The titans august 2016

AUGUST 2016 | VOL 1 ISSUE 3

THE CHANGE-SPOTTERS AND CHANGE-MAKERS

WHEN SKY IS

´NOT´ THE LIMIT! While many organizations are still testing the waters of the 3rd platform technologies, Gulf Air is busy with some back to back project implementations. /12

DR. JASSIM HAJI, DIRECTOR OF IT, GULF AIR

BROUGHT BY

EDITORIAL

DIGITIZATION TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS TO GROW FASTER !

SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@accentinfomedia.com

The current challenges for the global enterprises has been multifold today. Reason being the industry is pressurized from all the angles. The competition is huge. Startup organizations are changing the game. Technology is becoming redundant very quickly.

The core data center technology they have in place are becoming software led making the current proprietary hardware and software less important. The customers are confused about the price and offering. Their employees are also confused about their road map. So in this situation, the enterprises need to look at radical changes in the organizations. They need to look at some basic correction before go further. For example, they need to look at digital transformation so that the standard practices are transparent to the employees and the customers. They can know the growth map and therefore can create their plan of alignment.

At the same time, the CXOs need to look at how things can be automated with less human interference. The core technology architecture needs to be revisited to be relevant for the future business growth. Mobility and VDI are two core technologies that the enterprises cannot stay from but these are the most critical component within the architecture. Therefore, the CXOs challenges is to how to make the applications accessible to the users in a containerized secure environment. Because a slightest gap can allow the hackers to make incursion into the entire system. There is always a challenge for the CIOs to convince the CEOs on their investment on technology. The CIOs have to see the growth of the organization in a very pragmatic manner while making a proposal for investment on IT. This is for sure that no organization in the region can stay away from the big ticket events across the region – be it 2020 expo in Dubai or 2022 FIFA in Qatar. Organizations across the sectors, including Government, banks, Oil & Gas, retail need to look at modernizing their resources to make them relevant and meaningful to the users because the way the individuals were buying the products and services have changed now.

Through the series of publications, known as Titans, we have been highlighting the issues and successful case studies so that CIOs can learn from each other’s success and ability to handle challenges.

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TOP CIOs ACROSS MEA

SULTAN SAID ALI ALWADHAHI DG OF ICT GOVERNMENT

JOURNEY

CAREER l DG of ICT (Government) 2016 l eGov Transformation Director (ITA) 2013-2015 l Director of Network & Telecommunication (MOE) 2012 l Deputy Director of Information Systems (MOE) 2010 l Head Section of Oman Educational Portal (MOE) 2009 l Internal Auditor (MOE) 20062008 l Teacher and School Management (MOE) 1995-2005 CERTIFICATIONS l Strategy Management l Business Relationship Management l Transformational Change l Business Process Management l CIO Program (Singapore 2013) l eGov Transformation Leadership Program (South Korea 2015) l Qualified MBA EXPERIENCE Few months as a CIO/IT head

PROFESSIONAL AMBITION To enhance Oman economic growth & life style through effective utilization of ICT national capabilities & infrastructure

MY TOP HOBBIES l l l l l l

Athletics Football Reading Charity Activities Swimming Climbing

PASSION FOR TECHNOLOGY The passion started at schools back in the 90s to use the technology to improve the school efficiencyand effectiveness for a better operation.

YEARS IN SERVICE 20 years TOP ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR l Oman Educational Portal (2008-2012) l E-Government Transformation (2013-2015) l Trainer of ESCWA ICT for Development Academy (2015) l Middle East Excellence Leadership Award (2013)

Technology which has revolutionized businesses of late ICT has become a major element in our life daily activities and we have to drive for business innovation

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TOP CIOs ACROSS MEA

NAJWA ABDUL RAHIM VICE PRESIDENT INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (VPICT) BAHRAIN AIRPORT COMPANY DOMAIN Sector/Vertical - Aviation

GEOGRAPHY COUNTRY Kingdom of Bahrain NATIVE PLACE Bahrain

JOURNEY

CAREER Assistant Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Women Ministry of Finance Independent board member in TAKAFUL International Company Board member of the IT College - University of Bahrain

PROFESSIONAL AMBITION

MY TOP HOBBIES

PASSION FOR TECHNOLOGY

Leading an ICT Firm

Reading, Running and Triathlon sports

Improve business efficiency through technology

CERTIFICATIONS Gulf Executive Development Diploma from the Darden School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, U.S.A., MBA from the University of Bahrain B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematical Statistics from the University of Kuwait.

