Virgin Megastore in Saudi Arabia to Accelerate Digital Transformation with IBM and SAP

The major entertainment retailer to migrate SAP ERP application workloads to IBM Cloud to gain flexibility, scale to help meet increasing consumer needs and bring increased levels of security to protect critical data

IBM, in collaboration with its business partner in Saudi Arabia Brmaja Commercial Company (Brmaja), has announced that Virgin Megastore KSA, a major entertainment retailer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is migrating its SAP ERP application workloads to IBM Cloud as part of its hybrid cloud strategy. The migration from on-premises to a cloud environment is designed to help the retailer create operational efficiencies and provide a platform for new digital services to their clients.

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Habits formed during the COVID-19 pandemic have raised consumers’ expectations for digital engagement, especially in service industries like retail. This is encouraging retailers to transform their operations to deliver an efficient, secured, and seamless experience across front and back-end business processes. Now retailers are modernizing operations, including mission-critical workloads such as finance and inventory reporting, as well as customer-facing processes to enhance experiences while protecting their data.

By migrating its ERP workloads to IBM Cloud, Virgin Megastore KSA will aim to boost productivity across business functions to help meet the evolving needs of its growing network of shoppers. With a secured and open hybrid cloud approach from IBM, the retailer aims to significantly reduce administration and reporting time, allowing their sales teams to stay focused on driving client experiences.

“Modernizing our infrastructure will allow us to enhance our customer-facing and back-end performance, allowing our employees to focus on delivering world-class experiences for shoppers,” says Russel Bacha, Head of Technology and Loyalty, Virgin Megastore KSA.  “Through working with IBM to accelerate our journey to the cloud in a way that helps ensure we’re able to protect client data, we can uncover new ways to reduce time-to-market and streamline operations – that will enhance the digital and real-life experiences of our customers.”

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By embracing a secured and open hybrid cloud approach, Virgin Megastore KSA expect  to innovate and adapt quickly to the digital era – finding new ways to reach shoppers, amid the existing challenges that mandate that some of its employees are still working remotely.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the challenges facing many retailers in the region are extensive. By adopting a secured and open hybrid cloud strategy with IBM, Virgin Megastore KSA can modernize applications and access an innovative infrastructure, designed to be agile and easily adaptable to the expanding needs of the company, while offering a more personalized and secured experience for shoppers,” says Fahad Alanazi, General Manager IBM Saudi Arabia. “By working with Virgin Megastore KSA to accelerate their digital transformation, we are able to support their business vision and fuel their growth.”

Virgin Megastore is a global entertainment retailer with over 40 stores in 9 markets in the Middle East and North Africa, Virgin Megastore set an unbounded target of expanding its regional presence. Since it opened its first store in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2008, Virgin Megastore continued to expand domestically presenting a one-stop shop for all entertainment needs, offering a wide range of lifestyle products across music, fashion, culture, technology, entertainment, beauty, and related services.