The awards organized by the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute, to highlight the best examples of ICT planning and implementation by business and government organizations from the Middle East.
The Middle East ICT Excellence Awards had been launched to reward organizations and key personalities across the Middle East approaching ICT in outstanding and innovative ways, benefiting their whole community and providing excellent solutions to the complex problems using advance IT strategies. Award winners were highlighted for their innovative customer centric solutions and services that really make a difference to people in the region.
Speaking about the awards, Ali Al Kamali, Chairman, Middle East Excellence Awards Institute said, “By recognizing the outstanding players in regional IT landscape, the awards aim to create the real shift in mindset of the region to come out and take benefits from ICT for the betterment of the region. There are many innovative services being provided across the public sectors which very often do not get the publicity and reward that they deserve. The awards will promote a greater sense of achievement amongst regional stakeholders of e-Government and ICT.”
This year’s winners were awarded in these categories:
Middle East eService of the Year
Winner: DUBAI NATURALIZATION AND RESIDENCY DEPARTMENT
This award recognized the organizations that used the latest information technology to provide innovative eServices.
Department of Naturalization and Residency, Dubai was presented with the award for providing smart government and business applications which claim obvious benefits to the citizens and businesses. The services provided cost efficient for both the customer and the organization and also reduce service time and unwanted processes and other redundancies.
Middle East eBusiness Portal of the Year
Winner: AIR ARABIA
This award recognized an eBusiness portal that offered multiple online services as a one stop shop to its customers.
Air Arabia was presented the award for its portal which can serve as a role model for other regional organizations - providing an example of a vibrant, easy to use, informative, and transactional site serving the needs of the business organization. Judges appreciated the portal’s ease of contact and responsiveness, management of requests and complaints from businesses, refund policy & privacy practices published on the portal or website.
Middle East ICT Partner of the Year
Winners: CISCO, INTEL
This award recognized the ICT company operating in the Middle East that had successfully supported regional e-Government and e-Business initiatives with its products, solutions or consultancy services.
Cisco Systems and Intel were presented with the award this year for their proven track record in implementing new and innovative portal solutions. These leading organizations showed the qualitative results which illustrated the extent and type of impact of its services on ICT initiatives in the region – e.g. improvements in the quality of life, business convenience, etc.
Middle East Print and Electronic Media of the Year - (Print)
Winner: AL RIYADH NEWSPAPER
This Middle East Print and Electronic Media of the Year Award honored media organizations that had successfully served their audience maximized the impact of the media through their extensive coverage and represented the highest media standards.
Al Riyadh Newspaper was presented with the award in the print category for its excellence of content, community reach creativity, effectiveness.
Middle East Print and Electronic Media of the Year - (Business Portal)
Winner: AME INFO
This category honored achievement in the combined use of audio / visual techniques, design, and multimedia, to tell a story and serve citizens, government and business alike.
AME Info was presented with the award in the business portal category for its role as a media organization and its track record in service, providing strong daily news coverage, live updates, commercial opportunities, and interactivity.
Middle East ICT Project of the Year
Winner: HR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - MINISTRY OF CIVIL SERVICE OMAN
The award honors the successful ICT Project in the region that offers fully transactional services to the customers
HR Management System - Ministry Of Civil Service Oman met its goal by providing most user friendly and sophisticated services and practices. It created the real model for the regional eGovernment projects to move further to meet the global standards
Middle East IT Manager of the Year
Winner: ENGR. ABDULLA AWAD AL TURAIFI, Head of the IT Department, Crown Prince Diwan - KSA
The award focuses on the role played by the IT manager within the organization towards and in undertaking IT strategies, programs and projects that will, in the long run, assist in the sustainable build up of successful business operations for the benefit of the organization and its customers.
Engr. Abdulla Awad Al Turaifi was presented with the award in order to recognize and celebrate his accomplishments in actively and consistently demonstrated initiative, support, creativity, commitment and leadership to ICT and in efficiently using ICT for achieving optimum business results.
The award winners were honored during an elegant ceremony with Ambassadors, Diplomats, Top Designation Executives and Managers from regional IT organizations in attendance.
Quelle/Source: Strategiy, 22.05.2006