EXPERIENCE 15 years as a CIO/DIT YEARS IN SERVICE 30 years TECHNOLOGY WHICH HAS REVOLUTIONIZED BUSINESSES OF LATE Networking and Connecting the world

Specialties: l Establishing the ICT division of Bahrain Airport Company l Business Process Re-Engineering l Strategy Planning for the Empowerment of Bahraini Women l Implementation of a Government wide Financial Management Information Systems l Nominated by Forbes Magazine as one of the 100 most influential women in the arab world,

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300+ Professional Team | 175+ Enterprise Clients | 20+ Nationalities | 20+ International Awards | 10+ Global Locations

MY VIEWS

ABDERRAHMANE MOUNIR,CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER BATELCO 8

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MY VIEWS

BATELCO’S GROWTH IN 2016 The telecom landscape of Bahrain – the current infrastructure and growth Due to the very competitive environment within the telecommunications industry in Bahrain, customers benefit from having access to the latest devices and services as soon as they become available on the international market. Competition also ensures very competitive pricing structures for consumers.

However such intense competition can have a negative impact as it can be difficult to monetise on the significant investment required to build new infrastructure. Nonetheless, Batelco has an ongoing commitment to ensure Bahrain maintains its proud position as a leading hub within the region as a centre for business and accordingly invests significantly in the development of new infrastructure and networks such as the rollout of our Fibre network.

Batelco’s growth in 2016 – Businesswise and technology wise Batelco has invested during 2016 to rollout some key services to boost its performance and growth. Key among our delivery has been the launch of Bahrain WiFi with a number of WiFi hotspots for all residents and visitors and the launch of LTE Advanced to support the massive increase in mobile data demand. Additionally we continue with the rollout of Batelco’s Superfast fibre network.

The combination of our offerings provides the most advanced digital platform for consumers and businesses in Bahrain.

What are the significant challenges and opportunities in adapting to emerging technologies?

The key challenges have been how to adapt to the emerging technologies which are not the tradition path of a telecommunications companyand additionally finding new revenue streams as traditional avenues are increasingly impacted due to competitive pressure and declining ARPU’s. Of course challenges always come hand in hand with opportunities and Batelco continues to expand into adjacent fields within the ICT

industry. As an example, in line with this effort, Batelco launched a Full Digital TV Service at the beginning of this year. Our portfolio for the business sector is very strong and features a number of ICT solutions which are enabling the continuous growth of the SME segment and empowering businesses to optimise their operations.

Tell us about Batelco’s strategic partnerships with the public and private sectors in empowering growth.

As technology and the demands of tech savvy users have evolved there has been a gradual, but game changing shift, whereby the once very separate industries of telecommunications and Information technology have merged over time. Accordingly as our scope continues to grow we reach out to a number of partners in order to provide the huge portfolio of products and services needed to meet the demand from consumers and businesses.

For example, we are undertaking the implementation of 4G LTE in collaboration with one of our technology partners Ericsson, which is among the leading companies for cutting edge communication solutions. We also work with Cisco, Avaya and Palo Alto, but these are just some of many; we value the support of all our partners for their efforts to help us meet our goals.

How has Batelco empowered the development of Smart Bahrain?

Digitisation is one of the key pillars of our strategy and in line with ourefforts to support the local digitisation drive and develop smart City solutions,Batelco launched Bahrain WiFi at the beginning of June. The Nationwide WiFi rollout, which will make Bahrain as one home with internet access already has a number of Hotspots including The Bahrain International Circuit, Seef Mall Muharraq and the Juffair Restaurant area, with over 50 locations catering to all regions of Bahrain currently WiFi ready or in process. We will be continuing to launch hotspots during this year with the initiative set to change the landscape for communication services throughout the Kingdom of Bahrain.

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SPECIAL STORY

REVAMPING BUSINESS PROCESSES WITH MPS AND AUTOMATION Managed Print Services has taken the market by storm, with key players trying to present a platter full of services to change the entire printing experience and making it more dynamic, escalating a world of possibilities with MPS Automation.

WORDS BY SONAL LUNAWAT

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.

The second is thatautomation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

-BILL GATES Let’s go back in time and remember the days when every organization was flooded with tonnes of papers and endless functions performed by different machines. A dedicated space in every office was reserved for printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines etc. As technology prospered rapidly there was a trend to have all-in-one kind of a machine. The one stop machine era was a stepping stone to the world moving to a more automated outlook. The swipe

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BENEFITS OF MPS Efficient management of printing strategy Allows business to implement tighter controls

Lower paper use and reduction of waste

Helps businesses improve productivity

Printing processes are centralized Cost effective

SPECIAL STORY

“The market for Managed Print Services and Automation looks great, as most of the organizations are adopting the policy of Green IT.” -FIROJ RAUTA CIO, SKYLINE

“It is very important for organizations to adopt Managed Printing Services that lead to office automation work, the function of networked printers will be different.”

