Digital Qatar
Wednesday, April 7, 2021 Special Supplement
Qatar’s advanced digital transformation Q
atar’s government-led digital transformation ranks as the top technology trend of 2021, supporting innovative mega-events and taking citizen services to a new level, global technology company SAP announced recently. More than four-fifths (89%) of public sector senior executives agreed that data sharing helps them to improve how they connect with citizens, according to a recent Oxford Economics and SAP survey ‘The Public Sector Transformation Imperative’ of 3,000 senior executives from around the world. “The Qatari government has advanced digital transformation amid the pandemic to better serve citizens. With 89% of public sector executives agreeing on the importance of data sharing, the top three goals for Qatar’s public sector organisations in 2021 will be to share data to improve citizen experiences, gain real-time data insights, and enhance their employees’ Mazen Raad, Managing Director, SAP Qatar. digital skills to drive innovation,” says Mazen Raad, Managing Director, SAP Qatar.
100% contactless. More than 58,000 taxpayers have already registered on the comprehensive new system. Data insights will point the way toward actionable insights. Real-time data insights can help organisations to enhance operational efficiency and craft strong policy. Many of Qatar’s leading organisations are digitally transforming on the SAP S/4HANA real-time business suite. Al-Ahed Holding has optimised core business and financial processes. Power International Holding has seen a 90% increase in operational excellence for human resources. And Qatar Islamic Insurance Group is enhancing customer experiences with its cloud platform.
For the public sector, the top three lessons that make a digital “have” and not a digital “have-not” are: Employee and citizen experiences will close the gap with the public sector. Thanks to government initiatives such as the Qatar National Vision 2030, Qatar’s public sector will continue to lead datadriven innovation to enhance citizen experiences. Among public sector leaders in the survey, 89% said data sharing improves how they connect with citizens, 83% said data sharing improves their innovation of existing products or services, and 82% said data sharing helps them to exceed performance goals. One of the best examples is the General Tax Authority, which has worked with the channel partner Invenio Business Solutions to digitalise existing services and make them
Digital skills capabilities will streamline and expand missioncritical services. Already, many Middle East organisations have embraced collaboration and flexible work policies to enhance employee experiences. But more can be done to enhance employee skill sets and collaboration across different departments. Supporting skills development, SAP’s Training and Development Institute is developing the workforce of the future, with its Young Professional Programme training Qatari national recent university graduates to become certified SAP Associate Consultants. The ‘Winnovate’ initiative, powered by SAP, is an innovation coaching and workshop facilitator enabling Qatar’s organizations towards innovation.
DIGITAL QATAR Supplement Team
Advtg. & Mktg. Manager Hassan Ali Anwari
Supplement Editor Pradeep
Sr. Business Devlpt. Manager Sanjai Noah
Layout / Graphics A.K. Vinay Kumar
Advertising Office Gulf Times / Arrayah Building, C Ring Road, P.O. Box 533, Doha Qatar Tel: (+974) 44466620 Fax: (+974) 44310992 email: advr@gulf-times.com
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Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Digital Qatar
DUKHAN BANK
Keeping pace with digital transformation by offering innovative services & financial solutions
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s Qatar witnesses shifts in consumer preferences, Dukhan Bank is keeping pace with its rapidly evolving development. In the banking industry, customers are increasingly orienting towards the use of digital services. Mirroring these changes, Dukhan Bank is moving towards a future that is anchored on its advanced technological infrastructure, services portfolio, and innovative banking products. Under the guise of its digital transformation plan, Dukhan Bank continues to guide the industry towards a new era of safe, secure, and easy digital payment experiences, for the benefit of its customers.
Contactless POS and E-Payment Gateway Solutions
A Robust Mobile Application The bank’s mobile application allows customers speedy, secure and seamless access to their accounts with added features and advantages earning it the award of Most User Friendly Mobile Banking Application at the International Finance Awards. Features include access to the Dukhan Bank Rewards, money transfer with Western Union, cardless cash withdrawal services, opening and managing accounts, and managing minor’s bank accounts, amongst others. Dukhan Bank has recently added a series of new services and features to the mobile application whilst keeping it user-friendly and highly secured. The enhanced services and benefits include instantly opening a new foreign currency and term deposit account online, viewing detailed bank transfers and wealth and investment account information, and navigating the app easily through the “What’s New” feature. The Term Deposit/Time Deposit feature lets customers open a Shariah-compliant fixed-deposit account, and open a ‘Wadiati’ account through the mobile application foregoing the need to physically visit a branch so customers can enjoy services online at their own time, pace and convenience.
Dukhan Bank had launched both countertop and portable POS terminals allowing companies and merchants across Qatar to accept payments from credit and debit cards using the most advanced contactless payment feature through the contactless e-payment platform. The service adds great value for companies and merchants who can adopt multi-channel payment solutions to accomplish their business and simplify their work, achieve more sales and implement reward programs faster and more accurately. Additionally, Dukhan Bank is also planning the upcoming roll-out of its E-payment gateway under its enhanced digital corporate services. The gateway, powered by MasterCard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS), offers a fast, simple, and secure payment for businesses who want to transform their capabilities online with a fully integrated end-to-end e-commerce payment solution that is further augmented with transparency and control.
The bank is planning to roll-out its E-payment gateway under its enhanced digital corporate services. The gateway, powered by MasterCard Payment Gateway Services offers a fast, simple, and secure payment solution for businesses who want to transform their capabilities online with a fully integrated end-to-end e-commerce payment solution that is further augmented with transparency and control Launch of the Transformative D-Pay Platform Dukhan Bank’s digital transformation remains apace with continuous expansion of its online banking services portfolio that has recently seen the launch of its contactless Dukhan-Pay (D-Pay) Platform. D-Pay meets customers’ increasing demand for digital banking products and services by enabling its individual and corporate customers to conduct all their transactions online easily and securely by integrating its payment services with wearable devices. Dukhan Bank wristbands have also been released in the market, allowing customers to enjoy the convenience of quick and easy contactless payment on a global scale. Available in three colours, they are accepted worldwide and can be used at any point-of-sale terminal that displays the contactless symbol. Customers can use them across fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, pharmacies, and petrol stations. The Dukhan Bank’s smart band wristbands are fitted with a chip and make use of NFC technology to facilitate contactless payments securely. Moreover, Dukhan Bank announced the launch of Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay services on the occasion of Qatar National Sports Day 2021 under the D-Pay platform, following a partnership with Fitbit and Garmin. The services allow customers to make payments through wearable products directly from the wrist, safely and securely. The ease of which allows customers to enjoy an active lifestyle, with the security of carrying their wallet safely on their wrist.
On the Path to a Digital Savvy Future Dukhan Bank remains committed to investing more resources, capabilities, and expertise to bolster its digital transformation to provide the best, latest and most innovative banking services and solutions to its widespread customer base. From this point of view, the bank continues to proceed with its digital transformation plan. This includes developing its services to adding new features to enable individuals, institutions and companies of all sizes in the public and private sectors to conduct their banking transactions in a fast, flexible and secure manner. The bank is also committed to reviewing and evaluating its services on an ongoing basis to keep its systems and processes updated to provide customers with seamless services that allow financial management any time and from anywhere, in line with its relentless efforts to reaffirm Dukhan Bank’s position as ‘Qatar’s Bank of Choice’.
