Head of IT
Al Abdul Karim
Total years of experience :19 years, 8 Months
Al Abdul Karim is one of the biggest integrated fashion retailers in Saudi Arabia, established in 1957 and operates mono-brand and multi-brand stores nationwide. Famous brands such as BlueAge, Rina, Terranova, Calliope, Semir, Balabala & Lattliv are all part of their ever growing portfolio.
Provide leadership and vision for the IT department including strategic planning of information systems.
Developing, recommending and implementing a strategy to provide the business with an IT solution that supports the current and future needs of the business aligned to corporate objectives and growth plans.
Identifies opportunities where technology can build competitive advantage and provide game-changing innovation.
Diversifying projects throughout the company, gathering the knowledge & providing with robust infrastructure while satisfying the business requirements & standards.
In collaboration with leadership team heads, prepares prepare business cases for IT investments and presents to governance committee.
Articulates IT services to ensure their compliance with business requirements and/or expectations.
Provides market view / needs to drive overall IT strategy.
Responsible for IT service delivery service delivery management including development of metrics/dashboards of IT services to the business.
Create operational policies, procedures, standards, guidelines and best practices.
Assess new innovative technologies, mission critical systems, security, communications and business continuity solutions.
Hire, develop, train, and promote high performing individuals who will provide quality support to customers.
Coach and challenge employees to maximize performance, embrace change, and anticipate customer needs.
Develop the Business Plan, IT budget and monitor both CAPEX, OPEX to ensure that the financial targets are met.
Achievements
Led the strategic and tactical execution of Omni-Channel models to drive company growth opportunities.
Empowered everyone in the workforce, to make smarter, interactive and informed decisions without boundaries, by introducing Analytics as part of the journey, thereby transforming the business, with Data.
Kick started the digital transformation journey with the employees, enhancing the organizational activities, processes and competencies.
Al Yasra Fashion is a regional fashion retail leader, operating premium fashion, footwear and accessories brands. We are proud partners with a world-class portfolio of over 60 high-end fashion, footwear and accessories brands. Our network encompasses over 270 stores across the region.
Maintain consistent critical system operations, including ERP, email and company servers.
Support organizational effectiveness by defining, delivering and implementing information technologies.
Preserve company assets by implementing and maintaining information security, data recovery and backup systems.
Recommend IT strategies and policies based on organization goals, anticipating future needs.
Prepare an annual budget with scheduled IT and communication system expenditures, matched to our strategic plan.
Maintain internal help-desk system needs for ME employees.
Act as the Administrator for company communication systems.
Direct outside service contractors to complete project work within schedule and budget guidelines.
Evaluate and integrate IT solutions for inventory management and operational efficiency.
Achievements
Spearheaded the implementation of a company wide MS Dynamics AX ERP & Retail roll out by leading a team of functional and technical consultants, within agreed timescales by using effective project management methodologies.
Reduced annual expenses 15% by leading cost reduction, quality improvements, productivity initiatives and infrastructure enhancements supporting business systems, core network and security.
Optimized traffic, staff and marketing strategies to increase conversion rates and revenues with actionable statistics, using Visitor Analytics technologies.
Lead large IT projects, including the design and deployment of new IT systems and services.
Monitor performance of information technology systems to determine cost and productivity levels, and to make recommendations for improving the IT infrastructure.
Help define IT infrastructure strategy, architecture, and processes.
Analyze business requirements by partnering with key stakeholders across the organization to develop solutions for IT needs.
Assess vendors and develop test strategies for new hardware and software.
Troubleshoot hardware and software issues related to internal IT.
Achievements
Delivered business continuity by maintaining information systems and hardware within corporate Data Center environment.
Petra Food Manufacturing Co. is one of the leading producer of quality products in Kuwait. It is the market leader in Kuwait producing & distributing different types of Dairy, Juice, Ice-cream, Bakery & Cheese products.
Technical implementation and support of Infrastructure.
Design and implementation of services, strategy and processes including incident, problem, service level and supplier management.
Distinguished efforts towards managing implementation of Orion - ERP software by 3i -InfoTech Ltd, HEAT- Service & Support Management software & Goldmine - a Customer Relationship Management software by Frontrange Solutions.