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SaudiEDI eTrade System
Public Investment Fund
Saudi Arabia

The Problem

The four global trends that were relevant to SaudiEDI’s initiative were :
(1) the increasing trade volumes and importance of trade for economic growth;
(2) Need for fast and efficient access to trade information for prompt decision-making and reporting at the various levels;
(3) emerging initiatives for trade facilitation and
(4) rising interests in e-Government worldwide.
Essentially, the recognition of trade as an important economic driver has encouraged nations to embark on trade facilitation initiatives, and e-Government developments have further enhanced trade facilitation efforts by creating higher degrees of transparency, speed and efficiency.

Before the implementation of SaudiEDI, the trade facilitation process was very much a manual and time-consuming effort for all the stakeholders in the import and export business community. The many cross-linked B-B and B-G interactions were not seamless.

Shipping agents representing the various cargo shipping lines had to deal with typing out the cargo manifests information and printing multiple sets of these manifest copies. These printed copies were then physically taken to the various controlling agencies for endorsements, such as Customs Dept, Ports Authority, Stevedores, Intelligence Department and Coast Guard, to name a few. It took about 7 days just to consolidate and complete the cargo manifest. On top of that, these manifests were required to be translated into Arabic.

Besides dealing with paper, there is also redundancy in the data entry because the same data need to be fed again into the respective controlling agencies’ in-house systems. All corrections to the cargo manifests required additional rounds of paperwork and manual follow-ups by the Shipping agents. Corrections are allowed only within Customs official work hours. Due to lack of automation, there was much redundancies, data integrity errors and delays.

Customs Brokers representatives had to be stationed at the Customs Kiosk for filing of trade declarations. These kiosks operate within the Customs premises with limited operating hours. Long queues and arguments over delays, inconsistent procedures and penalties were commonplace.

Because of the manifold and compounding problems, trade clearance took unacceptably long time and typically resulting in :
• bottlenecks and frustrations at every stage of the import/export process
• poor service levels and interpersonal interactions
• corruption, non-conformance to regulations and compromise to safety, security & standards.
• increased cost of goods to the consumer
• retarded growth of trade and inability to compete effectively in the global marketplace.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
SaudiEDI is an electronic gateway linking the trade users to Customs Department, Ports Authority and other Government agencies. Trade users are now able to file manifests and declarations, and obtain approvals electronically anytime from anywhere via web interface, web upload and Host-to-Host connectivity solutions. Trade facilitation is now paperless and is accessible 24/7 from anywhere.

SaudiEDI has also streamlined the documentation, filing and clearance processes through automation and employing international best practices. This has resulted in less red tape and much faster electronic approvals. Because data is entered once into the system and thence shared electronically and seamlessly to the multiple parties involved in the trade process, SaudiEDI has drastically reduced the many inefficiencies, data & staffing redundancies, transcription efforts & errors, travel time & cost. This translates to significant cost savings, better utilization of resources, higher productivity & profitability for all the stakeholders, leading to lower cost of goods to consumers. SaudiEDI has also helped to improve and smoothen the interaction and the level of coordination and collaboration between the many stakeholders.

SaudiEDI has also helped to improve the control and monitoring of the information, goods and processes, resulting in increased transparencies and enhanced public service. SaudiEDI has thus also enabled stakeholders to do planning, reporting and decision-making much faster and be more responsive to changing market needs & trends.

At the macro level, SaudiEDI is certainly helping to enhance the kingdom’s port standards, competitiveness and image in the global marketplace. SaudiEDI is designed to provide an enabling platform to integrate more value-added services by linking other related Government agencies and trading communities in the future, including possibly the integration at the regional (GCC) level. SaudiEDI, being amongst the pioneer e-Government initiative, sets the pace and precedence to lift the Kingdom’s IT capabilities and confidence to implement more of such large-scale e-Government initiatives.

According to the 2006 World Bank report on Doing Business Across Borders, Saudi Arabia took 44 days and 36 days for import and export clearances respectively. This was based on data collected in Y2005. In the 2009 World Bank report, Saudi Arabia took just 17 days and 18 days respectively, as SaudiEDI adoption increased! This is a marked improvement indeed.

