At solutions by stc, we believe in the value of our customers, partners, and community. We strive to forge strong relationships that are built on trust, understanding, and honoring a commitment to shared values and purpose.

Customers

As the Kingdom’s ICT market leader, solutions by stc delivers direct value to its customers through a diversified offering that drives digitalization, transformation, scale, and growth. In turn, customers create value for the Company by driving revenue, innovation, and advancement. solutions by stc’s position as service-provider of choice for customers is grounded in three pillars linked to the Company’s overarching strategic thrust:

• Excellence in customer experience
• Responsive development of capabilities and offering
• Reliable and secure systems and processes.

Serving diverse customers

solutions by stc is an integral partner in the digital transformation and growth trajectories of hundreds of public and private enterprises in the Kingdom. Honouring its commitment to Saudi Vision 2030, the Company delivers secure and cutting-edge digital infrastructure, and provides vital services that are driving growth, scale, and transformation for customers.

Customers by segment

Customers by business line

Customers by region

Growing our customer base

2022 saw solutions by stc engage a number of new customers from the state sector, alongside retention of key enterprise business customers. This comes alongside solutions by stc being awarded to implement the Smart City strategy, wherein the Company will take a lead role in designing, building, implementing, managing, and operating ICT infrastructure required for key Smart Cities in the Kingdom.

solutions by stc’s managed services, featuring end-to-end management of network infrastructure showed significant growth in 2022; doubling the growth of our customer base. This increase was driven by solutions by stc’s strong position in the market as the Kingdom’s leading digital transformation enabler, and reputation of the Company’s talented and expert teams and proven delivery modality.

Looking beyond the Company’s presence as the ICT market-leader in the Kingdom, solutions by stc’s recent acquisition of Giza Systems will see an expansion in customer base into new markets, regions, and business lines. Refer Acquisition of Giza Systems for more details on solutions by stc’s new acquisition.

Orders delivered

Enhancing customer experience

Building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with customers is of strategic importance to the Company. solutions by stc’s 5-year LEAP Strategy has a strong focus on Customer Experience as a key pillar for the journey of growth. The Company is committed to delivering best in class customer experience for clients, through optimization of processes, digitalization, and continuous improvement that focuses on customer centricity and customer experience.

During 2022, solutions by stc rolled out a detailed CX strategy designed to ensure best in class customer experience for customers and make it part of organization’s DNA. The strategy follows a 360-degree framework that reiterates customers’ position at the heart of operations.

Delivering a superior customer experience includes striving for excellence at every level of the value chain: starting from assessing and setting customer expectations, to offering development and the entire ecosystem of products and services enabled by a dedicated team of experts. During 2022, several initiatives were introduced to strengthen relationships between the Company and the customers, under the umbrella of “Voice of Experience”, and “Building a Customer-Centric Culture”.

The excellence of solutions by stc’s customer experience is evident from the awards received from reputed global and regional entities:

• Best Voice of Experience program from CX Live show.
• Best Change Management from CX Live show.
• Best Customer Centric Culture from International Customer Experience Association (IXCA).

Listening to Customers

The Customer’s voice is a key input that enriches and guides the offerings and operations of the Company. To effectively listen to customers, solutions by stc has an established mechanism in place to track the experience and feedback of customers across the customer journey. Details from which are collected, tracked, and taken up for action with the highest priority

Ongoing initiatives to support customers following COVID-19

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, solutions by stc adopted widespread measures to minimize disruptions and safeguard operations. This included prioritizing urgent client requirements and ensuring the delivery of critical projects within the agreed parameters.

A number of the initiatives that were implemented to support customers during the COVID-19 pandemic have been retained.

SAP Technology Lab

A platform for tests, demos, training and development was built within solutions. Providing access to both clients and technical teams, it has improved the Company’s professional offering and ensures a better customer experience.

Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN)

New infrastructure was built to provide secure remote access for Riyadh and Jeddah DCs. All cloud, digital operations, ODM (Operations Duty Manager) and cloud managed services were onboarded to the VPN to allow secure remote access to the required cloud and digital services. The infrastructure continues to aid in providing smooth and fast responses to support requests while increasing operational efficiency and allowing greater access control.

Shift management and alerting

The PagerDuty platform was installed to enable all cloud and digital teams to provide alerts and use shift management tools around the clock. It also provides an escalation feature that ensures acknowledgment of all customer tickets and requests by relevant teams. The platform aids in connecting the on-call team with appropriate technical cadre to ensure 24-hour support. The PagerDuty platform also offers increased security, with the ability to avoid breaches while improving service availability and working toward the end goal of greater customer satisfaction.

