In Riyadh only for a few hours to attend the Kingdom’s E-Transactions conference, Alawi Baharoon looks remarkably relaxed for a man who has been keeping himself busy over the past several years in a project that has the capability to revolutionize local government in the country. But Baharoon is under no illusions about what the project involves, and the work that is still required to push Al Medinah into the information age. As he himself puts it, “we have taken small steps on a long journey. This vision was developed in 1421, six years ago, by the city’s local government to convert Al Medinah into a knowledge based society. Typically when you start with any initiative you start from a vision. In Al Medinah there is a strong concept of where they want to be, and the government recognized early enough that there is a need to come up with a programme that will enable Al Medinah to develop an economy based on long-term sustainable development rather than ad-hoc projects that will not achieve the maximum benefit for the city’s people and businesses.”
The region of Al-Medinah, located in the northwestern part of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, covers significant industrial interests including the port of Yanbu which comprises an industrial zone of 400 square kilometers and refineries that terminate oil pipelines from the east with the capability to export five million barrels of crude oil daily. With such resources on hand, any project to develop the region’s potential, both economically and in terms of its human resources, was never going to any simple, short-term feat.
At the heart of the Al Medinah initiative is to utilize the resources of the region in a more productive manner, to make best use of the city’s population and to build on today’s technology to empower people rather than hinder them. “Al Medinah’s aim is to become a knowledge society in 21 years, or what we refer to as a triple seven; to achieve local excellence in seven years, regional expertise in seven years, and international skills in seven years.”
So where do you start, how do you build a smart city from the ground up? Unsurprisingly, the answer doesn’t initially lie in technology adoption, but rather understanding the community and mapping its requirements. “We developed studies and research examining the readiness of the government’s local agencies, numbering approximately 60, on how they ready are they for the digital knowledge transformation and other various e-government initiatives. We came up with a readiness guide for each of those agencies plus strategies for implementation. The number of deliverables exceeded 103 thousand pages of reports and strategies. What our people did was spend time with people, both in the government, in businesses, and also end-users, to understand the real gap in technology, in human resources, and also in business for each of those agencies,” said Baharoon.
Moving beyond the initial studies, IV sat the government and its various agencies down to discuss ways to move forward, and which areas they both should focus on in terms of digital transformation. “What do you do with research? You draw conclusions. So we drew up a digital economy programme workshop and grand strategy, and brought in people from 100 different ministries, agencies, and businesses, both local and national, as well as international subject matter experts in different areas. IV presented the grand strategy in different areas, but essentially how Al Medinah can get to where it wants to be in that 21 year timeframe. We asked what are the areas that the region is relatively strong in, and we defined several areas to focus on, such as mining agriculture, and manufacturing – Yanbu is the second largest industrial and manufacturing complex in Saudi. Finally, with the advice of international experts, we are drilled down in these areas to focus on making long-term improvements to these industries and their work flows.”
Baharoon and his team also began to look at ways to simplify their own business processes, by dividing the workload into what he refers to as workable pieces, covering areas such as training, content digitization, e-solution development, internet connectivity, and process engineering for the city’s 60 agencies. Possibly the most sensitive in terms of user acceptance was the aim of integrating the various governmental agencies in preparation for future phases of the project. “The e-government development project aims to take all the agencies in the region, integrate them, develop them and make them capable of providing the right services for a knowledge society both for individuals, businesses and other branches of the government. We started this track in tandem with another track, the digital economy development programme, under which we committed to Al Medinah to develop certain services and companies that will provide e-services.”
Stopping by the Al Medinah’s exhibition at the E-Transactions forum, it’s apparent that Baharoon’s words are more than just talk (ed: unlike many executives in the IT industry). Demonstrating some of the 396 services that are now in use today thanks to its stellar work, IV’s team were among the highlights of the E-Transactions event. Also on display was footage of the 36 service centres based in strategic locations in Medinah city and in Yanbu. IV has also finished work on a mobile service centre, what Baharoon calls an e-services provider, to provide vital functions in remote areas. “This is part of the progress in the last 12 months on the digital economy pre-services part of the programme, and we now provide services such as driver license renewal from remote areas. The demo you saw at the conference was from a remote area out of mobile coverage, so we used VSAT to provide services from a mobile e-services station,” added Baharoon.