-LOAY AL NAKHAL IT PROJECT

UNIVERSITY

MANAGER, DUBAI MUNICIPALITY

generation has drastically changed the way printing processes happen with digital communication and giving commands to machines using a mobile.

As we move to sleeker devices and going paperless the age of robotics and automation isn’t a mere dream but a reality which seems clearer and viable.

‘Auto’ motive Every CIO needs to understand that not all operations or organizations require automation, there are certain factors which should be considered before making this expensive decision.

Automation solutions like Robotic process automation, data centre automation, policy-based automation, support automation, ITSM automation

etc. are gaining widespread acceptance globally. Organizations typically deploy automation solutions to increase productivity, reduce routine checks, raise the level of security, improve quality, save time.

Digital Infrastructure: The Need of the hour Going paperless is the new mantra adopted by organizations. There has been a tremendous growth witnessed by the region in Managed Print Services market, about 51% organizations have already deployed solutions for MPS or are in the process of deploying. Workflow Automation is an indispensable part of the printing process. According to a study

DO’S AND DON’TS FOR CIOS l Complete and fair needs assessment l Evaluation of the selected managed print services vendors l Assessment of the managed print solutions provider including track record l Weigh the adaptability and flexibility of the services provided

l Don’t miss to appraise the vendor for auditable and accurate billing l Don’t miss to gauge the capability of the vendor for up-scaling & down-scaling flexibility l Don’t miss to judge the service provider for print security l Don’t forget to estimate the vendor’s workflow optimization

THE OFFICE INSIGHTS 2016 REPORTCANON MIDDLE EAST The latest research by Canon Middle East found that documents and information continue to be the lifeblood of any business. This is particularly true of printed documents, with 57% of those surveyed saying that they print more now than they did three years ago and 27% saying they will spend more on printing, copying and scanning devices, and software in the next three years.

Over half(59%) of the respondents also scan more documents than they did three years ago, leading to 53% of all documents now being digitised.

conducted by PR Newswire, the Global MPS tends to grow at a CAGR of 10.1% over the period 2014-2019 in the region.

Firoj Rauta, CIO, Skyline University feels that the entire process of MPS revolves around having a technical roadmap which includes factors like complete valuation of current printing infrastructure, monitoring, managing, and optimizing existing print environment, securing printing access especially for mobile workforce, integrating network infrastructure management to support cloud solutions. Loay AlNakhal, IT Project Manager, Dubai Municipality said, “It is not only in replacing copiers, faxes, scanners, and printers in one devices, it is also in adopting a system that limit the usage in quota, recycle ink cartridges and papers, and monitor and control. The key consideration required is to maintain the positive effects of MPS project, employee understanding and cooperative about the benefit of this changes, we did a lot of awareness emails and sessions of that purpose, showing the operation cost reduce to 40%, the healthy workplace environment in providing healthier indoor air quality, and electronic documentation.”

Finally...

Logical programming and powerful machineries will help organizations shape their processes. Digitization will bring with it a whole new disruption in MPS and Automation.

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SPECIAL STORY

WHEN SKY IS ´NOT´ THE LIMIT!

While many organizations are still testing the waters of the 3rd platform technologies, Gulf Air is busy with some back to back project implementations. From migration to hybrid cloud, to streamlining business process with tablet, to venturing into its latest IoT project— there is no horizon of limit when a CIO is unstoppable! In conversation with Dr. Jassim Haji, Director of IT Gulf Air. WORDS BY ANUSHREE DIXIT

As Gulf Air buckles up to welcome a whole new fleet of dream carriers by 2018, the pressure to maintain the service excellence and technology implementation is just mounting. When we talk about modernizing aviation, a CIO has to be technically ready on the ground as well as in the sky.

REDEFINING AVIATION Modern aviation changes all the time, at this moment Gulf Air redefined modern aviation taking in mind passengers’ accessibility to Gulf Air’s services. Nowadays 80% of passengers carry smart phones and other portable devices while travelling, and Gulf Air is leveraging this fact to offer all its services in a compatible and friendly way to their

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passengers during their travel, enabling them to personalize their journey and provide them with additional services and offers.

Also the usage of Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing how aircrafts are maintained, monitored and operated. And Big Data has opened the doors to wealth of knowledge from the Internet that Gulf Air is benefiting from to know its customers, market conditions and their competitors.

INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY The Bahrain International Airport is geared up for some massive expansion to accommodate more passengers in a couple of years, beckoning more investments and customer experience management tools.

SPECIAL STORY

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SPECIAL STORY

“I have a dream…. to get IoT onboard the aircraft. You check in and you get your boarding pass on your iWatch.