In 2007, Saudi Arabia was ranked #33 in the World Bank’s Trading Across Borders ranking. Last year, Saudi Arabia improved its rankings very significantly jumping 17 positions to attain a ranking #16. This is a tremendous achievement within a 1-year period and can be attributable partly to the increased adoption of SaudiEDI services. The improvements in the trade turnaround time are primarily attributed to the efficiency of SaudiEDI services in facilitating trade.

Saudi Arabia has been accepted as a member of WTO, of which the implementation of SaudiEDI was one of the conditions for accession to WTO. This was a great milestone achievement for the Kingdom and has elevated its status as a global force in international trade.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solution was proposed by World Bank as the need to for Saudi Arabia to be engaged in WTO. Ministry of Finance, as one of the strategic stakeholders, has taken the lead for the owner ship of such a project, which may lead, at that time, to other cost saving projects. Since Public Investment Fund (PIF) was and still is working as an incubator for such projects that are strategic to Saudi Arabia and requires capital investments, PIF took the lead to invite consultants from World Bank and other consultant to set up the solution sketches. Other stakeholders have been interviewed and a common understanding of the needed technology that UN was adapting EDIFACT was selected. The solution then was customized to fit the local needs and by time the internet and XML was working in Saudi. A further benchmark of the same experience was visited, resulting in a need send the project RFP by invitation.

Through an international bid, the SaudiEDI project was awarded to CrimsonLogic by the Saudi Ministry of Finance in Jan 2002. CrimsonLogic was selected for its experience and track record in implementing trade facilitation systems for governments. The project is a public-private partnership (PPP) between Public Investment Fund (of the Saudi Ministry of Finance) and CrimsonLogic, to establish SaudiEDI as a commercially viable business enterprise for the promotion, facilitation and provision of Electronic Commerce based tools and services to those commercial organizations wishing to undertake business electronically with government agencies in the Kingdom.

Key stakeholders or beneficiaries of the SaudiEDI project include government sector stakeholders like Saudi Customs Department, Ports Authority, Department of Zakat and Income Tax (DZIT), Costal Guards, General Intelligence Agency, General Audit Board, to name a few. Private sector stakeholders include Stevedores, Shipping Agents and Customs Brokers. Other stakeholders will include controlling/testing agencies of various Ministries that are responsible for the issuance of trade permits/licenses and regulation of trade, such as Saudi Food & Drugs Authority, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, to name a few.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), investment arm of Saudi Ministry of Finance, had the foresight and vision to undertake this enormous project to implement a kingdom-wide automated trade clearance facilitation system. PIF envisaged that the Saudi import-export trade with the region and the world at large will grow significantly over the years, and the need to tie-in with the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s guidelines. PIF desired a paperless, automated, robust and scalable system, which links the whole trading community and the Government agencies. The two key goals of this system were transparency and speedy trade clearance.

Based on a PPP model CrimsonLogic was engaged in Jan2002 to implement the project. The
Scope of Works can be broadly categorized into 3 parts :
• Set up and Maintain the Data Centre and Infrastructure
• Build and Manage the Business Operations
• Project Implementation, essentially covering :
• Development of Import and Export services for the 4 port types, namely seaport, airport, railport and landport;
• Implementation of these services at the 9 key ports, which contribute to more than 88% of the total trade volumes in the Kingdom, including training and marketing to promote acceptance and adoption of SaudiEDI.

Clear milestones were defined to measure and monitor the project progress as well as the success of SaudiEDI at large. Upon the successful implementation of the project, along with a sustainable business operations and adoption by the trade community, the project/operations will be handed-over to a government-linked company setup by PIF, which will takeover the management and operations.

