Company Profile
AFLAK Electronic Industry Company was established as a Saudi Arabia company in 1996. The company offers telecommunication systems, retail solutions and security systems as their services to its customers. AFLAK Electronic Industry Company is a leading telecommunication provider, this includes Information Technology IT solutions and microelectronic solutions in Saudi Arabia and in the Middle East, AFLAK Electronic Industrial Company have a strong presence in the Saudi Arabia market and a growing presence in Iraq and Iran. AFLAK Electronic Industry Company serves over 1000 clients, and maintains offices in all the major cities in the Middle East and export it products and services to more than 10 countries in the Middle East. AFLAK Electronic Industry Company being one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia, the company major participations is in: designing, developing and providing user friendly solutions with the local customers’ needs and requirements always in mind. AFLAK Electronic Industry Company products are widely used in various applications such as in accessing and controlling of equipments, managing. When combined with our systems technology, we always provide our customers with new applications every year. Most of the companies in the Saudi Arabia depend on AFLAK Electronic Industry Company products and services for their robust operation in their company.
Organization Structure
AFLAK Electronic Industries Company is among the companies in Saudi Arabia to achieve ISO-2000/2001 certification and it also among few companies in the Middle East to be among the partners with Microsoft Certified Partnership. The company is divided Into 8 departments and further those departments are divided into sections, which each section having it roles and responsibilities set b the Company. The Departments are listed below:
Finance Department
Finance Department at AFLAK Electronic Industries Company, it work is to advice the management on what share of the realized profit may be put into the various investments portfolio for expansion, repayment of money the company has borrowed, payment of salaries and wages to it employees, it facilitate payment of bonus to it share holders.
Sales & Marketing Department
The Sales and Marketing Department is divided further in to Public relations division, the work of Public relations to ensure that the company has a good public image to its clients of Saudi Arabia. Its activities include helping the people in Saudi Arabia to understand the company and various products on it portfolio. The public relations of this company are usually conducted, but the department usually plays the following overall roles in the company: firstly it focus on the client, secondly it monitor the competition from other companies. Thirdly market the company brand, fourthly it creates new ideas for the company, and lastly it manages the set up budget of the department.
Commercial Projects Department
The function for this department is to manage the conflicting goals of the company i.e. to make the client happy or satisfaction and to maximize the profit that the company will released in every financial year. It is the work of a project manager at AFLAK Electronic Industries Company to ensure the projects of the company are built to the specifications of the company and that those projects will adhere to the regulations requirements of the country. This department also needs to achieve other objective of the company i.e. the projects should be completed on time and with the set up budget of the company. Above all this department ensures it has negotiated with the client variation to the contract between the company and the clients as when the need will arise.
Technical Department
The main functions for this department is to provide support for the end users in the company, it other functions is to escalate problems which will occur in it production facilities, it also provides technical support to plan upgrade of the company‘s communications equipments.
Administration and Personnel Department
This department is divided into two sections: Administration section and Personnel section. Personnel section in the department handles issues related to work such as violence in the workplace, discrimination and any complaints that arise from work but this entire are being done under the setup rules and regulation of the company, this section also deals with workers welfare. The role of Administration division is to ensure the workers at AFLAK Electronic Industries Company are well organized in a way that the make sure each worker plays it role in the company, recruitment and interview for new workers wanting to join the company are done by the this division, in the things that relates to matters of the law it is this section which handles that, so it is the responsibilities of this section to make sure various things that concern the company are done according to the se up laws and regulations.
Logistics Department
This department deals will all the process of planning, managing and controlling of the produced products in the company. Many process are being integrated into this division, includes material handling, storage of already produced products, but the main aim for this department is to ensure the repositioning of the unfinished products and also its deals with finished inventories of the company. The work of this department is also to ensure the requirements of the customers are fulfilled on time and in good condition.
Design and Development Department
This department deals with innovations of the company, any product that is being realized onto the market it is first produced in this department.
Branch Network Department
It is the responsibility of this department to make sure all the other branches of the company are function well and according to the company’s expectations. It also coordinates the various activities of the company between the company’s management and those branches that are found in other cities in the Middle East.
Products and service
The products and services under AFLAK Electronic Industries Company portfolio have been divided into 3 major categories: Retails systems, security systems and Telecommunications systems.
Retails Systems
ARQAM financial equipment: this equipment have used in various companies in the Middle East. It main functions are it can be used to multi-branch ledgers from different branches of the company, secondly can allow the company to determine the fiscal year within the period of 1 to 13 accounting period that have existed in any company. The equipment is can automatically update itself to the current date and this will be posted automatically to all the accounting transactions., Thirdly the equipment can allow the entries of all the budgets of specific ledger accounts that exist in the company, and lastly the user can specified all the department budgets that are found in the company.
EPSONPOS Terminals: this system is specifically designed to be used in hospitality and leisure industries. It has a touch screen with every details stored in the equipment. When the person want to know the details of the customers, for example when he will leave the hotels, the date the customer has checked in or he will checked out, it is all included in the system. Privacy is important for this system because it has authorized password and only the personnel that are authorized will be allowed to log in into the system.