HW Receive Validation

The Company was able to transfer the task of hardware validation from a physical process to a remote validation process with the support and alignment of the on-site data center team. The process has been standardized to enable enhanced delivery, pro-activeness, early defect detection and operational efficiency.

Responsiveness to current and emerging customer needs

To support the Company’s future growth trajectory, it is imperative to monitor shifting trends in the ICT landscape, identify the immediate and emerging needs of customers and gearing the Company to continue delivering cutting-edge solutions that are cost-effective while meeting the highest performance standards.

In line with solutions by stc’s 2020-2025 LEAP Strategy; expansion of the Company’s product portfolio and market reach is grounded in innovation, market research, continuous improvement, and future-focused alignment with customer needs.

solutions by stc carries out continuous, in-depth market research that allows the Company to identify current and emerging customer needs. Utilizing a variety of criteria used to assess, understand and align with needs and expectations, the Company’s research enables identification of new markets and sales channels; opportunities for growing the customer-base; openings for cross-selling; gaps for improvement of offering; and space for off-shelf products and bundling of digital and connectivity business lines.

As the forerunner in the Kingdom’s ICT market, solutions by stc maintains a presence across the Kingdom, covering a wide spectrum of customer needs and offering comprehensive solutions comprising of an extensive range of products and services; in addition to cross-selling across business lines. In 2022, the Company won 1,297 opportunities across its business lines.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

In order to deliver customer service that exceeds expectations, the Company utilizes a per-product Service level Agreement (SLA) that is customized based on the domain and nature of each product. The SLA monitors performance based on metrics and ensures expectations and obligations are fulfilled. SLA performance results also provide valuable insight into gaps in the market and customer needs that need to be addressed. They become the basis for upgrading products, introducing new features, as well as adopting strict internal KPIs.

Reliable and secure systems and processes

Maintaining robust and secure systems is vital for protecting customer data and ensuring their concerns are addressed in an efficient manner. By showcasing reliability and consistently delivering high standards, solutions by stc has become the recognized partner for Operations and Managed Services (MS); in both local and international markets, and won the trust of its customers across the Kingdom.

Service availability and technology disruption

The Company is aware that any failure or breakdown of its information and technology systems and data center operations, including network, storage, and server operations, could impact the Company’s ability to deliver and optimize its services to customers. This could result in a significant slowdown in their operational and management efficiencies, results of operations, and financial position. Necessary safeguards have been put in place, and are in compliance with KSA laws and regulations to mitigate risk of technology disruption and minimize impact.

Service Availability is a Key Performance Indicator utilized to measure the quality of ICT service delivered to customers. Therefore, the Company measures performance against several metrics for reliability and responsiveness of operations and maintenance of managed services.

SLAs for Service Availability

	2022	%	2021	%
Incidents resolved within product resolution KPIs	107,877	100%	121,309	99.9%
Total incidents	107,877		121,314
Service requests fulfilled within product fulfilment KPIs	11,677	100%	11,260	99.9%
Total fulfilled requests	11,677		11,263

Data Security, a high priority domain

Data security is a domain that is of high priority to the Company in terms of interests of its stakeholders and protection extended to the same. The Company’s approach to data security and data classification are aligned with cybersecurity and privacy requirements stipulated by KSA regulators. solutions by stc has adopted a multi-layered operating model in which all data stakeholders (owners, custodians, the cybersecurity team, the data privacy team, etc.) work together with a clear R&R to ensure data security.

Solutions by stc also works to ensure data security processes are applied across the Company and transferred, where applicable, to its partners (vendors and/or customers). This assurance follows a risk-based model to guarantee Company resources are channelled into supporting business priorities.

Data Privacy Office

The Company formally established a data privacy office in order to further reinforce data privacy. The office maintains an independent reporting line and an internal cybersecurity strategy that are directly aligned with the Company strategy.

The aim of the data privacy office is to oversee and govern data privacy related actions and processes. A governance model was created which includes necessary policies, frameworks, processes, and procedures.

It also follows an operational model detailing relevant stakeholders who are to operate the governance model; along with their roles and responsibilities: beginning with Senior Management, through to key departments and concluding at operational level. Such models describe and record methods of collecting, processing and consenting to the use of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). It further details methods of sharing such information with third parties and what risk assessments are conducted on third parties along with internal processes.