It was jointly decided by PIF, Customs Department and CrimsonLogic to implement SaudiEDI using the Internet infrastructure and XML and J2EE-based application platform, in both English and Arabic languages. It was also decided to start with a pilot implementation of all import & export services at Jeddah Seaport, which was the busiest and most difficult port and which contributes to about 25% of the total trade volumes in the Kingdom. This was a tough challenge for starters but a successful implementation here would instill confidence all around and pave a clear path to implement the project Kingdom-wide.

SaudiEDI data centre and infrastructure is hosted in Riyadh, as opposed to hosting in Singapore. The charging mechanism to ensure investment returns was jointly decided. CrimsonLogic decided to deploy 2 teams to implement the project effectively: one team of Technical & Business Consultants based in Saudi Arabia (to manage the project and operations on-ground) and another team of Application Developers and Infrastructure Consultants based in Singapore.

Garnering the support and cooperation of all the key stakeholders at various levels, change management in terms of changing mindsets, work processes and tools, end-user training in terms of IT literacy and SaudiEDI applications, upgrading internet and telecoms infrastructure services in the Kingdom, aggressive marketing, hand-holding and support services, and recruitment and training of a competent and committed local team were all identified as key strategies to ensure the successful implementation of SaudiEDI.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The SaudiEDI main project office in Riyadh, along with the Data Centre to house the SaudiEDI infrastructure and the satellite office in Jeddah were setup and operational by 2004. Another satellite office in Dammam was setup in late 2006. The SaudiEDI data center is manned 24/7.

After much detailed analysis-design-development, the first services - import manifest & delivery order – were launched in the Kingdom’s busiest port, Jeddah Seaport in June 2005. Soon after, in October 2005, the import declaration service was launched. After much marketing efforts, user training and individualized handholding, the import declaration volumes submitted thru SaudiEDI achieved its major adoption milestone in November 2006. By the end of 2007, all import and export services were implemented in Jeddah Seaport, with almost 100% adoption.

SaudiEDI also provided training facilities and data-entry kiosks at the 3 offices to cater to personalized coaching of end-users and also to facilitate smaller end-user organizations that do not have internet facilities in their offices. In addition, SaudiEDI also provides 24/7 call centre support services via email, phone and fax.

In Jan 2007, the import services were launched in the second busiest port, Dammam Seaport. The implementation and adoption was much faster, with the adoption reaching almost 100% by early 2008.

Currently, Jeddah and Dammam seaports alone account for about 40% of the Kingdom’s total transaction volumes. In November 2007, the import services were launched in Riyadh Airport.

With the successful implementation and adoption at Jeddah and Dammam Seaports, SaudiEDI was officially launched, as a viable entity, on the 25-November 2007, by HE Minister of Finance.

All services were implemented in Riyadh Dryport (or Railport) within a year in 2008. Acceptance and adoption is growing rapidly.

Implementation at 2 more airports and 3 landports are in progress. When all services are fully implemented at all the 9 above-said ports, they will collectively account for about 88% of the total transaction volumes in the Kingdom.

The actual trade transaction volumes in the Kingdom have increased dramatically by an average 250% from Y2001 to Y2008. This required an expansion of infrastructure and data centre capacities, which are currently in progress. The expansionary works are also designed to sync with the impending Disaster Recovery Center which is planned for implementation in 2010.

Most of the project works were performed on-ground by a team of CrimsonLogic Consultants till around mid 2004, when a local team was built from scratch. Intensive knowledge transfer in terms of domain knowledge, technical and soft skills is on-going. The SaudiEDI local team now comprises 37 staff in 2008. As the team grew, proper accounting and HR policies and systems and various operational SOPs were also put in place.

Saudi labour law requires a minimum of 25% Saudi employees, in a national bid to build local human capacity and capabilities for the future. The Saudization ratio in SaudiEDI currently stands at 60%. Various level positions are held by the Saudi staff.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Many in the trading community did not believe that such a centralized and integrated solution is achievable in Saudi Arabia. Many doubted if the project will even take-off at all given the many stakeholders involved, given the mammoth task of getting their timely cooperation and collaboration amidst prevalent government bureaucracies and given the lack of any precedence to such technologically advanced and challenging project of this scale. Many even predicted a swift collapse of the project.

