Page 7 - SAMENA Trends - April 2020

FEATURED SAMENA TRENDS

traffic, and by providing urgent support actively with the society to complement until the end of April. The company’s
to government and businesses. Then government’s efforts. startup incubator program, InspireU,
we started the rollout of direct targeting continued to offer enablement to applicant
messaging and efforts step by step.” Enabling Government at a Testing Time entrepreneurs, where the value of the
The Saudi government has provided one of initaitives exceeded SAR 300 million in
stc worked closely with the most efficient responses to coronavirus emerging technology apps.
the concerned ministries worldwide; its proactive and professional “In the coming days, Batches Six and
measures ensured the outbreak remained
on a series of initiatives. at a minimum, said Al-Nasser adding “stc Seven of inspireU program will be
With the health ministry, had a considerable role to play in this announced with the goal of supporting
for instance, we doubled context as the country’s principal digital local entrepreneurs… also continuing our
local content program, Rawafed, that has
enabler.”
operational efficiency at contributed SAR 4 billion to local content
22 stc-owned Health Care “stc worked closely with the concerned thus far.”
ministries on a series of initiatives. With
Centers that have served the health ministry, for instance, we stc’s Staff on the Frontline
five million patients since doubled operational efficiency at 22 stc- stc’s workforce played a crucial role at the
owned Health Care Centers that have
forefront of the company’s endeavors, said
their establishment by stc served five million patients since their Al-Nasser.
with a cost of a SAR 100 establishment by STC with a cost of a SAR
million, and offered free 100 million, and offered free telephone “Our 15,000-workforce (I believe we can
say more than 20k as it is a group) did an
and internet services to quarantined
telephone and internet customers nationwide,” noted the Chief impressive job enacting this new normal, a
services to quarantined Executive Officer. testimony to the Group’s ambitious human
development strategy and policies. As the
customers nationwide In partnership with Ministry of Sport and lockdown started to take effect, stc advised

the Federation for Electronic Sports, stc over 96% of its workforce to do their jobs
To encourage households to stay at home, launched the Biggest Electronic Sports remotely.. yet continuing our legacy in
stc made all its services accessible via (FIFA, Fortnite, PUBG) Tournament to maintaining the best service quality and
mystc mobile app; introduced the eSIM encourage youngsters and gaming fans to customer satisfaction. The result was
service for the first time in Saudi Arabia; stay at home. stc allotted prizes of up to striking,” he said.
offered 50% discount on optical fibers SAR 500,000 to winners.
services; and accelerated the delivery of stc’s support to the busin-
its products four-fold, said Al-Nasser. Be- stc was widely recognized for its role in the ess community was mainly
sides, the company provided free access success of the first virtual G20 summit for
to education and health platforms; and which it served as the digital enabler. aimed at keeping business
doubled the data capacity for a large seg- as usual by ensuring that
ment of its customers without extra fees. Bolstering Business Continuity
stc’s support to the business community our enterprise-oriented
The Company also offered 40,000 free was mainly aimed at keeping business offerings remain leveraged
data SIMs to support the ‘Digital Giving as usual by ensuring that our enterprise-
Initiative’, an initiative of Saudi Ministry oriented offerings remain leveraged to to meeting unprecedented
of Communications aimed at promoting meeting unprecedented demand for demand for remote
digital literacy among Arab communities; remote meetings and business doing, said meetings and business
and joined forced with the ministry to Al-Nasser.
organize the Hope Hackathon – an doing
initiative steered toward the innovation In this context, stc continued its digitization
community in Saudi Arabia. drive by digitizing seven million contracts The Group continues to study other
that have saved 200,000 annual waiting possible ways and areas where it can
On the awareness raising front, stc sent hours, and introduced the Sign and exert support to government COVID-19
over 2.5 billion awareness messages (SMS) Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) containment efforts, business continuity
in 10 languages to millions of citizens and digital solutions to enable businesses to plans, and households’ connectivity needs.
residents prompting them to follow safety sign and verify contracts remotely. Going forward, stc will continue to step
procedures during the pandemic. The up its digitization drive, venture into new
company also sponsored the Immunity stc pledged continued support to SMEs innovative areas to advance its business
Forum (Manaah), the first virtual forum and entrepreneurs, by waiving the cost and social agenda, and continue to monitor
regionwide to offer coronavirus awareness. of temporary service suspension of SME and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on its
And the company continues to engage willing to temporarily suspend services business, concluded Al-Nasser.

7 APRIL 2020