The Saudi Arabian economy dynamics and Riyad Bank

        The Saudi Arabian economy is diversifying which is attracting many investors globally and locally. Saudi Arabia is expanding its economy for growth and this has allowed the banking sector to facilitate such growth.  Many startups are coming with business ideas to add to the economic ecosystem of the country. The banking sector is of the key interest for such startups to gain finances and loans. Vision 2030 supports growth and wants the businesses to emerge. The offerings of Riyad Bank can result in a positive in the Saudi Arabian market.

        The analysis of Saudi economy as per PESTAL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environment and Legal) factors will provide an insight about the businesses and the organization on dealing in the macro environmental factors as stated. Riyad bank has been successful in becoming one of the leading banks due to its understanding of the Saudi Economic environment. It is of importance to study the Macro environment factors of the Saudi Economy to provide detail of how different initiatives by the Riyad bank have helped the organization experience growth.  The table on the next page describes PESTEL for the company.

        
Riyad bank uses the culture and environmental factors to operate and be successful. The adaptation of ICT has helped Riyad bank to reach the place it is.

The automation of operations at Riyad Bank and use of ICT

    In this competitive era Riyad Bank has been using technology to increase the productivity of the organization and increase the efficiency of the workplace. IT in the workplace affects the dynamics of working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many companies nowadays are opting for IT in business to ensure success. Many projects of Riyad Bank are facilitated by ICT. The operations range from using software for operations to getting feedback. The horizon of use for technology in Riyad Bank is great. Few of them include:

Modernization of the digital presence

Automation of card application and account management

Customer Feedback system

All of the three help Riyad Bank to be successful in today’s time and era.

Modernization of the digital presence
        Riyad Bank is few of the banks in Saudi Arabia that have used the online platform wisely to carter to the customer needs. They used the services of the company named Revonic to lead the transformational change for the company on the digital front. The company helped Riyad Bank develop its customer portal and completely modernize the digital presence of the bank across all the businesses and digital touch points. This included an interactive website that is supported on the mobile phone to increase the leads. There is a different website for investments apart from the Riyad bank’s website called Riyad Capital. Both of the websites are up and running in English accounting all details about operations, locations and information about the services. The websites are so good that they have increased 300 percent leads to the bank. This also provides a competitive edge to the Riyad Bank as the competition in the market have not used technology at this extent to modernize the online presence. It is due to this that Riyad Bank won an award for its website in Best in class Interactive media award with a score of 494 out of 500 based on factors such as design, content, usability functionality and so on. The futuristic approach and innovation at Riyad bank makes it stand out from the rest.

Automation of card application and account management

        When it comes to innovation and doing something new Riyad Bank leads the way of all. It is in attempt to meet the agendas of the Vision 2030 that they have implemented a system to monitor risk and manage accounts to accommodate the growing demand for credit cards. It is for this purpose that the Riyad bank has utilized the services of FICO for a modern IT based approach to propose solutions for account opening, application processing and public relations of the bank. The bank has seen considerable increases in the portfolio due to the system and continues to experience growth on a daily basis. The official of the bank claims that the use of FICO’s software changed the way organization used to work which was not efficient and now the approach is more dynamic making the process more smooth and swift than before.  This has allowed Riyad Bank to take over the competition and to maintain a unique position on it. The account management system by FICO allows Riyad bank to manage individual customer’s account by using the data of accounts to correspond to the queries of statement and what not. The data is not only available in English but translated in Arabic to ensure diversity and ease to the customer. The software uses smart methods for customer account recognition managing the postal details and what to send to the customer. This increases the overall efficiency of the Riyad Bank allowing it to concentrate on many of the other fronts.  The main purpose of the FICO’s software is to accommodate the processing system but it has with help of its alliances developed a system to manage customer applications on credit cards. They use risk based assessment and different tools to see if the customer is eligible for credit card or not. This has allowed rapid processing of applications for Riyad Bank allowing them to have a competitive edge in areas such as risk management, marketing and customer servicing.

References of Saudi Arabian economy dynamics and Riyad Bank

PESTLE Analysis of Saudi Arabia 2016 - Research and Markets. (2016, July 25). Retrieved from Business Wire (A Berkshire Hathaway Company): https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160725005591/en/PESTLE-Analysis-Saudi-Arabia-2016---Research

Financial Sector Developent Program . (2018, January). Retrieved December 1, 2018, from Vision 2030: https://vision2030.gov.sa/en/FSDP

FICO. (2009). Riyad Bank automates card application processing and account management system. New York: FICO.

Revonic. (2018). Case Study - Riyad bank. Retrieved December 01, 2018, from Revonic: revonic.com/case-studies/Riyad-bank

Verint. (2018). Riyad Bank achieves significant improvement in customer experience with Verint. Dubai: Verint.