In the early days of the project, support and cooperation was lacking from the key stakeholders and user community. The SaudiEDI implementation team did a great job at lobbying and garnering support at the highest levels of the government and the business community. It was with the support of key decision makers and stakeholders that the project started to move forward though slowly. With every small step and aggressive marketing, the stakeholders and participants alike became increasingly more confident that the project was on the right path and has the right backing to ensure its success.

Due to lack of competent IT resources, some key stakeholders were not able to meet the project schedules for their parts thus leading to significant project delays. Socio-cultural-language differences and complications added another layer of challenge.

While all users were familiar with the old Customs kiosk system, most of them were still unfamiliar with the Internet and “Windows” PCs in the early days of the project. User trainings had to be customized to include instructions on how to use the “Windows” PC, mouse and the Internet. SaudiEDI also setup satellite offices in each of the 2 major ports to provide individualized on-site support. In addition, SaudiEDI provided 24/7 call centre services to support users anytime of the day.

As SaudiEDI introduced a radical change in the way trade declarations were filed, strong resistance to change came from the trading community. This resistance to change was due to fear of losing their jobs or authority, fear of not being able to learn how to use the new system properly, and fear of losing their competitive edge in securing faster clearance using ‘relationships’. These fears were slowly but effectively overcome by continuous campaigning, marketing and training. Some staff received salary increments and promotions when competent in using SaudiEDI. Support from Customs Department and Ports Authority were crucial to move the business community. Scaling down on the numbers and availability of the old Customs kiosks also helped to improve SaudiEDI usage. Positive words of mouth by early adopters also helped to encourage others to follow suit and adopt the SaudiEDI system.


Success breeds success. As the users started using SaudiEDI system and became more familiar with the functionalities, they started providing feedback to improve the services even further. The SaudiEDI team obliged wherever possible, to delight the users and help increase the adoption.

These days, we have started receiving requests from some satisfied user organizations wishing for quick implementation at the other ports where SaudiEDI is not implemented yet!

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Resources in terms of capital expenditures, operational expenditures and labour.

Capital and operating expenditures in setting up and maintaining the head office in Riyadh and the 2 satellite offices, fully equipped with operational amenities and office systems; Data Center and the hardware and software infrastructure to run SaudiEDI applications and services; Data and telecommunications. Much effort and costs also go into proper documentation, creating training manuals (in English & Arabic), conducting marketing events, seminars and training. However, labour costs form the bulk of the costs (~65%).

The structure of the project team as follows to manage the project effectively:
(1) one team of Technical & Business Consultants from CrimsonLogic based in Saudi Arabia but distributed in all 3 offices to manage the project and operations on-ground; this team is responsible for requirements gathering, testing, implementation, staff/user training, applications support and maintenance as well as the project management of the entire project and operations. The Management Team based in Riyadh office is the PMO bearing the overall responsibility for the project.
(2) another team of Application Developers and Infrastructure Consultants based in Singapore, who performed the detailed design, developed the applications and technical documentations and remote support.
(3) The SaudiEDI local team, which was recruited locally, trained and deployed on-ground in all 3 offices as per project needs, provided the much-needed ground support in the various areas of business development, marketing, user-training, call centre support, customer support, data centre & infrastructure support and office administration (HR, Finance and admin).

Finding suitably qualified resources in their respective areas, who are also fairly bi-lingual in English and Arabic was a challenge. Retention of trained and good staff amidst external pull factors from serious inflationary pressures in the Middle-East between 2006 and 2008 posed another major challenge. Annual increment, performance bonus, market salary adjustments, timely promotions, recognition and rewards via certificates of appreciation and employee-of-the-month programmes, recreational activities and outings, staff lunches/dinners, external trainings, flexible and understanding management styles were all used to keep staff turnover at bay and to keep the team motivated and committed to SaudiEDI.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The SaudiEDI local operations at current staffing levels is already self-sustaining. More staff are being added in this final stage to beef-up the team. Staff in the various departments are well-trained, knowledgeable, motivated and responsible to carry out the day to day operational needs of the operations and project implementation. The team is multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-lingual, even though 60% are Saudi nationals. The staff have been ingrained with the SOPs in their areas of work. There are sufficient check-points to ensure the balls are not dropped.

