Saudi’s Tourism Development Fund deploys Oracle Cloud to automate processes

Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Development Fund (TDF) has completed a major Oracle Cloud implementation to automate its processes and enhance customer and employee experience.

The implementation, which spans Oracle software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud solutions, is designed to drive automation and integration of TDF’s core functions including core banking, finance, human resources and procurement.

The move is hoped to drive data integration and unified business processes for TDF, leading to increased productivity, reduced costs and improved controls, a statement said.

The process includes the migration of TDF’s core IT systems to Oracle Cloud infrastructure and the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Human Capital Management (HCM), Customer Experience (CX) and Oracle Integration Cloud.

Yasser Alkhathlan, executive director – Business Technology for TDF, said: “The Oracle Cloud implementation is key to our success, enabling us to respond quickly and transparently to businesses that operate in the tourism ecosystem. The integration and automation of core business functions also allows us to scale our operations quickly and securely, introduce innovative solutions to support tourism sector SMEs, and monitor the performance of our fund in real time.

“We are now also running a pilot project with Oracle to explore the implementation of artificial intelligence capabilities to drive further automation.”

The $4b TDF aims to be the key enabler of tourism development in the kingdom by providing financing solutions for investors. It is playing a major role in supporting the National Tourism Strategy’s goal of raising the tourism sector’s contribution from 3 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030 and creating one million new jobs by 2030.

Alkhathlan said: “We also have confidence in Oracle’s services given that their next generation cloud region is in Jeddah, and that Oracle is also a certified Level 1 cloud provider, as defined by the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) in Saudi Arabia.

“Since its cloud solutions are hosted in the country, they are aligned with the kingdom’s Cloud Computing Regulatory Framework (CCRF) and compliant with the National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) security models.”

Fahad Al Turief, managing director – Oracle Saudi Arabia and vice president – Cloud, Saudi Arabia and LEENA markets, added: “With this end-to-end implementation, TDF is realising all the benefits of cloud including lower total cost of ownership, improved agility and secure performance, access to upgrades, and the ability to continuously innovate.”