subsidiaries

ejada systems

Ejada Systems, a leading IT solutions and consulting services provider with a prominent tech footprint in the Kingdom and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and the IT subsidiary of alrajhi bank, experienced an accelerated expansion in 2024 driven by contracts from large government accounts/mega projects, and with the alrajhi group.

The subsidiary recorded an impressive performance in 2024, with a significant 41% YoY increase in new contract value, which reached SAR 2,156 Mn. at the close of 2024, leading to a 133% target achievement for the reporting period. Overall, Ejada recorded a 22% YoY increase in revenue, at the close of the year in review.

A highly anticipated IPO

Given the Kingdom’s favourable operating environment and its escalating success, Ejada Systems wished to explore new, untapped growth opportunities for technology companies in Saudi Arabia resulting from ambitious Vision 2030 goals and positive investor sentiment. This led to the subsidiary preparing to file for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) during the reporting period. The subsidiary converted to a closed joined stock company, and established relevant governance, risk, compliance and audit functions as necessary, with a Board of Directors and Board Committee structure in accordance with Capital Market Authority (CMA) requirements. Simultaneously, Ejada carried out successful Deep Dive presentations with local, regional and global investors during the reporting period, receiving positive feedback with 98% of investors confirming their interest to remain engaged.

With approval from Tadawul, Ejada successfully completed filing with the CMA, receiving approval in December 2024 to float 20.25 million shares (45% of total shares) in its IPO to eligible investors. A comprehensive digital media marketing plan has been put in place to support the IPO in early 2025.

During the year in review, Ejada Systems made great progress in executing well-defined strategic initiatives under the four main pillars of its new STAR Strategy:

Expanding lines of business

During 2024, Ejada successfully expanded and established four distinct Lines of Business (LOB) by extending Cloud, Cybersecurity, Observability and Emerging Technology offerings, closing the year with 587 contracts across all four LOBs in total.

Under the EA & Emerging Tech LOB, Ejada focused on enhancing transformative AI and Generative AI capabilities to drive innovation and operational efficiencies. Key areas of focus included Smart Virtual Agents, Credit and Risk Decision Engines, and OCR & Computer Vision Enhancements. A total of 6 AI projects were contracted by the subsidiary in 2024, accounting for a total value of SAR 23 Mn.

Ejada’s client portfolio expanded with a number of high-profile clients with several new clients acquired from new non-core industries including Retail, Real Estate, Transportation, Education, Commercial and Energy. The new clients include, but are not limited to the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, National Infrastructure Fund, Education and Training Evaluation Commission, General Food Security Authority, Saudi Industrial Development Fund, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, SME Bank, Insurance Authority, Bupa as well as alrajhi bank Malaysia.

Ejada contributed to several Vision Realisation Programmes (VRPs) during 2024 by successfully delivering a wide range of projects. These include a CRM Project for the Ministry of Finance (MOF), a Unified Platform for the Ministry of Sports (MOS), an Aviation System and Cloud Disaster Recovery Services for the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Data Integration and Business Intelligence Services for the Ministry of Economy and Planning (MEP), a Donation System (mega programme) for the National Centre of Development for Non-Profits (NCNP), Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence Services for the Digital Government Authority (DGA), and a Modern Data and Analytics Platform for NEOM, to name a few.

Ejada’s core competencies and new lines of business also enabled alrajhi bank to successfully launch and implement the new ‘harmonize the group’ strategy cycle from 2024 – 2026, with Ejada carrying out a number of group-wide projects to better leverage collective synergies across the alrajhi group. Some of the major Group projects included implementation of KSA Data Management and Personal Data Protection Standards (NDMO/PDPL); Development of alrajhi group Unified Customer Profile; standardising and centralising Applications Operations and Applications Development; and Establishing a central and unified product catalogue and Monetisation Platform across the group, to list a few. Ejada also worked with overseas branches in both Malaysia and Kuwait to streamline and accelerate their digital transformation journeys, and increase their new products time-to-market. A number of projects were carried out with several alrajhi subsidiaries; the Loan Management and Loan Origination Systems Migration solution was implemented for alrajhi’s microfinance arm Emkan; while the group’s newest FinTech was provided with several Value-Added Products and API Subscription Products to enhance its Open Banking functionality.

Strengthening partnerships across tech value chain

Ejada continued to nurture strategic partnerships with global technology and software giants in 2024, including but not limited to Oracle, Microsoft, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM, Red Hat, Informatica, Tableau, etc., while also forming new and promising alliances with emerging tech players in the market such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), ADAM AI, GitHub, Sprinklr, Qlik, Securiti, etc. Ejada also established a strategic partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to collaborate in jointly promoting the Cloud business, and partnered with ServiceNow and CISCO to promote their complete portfolio of Observability Solutions.

