RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, 14 December 2010 - Cisco announced today that the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) will be deploying Cisco WebEx^TM enterprise collaboration solutions to provide its stakeholders and employees with an easy way to exchange ideas and information with anyone, anywhere. Cisco WebEx combines real-time collaboration with Voice over IP technology, so everyone sees the same thing as they converse.

Cisco WebEx is available to businesses in Saudi Arabia through the Saudi Telecom Company (STC), which has an agreement with Cisco to supply Cisco WebEx communications technology to businesses throughout the kingdom.

SAGIA is the official investment-promotion agency of the government of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, responsible for promoting direct investment into the kingdom.

Highlights / Key Facts:

• SAGIA will deploy a number of WebEx® products including Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx Event Center, WebEx Training Center and WebEx Support Center.
• Cisco WebEx is often referred to as either Web conferencing because of the sharing via the Web and telephone connection, or an online meeting because users can take care of business online as they do in in-person meetings. The solution also offers phone conferencing options that can maximize flexibility and minimize costs. Participants can either join meetings dialing a toll-free access number or set up a call-back feature by entering their phone number, allowing the WebEx solution to call them when the meeting starts. Calls are free for participants—whether they call in or choose the call-back option.
• Cisco WebEx is software delivered as a service. The user simply subscribes to the service and can then use it from any computer with an Internet connection, and even from most smart phones such as the  iPhone or BlackBerry. Participants can be invited to attend a WebEx meeting via email, IM, or text and do not have to subscribe to WebEx. They simply click a link in the invitation to join online, where they'll get visual prompts to join the phone conference. Once a session is started the meeting organizer and participants can share documents, presentations, and applications or even open a blank document and start creating together.
• To date, SAGIA has launched four economic cities in Saudi Arabia -- King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh; Prince Abdulaziz bin Musaid Economic City in Hail; Knowledge Economic City in Madinah; and the Jazen Economic City near Jizan City -- with a total investment of more than $60 billion. Cisco is also providing advisory services for all these economic cities.

Executive Quotes:

 

 

"SAGIA's objective is to create the best business strategy for achieving our vision of promoting direct investment into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and we are always looking at ways to achieve economies of scale and synergies. Cisco WebEx will keep us ahead of the game by enabling us to offer us a cost-effective meeting solution that will help save on travel costs allow our stakeholders and employees to meet online with customers, partners and colleagues, wherever they are, as easily as if they were face-to-face."

 

 

"With more than 6 million people throughout the world now using Cisco WebEx every month, it is becoming an integral tool in day-to-day business operations and services. It is important that businesses in Saudi are able to utilize the latest collaborative technologies to enhance business growth and development. Cisco WebEx is helping them to achieve that. As the leading provider of telecommunications services in Saudi Arabia, it is important that we are at the forefront of technology so that we can always offer our customers the latest enhancements in the market. Cisco's WebEx solution is enabling us to do this."

 

 

"This is a very strategic and important deployment for Cisco in Saudi Arabia, as SAGIA is a key player in the kingdom. SAGIA will now have access to a richer collaboration environment within WebEx, which will provide more of an 'in-person' type of experience, which can lead to greater productivity in meetings. Business today requires organizations to navigate the complex cross-company networks of customers, colleagues and partners, and only the companies quick to adapt in this collaborative work process will thrive in the new flat world and in a challenging economy."

• Hassan Al Duhaim, networks and operations manager at SAGIA
• Yahya S. Almansour, general manager of marketing at the STC
• Mohammad Al Rehaili, WebEx channel manager Cisco, WebEx Technology Group, Saudi Arabia

Links / URLs:

• Emerging Markets RSS Feed:
  http://newsroom.cisco.com/data/syndication/rss2/EmergingMarkets.xml
• Middle East News: 
  http://www.cisco.com/web/ME/about/news/index.html
• For more details about Cisco WebEx visit:
  http://www.webex.com/how-it-works/index.html

About SAGIA

SAGIA's vision is to act as a gateway to investment in Saudi Arabia. We seek to attract sufficient investment to achieve sustainable rapid economic growth while capitalizing on the Kingdom's competitive strengths as the global capital of energy, and as a major hub between East and West.

Our mission is to activate aspects of conception, development and management of new and existing programs within a policy and planning framework. This framework facilitates actions and measures aimed at improving the overall economic prosperity of the country. Towards this goal, we have the full support of the Kingdom's great leadership, including and especially HM King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. For more details about SAGIA visit: http://www.sagia.gov.sa/