IoT sensors in the airports lead you to your gate. You walk through the airport and you get alerts from duty free shops on various products. You get into the aircraft and sensors alert you of free space to put baggage…..

“Gulf Air continued investing with mobility, in addition to providing pilots with tablets, cabin crew were also provided with tablets and numerous services have been extended to the tablets. Now the cabin crew obtains information about their passengers, meal requests and other preferences on their tablets before the flight which will provide personalized service to the passengers.”

INTERFACE TO HYBRID CLOUD— THE JOURNEY AND THE BENEFITS While the migration to the hybrid cloud is generally seen as an uphill task, Dr. Haji is of the opinion that if you have the right infrastructure, then the migration

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is not difficult at all. “It happens with many organizations that they wish to bring in a palette of technologies but do not have the infrastructure for it. In the aviation industry, there are currently several public clouds built globally by different providers to deliver specific services related to airlines, airports, travel agencies and other aviation regulatory bodies. Gulf Air has the need to connect its services provided in its private cloud to the bigger community of the aviation industry; hence, Gulf Air has established a hybrid cloud by extending its private cloud through connecting it to the public clouds of the partners with whom Gulf Air deals with.”

The coverage of this hybrid cloud

is controlled using the network segmentation and traffic content filtering controls. The hybrid cloud combines the advantages of the scalability and cost-effectiveness of public clouds and the security of the private cloud.The hybrid cloud has greatly increased the efficiency of the Gulf Air teams in terms to functionality, availability and support. Gulf Air’s cloud hosted applications are now equipped with high capacity and processing server farms which have greatly enhanced the processing power of the applications.

PROVISION OF TECHNOLOGY AT PAR WITH THE ADOPTION

SPECIAL STORY

PARTNERSHIPS AND ACCOLADES IN PREVIOUS QUARTERS l Gulf Air And TransSys Join Hands To Accelerate Digital Transformation l Gulf Air’s support of Google CSI:Lab helps to increase the influx of technology and new ideas into the Kingdom l Third consecutive MEET ICT award won by Gulf Air for its pioneering ICT projects l Becomes first airline in the world to be accredited for its Information Technology practices under five (5) different ISO Certificates Gulf Air has always been a leader and pioneer in adopting new technologies in order to benefit is business users.

Gulf Air is the first Airline in the world to be accredited for its Information Technology practices under five (5) different ISO Certificates. Gulf Air was awarded ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 Certifications (Environmental Management and Energy Management Systems) while picking up, for the second year in a row, ISO 9001 Certification (Quality Management System) and ISO 20000 Certification (Service Management System) and also garnering, for the third year in a row, ISO 27001 Certification (Information Security Management System). Moreover, Gulf Air were the Airline to BigData with Arabic sentiment analysis. The sentiment analysis solution was built based on big data technologies that is capable of addressing social media

posts in both Arabic and English for Arabic Sentiment Analysis. The solution is based on an open source Hadoop big data framework running across a server cluster in Gulf Air’s private cloud environment and using Red Hat products including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss EAP, and Red Hat Storage.

Today, Arabic Sentiment Analysis processes social media posts and provides easy-to-understand reports on what customers are saying about Gulf Air. Gulf Air’s IT team also uses them as the basis for a wider analysis of the state of the market and actions taken by their competitors. Big data projects can come with a hefty bill, but Gulf Air believes that the Arabic Sentiment Analysis has been delivered cost-effectively, thanks in part to the company’s enthusiasm for open source solutions.

VENTURING INTO IOT Gulf Air has already ventured into its IoT project. Talking about the journey of actually working on an IoT project, Dr. Haji says that, “First of all, when you consider IoT, think of those dummy appliances that if it is connected, the business would run better due to the fact of the importance of data they produce. In this region, we haven’t seen many implementations of IoT where business heavily depends on it. There are SMART city implementations, but it’s very limited and they have not yet matured. We see great opportunities in aviation industry where IoT could play very important role.”

THE AVIATION CIO CHALLENGES Security, Privacy and connectivity.

When talking about IoT, Big Data and Hybrid cloud, CIOs need to consider privacy and security aspect. “Imagine a world that even your little coffee machine is connected, the exposure is huge and privacy and security would be at risk. Therefore, policies and security measures and controls has to be a top priority when considering these technology adoption. Moreover, with growth of social network today, the exposure is huge, therefore, Security plays vital role.”

