Buyer guide
System integrators in Saudi Arabia are hard to tell apart on a brochure, because every one of them connects systems. The difference shows eighteen months after go-live, when an interface nobody owns starts dropping records. Interkey publishes this guide, and it is not a ranking: it scores no other company and names none. It sets out nine questions to put to any integrator, Interkey included, and where Interkey fits on the facts it can support.
Published 5 min read
In short
Relatedsystem integration practice
Integration projects rarely fail on technology. They fail later, when a vendor on one side changes a field, the interface quietly starts dropping records, and the finance team finds out at month-end. By then nobody is sure who built the interface, which side is responsible for it, or where its documentation went.
| Question | What to ask | A good answer |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory and ownership | What is your first deliverable, and who owns each interface afterwards? | An inventory of every interface with a named owner, a named consumer and the meaning of the data on each side, before any code. |
| Contract and pattern | How is each interface specified, and how do you choose between point to point, files, an API layer and events? | A written contract per interface, agreed before building, and a pattern chosen for each case. Leaving two systems disconnected is sometimes the right answer. |
| Alongside the delivering vendor | How do you work with the vendor implementing our new system? | The integration workstream taken on beside them: the vendor stays accountable for their system, the integrator for the joins. |
| National platforms | How do you approach integrations with government and sector platforms? | The published specification read first, a sandbox build, and production responsibility written down. No claim to certify compliance. |
| Arabic data | How do you test matching of Arabic and transliterated names and identifiers? | Testing against real local data during the build, not a reconciliation gap found in production. |
| Cutover | How do you move from the old interface to the new one? | One flow at a time, run in parallel until the outputs agree, then switched. No single weekend when everything moves. |
| Operation | Who monitors the interfaces after go-live, and who is alerted? | Monitoring for volume, failure and stale data, alerting a named owner and not a shared mailbox, with the inventory kept current. |
| Data location | Where does the integration layer hold data in flight? | An answer for each queue, staging table and transformation service, decided by data classification and not by convenience. |
| Engagement shape | Is this an assessment, a programme workstream, a legacy replacement or an operation, and how is it priced? | The shape named, scoped per engagement, with what changes the price stated. |
Interkey integrates enterprise systems for organisations in Saudi Arabia: the ERP with the operational systems, the operational systems with each other, and all of them with the legacy applications that still hold the data. Against the nine questions: it starts with an interface inventory and an owner per interface; writes a contract per interface before building; tests with real data shapes, Arabic included; cuts over one flow at a time in parallel with what it replaces; and can operate and monitor the result from Riyadh as a managed service where wanted. The work is shaped as an integration assessment, a programme workstream beside the vendor delivering a new system, legacy interface replacement or operation, and it is scoped per engagement. Interkey holds ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificates, issued by AQC and valid to 12 February 2029; the certifications page explains how to request copies.
On national platforms, Interkey’s guide to Saudi digital platforms describes the shape of the planning and says plainly that it is not a delivery history. For ERP interfaces, see ERP integration. Saudi engagements run through Interkey in Riyadh.
Where it does not fit: two systems with a supported native connector and one accountable owner on each side. Buy the connector.
The questions are the same for everyone. Which of them end a conversation depends on what you are connecting.
Gates: alongside the delivering vendor, and cutover. The vendor is accountable for the new platform; ask who is accountable for the interfaces to everything else.
Gates: national platforms and operation. Each platform is an interface with an external owner. Ask who reads the change notices and who owns the connection after go-live.
Gates: inventory and ownership, and contract and pattern. Ask how undocumented interfaces will be found, documented and replaced one at a time with a parallel run each.
Score each integrator only on answers you receive in writing. Where nobody can answer, that is a finding.
No. It is an evaluation method. Interkey publishes it, names and scores no other company, and does not claim to suit every integration. The right integrator depends on what you are connecting and who will own it afterwards.
Building a system that does not yet exist is software development. Integration is getting systems that were never designed to share data to do so reliably, and agreeing what the data means on the way through. Governing the interfaces once they exist is API management.
Usually yes, alongside them. The vendor stays accountable for their platform while the integrator takes the inventory, the contracts, the build on the side the vendor does not own, and the parallel run.
No. Each platform publishes its own specification, onboarding and sandbox, and the official sources are the authority on what is required. Interkey scopes and builds against documented interfaces.
Next
Next step
List the systems you need connected and the interfaces you already know about. We will propose an integration assessment: the inventory, the ownership map and the gaps in how the data is defined.
Or directly
+966-11-2180999 [email protected]Tawuniya Towers, North Tower, 7th Floor, King Fahad Highway, Olaya, P.O. Box 56835, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia