Al-Raya United Real Estate revealed the launch of the first digital strategy of its kind aimed at modernizing the entire infrastructure of the company's assets and replacing all traditional operations with the latest digital systems and platforms.
In a statement issued by the company, it announced that it pioneered in introducing "SOTECH digital transformation and cloud technology", as well as antibacterial and antiviral SigmaFit nanofibers in its Saudi real estate operations.
Despite the challenges and the negative impact of the crisis, the Company’s managed to achieve numerous accomplishments including the launch of its SOTECH digital transformation applications and cloud technology to manage its real estate assets under the umbrella of the Saudi “Jadara” company, as reflected in its hotels located in Makkah and Madinah, as well as the central mall for kitchens, laundries and international cafes, in addition to the Academy of Vocational Education in the kingdom.
The strategy is part of the company’s efforts to update its real estate assets infrastructure and replace its traditional operations with digital technologies, in addition to offering an additional layer of governance and management to analyse “huge amounts of data” and information connecting the Company’s assets and its clients to provide  them with custom made services that suit their needs and matches their personal preference.
The strategy also came in line with Saudi’s National Transformation Program (NTP), a roadmap for digital transformation, which led to improving the quality of digital services provided to recipients by partnering with the private sector to provide fibre-optic network coverage for more than 3.5 million homes throughout the Kingdom. This led to increasing internet traffic during the pandemic by 30%. Moreover, the internet traffic through the national internet splitter more than doubled, and the internet speed increased from 9 megabits per second in 2017 to 109 megabits per second in 2020, and the internal network coverage in the third expansion of the Grand Mosque was completed.
An agreement was reached with the emerging company SOTECH for digital transformation technologies, to launch several applications, including the technology of integrating hotel platforms with Internet of Things, to analyse data and information derived by these platforms in order to improve service levels and increase suitability with hotel customers, as well as digital management technology and governance of the real estate asset operations and the application of cloud technology for central kitchens and laundries. This type of digital transformation applications will drastically reduce operational costs and maximize returns and profits.
On the other hand, in line with the current health data, the transformation processes included shifting from the use of regular fabrics in hotel suites to technical fabrics manufactured by SigmaFit, which are treated with nanotechnology and antiviral and antibacterial hydrophobic particles.
It is worth noting that Jadara successfully handled markets instability caused by COVID-19 outbreak that resulted in lack of operational processes due pandemic mitigation measures, including complete and  partial lockdowns. The company’s crisis management operations resulted in maintaining the stability of hotel assets as was able to meet its financial obligations including capital and operational spending requirements from March 2020. The company also successfully restructured the Academy’s traditional operations by expanding its distant digital learning platform and continued to provide training and vocational education. The central mall’s capacity, for kitchens and laundries, was redirected to serve the health sector and related services during the crisis.
On October 17, the Kingdom partially lifted its precautionary measures, and resumed the maximum capacity for Hajj and Umrah. Preliminary expectations indicate that the Hajj and Umrah seasons will achieve a revenue of about USD 12 billion in 2022. Based on that, Jadara expects that the occupancy rates for its hotel properties will increase to reach pre-pandemic levels as of the second quarter of 2022, while maintaining the operational capacity of its other assets.