All-female BPO & IT center wins praise for adding value to national economy

Health Minister Khalid Al-Falih has appreciated the key role of the Riyadh-based all-women employment center for business process and IT services. “The first women-only BPO center in the Kingdom is adding real value to the national economy,” he said.
The all-women employee center was opened in 2014, with the joint effort of Saudi Aramco, American multinational conglomerate corporation GE and Indian IT services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Speaking at the second anniversary ceremony of the center Al-Falih, who is also the chairman of the board of directors of Saudi Aramco, said: “In line with the Kingdom’s economic diversification and job creation objectives, the center is spurring the growth of a viable but under-represented employment sector in our society."
He added: "It is providing an expanding and impressive customer list with the vital business process and IT services to help boost customers’ productivity, efficiency and cost management. Thus, it is bringing jobs from other parts of the world to the Kingdom, adding real value to our economy,” he added.
Al-Falih pointed that Saudi Aramco is proud of its role in proactively supporting the center, alongside the partners, TCS and GE.
“Delivering on our shared vision, the center has now reached 1,000 female employees by its second year anniversary and 85 percent of the staffers are Saudi women professionals, which highlights commitment to drive job creation for Saudi nationals,” Al-Falih said.
“I encourage other companies and government agencies to take advantage of the remarkable success achieved by the center and develop opportunities replicating similar business centers in the Kingdom’s other regions,” he added.
The function was also attended by Minister of Labor Mufrej Al-Haqabani and Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority Gov. Abdullatif Al-Othman, who echoed the sentiment saying this is a huge achievement for the center’s partners, clients and most importantly, its highly talented and qualified work force.
“This will provide a welcome and needed boost to our labor market and economy,” said the labor minister.
The ceremony was also attended by female leaders from different sectors in the Kingdom, including members of the Shoura Council, counselors of various ministries, representatives from Saudi universities and the executive heads of local and international companies.
Later speaking to reporters, Shane Fitzsimons, senior vice president, GE global operations, said: “It has been an amazing two years of progress and we are delighted that the center has exceeded our ambitious expectations.”
Neeraj Kumar Srivastava, TCS regional director, Saudi Arabia told Arab News that the study on commercial viability is in progress and we have expansion plan.
"We have had many successes, not just in terms of exponential growth but also the progress made with respect to the value added to our customers through process improvements and efficiency built," he said.
Notably, TCS and GE own 76 percent and 24 percent equity in the center and initial clients were Saudi Aramco and GE as anchor clients.
The center has extended its capabilities and client list to include Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and the Ministry of Economy and Planning.
The center supports GE Global operations in delivering over 20 key business operations such as finance and accounting, human resource outsourcing, supply chain management, information technology and enterprise data management for more than 50 GE locations worldwide.
Source: Arab News