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Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Digital Qatar
AZYM TECHNOLOGIES
Offering world-class cloud hosting solutions
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zym Technologies is the recognised industry leader with over 10 years’ experience in delivering cloud-based business solutions to small and medium business across the GCC. We have a solid reputation in providing world-class cloud hosting solutions. We invest heavily in bringing you the best that technology has to offer. Our forward-thinking strategies provide your business with the swiftness needed to adopt new process and scale. Azym’s high competency is supported by its own state-of-the-art data center facility built from scratch in the US, Netherland and Singapore. This makes the company a unique cloud solution provider in the GCC region. We have over 800 professional employees working hard to provide enterprise-grade cloud web hosting, cloud-based ERP, cloud server, private cloud, public cloud, application hosting and SaaS applications that enable companies to drive online success. Our unique combination of end-to-end services, high-performance technologies and unwavering commitment have helped thousands of small and medium enterprises enhance their IT cloud infrastructure with a competitive advantage. Azym technologies provide the broadest, most flexible IT infrastructure platform to meet your unique application and business needs. Wether it’s scalable colocation, managed hosting, dedicated hosting, private or public cloud services or a hybrid option combining the best features of multiple services in a single optimised environment, we’ve got you covered. Our flexible platform assures a future-proof solution to meet your business needs. The Azym Shared Cloud Hosting package gives you the opportunity to take advantage of the cutting-edge hosting technologies on an extremely affordable price. With this package you will receive a fully-featured cloud hosting environment with a dedicated fraction of the massive cloud computing power. The web hosting industry is changing, no longer should your site reside on a single web server. We utilize the latest cloud hosting and grid layer
technologies. Websites are ‘Load Balanced’ across multiple servers to ensure that individual hardware failures won’t affect you. A traffic spike on another website won’t affect your site’s performance. Our Redundant Cloud Hosting is designed to keep your email and websites always up and running. It is targeted at businesses and consumers who need a very high level of uptime but don’t have a large IT budget to spend on complicated load-balanced, multi-server solutions. With Azym Shared Cloud Hosting, your website is no longer limited to the resources of a single shared server. You now have access to a pool of resources made available by multiple clustered servers. This allows for increased processing power, website availability and reliability to handle any load size or demand your website or applications may encounter. With every hosting plan, you have access to over 300+ amazing scripts that you can install for your website in just a few simple clicks. Our cloud servers support High Availability
(HA). If a physical computer fails, your cloud server will be automatically switched to other live physical computers. We guarantee 99.9% cloud server uptime! Cloud hosting provides the scalability of hardware resources from CPU and Memory to Disk storage, also cloud hosting with Azym will give you the peace of mind that you are hosting on professional grade systems with complete hardware redundancy. We have partnered with Comodo SSL to bring you a complete range of SSL certificates to choose from for your website, server or e-commesce portal. What is an SSL Certificate? An SSL Certificate is a bit of code on your Customer’s web server that secures online communications. SSL Certwificates inspire trust, keep online interactions private and help customers gain the confidence to conduct transactions on a web site. A Wildcard SSL Certificate is used to secure main domains and its multiple subdomains. In general, the certificate ensures to encrypt data of a website and its related webpages and it covers unlimited servers, all from one dashboard. For example, a single wildcard certificate for *.sample. com secures www.sample.com, mail.sample.com, etc. As part of our solutions we have High Availability, Automatic Backup, Security, Cloud Technology and High Performance. We also offer a Fast & Reliable Wordpress Managed Hosting. The Azym Cloud combines robust technologies with premium hardware, low-density environment and blazing fast SSD storage. We are able to keep servers online more so your site is always available. Our goal is to provide fast technical support for all customer requests. Every Cloud Hosting package includes fully automatic daily data backups. The backup will be made every day. We provide 24/7 ticket, mail support and 8/7 live sales and support chat directly from the Azym data center. Our goal is to provide fast technical support for all customer requests. Our average response time is about 18 minutes.
Security of sensitive and critical information is of paramount significance for any organization. Get the strongest and most flexible protection through our SSL certificates and encryption keys. Protect all your business communications across the Internet and let your customers have the best and secure online banking, bill payment and shopping experiences. Our Shared Cloud Web Hosting performs seamlessly like an individual, isolated and insulated server. This creates a secured hosting environment for your website and applications and minimizes the chance of unauthorised access and attacks. Hardware failures are a fact of life. The Azym Cloud takes that into consideration and assumes that equipment sometimes fails. Our self-healing infrastructure assures that if the hardware your machine is running on fails, automatic failover ensures that your server will be brought back up on another node within seconds. Heartbeat monitoring checks each server every few seconds for responsiveness, and if a node fails that test, another node is automatically brought up to take over control. The end result, your cloud server stays up.
Azym also Provides Azym CloudMail. All-in-one Communication Suite.Specially designed for small & medium Enterprises. Azym CloudMail is the first all-in-one communication suite designed for small and medium enterprises in the Gulf region for their modernday communication needs. File Storage: With a document previewer File sharing: File and document sharing with the company privately or publicly Contacts: Personal & Company wide contacts Conference: With up to 20 people attending Chat: Real-time Text, Audio & Video chat with File sharing Email: With a modern and Insulative Interface. Everything You’ll Ever Need. Packed with Features: Enjoy live email notifications, an all-mighty email composer, read tracking, quick attachment previewing, attachment saving and sharing, email reminders and many, many more. Easy to Use: Azym CloudMail is recognized for its exceptional in-app user experience. You’ll notice how immediately it feels comfortable and easy to navigate. It just feels right.
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Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
With the current widespread use of e-Commerce platforms, Dukhan Bank will soon be launching its own e-commerce service
Dukhan Bank boosts corporate digital services
D Commercial Bank named ‘Best Digital Bank’ AsiaMoney magazine has chosen Commercial Bank as the “Best Digital Bank” in Qatar for 2020
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Spearheading the digital innovation scene in the country, and more particularly in the financial and banking sector, Commercial Bank never ceases to launch state-of-the-art banking services and products in the market whether for its retail or corporate customers, the bank said in a statement. Commercial Bank Group chief executive officer Joseph Abraham said, “This award reflects the strength and breadth of our best-in-class digital products and our strategy of investing in innovative technologies. These digital products and services are even more relevant for our clients given the impact of Covid-19 on face-to-face interactions.” AsiaMoney has been the voice of the banking and capital markets industries in Asia for nearly three decades. The nomination of institutions for the banking awards follows a thorough and transparent process, whereby AsiaMoney surveys the market to generate rankings and data that form a benchmark for the industry in Asia. Amit Sah, Commercial Bank’s executive general manager and head (Retail Banking) said,
“Such an accolade represents a testament to the great strides we have been making in the past few years. As we keep on innovating new digital services and transforming existing ones, we are granting our valued customers the choice of banking through their preferred digital channels.” Commercial Bank has won several awards last year, such as: * International Finance magazine’s “Best Mobile Banking Application” and the “Most Innovative Digital Bank” in Qatar Awards * The Euromoney’s “Excellence in Leadership” in the Middle East Award * The Banker’s “Innovation in Digital Banking” in the Middle East Award * The Asian Banker’s “Best Digital Bank” in Qatar Award * Global Finance’s “Best in Social Media Marketing and Services” Award, in addition to 6 more prestigious awards from Global Finance, Middle East.