FINALLY PRESSURE OR PLEASURE, PUT UP THAT SMILE Dr. Haji says that he does not believe in providing technology just for the sake of providing it. If it is provided it has to be accurate. “It is not about cracking under the pressure, it is all about having the right mind to pick the right technologies. The ultimate target is not simply to keep adopting new technologies, the ultimate target is realizing the benefits and returns to the business from adopting these new technologies, we would like to feel pressure to satisfy our users, to deliver clear and tangible business benefits, and to achieve positive return on investment.”

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TOP CIOs ACROSS MEA

MISHAL ALHELLOW PRINCIPAL – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ARCAPITA GROUP

DOMAIN Sector/Vertical - Banking & Finance

GEOGRAPHY COUNTRY Bahrain

NATIVE PLACE Bahrain

JOURNEY

CAREER l Principal - Information Technology, Arcapita Group l Senior Associate, Arcapita Group l System Engineer, Ministry Of Finance – Bahrain l Vice Chairmen, Technology and Business Society l Chairman of the Advisory board, Gulf University l PIAC Member, University of Bahrain CERTIFICATIONS MBA & BSc in Computer Science.

EXPERIENCE 5 years as a CIO/CEO YEARS IN SERVICE 16 years

Specialties:Mr. Alhellow worked and dealt with many reputable Technology companies taking part in a high level and sensitive engagements to tailor solutions to the organizations he worked with.

He is also a member of two universities’ industry advisory boards under their IT College.

His solid believe of corporate social responsibility guided him to assist many non-for profit organizations.

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GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

TOUR DE INFRASTRUCTURE In wake of the various critical infrastructure projects and milestones that have been pre set by the supreme decision makers of the region, we take a tour of the 5 critical pillars of the infrastrcture; Energy, Healthcare, Transportation, BFSI, Telecom. As we decode the challenges, opportunities, investments and benchmarks in these sectors, IT takes the center stage in empowering these sectors and streamlining business process like never before!

The GCC countries have always been a model to its global counterparts. Despite numerous economic upheavals and geo political tensions, the region has risen up from its past shadows to come out more powerful. The booming infrastructure of the region has been an attractive playground for the global investors to vie for and the region has seen some amazing partnerships with global organizations that has led to the rise of some cutting edge infrastructure projects.

Powered by visionary governments across the region, the GCC government and business organization infrastructure has set eyes on some high growth numbers and the future is just set on the growth curve.

2020, 2022, 2030, are some of the major milestones that the GCC is awaiting for with some great national initiatives and agenda being set.

According to reports, out of the $2.8 trillion projects which were in execution and pre-execution phases across the GCC, the forecast of $172 billion worth of projects in 2015 was against a backdrop of lower oil prices, continuing political unrest and reduced International Monetary Fund growth forecasts across the GCC. There are a number of other sectors with several billions being planned on capital projects, with the top sectors for 2015 represented by healthcare projects amounting to $19 billion, infrastructure projects (roads and bridges) at $35 billion, and power plants at

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GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

“Some of the major infrastructure challenges within the region are about choosing and integrating the right technologies from a fast-paced and constantly evolving landscape of providers and vendors.”

-PAUL LAWSON VICE PRESIDENT - INFRASTRUCTURE AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION, DARK MATTER

“In today’s global arena, many companies are vital components of a nation’s “critical infrastructure.”

Countries and companies must collaborate now, more than ever, to protect the services essential to a nation.

-SCOTT MANSON CYBER SECURITY LEADER, MET, CISCO

“Telecoms and Banking & Finance are the two verticals that are showing the most growth potential. Pure Storage is the only vendor in the market today that can deliver the All Flash Data Centre for both Structured and Unstructured Data.”

-CHRISTIAN PUTZ DIRECTOR EEMEA AT PURE STORAGE

$13 billion. Critical infrastructure growth is on the radar of all the government and business organizations alike, across the Middle East, especially the GCC, has been through several economic doldrums in the past few years. From the rise of the Arab spring to the recession to the slackening oil prices, the economic, political and organizational infrastructure of the GCC has been on a roller coaster ride. But as the skies clear for a new dawn of transformation, the key sectors across the region are all set to make a mark in the economic map. With technology as a true business enabler, the progressive roadmap is just set to touch new benchmarks.

As a precursor to ´The Critical Infrastructure Forum´, we take this platform of Titans to put together the key developments and growth happening in the 5 key sectors and showcase what the leading CIOs, IT Decision makers and technology vendors have to say on the region´s growth and development.

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GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

ENERGY Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states plan to pump up to $100 billion (Dh367.3 billion) into renewable energy projects over the coming two decades.