Partners

solutions by stc is dedicated to developing and sustaining an active network of strategic partners. Maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, including global ICT vendors, ensures delivery of high-quality infrastructure and services to customers, and consistent value to stakeholders across the supply chain. As per the Company’s 2020-2025 LEAP Strategy; maintaining a strong partner ecosystem plays a key role in the Company’s plans for growth, expansion, and business sustainability.

solutions by stc’s focus for partnership and synergy development is centered around the key domains of Engagement Enhancement; Revenue Enhancement; Capability Enhancement; and Increasing Market Reach. These come together to form solutions by stc’s partnership strategy, which charts a course for the Company’s expansion in the SME market; with strengthened capacity, focused revenue and product/service growth, and better positioning as a premier partner of choice for global and local ICT players.

1	Revenue Growth and maximizing profitability 45% growth in partner revenue
2	Focus on products and services solutions by stc is an authorized Professional Services provider (Implementation) for several technology vendors, and has developed new products such as Applications Management and SD-WAN as managed services
3	Build capacity aligned with B2B strategy Achievement of certifications with global technology vendors, and continuous training helped build staff capacity and capabilities
4	Integration Management Office (IMO) establishment Play a fundamental role in solutions by stc new acquisitions initiative by building the needed capabilities to ensure the success of the post -acquisition activities
5	Enhanced partner experience Managing partner life cycle from pre-qualification to renewal includes day to day operations, with objective to position solutions by stc as number 1 choice of partner

Delivering world-leading ICT services

solutions by stc’s network of partners comprises over 170 global and local technology innovators. The Company serves as a value-added delivery partner of tech products from leading global technology providers, to state institutions, large enterprises, and SMEs. solutions by stc has achieved the highest level of partnership with a number of global ICT giants, in recognition of the Company’s successful delivery of world-leading ICT services in the Kingdom, and contribution to their expansion and revenue growth.

Highest level of partnership achieved with global ICT giants

Robust partner and supplier ecosystem

OEM Tire 1 | 7 key partners

OEM Tire 2 | 19 partners

Tire 3 | 100+ partners

Having access to a broad spectrum of high-quality global products and services, the Company is able to construct comprehensive technological solutions for its customers. At the same time, a Partner Ranking Process is used to continuously measure and evaluate the performance of the Company’s partners on a regular basis. The process evaluates partners according to; revenue, transaction volume, profitability, partner investment and incentives, status of the partner, alignment with Company objectives, and level of communication and trust. In addition, solutions by stc carries out bi-monthly business plan reviews to gain a comprehensive perspective of partnership status and engagement.

In 2022, total purchases from top ten suppliers amounted to SAR 2.02 billion. The Company’s top four suppliers for the year ended 31 December 2022 were:

• Microsoft
• Cisco
• Dell EMC
• Huawei

From the perspective of revenue enhancement; strong engagement and maintenance of the highest partnership level with suppliers enabled solutions by stc was to leverage rebates amounting to SAR 27.4 million (2.86%) during the year. Reflecting a rebate growth of 1% from the previous year.

Committed to local development

While the Company leverages its position to engage leading global ICT partners, solutions by stc retains a strong commitment to development of the local value-chain and partner ecosystem. As such, procurement spending to local suppliers totaled SAR 3.17 billion and amounted to 69.67% of total procurement spending.

	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Total purchases from top 10 suppliers (SAR billion)	1.55	1.47	1.97	2.07	2.02
Total procurement spending (SAR billion)	2.90	3.64	4.30	4.20	4.55
Spending on local suppliers (SAR billion)	1.67	2.24	2.78	2.63	3.17
Local suppliers engaged (Nos.)	383	405	397	408	419
Percentage of total procurement spending on local suppliers (%)	57.7	61.6	64.6	62.8	69.67

The Company screens suppliers to ensure they are aligned with business needs while being competent, capable, and reliable. In addition to continuous internal review, the General Authority for SMEs “Monshaat” is engaged in the screening of suppliers, allowing the Company to move towards the goals outlined in Vision 2030, and reinforcing a commitment to grow alongside the Kingdom’s SME sector.

Key achievements in 2022

Awards and recognition

Complaints handling and grievance redress

solutions by stc has a comprehensive whistle-blowing policy covering issues that may involve alleged fraud, unethical behavior, misconduct, or corruption. The whistle-blowing policy and processes encourages all employees and connected parties to speak up in confidence on the issues outlined above. The Policy applies to irregularities or suspected irregularities involving employees, shareholders, consultants, vendors, contractors, and other parties who have a business relationship with the Company. Whistle-blowing channels include a dedicated email address and a 24/7 hotline.

The Company makes every effort to maintain confidentiality of the issues raised through the channels and thereafter conducts sound investigations followed by remedial action.