The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s project sector will continue to outperform other GCC countries over the next few years as the global downturn persists, according to Collaboration, Management and Control Solutions (CMCS), a regional provider of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions and the largest Oracle-Primavera Partner in the Middle East. To capitalise on the vast potential of the KSA market, CMCS has opened an office in Al Khobar this week while another office is set to be opened in Riyadh before year-end.
Meanwhile, CMCS plans to establish offices in all key cities across the Kingdom to spread project management best practices and help project-based businesses realise potential enhancements in overall business performance through the adoption of modern project management standards. The company has planned two events to mark the opening of the new offices – the first event will be held in Sheraton Hotel, Riyadh on December 12, 2009, while the second will take place in Mövenpick Hotel, Al Khobar, the following day.
CMCS will target major project-intensive sectors in Saudi Arabia, such as engineering and construction, power, energy and process, IT and telecommunications, and select governmental departments. A recent report pegs the total value of ongoing and planned property projects alone in Saudi at around USD586 billion, representing 128 per cent of the Kingdom’s GDP.
In the recent ‘Doing Business in the Gulf’ survey commissioned by the Leaders in Dubai Business Forum, 30 per cent of the 620 senior management respondents from around the region expressed their opinion that the main reason behind the current economic crisis is the failure in management and leadership. According to CMCS, only 30 to 40 per cent of Middle East companies are fully aware of benefits of PPM as a business tool. On a global scale, 24 per cent of all projects either fail, are cancelled, or delivered but never used. The company has thus been organising seminars to empower the region’s project-driven businesses to overcome the crisis.
“Project Portfolio Management is essential to the strategic realignment of the region’s project-based industries. While the concept has emerged as a key productivity enabler for all project-intensive industries across the world, it has yet to be fully adopted by regional organisations. Nevertheless, we can expect it to gain widespread popularity within the coming years. Ultimately, project-driven organisations committed to sustainability will outperform their peers by adopting project portfolio management,” said Bassam Samman, CEO and Founder of CMCS.
According to HSBC, the aversion of banks to lending has halved project financing across the Gulf in 2009. Compared to USD90 billion in 2008 and USD130 billion in 2007, syndicated loans for regional projects this year have totalled around only USD30 billion so far. A recent Proleads report adds that 30 per cent of oil, gas and petrochemical projects by value have been put on hold in the region due to the global slowdown.
Collaboration, Management and Control Solutions deploys state-of-the-art technology solutions from Oracle’s Primavera product line, Hard Dollar, Deltek, EcoSys, eTimeMachine, and Synchro, among others.
