ASSESSING KEIR International: Looking beyond revenues
by Mohammed Al Dhalaan, Founder and Chairman
This is an article on KEIR International that hopes to present a view of the company behind or beyond financial figures.
This is a lengthy article in 8 parts, divided into the following topics:
0. Introduction
1. KEIR International Profile
2. Expansion and Diversity of Customer Base
3a. In Pursuit of Affirmation for Qualifications and Capabilities
3b. Qualification to Participate in Customers’ Projects Due to Credentials
3c. Revenue Streams
3d. Type Approvals, Certifications and Qualifications
4a. Achievements with Manufacturing Partnerships/Exclusive Alliances
4b. Growing Company Affiliations/Partnerships
5. High-Quality Implementation
6. Credit-worthiness
7. Leadership
8. Success and Survival
Profile
In evaluating a company, many an assessor generally looks at that company’s financial statements both historical and forward-looking thereby missing an opportunity to paint a big picture and provide potential investors with a chance to go beyond what financial figures are about.
Perhaps, it is time to assess to include a company’s sentimental value as well, which further exemplifies its strengths, promises, values, and ethics.
Let’s take a look at KEIR International’s, which is a duly-registered commercial Saudi enterprise – a pioneering local company initially engaged in telecoms and IT work and which has evolved into a preferred high-technology contracting company involved in the building of critical public utilities (particularly electricity) and smart safe cities/security infrastructures for both public and private entities.
Since it was established in late 2007, and since starting its operations at the beginning of 2008, KEIR International has been offering to its varied customers a credible and workable range of services and solutions, which includes implementation, execution, operation, and maintenance for the telecom, IT, power and electricity sectors through frame contracts and turn-key projects; has built communications towers, wireless networks, and smart safe cities and has supplied fiber optic cables, smart SIM cards, and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connectivity materials for the same sectors.
Since then, KEIR International has steadily risen to the so-called top of the heap of companies (about 300 companies for one telecom services operator alone) that provide services to its customers through dint of hard work and steadfast commitment to delivering on its obligations with speed, quality, and reasonable margins.
KEIR International’s current portfolio of services, solutions, and activities can be summed up as including the supply of products and materials and the implementation of network design and global information systems (GIS), services and projects, and operations and maintenance (O&M).
Since it began operations in 2008, KEIR International (then known as Ceir for Telecom and IT, Ltd.) has metamorphosed from a limited liability company for the telecom and IT sectors into a closed joint-stock services company for the public utility sector as well to include such customers as Saudi Electricity Company and Dawiyat Telecom Company while still going strong in the telecommunications front with customers that include the Saudi Ministry of Interior and Salam (formerly, Integrated Telecom Co.).
The company’s activities thus, according to its latest Articles of Association, are as follows:
– the supply, installation, implementation, and operation of telecommunication towers and wired and wireless networks.
– the supply of fiber-optic cables to connect networks, the operation and connection of low- and high-voltage substations and main electricity stations.
– smart and safe city projects.
– signal reinforcement solutions in buildings.
– supply of mobile phone SIM cards.
– implementation of Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) projects.
– implementation of projects like optical fiber extensions between cities and linking them to the governmental and private sectors.
– designing communications, electricity, and water networks.
– implementing major O&M projects.
The company is also working on entering into alternative energy projects and special services in the Internet of Things (IoT) and all the added services that work on fixed and mobile fiber-optic networks. The company is also in the process of implementing an integrated strategy in the field of manufacturing communications materials and fiber-optic and copper accessories.
Most recently, KEIR International has also ventured into construction with partner Quadratics Development LLC, for the provision of technology-driven and innovative solutions for the construction industry.
Customer Base
Since 2014, or when the company changed its name to Keir International Company Limited to address changing business requirements, demands, and growing customer base, its customer base has expanded from providing services to telecom operators such as Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and other public utility companies such as Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), Dawiyat Telecom Company and Salam (formerly Integrated Telecom Company/ITC) as well as government ministries such as the Saudi Ministry of Interior (MoI) and the Saudi Ministry of Defence and Aviation (MoDA) including the Saudi Royal Air Force.