According to tradearabia, the UAE is leading the GCC initiatives in smart building solutions with more than two-thirds of the 1,236 Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-certified projects, according to a study by technology firm Honeywell International. The O&G sector currently is facing a major challenge with oil prices declining more than 50 percent since June 2014. Companies are using various techniques to increase production and profitability in spite of

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the volatility of oil prices by entering the next stage of IT adoption and use. The penetration of digitization has greatly empowered the sector and IoT is enabling the sector to connect all parts of their operations across the globe. Cloud computing is significantly changing the way the O & G industry is using IT. It is reducing operational costs, nonproductive time and business risk and uncertainty for the O & G companies.

By relieving O & G companies from the cost and burden of managing large data/compute infrastructure, Cisco Consulting Services conducted a survey that uncovers the urgency

for the oil and gas industry to adopt digital technologies powered by the Internet of Everything (IoE), which is the networked connection of people, process, data, and things throughout the O&G value chain, including both the IT and OT elements of the business, to stay competitive. GCC plans to pump up to $100 billion (Dh367.3 billion) into renewable energy projects over the coming two decades. The dip in oil prices has driven the need for energy and has underlined the urgency for the region to ensure that the demand curve is in sync with the availability and spending curve.

GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

“Legacy networking technology was designed decades ago and is saddled with unnecessary complexity. With today’s ever-growing network needs of Big Data, Analytics, Virtualisation, DB synchronization,downloads and Video surveillance to name a few, legacy network technology does not do the trick anymore. ” -FADI MOUBARAK CHANNEL

“GCC, much like the rest of the world, grows rapidly in digital readiness and continues to invest in technologies which can support the transition to a machine-to-machine (M2M) connected world. At this critical juncture, public and private sector leaders require guidance on the overhaul to more environmentallyfriendly or interconnected infrastructures.”

-BENOIT DUBARLE PRESIDENT,

LEADER – EUROPE AND AMEA, AVAYA

GULF COUNTRIES AND PAKISTAN, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

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GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

HEALTHCARE UAE, especially Dubai, has been growing itself as the most feasible and sought after destination for medical tourism. The pharmaceutical regulations, cutting edge hospital infrastructure, and a competitive smart healthcare have been leading the sector to great heights.

Healthcare has been one of the fastest growing sector in terms of adoption of technology. And according to Gartner, there will be 6 billion of them by 2018. The IoT revolution has many applications within the healthcare industry, including remote patient monitoring for high-risk patients and behavior modification to help with obesity and smoking problems. As these devices get smaller and less expensive, we will see more healthcare practices use them to treat patients. easier method to share data.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Foundation announced at CES 2016 an initiative in collaboration with IBM that will research how cognitive computing can provide better information to help transform the lives of the world’s growing aging

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population and persons with disabilities.

This research project will explore how cognitive computing can redefine the relationship among humans, technology and the environment around us, allowing family members, doctors and caregivers to proactively monitor the health and well-being of the aging population with the onset of physical and cognitive disabilities.

According to Alpen Capital, the UAE healthcare market is projected to reach $19.5 billion by 2020, achieving an annual average growth of 12.7 percent, marginally higher than the GCC growth average. The rising population and increased spending in healthcare has driven the need for competitive infrastructure to replace the legacies.“ Cloud” has been a buzzword in

GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

“Business technology is going through many of its own essential paradigm changes and disruptions. It’s crucial to buy technology that works today, but will also work tomorrow. Every piece of hardware, software, and services an organization invests in should not just allow for change but enable and motivate it. ” -SHAMS HASAN ENTERPRISE

“In a country like UAE, all their citizen are now guaranteed with a quality healthcare protection. Also the ME is trying to woo the patients from their neighbouring countries for an affordable medical treatment here which is effectively growing day by day.”

-UNNI MENON IT MANAGER,

“The UAE has a welldeveloped healthcare sector, including sophisticated infrastructure, specialized hospitals and clinics and primary care centers. UAE healthcare sector has projected extraordinary growth and significant progress in the past few years.”

-ALI ASGAR BOHARI DIREC-

RAK HOSPITAL

TOR IT, ZULEKHA HOSPITAL

PRODUCT MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST, BRAND & SMAC CERTIFIED, DELL

healthcare IT for years now as industry leadership strategizes to adopt

such technology that has significant opportunities for cost savings,

performance and scalability. 2016 will be a transition year for many healthcare organizations that will migrate a portion of their critical infrastructure and applications to the private cloud by the end of the year. According to technology vendors, Healthcare providers will begin to deploy certain elements of critical infrastructure to cloud services controllers and nextgeneration firewalls.

Cloud-based file sharing and collaboration sites will become more prevalent in the healthcare industry, as users will urge leadership to provide an easier method to share data. Big players in the Electronic Medical Record,(EMR) application space will begin to look at cloud-hosted EMR solutions, and healthcare providers will start exploring plans to migrate their EMR to a fully managed private cloud service model

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GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

“This is an exciting time for the Middle East and Africa payment industry and Network International is at the forefront of developments in the region.

