Gulf Rock has shaped the foundations of landscapes, cities, and communities across the UAE for decades, delivering rock engineering services where precision, planning, and safety are non-negotiable. Founded in 1985 in Ras Al Khaimah, Gulf Rock has completed hundreds of projects in the public and private sectors and expanded its reach into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman. With a legacy built on Swedish methodology and deep regional geological expertise, the company has built a strong reputation for long-term project value and operational excellence.
In 2019, Storyals first met Gulf Rock through Wilhelm Lidén, a second-generation leader with a clear ambition: modernize how the company works and build new capabilities for the future. Coming from an industrial design background, Wilhelm Lidén has always known technology could strengthen communication, collaboration, and productivity across the organization. He saw early potential in Microsoft Teams as a modern layer for faster coordination and clearer information flow, creating pull from operations, not just push from IT. That mindset mattered. Because digital transformation isn’t primarily about tools - it’s about people. In a hands-on industry, it becomes even more relevant that learning is practical, relevant, and supported over time to drive change.
“At Gulf Rock, the real work starts before we break ground. Storyals helps reinforce our digital communication skills across our teams, resulting in keeping everyone aligned in delivering rock engineering services.”
– Wilhelm Lidén, CEO of Gulf Rock
This vision became the foundation for a long-term partnership. Gulf Rock became Storyals’ very first Storyals Pro customer, onboarding teams through structured learning designed to build confidence and real everyday capability, not just awareness of features. Over time, the collaboration evolved from “Microsoft 365 training” into something more strategic: building a scalable learning culture that supports Gulf Rock’s vision and growth.
As the organization matured in its Microsoft 365 ways of working, Gulf Rock wanted to expand learning beyond the core applications. Using Learn 365 as a foundation, they began extending the platform to support other critical capability areas across the business. Gulf Rock is now taking the next step: strengthening digital leadership. Storyals is supporting live training sessions for Gulf Rock’s leadership team - helping leaders set direction, model modern ways of working, and build consistent habits across the organization.
In parallel, Gulf Rock launched an updated learning experience branded as ROCKERS Academy, bringing together digital skills development with broader capability building across the organization, including training in Quality, Health & Safety (QHSE), HR competencies, brand, technologies, and ways of working. Gulf Rock’s journey shows that modern collaboration can succeed far beyond traditional office environments - when learning is practical, anchored in real work scenarios, and reinforced by leadership.
“Wilhelm Lidén’s ambition for the company and hands-on approach to technology have been instrumental in bringing the ROCKERS Academy to life. With Storyals, Gulf Rock has built digital skills in Microsoft 365 that turn everyday challenges into smarter ways of working - driving productivity and confidence throughout the organization in an increasingly competitive environment.”
- Ulrika Hedlund, CEO Storyals
A key takeaway from this journey is that digital transformation works best when it is vision-led, practical, and sustained - not treated as a one-time rollout.
“Storyals has helped us make Microsoft 365 training simple and practical for our users through a clear learning journey and easy‑to‑understand content. The way the courses are structured makes them accessible even to non-technical users, resulting in a high completion rate for assigned training. We’ve also seen a noticeable improvement in day‑to‑day productivity, as Microsoft 365 is essential to our work. The platform is stable and reliable, supported by professional, responsive service and regularly updated content.”
– Ismail Poolat, Regional IT Manager, Gulf Rock