ukhan Bank continues to pursue its efforts to enhance its corporate services in general, with focus on digital services in particular. In this regard, the bank launched a set of advanced services including point-of-sale (POS) solution, remote deposit capture (RDC) service, online trade system, in addition to the upcoming rollout of the bank’s electronic payment gateway / e-Commerce service. This, Dukhan Bank said is “yet another confirmation of the bank’s commitment to providing solutions that contribute to the bank’s success and the development of their services to meet the customers’ needs.” Within the rapid developments in payment solutions, Dukhan Bank announced the launch of fixed and mobile POS terminals that allow companies and retailers in Qatar to accept payments using credit cards and debit cards, as well as the most advanced contactless payment feature on D-Pay, its contactless payment platform. This service is easy to apply and offers efficiency, flexibility and convenience
to customers, while enabling them to adopt a multi-channel approach to meet their business requirements. With the current widespread use of e-Commerce platforms, Dukhan Bank will soon be launching their own e-commerce service in order to provide companies with comprehensive solutions, supported by the Mastercard Payment Gateway Services; this step offers opportunities for growth, development and access to a new range of customers, by providing integrated and flexible electronic solutions that keep pace with the rapid changes in the world of safe payments especially designed to respond to business needs with precision. Dukhan Bank also launched the Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) solution, an advanced technology that allows the bank’s customers to remotely scan and submit bank cheques for clearing by simply sending a scanned image of the cheque, via a secure internet connection from their premises without the need to visit any of the bank’s branches.
QIIB: First Qatari bank to launch ‘Visual IVR’
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IIB has recently launched ‘Visual IVR’, becoming the first bank in Qatar to provide this ultra-modern, technology-driven service to its customers. This is part of the implementation of QIIB’s digital transformation strategy and the provision of best services to customers, in accordance with the latest standards, adopted globally. QIIB Visual IVR Service provides many services to customers, including information on accounts and money transfers, as well as those related to bank cards such as transaction inquiry, card activation, password change, service bills’ payment and much more. In order to activate the service, QIIB’s customers may contact the bank’s call center through their mobile phone registered with and approved by QIIB. They can then choose the Visual IVR service and carefully follow the instructions of the answering machine. Thereafter, an electronic link will be sent to the customer’s phone and by clicking on the link, the customer can register for the service that requires entering his bank card number and its secret code for additional security and protection to the customer’s account. On the launch of the Visual IVR service, Jamal Abdullah al-Jamal, QIIB Deputy CEO, stated, “We are pleased to be the first bank in Qatar to launch a VIVR service to its customers, and move rapidly in the process of digital transformation, providing more services to our customers in this aspect. This is in accordance with the highest security standards, responding to competition
Doha Bank Group CEO Dr. R Seetharaman and other top officials with the award from ‘Middle East Digital Excellence Architecture Awards’.
Al-Jamal(right) and al-Meer. QIIB has launched ‘Visual IVR’,thus becoming the first bank in Qatar to provide this ultra-modern, technology-driven service to its customers.
and providing customers with the high-quality banking services they aspire to. “QIIB has always sought to take advantage of the latest technological innovations in the banking sector and put them at the service of customers in order to save time and effort and facilitate their access to banking products and services, which also serves to improve operational efficiency and provide services on optimal terms to customers”, he said. Omar Abdulaziz al-Meer, QIIB head (Business Development and Alternative Channels Sector) said, QIIB visual IVR service is the latest method through which customers can obtain a wide range of banking services quickly with the highest standards of security adopted in all QIIB transactions, whether digital or provided through the bank’s network of branches. With the launch of the VIVR service, the digital options available to customers have been qualitatively broadened. As through this service, one can complete most of the banking services remotely- from anywhere, while ensuring speed and security.
Doha Bank bags Mideast Digital Excellence Architecture Awards
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oha Bank has showcased its adoption of emerging digital technologies, such as ‘Always-On Infrastructure’ and ‘Software Defined Datacenters’, bagging a key award at the ‘Middle East Digital Excellence Architecture Awards 2019’ in the category of ‘IT Infrastructure (Datacenters and Networks)’. For the last 13 years, the ICMG Architecture Awards are the most prestigious global award honouring excellence in the enterprise and IT architecture. The coveted globally-recognised iCMG Architecture Awards of Excellence are given to companies that have successfully used IT architecture in achieving their business goals. These awards were announced at Architecture World Summit in November 2019 in Washington, DC. Doha Bank Group CEO Dr. R Seetharaman lauded the efforts of the team, saying: “Doha Bank has been at the forefront of developing leading banking solutions for our valued
customers locally and internationally. The adoption of emerging technologies and implementing digital IT transformation initiatives provides Doha Bank a platform in building Digital Eco Systems. “Earning the reputation of being one of the leading financial institutions in the country comes with the responsibility of constantly evolving with changing technologies and introducing state of the art products and services. It is this responsibility, coupled with our relentless dedication to provide our customers with ‘alwayson’ services, borderless banking and to bank ‘on-the-move’.” Seetharaman added: “We are extremely delighted on winning this key award at ‘Middle East Digital Excellence Architecture Awards 2019’, which will motivate us to bring more resilience to our business, drive business growth, and bolster stakeholder confidence by leveraging innovative enterprise and IT architectures.
Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Tasmu Innovation Lab A bid to leverage the benefits of Artificial Intelligence
HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti listens to a briefing by MoTC Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development Reem al-Mansoori during the official inauguration of the Tasmu Innovation Lab.
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he Tasmu Smart Qatar initiative, one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), has recently teamed up with data science experts from Gartner to conduct a ‘Design Thinking’ workshop on ‘Humanising Artificial Intelligence’. Held at the recently-inaugurated Tasmu Innovation Lab, the special workshop for government stakeholders was designed to leverage the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across Tasmu’s five priority sectors: transportation, healthcare, logistics, environment, and sports.