Data Collection Device: This portable hand held device that can be used in all the industries that deals with data entries, inventory, price check and general data collections. This device is suitable in schools, supermarkets and hospitals.
Electronic Weighing Scales: this system is used to measure weight and quantities of products, this equipment is suitable to be used in supermarkets and companies which deals with measurements.
Anti-Shoplifting System: this is a system which can be installed in supermarkets to enable the owner to stop shop lifters in supermarkets.
Security Systems
Marvel-Computerized Queuing System: This system is suitable to be used in supermarkets and other places where they are dealing with customers directly. This system is user friendly because the software that is found in that system will keep a number of customers being serviced at that particular day and it will give you the rating of each front shop attendance. In any business time is vital, so with this system it will increase the speed and thus the front shop attendance will save on time. This system also helps you to keep records and in the near future it will help you to analysis and with that it will help you plan for your business.
ARQAM Tine Attendance System: this system can be integrated into the payroll system in the company to assist you in determine the date at which the workers will be paid. This type of system is suitable in large organization where the number of workers employed is large.
Card Printer: this is a system which can assist the company to print it own personal identification cards, it also suitable in organization where it has large number of employees.
Telecom Systems
Marvel Analogue Phones: this type of phone can help you communicate with landline telephone; even you can communicate with people who have mobile telephones.
PABX systems: This is a private exchange which is suitable in a large organization; the function for this equipment is to enable the company to have telephone access both internally through the use of extensions in the company or communications from outside the company.
Responsibilities at the Company
My responsibility in this company was a routine one I was attached at Technical Department, I was under Project manager, and responsibilities in the company was to act as a link between the management and the employees of the company, To try and troubleshoots systems which was brought by the customers in the company, and it was my duty to write a report on the things which occurred during the day.
It was my responsibility to make sure the staff in the company to meet some deadline set on various projects in the company. I was given the responsibility to write a time table for all the technical staff in the company, due to these responsibilities the company was able to work as a team because there was some organization in the technical department. When I was attached at sales and marketing department, I was able to coordinate various activities as pertain to marketing and sales, I was able to win some potential client for the company.
As an attaché at AFLAK Electronic Industry Company, I gained knowledge in networking, PC maintenance, and database and software management, adding on that I also had an opportunity to meet and interact with several ICT specialists from various parts of the country, in enhancing the operations of not only the company’s IT department but also the whole institution at large. I had an opportunity to learn more about the company’s organization and structure and gained knowledge on various fields. The experience I gained was not only technical but I also gained socially. I met very many people from different backgrounds and careers, social standards and races this experience helped me to understand the entrepreneurial part of IT and which areas need help with IT. I learnt this by talking to many people who expressed to me their problems, which IT could help in. This has motivated me to think seriously on how to start up my own firm which would provide many services that they needed in the areas such as internet, I.C.T training and software development.
Hardships encountered
- Long distances to various scattered workstations in different departments and sections were proving cumbersome and tiresome at times especially when we had to transport PABX system.
- Some of the technical problems were proving very tough to solve since I had no prior experience and thus required some interventions by the technical staff from ICT department. This would at times be a great challenge convincing me that I need to learn and explore more in ICT field.
- Some users would make complicated settings on programs on their computers that made error diagnosis and troubleshooting complicated since I could not easily know the cause.
- Dealing with difficult clients in some workplace was becoming another challenge to my attachment at AFLAK Electronic Industry Company since some users could not totally trust attachés.
Conclusion
It was noted that internship helps students to explore their career potential and possibilities at a more practical level. It also helps them know how other areas in the economy such as agriculture; production, factory and engineering interact with information and communication technology. This helps students to know the areas they need to work hard in to improve their practical skills. The student’s encounter with ICT technicians, programmers, system administrators and database administrators has enabled students to know what it takes to be the best in the industry. Attachment also exposes students to the real world of professionalism where they may realize the need to undertake other professional courses and Oracle certification among others in order to be the best. Through internship the students come in direct contact with their employers and this helps them to get contacts that are vital in the job market.
I am so grateful to the AFLAK Electronic Industry Company staff that really guided me and offered constructive instructions throughout my internship.
Recommendation
While on attachment at AFLAK Electronic Industry Company I was able to come in contact with many types of communication systems and the following are my recommendations:
- Higher learning institutions should work towards collaboration with the industries in order to realize the industry’s requirement and consider revising the current I.C.T syllabus to cater for the changing technology and suite the market needs fully.
- The university should introduce more practical lessons at school to enable students get practical skills that are vital to their professions.
- AFLAK Electronic Industry Company should increase the number of computers on the network to suite its large labor force.
- Due the long distances between its departments the factory should work towards increasing its ICT labor force to improve support to computer users. AFLAK Electronic Industry Company being a large with several scattered departments and sections, there is need for the company to issue vehicles for moving PCs by I.T technicians from one location to another for convenience
- The university should increase the attachment period for when planning its academic calendar and it should also assist students to get attachment place by communicating with the industry’s in advance about the attachment.
- The newly developed technologies are vital to development and many Saudi Arabia should be encouraged to acquire it. This be done by the government and the private sector and investors should be encouraged to invest in ICT.