We processed more than 600 million transactions in 2015, amounting to AED 91 billion in acquiring volume. While these numbers are indeed impressive, we believe that we can offer even more to the industry which is why we continue to invest in our core assets – intellectual capital and technology” -MR BHAIRAV TRIVEDI, GROUP

BFSI According to the rating agency Moody, the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union will not have a significant credit impact on GCC sovereigns, but financial systems of some of the these countries are expected to experience a limited funding crunch resulting from the scaling down of activities by British banks and a potential slowdown in investments. According to a banking capital market report, the financial sector has been posing as a great contributor to the productive growth of the economy by identifying productive projects and efficient firms, promoting corporate governance, mobilizing savings and mitigating the adverse effect of financial shocks.

Implementing strong policies and advanced modelling techniques are

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CEO, NETWORK INTERNATIONAL

“The growing importance of the GCC market also means that businesses are increasingly focused on building back and mid-office support in the region – an area in which Bahrain, with a talented, bilingual local workforce, offers clear operational advantages.”

-JOHN KILMARTIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ICT , BAHRAIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD

crucial to gain financial liberalization and market efficiency in the era of globalization. The critical government and financial bodies are embodying major changes for raising deploying and managing capital across the region.

Financial technology – or “FinTech” – is generating huge opportunities for banks, investors and new start-up companies around the world, but is also generating a new range of risks for central banks and financial institutions.

Progress on implementing FinTech in the Kingdom has been relatively slow until recently, but new initiatives designed to enhance the business environment, reform regulatory support and provide access to capital are helping to create a positive ecosystem for FinTech deployment in Saudi Arabia.

GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

TELECOM One of the most competitive and fast paced sector is Telecommunications.

With competitors tracking every move and making sure they provide the customers something extra, something out of the box and most importantly maximum customer satisfaction, after all customers are surrounded by options and offers too hard to resist. The growth of social media, penetration of smartphones, faster broadband network requirement and much more lays pressure on service providers to overcome the challenges and deliver nothing but…Uninterrupted services! With key market players like Du, Etisalat, Batelco, Zain, MTN, Viva, Vodafone, Orange, Ooredoo, STC, Virgin Mobile KSA, Lebara KSA, Omnitel and many others providing not just services for customers but also catering to broadband and wireless services for the government and

enterprises, the telecom sector of MEA is a competitive vertical setting an example globally in terms of infrastructure progression. Ooredoo launched its new 1Gbps Fibre plan, as the company continues to upgrade its nationwide OoredooSupernet, with the new fibre connection, customers can download a 30 minute 4K quality movie in three minutes and a two hour HD movie in two minutes. Etisalat has also partnered with Intel and HP to provide commercial devices to its small and medium business customers in UAE as a part of its’ Business Devices’ offering. Batelco has invested to rollout some key services, launch of Bahrain wifi with a number of wifi hotspots for all residents and visitors and also the launch of LTE to support the massive increase in mobile data demand. As mobile penetration stands between 150 to 200 percent in the Gulf countries,

“The key challenges have been how to adapt to the emerging technologies which are not the tradition path of a telecommunications company and additionally finding new revenue streams as traditional avenues are increasingly impacted due to competitive pressure and declining ARPU’s.”

-BATELCO CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER ABDERRAHMANE MOUNIR

the demand and expectation from the telecom sector is just set to rise. The demand for more customer centric experiences and services from telecom operators in an increasingly connected world has made the telecom sector a high growth market for technology investors to explore and revamp the entire connectivity and networking infrastructure in the region. There will be an increased rate of infrastructure sharing in the telecom sector. Quality of services will be the focus of all the telecom providers. As the doors of 5G already open up for major nations in the MEA region, there will be emphasis laid on having more zones connected by wifi technology which will contribute to the growth of ‘smart’ cities. With innovations taking center stage and technology moving at a lightning fast speed, the question then arises is What next?

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GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

TRANSPORTATION

AND LOGISTICS Every country in the Middle East is driven by the aspiration of their ‘Vision’, in order to accomplish the highly ambitious goals the transportation sector plays a vital role. Development projects like new airport terminals, better road and rail connectivity, smarter travel equipment, construction of bridges and highways and ensuring a convenient transport eco-system have been rampant in Middle East.

The global transportation industry has contracted, given currency fluctuations against an appreciated U.S. dollar, and is now projected to spend $128.6 billion on IT in 2015, declining at negative 0.1% AGR. This industry is forecast to reach $145.5 billion by 2019, indicating a 2.5% CAGR as per Gartner. Abu Dhabi’s ‘Surface Transport

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Master Plan’ (STMP) aims at improving the country’s strategic infrastructure.