Dr Sanjay Chawla
The Tasmu Innovation Lab will act to raise the profile of Qatar as a technology innovation hub that focuses on enhancing Digital transformation to serve national priorities and stimulate the local innovation ecosystem to deliver national outcomes AI has a clear advisory role to play beyond traditional ‘decision-support systems’, supporting decision-making through assembling relevant data, identifying pertinent questions and topics for the attention of policy-makers, and in helping to take crucial decisions. Tasmu is helping government entities find value in using artificial intelligence to assist public servants in the delivery of digital services. The workshop conducted by Gartner at Tasmu’s Innovation Lab allowed government stakeholders from the five sectors to better understand the
potential of implementing AI technology towards creating real intelligence. Guest speaker Dr Sanjay Chawla from Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) presented Qatar’s AI National Strategy to attendees, and helped create a substantial basis for the workshop and familiarised the participants with the country’s strategic direction. The workshop continued with an exploration into the potential of AI in supporting the tasks made by employees. Focusing less on traditional analytics and moving towards real intelligence, the workshop evaluated how AI can complement people. Eman al-Kuwari, section head in Emerging Technologies at Tasmu Smart Qatar Programme of the MoTC, said: “Tasmu Innovation Lab is known to bring together government entities, research, and academic institutes, and private sector players to create tangible real-life applications that are contextual and relevant to Qatar’s current and future challenges. “We are pleased with the outcome of our Humanising Artificial Intelligence Workshop, which identified several AI opportunities, using design thinking methodology that will be evaluated and considered by participating organisations within each sector. To support Qatar’s transformation
into a smart country, participants discovered areas where cross-sector collaboration can be powered by AI.” The workshop provided a hands-on experience for attendees, with brainstorming sessions that saw participants break into smaller working groups to ideate and collaborate on AI opportunities that could benefit their organisations. Each working group had members from participating entities that brought a variety of skill sets and knowledge to the table, from information technology, to operations and business representatives. Set out to raise the profile of Qatar as a technology innovation hub, the Tasmu Innovation Lab offers an open and inclusive environment and catalyses the entire process of innovation from ideation to implementation. The lab supports the growing research and development ecosystem of Qatar by orchestrating ideation workshops, hackathons, and innovation trainings among other innovation development activities. This workshop is one of the many workshops that will support in realisation of Tasmu and the Innovation Lab goals and fuel Qatar’s transformation into a smart country.
Each working group had members from participating entities that brought a variety of skill sets and knowledge to the table, from information technology, to operations and business representatives, at the Tasmu-Gartner workshop. The Tasmu Smart Qatar initiative, one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), has teamed up with data science experts from Gartner to conduct a ‘Design Thinking’ workshop on ‘Humanising Artificial Intelligence’.
Metrash2 wins digital excellence award
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he Ministry of Interior (MoI)’s Metrash2 app has won the Golden Award from the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) for best government digital application for smart devices in terms of content, service, usage, design, functionality, app access, and user experience. The Qatar Digital Excellence Awards in the government sector was announced recently at an event attended by H.E. the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti and a number of senior government officials. The award was received by Brigadier Abdul Rahman Ali al-Farahid al-Maliki,
assistant director general of Information Systems. The ceremony also witnessed the graduation of the new batches of MoI officials from the Qatar Digital Government Training Programme (QDGTP). Brig al-Maliki said Metrash2 won the award for its excellence in terms of use and the facilities of completing direct transactions without the need to visit the Ministry’s service departments or any security centre. “MoI is proud that the Metrash2 app has been winning many awards for mobile applications for ten consecutive years, due to its ease of use and the
availability of a large number of services in it,” he said. He added that other services will be added with Metrash2 in the near future pointing out that QDGTP has provided the required training for government agencies raising the level of employees’ skills in the field of computer usage and information systems. It also provided them with leadership skills related to electronic systems and solving electronic problems that help them perform their work in the future. Left: HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti presenting the award to Brigadier Abdul Rahman Ali al-Farahid al-Maliki. Right: A graduate of the QDGTP receiving his certificate.
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Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Artificial Intelligence The simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. Digital humans can see and listen to users to understand the meaning behind the words. They can then use their own tone of voice and body language to create lifelike human conversations. Digital People are always ready to enhance customer brand experience.
Client-Centric Innovation
The Heritage Owned and managed by Salam International Investment Limited, one of Qatar’s oldest and best-known conglomerates operating within diverse business sectors, Salam Technology brings in-depth expertise and knowledge to the systems integration space.
Three decades of cumulative experience and accomplishments in ICT, Digital Infrastructure, Security, Broadcast, AV and Telecommunications. A decade of Managed Services & Resources experience that has made unique proposition for turnkey solutions in Qatar. World-class solutions with localized approach Salam Technology is a well-known solutions integrator based in Qatar having a team of expertise across all aspects of modern IT solutions to architect, manage and execute solutions from end-to-end. Salam Technology brings together the software and hardware into a cohesive orchestrated IT architecture – clearing the way for a greater return on investment and meaningful organization change for esteemed clients.
Salam Technology provides a modern IT landscape for digital transformation. As a leading System Integrator in the region, Salam Technology has embraced digital integration whereby it goes far beyond infrastructure and applications; bringing in a sound market intelligence to drive agility, customer centricity and formulate a data defined digital transformation strategy. The company has engaged domain expertise of AI, Robotics, Machine Learning and analytics to help clients transform their business and better align their business priorities with the outcome of digitalization along with technology partners.
Success Mantra “Our reputation has been built on a winning combination of excellent customer support and a vast services portfolio of comprehensive solutions including customized solution development, hardware infrastructure, product deployment, implementation and professional training. At Salam Technology, we recognize that creating digital infrastructure is a complex process, involving analysis, careful planning and precise execution. That is why the solutions we provide to businesses of all sizes are rigorously designed,” says Mr. Santosh Cherieth, Head of Sales & Marketing. The company is adept at equipping State enterprises and private sector organizations to deploy technology and business intelligence in future-focused ways by seamlessly blending audio-visual, homeland security, telecom and IT infrastructure solutions. As one of Qatar’s most experienced companys Salam is pleased to be a goto source of expertise, known for helping clients transform end-to-end lifecycles with more efficient, effective and budget-friendly processes backed by crucial technologies.
Digital people are combination of creativity and technology. Apart from their engaging personalities and life like features, they have a digital brain to enable personal, empathetic customer experiences. Digital people create authentic and scalable experiences, reimagine the service funnel as a brand booster. They can recognise a person’s emotions by analysing their facial and vocal experience in real time. The company is proud of strategic partnerships with industry-leading vendors and solution providers. The team stays ahead of technology trends and adopts cutting-edge technologies, frequently becoming the first to introduce these solutions to the market.
is the biggest Datacenter in the northern hemisphere in a maritime industry.
Salam Technology also offers an option for clients to bring us on board as consultants, so that we can help bring ideas for applications and new processes to life. With over three decades of experience under our belt and a client list that includes some of the nation’s most prestigious entities, Salam is committed to be on the forefront of technological advancements. At every level of engagement, Salam works to drive value for clients, who seek an exceptional digital experience. Ultimately, the company’s goal is to transform business operations and equip organizations, making them capable of leaping towards their envisaged goals.
Key Achievements Hamad Port Project – Master Systems Integration The green field Hamad Port was designed, built, installed and commissioned with 26 Technology packages and successfully handed over by Salam Technology. Currently the project is under 5 Years of SLA operation support services. Salam Technology was the appointed contractor to design and build the Master Systems Integration Port wide solutions. The company has showcased seamless operation and management of documents, drawings, reports along with thousands of coordination meeting all of which were documented, tracked and monitored every single day during the project lifecycle by the company’s technical expertise. The state of art modular disaster recovery center
Santosh Cherieth, Head of Sales & Marketing
Staying ahead of the Curve “During the last 4 - 5 years we have seen an exponential burst in Digital technologies giving rise to prominence as a critical determinant of economic growth, national security and international competitiveness. We are currently experiencing the Digital Industrialization. Salam Technology always believe in adapt to change and innovate. Qatar is one of the global economy in adopting to emerging technologies. This is credited to the ambitious national ICT strategies established at an early stage. Having this boost from the Government, we embarked on various initiatives that adds value. Our focus is on digital transformation framework. A formalized plan for how and when a company wants to make strategic upgrades to core systems and processes. By laying out a structured plan, organizations can go from reacting to the changes happening around them to taking control of their technology destinies. Automation, AI and machine learning are one of the largest growing digital trends impacting the IT industry” added Mr. Santosh Cherieth.