SaudiEDI practices open-door policy where staff at all levels have easy aces to Management to express their views and grievances. Staff issues are attended to and resolved immediately. Monthly meetings are held involving all 3 offices to disseminate information and gather bottom-up feedback, including customer/partner feedback. Ad-hoc departmental meetings are held as and when necessary for project related discussions.

There are good relations with 3rd party vendors, who are well aware of the mission-critical nature of SaudiEDI operations and provide timely support.

PIF, as the project sponsor, puts SaudiEDI needs on high priority, as SaudiEDI is a strategic national project. For this reason, SaudiEDI also has the full support of the Minister of Finance himself.

CrimsonLogic, as a partner to PIF, is committed to assist SaudiEDI for the long-term in all ways beyond the project closure/handover, through maintenance services and other value-added services.

SaudiEDI has already attained a significant adoption with trade community users wherever the services have been implemented. Users have accepted SaudiEDI as the way forward and are realizing and enjoying the benefits of SaudiEDI.

More government agencies are approaching and seeking to integrate with SaudiEDI. Whilst SaudiEDI is already working with some of them based on critical need and priority, the others have to be scheduled into the project soon after the key implementations are achieved.

The laws of Saudi Arabia have been revised recently to accommodate e-Transactions and digital signatures, which will pave the way forward to enhance SaudiEDI services further.

Tabadul setup is in its final stages. Tabadul is the government-linked company setup to takeover and manage the SaudiEDI project and operations from CrimsonLogic when the contract comes to a close in mid 2009. Much of the handover activities are in full swing. Tabadul management is already on parallel run with CrimsonLogic in managing SaudiEDI operations.

In view of the proven success of SaudiEDI and the confidence gained, Tabadul is also tasked with exploring the possibilities of another massive e-Government project for an eProcurement system for the entire government machinery.

The future looks good and bright for SaudiEDI and Tabadul to prosper and thrive, and “Serve the Kingdom Digitally” in more ways than one!

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
SaudiEDI has proven itself to be a viable project/operations in Saudi Arabia and has demonstrated that the goals set for the project were achieve-able, although it has taken a little longer than previously anticipated due to the many project challenges and delays from unforeseen incidents like SARS in Singapore and the Gulf War in the region.

SaudiEDI has proven that such a large scale IT project, involving many stakeholders and involving a revolutionary solution that requires massive change management, is possible in Saudi Arabia. SaudiEDI has gone way beyond simple web portals with simple interactive and informational services to true end-to-end eTransactions. SaudiEDI has set the pace and precedence for more such e-Government projects in Saudi Arabia and the region at large.

SaudiEDI today is only a start; it can be extended to integrate more government agencies and other businesses in the supply chain; more value added services such as Certificate of Origin and other standard e-certifications can be added to speed-up the trade business; even seamless integration with GCC countries is possible, as a significant portion of trade takes place within and between GCC countries.

The one very important and significant factor that contributed to the success of SaudiEDI is the trust and close partnership between the PIF and CrimsonLogic. Both parties have exercised much flexibility and understanding of each other’s difficulties and needs and responded positively to create a win-win, which ultimately has brought SaudiEDI to where it is today.

Another key takeaway from this project is the need for solid commitment and common goals from the key stakeholders from the very start. The key stakeholders must be involved and committed to regular steering committee meetings to advance the course of the project in the right direction on a timely manner.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Public Investment Fund
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Faisal Al-Mousa
Title:   General Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   +96614774488
Institution's / Project's Website:   +96614742693
E-mail:   fsmousa@saudiedi.com  
Address:   4th Floor, Real Estate Development Fund Building, King Abdulaziz Road, P.O.Box 221630
Postal Code:   11311
City:   Riyadh
State/Province:   Riyadh
Country:   Saudi Arabia

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