Optimum adapts rapidly to capitalize on substantial government work opportunities

Mohammad Riyash is a Service and Operations Delivery Manager at Wareef, an IT service provider based in Saudi Arabia.

Competition to work with Wareef’s clientele of Saudi Arabian government, semi-government, and private entities is fierce. Sales cycles move rapidly and requirements can change just as quickly after a project is underway, sometimes overnight. Mohammad’s role is to win business and ensure that the work is delivered in this environment.

Because of the speed and changing nature of this work, Wareef often needs to quickly find partners with skillsets they don’t have in-house, lest they lose projects or opportunities. Often, they turn to Optimum Partners to secure them.
 
The first time was in 2021, when Wareef was working with a Saudi Arabian ministry on quality assurance for a system that regulated labor for the whole country — across millions of contracts. The project was ambitious and challenging, its timeline was aggressive, and its requirements underwent big changes. At its outset, it was a Selenium project. Halfway through, the client decided to switch to Robot. Ten days before go-live, they decided to switch technologies again, this time to Katalon Studio.

“The tone from the client was, ‘Can you deliver or should we find someone else?’” Mohammad could have been left scrambling. “Luckily, Optimum Partners was really good in both Katalon and Robot.”

Mohammad had worked at the company where Marco and Eyad met, with Mohammad reporting to Eyad and Marco serving as his mentor. He knew they had started their own company a couple years before, so he thought he’d give Optimum Partners a shot.
 
Immediately, Optimum Partners’ sales process stood out. Instead of being bureaucratic with lots of back and forth, paperwork, and extensive requirements clarification, Optimum Partners was prompt and agile — all Mohammad had to do was explain the client’s expectations at a high level. In drafting and finalizing subsequent technical proposals, Optimum Partners has been able to submit in as little as five days, as opposed to the industry average of 10 to 20.

“The RFP process used to be a black box for me. Now, if I'm cornered or need to do something on a tight deadline, I check in with Optimum Partners as my number one go-to. I've dealt with bigger companies and more prominent names than them. But I don’t get the cooperation and responsiveness that I do from Optimum Partners.”

When requirements changed after they signed on, “Optimum Partners accommodated the change gracefully.” Instead of extra process and fees, Mohammed experienced no pushback.

“Now I really understand what it is to be agile. If you’re stuck in the mentality of having to take your time to fully understand everything, you’ll miss the train. Things change and you have to adapt.”

Optimum Partners understands that learning as you go is the name of the game in tech, especially in Saudi Arabia.

“Most of the time going into projects, you don’t actually have a clear understanding of the requirements. The level is normally around 70 or 80%. 70% is a very good level of understanding in the Saudi market. Lots of companies usually demand 100% so there are no surprises. But with Optimum Partners, if there’s scope creep or even a minor loss on a particular project, it’s fine because they look to build long-lasting relationships. With them, your relationship is not based on dollar value. It’s more than that.”

Being able to shift gears on the project without interruption turned out to be something the client recognized and valued highly.

The client also loved their engagement manager, an Optimum Partners equivalent of Mohammad who would visit every month to six weeks to make sure things were progressing on track and that all issues, if any, were resolved.

“The client provided really good feedback on their engagement manager. They were more technical, so they could sit in on technical meetings, lay out roadmaps, and answer specific questions I wouldn’t be able to answer myself.”

Wareef has turned to Optimum Partners several times since this initial engagement, including on IT governance and risk compliance for a major financial institution, and now a project that’s still in its infancy but their biggest collaboration yet. This IT and systems operations project touches over a dozen live platforms, some revenue-facing, that are used by millions. In providing L2 and L3 support, Wareef needed reinforcements when it came to Ruby on Rails, Drupal, .NET, .NET Core, and PHP, which Optimum Partners is providing.
 
Without Optimum Partners, Mohammad says Wareef would have probably passed on some of the projects they’ve worked on, limiting repeat business opportunities and hampering word of mouth. But with Optimum Partners, Wareef has been able to grow their portfolio. In the 18 months that Wareef has partnered with Optimum Partners, Wareef has expanded into two new areas of business. This new project falls under one of those areas, and it’s not only the third largest in company history, but also set to triple in size over the next two years if successful in its first phase. In total, the contract value that Optimum Partners has supported Wareef on has been around $1.3 million, the equivalent of 22% of Wareef’s annual revenue.

Optimum Partners hasn’t just helped Wareef grow as a company. Optimum Partners also helps Mohammad develop in his role.

“I trust Optimum Partners to deliver technically, which gives me more time and energy to spend on making engagements successful from an operational, logistical, and business development perspective. 30% of my focus is now spent on ensuring that future work becomes a reality.”

Reflecting on their 18 months together so far, Mohammad believes that Optimum Partners has changed Wareef’s mentality.
 
“You can’t succeed alone. If you want to be successful, you need to reach out and get support from other successful companies as well. Together, everyone’s a winner.”

In closing he shared, “Our future with Optimum Partners is a promising, prosperous one.”