Solution Matrix Salam Technology’s ICT combines the harmonious collaboration of IT along with communication devices or applications - encompassing radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware, software, satellite systems, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.
DIS Salam Technology’s DIS division supports the connections between content, data, hardware and software to come up with the best synergized solution. Digital infrastructure includes data, software and the mechanisms needed to enable them to work together seamlessly so that they can be shared and managed.
Surveillance systems have evolved from being just a deterrent to crime and providing visual evidence to something intelligent. Combining video analytics and embedded AI deep learning alerts can be generated in real time, hence providing a powerful tool for security personnel and increasing overall efficiency. Salam Technology also provides CSIM/PSIM platform for technology integration.
MSR Managed Services and Resources (MSR) department specializes in Managed Services and Staff Outsourcing. Salam Technology provides Staff Augmentation/Outsourcing solutions across all industries on contractual basis. From Developers and Engineers, Project Managers and Project Directors, System/Network Engineers and Help-Desk support, Salam recruits and place veteran and sought-after business professionals whose unique skills will augment the teams they join.
SECURITY
Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
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Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Qatar top on ESCWA Gov’t Electronic & Mobile Services Maturity Index
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atar has ranked second among 15 Arab countries on the Government Electronic and Mobile Services (GEMS) Maturity Index 2020. The report was issued recently by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). As per the index, Qatar came first among the Arab countries in two of the three main pillars of the index: service use and user satisfaction and public outreach. GEMS indicator aims to measure the maturity of government services provided through the portal and through mobile applications in the Arab region. The index seeks to bridge the gap in most of the international indicators, related to service maturity, its use and user satisfaction. It measures and compares the year-on-year performance and allows to track the progress in the switch to e-services, by annually comparing the national performance. The index also allows comparison between various countries and entities in e-services transformation. The evaluation process is based on three main pillars: service availability and sophistication, service use and satisfaction, and public outreach. Commenting on the achievement, Mashael Ali al-Hammadi, acting assistant undersecretary of Government Information Technology at MoTC, said that the e-Government Steering Committee, chaired by MoTC, has been, since its inception, embracing a fastpaced digital transformation and enabling advanced technology. Digital transformation plans have been developed and their execution overseen in collaboration with government entities nationwide, aiming to achieve the
objectives of the Qatar Digital Government Strategy. This achievement is the culmination of significant efforts and concerted action by various government entities for developing and launching digital services. “We will continue to move forward with digitally transforming the services and institutional modernisation and development as well as bolstering the themes of Qatar’s Second National Development Strategy (2018-2022) by capacity incorporation, fostering the institutional values to improve services provided to individuals and businesses, increasing government administration efficiency and effectively deploying the information technology for public service, thus enhancing the national vision for building a knowledge-based economy in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030,” al-Hammadi added. On the key performance indicators, the index says the Arab region in general needs to focus on providing the features suitable for the people with disabilities to use the government e-services, as well as enabling the individuals to share their feedback on such services and increasing the rate of using them, particularly on mobile devices. The index says it is equally important to pay a considerable attention to the collecting of data on the statistics relating to the transactions conducted electronically. It adds that it is also necessary to promote any new services through online and offline marketing and awareness campaigns to further increase the percentage of use and public outreach. There are so far more than 1200 digital services under the umbrella of QDG programme.
Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Syncing the World with Qatar through Cloud and Automation
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atar National Vision 2030 was launched to serve as a clear roadmap for the country’s future. It aims to propel Qatar forward by balancing the accomplishments that achieve economic growth with the human and natural resources. This vision captures the essence of where Qatar wants to take you, inspire you and provide a clear path to achieve those goals. PROZTEC is committed to support Qatar with its expertise and professional services in digitization process to achieve common objectives. Our purpose is to align with Qatar National Vision 2030. “Made in Qatar” is a badge we proudly wear every day. With that pride we have become an IT consultancy company that offers enterprise solution, professional services and specialized support to the domain of IT business needs. One of our greatest strength is that we have made our clients more efficient through our automation and cloud solutions.
Efficient and cost effective have for so long been antonyms to each other. The automation resources ensure something organizations have been missing: complete value for the resource that they are paying for, as per studies. The global robotic process automation market size is already valued at $1.40 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $11 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR of 34% from 2020 to 2027 (Grand View Research), whereas BPM automation is expected to reach a value of USD 4.78 billion by 2026. The biggest question is does automation reduce work force for an organization? Absolutely not. Understand the scenario. An organization hires an IT manger in Qatar, makes all the necessary expense to ensure smooth IT mechanisms. Upon hiring, an IT manager’s average day is primarily consumed by mundane repetitive task. Those tasks that a BOT can solve, which will not
E-commerce sales to
reach new heights By Santhosh V Perumal
E
-commerce sales in Doha are expected to reach more than $3.2bn by 2022 as many retailers and consumers shift to online platforms, allowing substantial growth of digital payment gateways and contactless payments, according to the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC)Refinitiv report. Islamic fintech is expected to experience “significant” growth in coming years and Qatar has the opportunity to secure a unique advantage over other Islamic fintech hubs through Shariahcompliant venture capital, the report said. Elaborating on the e-commerce sales, the report said this presents an opportunity for payment solution providers — that can provide world-class services — to tap the increasing demand from online retailers and e-commerce platforms in Qatar. “The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic created new opportunities for financial innovation, which has attracted an influx of tech and FinTech companies seeking to set up operations in Qatar,” QFC Authority chief executive Yousuf Mohamed al-Jaida said. The country offers Fintechs worldwide substantial opportunities domestically as an unsaturated market with ICT spending expected to reach $9bn by 2024, boosting the competitiveness of its market and strengthening its position to emerge as a Fintech hub in the region, he added. The e-commerce sector in Qatar has witnessed a boom in recent years as the e-commerce penetration rate more than doubled in the last year, from 15% in 2018 to 37% in 2019. The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) had projected in 2018 that e-commerce sales would reach $3.2bn by 2022, up from $1.3bn in 2017. This projection could potentially be exceeded as online sales were boosted by the Covid-19 outbreak, which forced many retailers and consumers to shift to online platforms. Digital wallets could also tap into a market of 800,000 un-or under-banked low-income workers in Qatar, offering banking, payment and remittance services without having to open a bank account, it said.
