Professional services • Forum

With the transformation taking place in Saudi Arabia, professional service consultancies can work with clients to prepare them for the workforce and market of the future.

Charles Garland PARTNER, CLAREMONT ARABIA

CLAREMONT’S PRESENCE and operational capacity in Saudi Arabia, and the wider Middle East region, has been engineered to work as a corporate consultancy that primarily runs reviews and analysis on corporate financial structures and processes. The analysis process is designed to highlight the costs and inefficiencies in a company’s foreign exchange mechanism and international payments. We provide the analysis to our regulated partner entities that work in foreign exchange and merchant payments, who in turn evaluate where costs can be reduced and operational efficiency improved. Claremont’s ultimate strength is the professional network of partner institutions that we have developed over the past 10 years, even before Claremont was incorporated. Our service across all divisions is tailored and personalized. Our priority in the corporate division is to simply provide our analysis service to as many companies as possible. Another priority is to set up our event schedule for the private client business for the year ahead. Time is a commodity that must not be underestimated in Saudi Arabia. Preparation for market entry is fundamental and aligning with a suitable and influential partner well-versed in the market is the core to success here.

Abdullah Al Fozan CHAIRMAN, KPMG SAUDI LEVANT CLUSTER

THE BUSINESS MODEL IS CHANGING, which will drive more technological advancement. Many giant retailers are reanalyzing their business models and have to shift. If companies do not adapt to changes now, they will be out of business. If they expect things to return to normal, they are doing great harm to the business, spending money but losing customers. Now, there is an opportunity for smaller companies and young Saudi entrepreneurs to see their digital platforms’ value increase by 20 times over recent months. Those will play a bigger role in consumer markets going forward in Saudi Arabia and all over the world. We opened the first KPMG Insights Center in the Arab world just before the lockdowns started, only one out of 20 around the world, where we can show the capabilities of AI and data analytics to solve client issues in real time. Clients can come with their data, and we will work with them to show how a digital solution can help them improve sales and operations. We were already investing in technological advancements before, but it is clearer than ever that we need to be digital on all fronts.

Khaled W. Al-Dhaher COUNTRY MANAGING DIRECTOR, ACCENTURE

ACCENTURE IN SAUDI ARABIA wants to make sure it is the partner of choice as the government goes through Vision 2030 and that whatever it offers in the market builds on that. We focus on four primary areas. One is privatization and commercialization. The privatization journey is a long but important one because the entity going through privatization wants it done in a structured manner with good governance and maximized interest. The commercialization part is where the assets remain, though you want to enhance that particular investment return. Our role is to ensure the experience for privatization and commercialization is maximized. The second area is optimization, which ensures our clients continue to provide the best-quality services to their clients, whether they are banks, retail organizations, or in travel and tourism. The third area we focus on is digital transformation, which is core to the vision and what many industries in Saudi Arabia consider a priority. The last element is the people. We want to be the partner of choice with our clients for their people as we go through this transformation. All these elements are core to the vision and transformation taking place in the country.