Such expansion has also now included companies from the non-government sector.
The growth of its customer base has been a clear testimony to its approved and preferred vendor/supplier status as KEIR International sought and earned affirmation for its qualifications and eligibilities to implement big-budgeted projects.
The diversity of KEIR International’s customer base ranges from government and non-government entities.
Qualifications and Credentials
In pursuit of affirmation for its qualifications and capabilities, to be better suited to its approved and preferred vendor/supplier status amongst its customers and a crowded serviced industry, and to beef up its corporate credentials, KEIR International has also sought and earned ISO 9001 (Quality Management System) certification. KEIR International as a company that values improving employee safety, reducing workplace risks, and creating better, safer working conditions, has also sought and earned OHSAS 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System) certification. Recently, KEIR International also earned the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Information Security Management System (ISMS) Certification which deals with information security and specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving ISMS.
These are in addition to the 5-Star Safety certification it earned from SEC and Saudi Standards Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) certificate of conformity to Saudi Arabia Standards and Specifications.
However, foremost of these affirmations is the classification it has earned from the Saudi Ministry of Municipalities and Rural Affairs (MoMRA) making it eligible to implement big-budgeted government projects of up to SAR400 million (in the case of Grade 2 classification in electrical works) or more than SAR400 million (in the case of Grade 1 in telecom works). KEIR International has been classified as Grade 4 in water and in construction works and Grade 5 in electronic and in road works.
For consistency in its presentation of its company profile, KEIR International has also earned the D-U-N-S Registered Certificate.
KEIR International has also conscientiously nurtured its outstanding Saudi Nitaqat status – effectively demonstrating its willingness and strict adherence to government requirements and standards.
These credentials have been helpful and useful in gaining KEIR International’s added credibility to be able to qualify to participate in implementing projects for many other customers, from the private and public sectors, including from the government.
KEIR International’s revenue streams have consistently been derived not just from its implementation of big-budgeted projects but in the supply of materials as well, such as fiber optic cables, SIM cards, and fiber optic connectivity materials through exclusive partnerships with global manufacturers FiberHome Technologies, Sterlite Technologies and Idemia who are recognized preferred vendors/suppliers in their own rights.
In this sector, KEIR International’s products have been issued type approvals and certifications by STC, thus enabling it to offer, without reservations about its quality, its type-approved products to other interested customers as well.
Additionally, KEIR International’s pioneering work with STC on the erection of GSM towers (greenfield and rooftop) has earned it a Grade A from Saudi Arabia’s first telecom services provider – a significant testimony to its qualifications since it is the highest grade that STC bestows on its preferred vendors/suppliers.
Most recently, it earned a Qualification Certificate from Integrated Dawiyat for Telecom & Information Technology for the design of outside plant passive telecom network infrastructure even as it has been recognized as well by SEC for infrastructures.
Such qualification is also borne out of MoI’s preference for fiber optic cables as supplied by KEIR International for the ministry’s fiber-optic network infrastructures.
Notably, the type approvals for SIM cards supplied/provided by KEIR International have made it possible for KEIR International to be a qualified vendor/supplier, if not an approved and preferred vendor/vendor supplier of such materials not only to pioneering telecom provider STC but also to new players Mobily, Dawiyat Telecom Company and Salam. To date, KEIR International is also a qualified and approved vendor/supplier of SIM cards for M2M smart meters.
Partnerships
KEIR International’s partnerships with global manufacturers have not been without significant achievements in terms of recognizing KEIR International’s world-class capabilities – it is currently at the Platinum level in its partnership with Cisco, after earning its so-called stripes starting from premier, specialized and gold partnership levels.