On the potential of Islamic fintech, the report said Islamic venture capital investments could be deployed through QFTH programmes or by partnering with Islamic investment banks. “Offering special incentives to set up Islamic VC funds or equity crowd-funding platforms would also drive Islamic VC investments in Qatar-based fintechs,” it said, adding Islamic Regtech — a segment yet to be established — also presents an opportunity for Qatar to gain an advantage in the Islamic Fintech space. The Islamic financial institutions particularly face Shariah risk, for which Regtech could potentially offer the tools to mitigate, facilitating easier compliance with Islamic financial regulations and Shariah compliance standards, according to it. In the current economic environment, traditional financial institutions are steering clear of lending to small and medium enterprises or SMEs, which are expected to source up to 90% of supplies for state projects in Qatar.
need rest, holiday or a coffee break. Imagine with all that stress gone, the value that IT manager could bring to the organization would be immense. Combine that with Cloud Services, and you have a winner. Just paying for what you need and then taking it on one requirement at a time. The COVID-19 has only exacerbated the move away from legacy services. Just four platforms are projected to drive all growth in tech spending over the next five years: Cloud, Mobile, Social and Big Data/Analytics and the cost savings generated by cloud and automation will see more spending diverted towards new technologies, such as AI, robotics, AR/VR, and block chain. The Vision Qatar 2030 requires IT companies to be on the toes and be ready for whatever the world throws at us. We are a resilient country and we towered all hurdles. PROZTEC embodies the spirit of Qatar. Like Qatar, we are resilient, diverse and open to change.
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Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Commercial Bank
45 Years of Success and Innovation I
t all started 45 years ago. In 1975, Commercial Bank was founded as a designated “Bank of Account,” providing valuable support as Qatar’s first private bank. Ever since, we have evolved into one of Qatar’s most successful banks. We have introduced new services and product offerings to Qatar, continued to expand our local, regional and international footprint, innovated and integrated cutting-edge technologies into our systems, and built our brand and client service as leaders in the banking market in Qatar. Since its establishment, Commercial Bank has enjoyed a long history of success with prestigious awards and prizes, innovations, products and services that have been pioneering the local market and media. Commercial Bank has achieved an array of prestigious awards throughout the years, and welcomed the year 2021 with winning the “Serving Business Owners” award and the “Data Management and Security” award in Private Banking and Wealth Management in Qatar from the leading international magazine, Euromoney. Throughout this fascinating history, we have maintained and upheld our identity as a Qatari bank. Commercial Bank has contributed in several aspects to the prosperity and development of the State of Qatar, by introducing brand-new facilities and solutions to the local market, hiring and investing in talented locals and expatriates, as well as supporting the country’s national vision and goals. We have been together through it all; we have faced challenges and risen above them. Whether social, political or economic, together as One Bank, we have continued to progress.
Today it’s entirely possible for Commercial Bank customers to complete all their banking engagements, be it simple or complex, through digital mediums, at a time and place of their convenience. The bank is constantly upgrading its cyber security and fraud detection capabilities and will continue to do so at all times in order to ensure safety and security of its customers’ data. Commercial Bank Today Our country-wide network includes 29 full-service branches and 173 ATMs, and we also own and operate the exclusive ‘Diners Club’ franchise in Qatar and Turkey. We are listed on the Qatar Exchange and were the first Qatari bank to list its Global Depository Receipts on the London Stock Exchange. Commercial Bank’s bonds issuances are listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and the Swiss Exchange (SIX). Expanding its geographical footprint, Commercial Bank is 100% owner of Alternatif Bank in Turkey and has strategic partnerships with the National Bank of Oman (S.A.O.G.) and United Arab Bank (P.J.S.C.). These strategic alliances enable Commercial Bank to offer integrated services across the region, including cross-border services for corporate banking and capital markets, trade services for corporate banking customers, private banking services and syndicated loans in our alliance markets.
setting new trends in the market, to the extent that the whole market keeps on adapting to the innovative products CB launches. The Bank’s focus has been on creativity and innovation, driven by enhanced value for customers. This has helped adoption rates grow dramatically. It is today entirely possible for customers to complete all their banking engagements, be it simple or complex, through digital mediums, at a time and place of their convenience. The bank is constantly upgrading its cyber security and fraud detection capabilities and will continue to do so at all times in order to ensure safety and security of its customers’ data. While technology used to be considered as complementary, it has become now an integral part of every customer’s banking system. This translates into the large success the CB contactless ecosystem has achieved, as the Bank handles over 2 million contactless taps every month. Just like any international bank, CB is expected to offer digital banking services that are safe, secure, and reliable. Therefore, the Bank relies on technology to make its customers’ lives easier in both transactional banking as well as more complex financial needs such as wealth planning, personal borrowing and international share trading. What is apparent in Commercial Bank’s approach towards innovation was the single-minded vision of the bank to excel in customer experience and how the bank uses technology to fulfill this vision. There are more exciting developments still to come as the
In 2020, Commercial Bank shone in Kuwait with the bank’s creative agency, DotSpace, receiving the Social Responsibility Award at the Arab Media Forum’s 8th Kuwait Creativity Award, for the awareness campaign launched by the Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic. “For you Qatar” is a production video Commercial Bank launched in collaboration with DotSpace to raise awareness on the importance of staying at home to limit the spread of COVID-19. The video and the song reflect a patriotic and nationalistic feel and convey the message of “staying at home is a national duty” with an upbeat yet serious rhythm.
Educating the public & spreading awareness Due to COVID-19 and the lockdown imposed by the State of Qatar to flatten the curve of the pandemic, Commercial Bank took its operations digital more than ever. The Marketing Department went even further by strengthening its social media and digital presence. In addition to launching a set of digital products and services that granted customers access to their banking needs from home, CB took to social media with employee-led videos under the hashtag #Qatar_is_Calling_StayHome, offering stepby-step, multi-lingual guidance to all customers. The communications covered general health and government advice, new branch guidance, mobile options for SMEs and corporate customers, and retail digital services ranging from international transfers to mobile app contactless and school-fee payments, and more. The bank left no social stone unturned in the quest to ensure that its customers stayed healthy, informed and empowered – but not overwhelmed – in six languages. As a result, the bank has seen the greatest rate of engagement, number of posts and fan growth rates on its social channels in comparison to other banks. To crown its unparalleled efforts and success, Commercial Bank received the “Best in Social Media Marketing and Services” award from Global Finance, Middle East.
Sports, health, & fitness At Commercial Bank, our people are our greatest asset, and we are committed to investing in their wellbeing. Improving the nation’s health is also one of the most important parts of the human development pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030, and we promote sports and wellness activities for our staff
Our continual investment in technology and people, together with our strong capital base, provides a solid foundation for further growth. Commercial Bank has a robust financial position, with total assets of QAR 153.6 billion as at 31 December 2020 and a capital adequacy ratio of 17.8%. The Bank enjoys strong credit ratings of (A3) from Moody’s, (A) from Fitch, and (BBB+) from Standard & Poor’s. True to our pioneering origins and history of success, we are dedicated to supporting Qatar’s economic development and social infrastructure through Corporate Social Responsibility programmes and sponsorship of various events which help to raise Qatar’s profile internationally.