Miral signed a MoU with skyTran. The agreement will launch the study and implementation of skyTran, a personal rapid transit (PRT) system. RTA in Dubai has launched various search portals to make the transportation seamless and easier to navigate and reach their desired destination.The transport and logistics sector contributes in various ways to the economy of every country, construction, tourism, development, foreign investment and imports-exports are indirectly effected by this industry.

As the world steps in the world of digitalization and internet of things, transportation and logistics will adopt to newer techniques and ways to advance operations.

“The Middle Eastern transportation industry has serious communication gaps between transporters, load owners and agents. For this reason, 50% of the trucks are back-hauling empty from their destination. The information about daily loads and fleets are distributed over the phone, in a very inefficient way so we have a market that offers potential chaos for every shipment.”

-SEBASTIAN STEFAN CEO, LOAD ME.

GCC CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

ENERGY l Smart energy grid strategies in the GCC Demand management and energy storage Penetration of technology with special emphasis on SCADA security l Oil infrastructure and challenges l

l

HEALTHCARE Healthcare physical infrastructure growth and investment opportunities l Meeting the demands of Medical tourism l Country wise growth scale and investments l Rising need for smart services, smart health monitoring, streamlined patient data and a paperless environment l

BFSI Tailor made mandates and investment projects l Growth of the emerging market and opportunities Growing demand for professional services l Meeting the needs of Global corporates l

l

TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS Expo 2020 roadmap and rising challenges The GCC wide rail network projects and its implications Rise of eCommerce and penetration of technology l Driverless vehicles and smart transportation l

l

l

TELECOM Mobile penetration and increasing demand l WiFi everywhere challenges. l Advent of LiFi Partnership with government and solution vendors l Roadmap for the future l

l

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TOP CIOs ACROSS MEA

JOHN KILMARTIN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ICT BAHRAIN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD JOURNEY

CAREER John Kilmartin recently joined Bahrain Economic Development Board as Executive Director ICT to promote Bahrain as a regional hub to Technology companies.

John previously worked with IDA Ireland for 8.5 years in a number of positions: Country Director India, Manager Emerging Business Division, Manager ICT Division and Manager Regional Division. In each role he was taskedwith promoting Ireland as a potential European operations base to tech companies from Indian, US and Europe. Prior to IDA Ireland, he worked for 8 years as a management consultant with Deloitte, in the systems and infrastructure team, assuming various roles in leading change management, project management and being lead developer of high profile systems.

DOMAIN

GEOGRAPHY

Sector/Vertical - ICT / Technology / Start-up

COUNTRY Bahrain

NATIVE PLACE Tipperary, Ireland

Technology which has revolutionized businesses of late It has to be platforms such as Uber and Airbnb which have turned the tables on industry players by applying technology with innovative business models and the growth and importance of data and data analytics in how companies better understand and serve customers.

PROFESSIONAL AMBITION To play a part, along with Bahrain’s technology community, in developing Bahrain as a regional hub for technology companies; foreign, Bahraini and start-up.

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TOP ACHIEVEMENT SO FAR It has been a really busy period since joining EDB. As a team we have reviewed and updated our FDI strategy which will focus on different sectors based on geographic markets. We have representatives in India, Dubai, UK, US, Germany……

There are some great examples of companies already assessing the MENA region from Bahrain: l Citibank has their regional call center based in Bahrain that caters for their clients in Arabic and English l Sabre manages their regional HQ out of their office in Bahrain l Huawei’s regional HQ is based in Bahrain with over 700 full time staff based in Bahrain. l Silah Gulf is a highly advanced Customer Experience center with clients such as Qatar airways, Viva, and McDonalds middle-east managed from Bahrain. l Batelco is the incumbent Telecoms company. They run an online sales site along with technical support and live chat in house.

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25/01/2016 14:09

TOP CIOs ACROSS MEA

AHMED AL HUJAIRY GROUP CEO, GULF FUTURE BUSINESS WLL

DOMAIN Sector/Vertical - Private/ Consultancy/ICT

GEOGRAPHY COUNTRY Kingdom of Bahrain NATIVE PLACE Bahrain

JOURNEY CAREER Businessman

EXPERIENCE 21 years as a CIO/DIT YEARS IN SERVICE 32 years TOP ACHIEVEMENT OF LATE Starting building Group of Companies

PROFESSIONAL AMBITION

MY TOP HOBBIES

To expand business internationally

Reading

Technology which has revolutionized businesses of late Cloud

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THE TITANS

AUGUST 2016

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