Saudi Press Agency (SPA) is the official source of news for the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Agency correspondents and photographers are available at all ministries and government departments to report the government’s news, activities and official events, in addition to what the Agency receives from Arab and international news agencies.
 
Automation of Agency Works:

ARCOM won the SPA automation project in 1996. The automation program included the process of receiving the news from the international agencies electronically, dealing with them in terms of establishing, modifying and transmitting electronically. SPA transmitted  news is saved and indexed in the same manner. This required a full modification of all systems and training its staff intensively to deal with the new techniques. The project was a great success as it reduced the news processing cycle from six hours to three minutes. Consequently, SPA decided to automate the rest of its local and external activities. Digital photography of government events has been introduced and electronic archiving of old and new photos (Photowiz) has been implemented. The SPA Information Center has been transferred into an electronic archiving system (SPA- Online). SPA offices inside and outside the Kingdom has been linked to the HQ through the available means of communication in each of the office in order to simultaneously feed the news to the main News Processing System. SPA has been linked to the News Departments of the Saudi TV and Radio in Jeddah and Riyadh and to some selected government departments to provide them with the news as they happen. ARCOM is presently transforming the SPA internet site to a portal type, so SPA can publish and sell news, photos and multimedia segments on line around the clock.  

Operation and Maintenance:

ARCOM has won the operation and maintenance of SPA news systems since it has launched the automation project in 1996, through public bids, the last of which ended on 25/7/2006.  
SPA operation and maintenance project requires the attendance of ARCOM engineers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It also includes the technical support of its offices kingdom wide and supporting its activities during the Hajj seasons in the holy shrines.