Innovation Changing the Face of Banking Though Commercial Bank has always strived to stay ahead of the curve in digital innovation, COVID-19 has accelerated its momentum and has changed the scope of how people bank and use digital services. Commercial Bank took digital leadership to a totally new level, as the Bank played a major role in
Commercial Bank team pushes the boundaries of excellence, in a digital, yet very personal way.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Since its inception over forty-five years ago, Commercial Bank has been committed to supporting Qatar’s national development by giving back to the wider community through a comprehensive range of meaningful corporate social responsibility programmes formulated and implemented by the bank’s Marketing Department. As part of Commercial Bank CSR, and given the precautionary measures imposed by the State, the bank launched a donation campaign among its employees, whereby every employee donated the amount of a food box that contains dates, rice, and other essential foods during the holy month of Ramadan. The aim of this campaign was for everybody to participate and take part in the bank’s CSR agenda by helping impoverished families amidst these tough times. The participation of the bank’s employees in this campaign during Ramadan reflects a commitment to the “one bank, one team” culture.
not only during National Sports Day but throughout the year, advertising the message that sport and physical exercise perform a vital function for the community, promoting active and healthy lifestyles and cultivating values of dedication, teamwork, competition and good sportsmanship. Commercial Bank remains committed to enhancing Qatar’s sporting reputation by bringing the best international competitors to Qatar annually for a golf tournament that attracts a global audience. As a result of this commitment, the Bank and Qatar Golf Association (QGA) have signed a three-year sponsorship agreement to host the Qatar Masters Golf Tournament. With this agreement, Commercial Bank will continue to be the official Title Sponsor for QGA’s Qatar Masters Golf tournament until 2022. We are proud of being the title sponsor of Qatar Masters 2021 for the 16th year in a row which is a source of pride for Commercial Bank. It is the live proof of the bank’s keenness on playing an active role in spreading awareness to the public in the field sport. In the same context, Commercial Bank entered a partnership agreement with Education City Golf Club (ECGC) to help develop the next generation of golfers in Qatar. Two key initiatives of the partnership were set to develop golf programmes for the youth and lady golfers. Commercial Bank also introduced over 100 new women to golf in the private coaching area at Education City Golf Club. The aim is to encourage healthy participation in sport and develop a community of women golfers in Qatar. In 2020, Commercial Bank and Al Shaqab, member of Qatar Foundation, entered for the first time into a three-year partnership, making the largest private bank in Qatar the Title Sponsor of the country’s premier equestrian competition – CHI AL SHAQAB. In 2021, Commercial Bank CHI AL SHAQAB Presented by Longines took place from 25 to 27 February at the Longines Arena at Al Shaqab. The three-day event saw top-ranking local and international riders compete in the Olympic disciplines of showjumping, dressage, and para dressage. The bank’s sponsorship of the equestrian event reflects its commitment to supporting and promoting Qatar’s heritage and legacy. Everything is possible In conclusion, these successes and longstanding achievements praise Commercial Bank as being steadfast and a constant driver to the economic growth and prosperity in the State of Qatar. Despite the current conditions in the country, Qatar and its institutions are proof positive that “everything is possible.”
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Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
How pandemic propelled cloud computing adoption I
n a matter of weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended global business. From local insurance agencies to multinational corporations, companies around the world have had to scramble to continue operations with their employees working remotely from home. Even without the pandemic, cloud-based tools were surging in popularity; now the demand has skyrocketed. According to a JPMorgan report, video-conferencing tool Zoom has seen its daily usage rise by more than 300% from before the pandemic. And on March 18, Microsoft announced that its collaboration tool Teams added 12 million daily users just that week, bringing the total to 44 million. This transition to remote work on such a massive scale would not have been possible in the server-led infrastructure of 15 to 20 years ago. Put simply, without today’s prevalence of cloud computing, remote system access, and video conferencing capabilities, most white-collar workers would not be able to work from home. And if we didn’t have this remote workability, the economy would grind to a complete halt – producing a disruption on a scale not seen since the Great Depression. As it is, service industries including hospitality, travel, and entertainment are bearing the brunt of the financial impact of the stay-at-home orders since they largely do not have remote work as a viable option. Cloud computing, known for its flexibility, reliability, and security, has emerged as one of the few saving graces for businesses during this pandemic. Its use is critical for companies to maintain operations, but even more critical for their ability to continue to service their customers. However, many organizations have lost sight of the original purpose of the cloud, and are therefore failing to fully harness its potential.
Resetting the compass In 1999, Marc Benioff founded Salesforce, pioneering cloud computing with its software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. This was launched as a fully public cloud, a model that Salesforce has driven from the industry’s infancy. More than 20 years later, it’s clear we’ve strayed from Benioff’s original vision. Often, when companies discuss the cloud today, they’re referring to a hybrid public-private model they’ve adopted to balance their concerns about security breaches with their desire to reap the benefits of running some enterprises through a public cloud vendor.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO
Institutional heritage and the “this is the way it’s always been done” mindset can drive the desire to operate a hybrid cloud or even maintain some on-premises software. Internal control can also be a factor, as organizations might not want to adopt a cloud vendor’s scheduled maintenance and upgrades. Those arguments fail to recognize the benefits of a fully integrated cloud model and the risks of separating operations via a hybrid cloud model. Within a full cloud, operations are streamlined among all teams — support, professional services, and security — leading to less redundancy of tasks and greater overall efficiency.
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Multiple providers can deliver different levels of services, leading to differing outcomes within cloud and on-premises operations. If a vendor operates some of an organization’s cloud services but not others, that organization could have different versions of software running, creating an inconsistency between its operations. Private clouds might not be in sync with public clouds.
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Security levels could also vary across hybrid clouds and onpremises software, leaving operations open to risk if similar protocols cannot be integrated across the board. (It’s worth noting that a 2019 Gartner report predicted that through 2020, 95% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault.)
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Now is the optimal time to fully commit to cloud computing
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Overall, cloud computing is on the rise, with the majority of business leaders citing security and data protection as the prime motivating factor, according to a March 2020 Deloitte Insights report. Still, the majority of companies have not adopted a purely public cloud model. Ninety-four percent of respondents in the 2019 State of the Cloud Report from Flexera use the cloud, but only 31% of enterprises characterized the public cloud as a top priority. The report also found that 84% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy, and those with a hybrid strategy (public and private) grew from 51% in 2018 to 58% in 2019. The good news is that Gartner predicts that by 2022, up to 60% of organizations will be using an external cloud. That same 2019 survey projected the public cloud service market will grow 17% worldwide in 2020 to reach $266.4 billion (up from $227.8 billion last year). Actual growth is certain to be higher, as more and more businesses around the world have been forced to move operations off-sight due to the pandemic.
Moving forward The world will eventually emerge from this period of remote work, but the way we do business will forever be transformed. We have a unique opportunity to consider how cloud apps are allowing us to operate our businesses in this environment of large-scale remote work, and how they may continue to provide workplace innovation in the future — as disruptive events (such as WWII) often lead to permanent changes in the business landscape. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 2017 to 2018, only 29% of American workers could work from home. After this pandemic, will workers who’ve adapted to remote work want to return to working in an office — and will their employers want them to? The COVID-19 pandemic may give the business the jolt it needs to move cloud computing integration back to the magnetic north set by Benioff two decades ago. Courtesy: nintex
Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
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Focus Softnet: Driving Qatar’s Digital Transformation
Since 2005
T
he COVID 19 pandemic has forced businesses across the globe to utilize their digital prowess to drive and sustain their operations. The pandemic has helped permeate digitalization of not just the economy, but also governance, healthcare, education, social and even spiritual domains. Today, no business can thrive without getting on to the digital highway and adopting appropriate technologies at multiple levels both within and outside the organization.
