Mohammed AlShaibi, CEO, Tamkeen Technologies • Interview

Tamkeen Technologies is classified as one of the best places to work in Saudi Arabia, and hopes to participate in the national vision through the development of new technologies.

What distinguishes Tamkeen Technologies from other IT companies in terms of services?

One of the key things that distinguishes us from our competitors is that we hire as many Saudi nationals, male and female, as possible and give them an environment where they can be productive and empowered. In recognition of this we are now independently classified as one of the best places to work in Saudi Arabia. We understand that our society is going through a transformation to achieve Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, but the major part of any transformation is technology, and without it, most of these ambitious initiatives will not be possible. Our role is to help our clients achieve this goal through the use of technology. We brand ourselves as the “Trusted and Preferred Digital Technology Partner for Sustainable Growth” for our clients and Tamkeen Technologies is proud that an essential part of our mission is to be: innovative, committed, passionate, transparent, and empowering for our employees, clients, and customers. We are well-known in the market for our ability to rapidly create innovative technology solutions built primarily on open-source technologies. And combined with our talented workforce of Saudi IT professionals, this makes Tamkeen Technologies a trusted and preferred IT partner. Since we are a government-owned company, our primary mandate is to help the public sector reach its goals; however, we are also committed to helping the local private sector grow and prosper.

What directions are Tamkeen’s efforts in developing the young talent that are now arising in the sector taking?

We are committed to developing talent. We understand that exceptional talent is rarer than capital and that’s one of the reasons why we have a generous budget for training and upskilling all of our employees. Generally, employers seek people with experience, and Tamkeen is no different in this regard; however, we believe in the talents of our fresh young Saudi graduates and to this extent we developed and launched an on-the-job training (OJT) program in the summer of 2019. This allows us to train new graduates in a manner that treats trainees as actual employees, who are given real tasks and responsibilities. After three to six months, they acquire real work experience and new skills and those that perform well are offered full time contracts. As part of this program , each of the trainees receives a certificate of experience upon successful completion of the training program.

How does Tamkeen try to empower women in the sector?

We currently have a female employment rate of 37% and plan to keep or increase this rate in the coming years. We have also developed programs that allow women to work from home by using them as tele-workers, or customer care agents. We entered the customer care sector not only to provide superior service for our products and services but also to provide quality sustainable jobs in rural areas, which is one of the ways we balance business results and corporate social responsibility. We have found these women to be quite dedicated and talented. Additionally, we have participated in the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development’s program to develop a new generation of women leaders in the IT field and a number of our talented female staff have participants in this great initiative.

What will cloud technology and AI bring to the Kingdom’s productivity?

These are high potential technologies that we believe will flourish in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, hence we are working under the guidelines of the regulatory bodies such as: the Commission for Information Technology and Communication (CITC) and the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SADAI) to develop solutions for our clients using these technologies and as a result have obtained a Cloud Service Provider license from CITC.