Ejada’s commitment towards strengthening the tech value chain through these partnerships have been duly recognised and rewarded by its partner companies, as well as its growing portfolio of clients:

Key awards and recognition

• Honoured by the Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia for pivotal role in the digital transformation of Healthcare in the Kingdom
• Awarded Top Regional Google Cloud Partner Performance of Year 2024
• Awarded “The Fastest Growing Partner” from Google (in terms of specialisation, certifications, and revenue)
• Awarded the “Emerging Partner Award” from Sitecore
• Partnership with Cisco upgraded to “Premier Provider”
• Awarded Informatica’s Global Channel Partner and EMEA Emerging Market Channel Partner SVP of the Year
• Reached Highest Tier of Partnership as Premier Partner for Tableau
• Awarded Tableau A&C Partner of the Year at Salesforce Middle East Partner Awards FY24
• Reached Advanced Business Partnership Tier for Red Hat
• Achieved Services Partner status with Snowflake

Building a capable and qualified talent pool

Ejada’s accelerated growth driven by a growing portfolio of industry-leading clientele also strengthened its reputation as a sought-after employer during the year, attracting top tier talent across a wide spectrum of technical domains, and complex, challenging projects. The long-term learning approach towards nurturing Engineering careers at Ejada has also proven to be a point of employee attraction and retention.

With the accelerated growth resulting in the need to scale internal capabilities, Ejada launched the Masar Programme (Saudisation initiative) in 2024, partnering with 7 universities/education institutes across the Kingdom to acquire young Saudi talent and develop their digital skillsets. The positive impact of the Masar Programme saw Ejada being recognised by several Partner Universities including Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Princess Norah University and Um Al Qura University. Ejada also utilised other recruitment methods including participating in university job fairs and industry events, partnering with head hunters and agencies, as well as through internships and referrals to attract new talent.

Overall, Ejada’s delivery team grew by 28% YoY with the number of full-time employees reaching 3,545 at the close of 2024. A total of 44 internships were facilitated to students from across 9 universities. A Competency Centre in Qassim is scheduled to be operational in January 2025 to accommodate, train and advance fresh Saudi talent. Ejada achieved a 52% Saudisation rate at the close of the year, and also maintained its high-potential employee (HiPo) attrition rate at 2.85%. The subsidiary was also able to grow and expand its overseas branches in Egypt (2014 employees), Jordan (93 employees) and India (61 employees), with more than 95% resources belonging to the technical stream.

The fast expanding team was supported by an advanced Human Capital Management (HCM) system, which is set to revolutionise and digitise HR processes across the subsidiary. Employee engagement surveys were carried out to gain deeper insight to employee sentiment and enhance engagement levels, while doubling as a channel to disseminate information and receive feedback on organisational development strategies. A number of programmes aimed at rewards and incentives were launched during the reporting, while a comprehensive succession plan to identify and nurture future leaders within Ejada is currently under development, and on schedule to be implemented in Q1 2025.

Transitioning into a mature business model

Now with a solidified GRC function with internal controls to complement its mature business model, Ejada continued to enhance 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.

Accreditations/Regulatory Compliance obtained/active (valid) in 2024

Application Development Centre (ADC)

Established by Ejada to successfully deliver custom development projects through highly competent on-shore and off-shore teams continued to operate optimally during 2024, fulfilling customer requirements and achieving several noteworthy performance KPIs:

Future outlook

In 2025, Ejada will continue its focus on implementing the STAR strategy, and advancing initiatives under its 4 pillars; Several major initiatives are scheduled to be rolled out as per the STAR strategy including the engagement with two mega projects and other Vision Realisation Programmes (e.g. NTP, NIDLP, HSTP, etc.) in the subsidiary’s role as an enabler of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. Ejada also plans to set up an Innovation/Venture Lab (startup incubation space) in 2025 with a mandate to identify, acquire and nurture innovative ideas for software business.

Other initiatives scheduled for the subsequent financial year include expanding a number of Ejada’s service offerings including cloud professional services and cybersecurity offerings; the monetisation of new offerings within the Infrastructure and Networks business line; introducing new AI and other emerging technology solutions; developing industry-specific product and solution portfolios.

Ejada will look into strategically leveraging its established industry position and strong foundation following the highly anticipated IPO in 2025, to maintain accelerated growth across its established LOBs, with special focus on Data and Analytics, Cloud as well as AI – despite potential delays in the adoption of emerging technologies due to demanding regulatory requirements.

The subsidiary will also look into leveraging new synergies uncovered through the implementation of the new ‘harmonize the group’ strategy, and collaborate with the Corporate Banking Group (CBG) of alrajhi bank to provide their Tier 1 clients across non-core sectors with highly tailored solutions under the Business-to-Business (B2B) offering, thereby unlocking untapped customer value.