At the peak of the pandemic, Qatar was ranked first in the world on the mobile Internet speed index. This speaks volumes of the foresight and investments made on digital infrastructure by the country’s leadership. With the rollout of 5G and highest Internet penetrations across the population, the ICT in Qatar is poised for robust growth by enhancing the customer experiences through digital transformation. The successful management of the pandemic by leveraging technologies to track and control the spread of infection among the communities in Qatar is yet another example of harnessing the digital power. Digitalization also proved to be a game-changer in communication. It ensured seamless connectivity and continuous flow of information not only in the business sector, but also from the social perspective. With the advent of Cloud and large technology players opening local data centers, there will be a
marked drop in the total cost of ownership making digital enablement even more affordable for businesses in Qatar. This coupled with the FIFA World Cup, that is just around the corner, companies would need to optimize their efficiency levels automating their last mile delivery in their digital value chain. Focus Softnet has been a leading player in Qatar’s digital landscape since 2005, supporting SMEs, enterprises, and business of all sizes to successfully adopt and employ digital transformation. Focus
Softnet offers a suite of solutions and services that help automate the business processes for a variety of industries and verticals. Our applications are tailored for the unique, industry specific needs of our clients and are primed to integrate operations in all departments and business divisions, enabling organization-wide data unification and smooth flow of operations. All our ERP and CRM solutions are an outcome of decades of research and collaboration with industry leaders and experts. Rather than pushing standard systems with the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, we prefer to listen to what our clients have to say and tailor our modular applications based on their requirements. We also allow our clients to cherry pick the modules they need, so that they do not have to burden themselves with unwanted modules. All of this plays a vital role in
simplifying complex business processes and reducing costs substantially, resulting in quick ROI. The solutions we provide cater to all major industries including real estate, automotive, wholesale distribution, education management, manufacturing, building & construction, retail management, warehousing & logistics, trade & services, marine engineering, cleaning solutions, laundry management, food & beverage, rental and services, field service management and waste management. Focus Softnet offers online web and mobile enabled solutions for ERP, CRM, HCM, WMS, MRP, CAFM, Real Estate, Auto and POS that are built on cutting edge technologies. The BI enabled applications provide data analytics and visualization tools that help managers to get a deeper insight into their operations and mitigate challenges better. The data slice-and-dice option arms the management team to analyze and convert any piece of data into meaningful information. AIFA (which stands for Artificially Intelligent Futuristic Applications) offers Natural Language Processing (NLP) enabled solutions that process large chunks of data through simple voice commands. Similarly, the face recognition technology could be utilized for predictive analysis as well as for contactless data capture for a large workforce. Apart from the Focus suite of solutions, AIFA could also be
Focus Softnet’s applications are tailored for the unique, industry specific needs of its clients and are primed to integrate operations in all departments and business divisions, enabling organization-wide data unification and smooth flow of operations. All its ERP and CRM solutions are an outcome of decades of research and collaboration with industry leaders and experts. integrated with any third-party legacy system to help augment redundancy and empower the decisionmaking process. The team at Focus Softnet is professionally qualified and brings with it many man-years of experience across different industry segments. With solid functional, technical and project management skillsets, the team can comply with stringent quality and budgeted timelines, ensuring a better ROI for the clients. The implementation and support services are closely monitored with automatic system driven escalations for any delay or deviations to ensure customer satisfaction. The support team is available both online and onsite to help the clients in troubleshooting of any bugs and issues.
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Digital Qatar
Special Supplement Wednesday, April 7, 2021
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) MARKET PLACE
need.qa: A new way to engage with buyers & sellers Perfect online platform for your business
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sellers and has custom made a solution addressing it all for more powered results. Need. qa is a bilingual, online, verified database which works just with a keyword search.
zeez Ahmed, a supplier of office desk and work station has been in business for over 9 years. Even though he never compromised on quality, creativity and functionality, he had very little luck on scaling up. In fact the very issue was he didn’t have client visibility and the reach to those, who were looking for products at the level of quality and functionality that he was offering. On the other hand, Rehman Rashid owner of a fit-out contracting firm has an established business of setting up offices, with endto-end infrastructure offerings. His business caters to a clientele base spread across Middle East, USA and UK. He leans on multiple suppliers to address his sourcing requirements, who just meets his needs without any leverage on consolidated spend benefits or demand supply gap management. If they cross path Azeez Ahmed and Rehman Rashid are a perfect Supplier and Buyer duo, currently being oblivious of each other, while still searching for each other!
“They not collaborating with each other is not just a loss limited to them, but for the business community as well, as they can set high benchmark and generate more transactions thereby directly and indirectly impacting the business life
Bridging the gap with “keywords” irrespective of product, service, brand or industry.
and results of many related enterprises!”
The Bridge-Maker Need.qa is the solution which
automatically will sense such hidden-but-sure-shot needs, brings them together, enhancing their reach, productivity and growth with maximum efficiency. “Need” was born out of sensing such vacuums and analyzing the market dynamics and potential. There are more than 75,000 companies in Qatar and majority still have offline sales in traditional patterns. Qatar is poised for growth and authorities
are looking to improve capacity and diversification of services by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). A strong and efficient Peer-To-Peer (P2P) marketplace will boost local business and help grow SMEs. Need.qa is an online platform where suppliers and buyers can meet at the click of a button. It is English-Arabic enabled for deeper participation and engagement.
The Bridge If we wait for Azeez and Rehman to meet and do business together, they might even never come to know of each other, in
the first place. Existing model requires individual circulation of business requirement and that is effort and time consuming. After 2 or 3 attempts, it may be aborted, and stakeholders may settle for whatever is available! To do this, Rashid & Ahmed may require 2/3 staff, to full time work only on this. Published data bases often give unverified data or inaccurate real time data, which is all the more time consuming and yielding extremely low return for businesses. Offline sellers are nowhere in picture in these online platforms too. Need.qa has analyzed all these problems common to both buyers and
A buyer can raise a business requirement free of cost. Sellers need to opt for a subscription model on usage volume or time, which is extremely economical. Buyers’ business requirement will be shared with verified, registered sellers by Need.qa. And suppliers directly share their quotes with buyers within 2-3 days. Effort and time saved is humungous. Also, this brings even international players with ease into Qatar’s business arena. Current information services to meet up business requirements is either effort intensive, costly or unverified data dumps. Need. qa is unique with verified data base and finding solution for any
Current path vs www.need.qa
business requirement becomes just an additional task versus a full time job for an employee. Need. qa has been tested by business owners, academicians and domain specialists and received good reviews in ease of use and functionality.
Adoption of need.qa will substantially impact, time, effort, savings and help enterprises focus on other business functions vs closing business requirements, which was an operation with considerable effort and investment of time and money.need.qa addresses a huge business gap and gives considerable collateral advantages too. need.qa will facilitate people like Azeez and Rehman, to collaborate in business happily ever after on real time, click of a button!