continue to strengthen its existing tech partnerships while entering into new alliances; the subsidiary continued to be one of four Enterprise Platinum Partners to Informatica - the California-based Enterprise Cloud Data Management company, the highest-level Premier Partner for Enterprise Data Management and Analytics Platform Cloudera, Gold Business Partner for global technology innovator IBM, and Premier Partner for world-leading artificial intelligence and machine learning company Dataiku.

Premier Partnerships were formed with banking SaaS solutions provider Temenos, and global networking, security and cloud solutions provider Cisco. Ejada also formalised new partnerships with digital experience platform provider Sitecore, fintech talent provision company Finclude, AWS-based data modernization and development company NorthBay, and IT solutions provider Arcana Info.

Ejada’s commitment towards strengthening the tech value chain through these partnerships have been duly recognised and rewarded by its partner companies:

Building a capable and qualified talent pool

Given the competitive nature of the current tech job market, Ejada continued to strengthen its reputation as an employer of choice during the reporting period, anchored to the brand association of Al Rajhi Bank as its Parent Company. The success story of its acquisition and growth potential of the subsidiary further powered by a growing portfolio of industry-leading clientele continued to attract top-tier talent to Ejada, with the subsidiary’s Human Resource Department marking their presence across major tech job fairs, industry events and campus visits throughout the year.

Ejada is also currently building the HR infrastructure for a state-of-the-art learning management system that will host its own learning content as well as content from external providers such as Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, and Plural Sights, providing employees the opportunity to develop capabilities and participate in technical courses, while they will be incentivised by policy to do so. Additionally, an employee value proposition is being formulated to increase employee engagement with initiatives such as corporate sporting events, seasonal celebrations, outings as well as rewards and recognition that will enhance employee morale and enrich their experience.