Aside from FiberHome Technologies, Sterlite Technologies, and Idemia, KEIR International has also been signed up exclusively by or negotiating for contact exclusivity with
– SIT Digital for design and geographic information systems (GIS)
– Opterna Aerial network solutions
– Hexatronic for specialized fiber optic products
– Highpoint (Vezha) for license plate recognition, analytics, and automatic license plate readers/ALPR-gates solutions
– Emeres for the Madinah 911 project’s CAD
– G2K for the Madinah 911 project’s Situational Awareness and Video Analytics
– IBM for cybersecurity
and secure productive and responsive alliances in support of KEIR International’s growth of business portfolio – from its traditional involvement in providing telecoms and IT services, products, and solutions, to new opportunities that cater to providing more streamlined services, products, and solutions for projects and services for civil works (electrical, outside plant/OSP and GSM), infrastructural works, fiber optic cable deployment, in-building solutions, and electrical low-current systems.
KEIR International’s business portfolio has now also grown to include projects that provide for cybersecurity and for safer and smarter cities.
Indeed, KEIR International has gained renown for the company affiliations/partnerships it keeps. Through the years, its list of company affiliations/partnerships has included global brands including Huawei, Cisco and R&M.
Implementation
The high level of quality implementation by KEIR International in its projects can be easily gleaned from the nature and description of the more than 50 contracts it has been awarded by companies in the government and non-government sectors including:
- SEC Unified Contract for Riyadh’s 36KV Project for 5 years which called for the installation and maintenance of distribution networks up to 36Kv including installation and maintenance of transformers, electric meters, medium- and low-volt cables, distribution panels, and aerial poles.
- SEC-Dawiyat Telecom Company Aerial Passive Network Infrastructure Project for 3 years to build the combined/joint companies’ Aerial Passive Network and Feeder, Distribution, and Drop Cable Networks (which called for site surveys, high-level and low-level designs of civil routes and fibers), outside plant works (underground and aerial), testing and commissioning and as-built documentation.
- STC and Dawiyat Telecom Company to provide SIM cards and M2M cards for smart meters.
Credit-worthiness
KEIR International’s credibility is excellently matched by its credit worthiness, such that major banking and financial institutions including Saudi National Bank (formerly Al Ahli/National Commercial Bank), Al Rajhi Bank, and Bank Aljazira have not been more confident in their support for the financial well-being of KEIR International by way of extending credit and other banking/financial facilities and instruments (letters of credit and performance and bid bonds) amounting to millions of Saudi riyal.
Leadership
KEIR International’s leadership emanates from its Board of Directors led by Founder and Chairman Mohammed Al Dhalaan and Vice-Chairman Dr. Mamdouh Ghazzawi. The current Members of the Board of Directors include Saleh Al Hassan, Ibrahim Al Hurabi, Fahad Al Jarallah and Abdullah Al Rebdi who are able and highly qualified representatives of telecom and engineering, finance and auditing, and media sectors.
The current Chief Executive Officer is Waseem Al Marzoki who also leads the executive management team.
Success
The continued success (and indeed, survival post-covid-19 epidemic) of a company is both a constant challenge and a perennial struggle. But with the continued support of well-meaning investors to a dedicated team of stakeholders that have made up KEIR International from 2008 up until now, KEIR International is poised to live up to its track record of excellent performance well into the future.
Thank you
As KEIR International embarks on a new chapter in its evolution as a local/Saudi company, gratitude and appreciation are extended to everyone who has been in support since Day One. We have a lot of stakeholders to thank – investors, employees, customers, contractors, manufacturing partners, and third-party suppliers – our so-called village that took us to these heights.
Who would have thought we would reach this remarkable milestone? It was hard to see in 2008. The aspiration has always been there, but it would not be so easily reached, nor the path would be so easily clear, especially during difficult and trying times. But still, we persisted.
And here we are, at the threshold of a new beginning toward a better-managed company with clearer goals and objectives in terms of portfolio, revenue, and customer growth.
May you remain with us – in support and in appreciation – in all the years to come.