Also on the agenda of the conference were details on some of the 30 mega projects that both IV and Al Medinah are working to achieve, in support of the smart city concept. The one thread which runs through all of IV’s work in the area is a very strong focus on Saudi Arabia’s greatest resource – its people. “There is a focus on education and training for specific industrial areas. Our role is to develop strategies with subject matter experts, both local and international, develop specific projects that will support those strategies and develop specific companies that will deliver services to support the programme in partnership with the region.”
What he cites as the most important part of the project, IV’s educational efforts have had a profound effect on the city’s governmental agencies and allowed the project to progress beyond any political obstacles. “The project is difficult as it’s new, it is a first in the Kingdom. To a certain extent our studies and strategies process created a strong buy in from members of the government agencies in Medina. This phase involved interaction with the government agencies and training workshops, which benefited us just as much as them. When you involve people in a process, you gain their trust and confidence. So any negative perceptions immediately became positive when we started rolling out our training sessions.”
“We now have 10,000 seats of training at all levels, for both government officials as well as citizens of Al Medinah. That is a positive way of managing change. I always say that training is the most powerful tool to manage change. We are planning to involve all stakeholders in process reengineering to define their roles and objectives, define the business vision of each of these departments, refine the mission of that department by involving the employees of that agency plus other stakeholders. In effect, we are bringing them together around the same table and creating buy in from them as well as interest in what we are doing. There are multiple dimensions to this, but it all centres around enhancing the human capital of the agencies,” explained Baharoon.
Another area which IV has been working to improve is the actual efficiency of these agencies, through a complete reappraisal of their business processes. By being in-situ and experiencing the working habits of these departments, IV’s experts not only understand the workings of the various departments intimately, but they can also plot out workable paths to digital transformation. “We now know the processes in these agencies and we have started making enhancements to them. This is our second main aim as of today that of transformation through process reengineering across the 60 agencies. But looking down the line, imagine how much that will enhance the future e-services which will be provided to the Al Medinah region. The power of this project is integration.”
Maybe unsurprisingly given the size of the project and its revolutionary nature, there have been hiccups along the way. However, Baharoon is confident that the momentum will keep everything on track. “I think we have achieved some good results in some areas, while we have slowed down in other aspects. We are evaluating the whole process now with the government of Al Medinah, we are learning from what happened over the last fifteen months of active progress, and we are trying not to repeat our mistakes. IV will leverage more from its strengths, try to capitalize on them and manage any failure and weaknesses with cooperation from clients and partners in region. But one thing we did notice was that e-services have done a good job in keeping up our drive on the project. E-services continues to grow, the number of e-service centres has grown from 10 to 36, and 20 other centres will be on-line soon. When people see tangible results, when they see that a person from a remote area can renew his driving license or get his electricity bills paid, they feel the results of the project and they demand more.”
Despite being launched years back, the Al Medinah project still has not been duplicated in other cities. We asked Baharoon what could be achieved if IV’s work was replicated in other regions: “I believe that the Al Medinah model could be one of the key factors in eliminating the psychological barrier that stands in the way of the Kingdom’s knowledge transformation. The local government of Al Medinah has proved that the project is not just workable, but that it can be a major success.”
“It is time for the central government to look into similar or modified models, replicate them all over the country and come up with a comprehensive programme built on regional models that are fully integrated and managed from the centre of the country. All the success stories in Europe and Far East, especially in Malaysia, point clearly at strong regional long-term development. Imagine if you have 13 regions competing against each other to achieve results and improve performance. That positive competition across the country will drive performance across the entire government, and provide the means for business to thrive. Saudi Arabia would achieve GDP enhancement very fast in non-oil related industries, as well as empowering citizens. It is now time to think nationally for Saudi Arabia to benefit from what has done and been achieved in Al Medinah.”
Baharoon’s own advice to the government is stark – get the foundations laid for technology transformation, the sooner the better. But he warns officials to look at the big picture of bringing the entire government online rather than focusing on one single region or one single ministry. “Put simply, an e-transaction does not recognize whether it is related to healthcare, banking, education, commerce or any other sector. Technology will recognize a transaction from point a to point b, and that’s it. Unless we look into that fundamental element of the big picture, then it will be difficult to realize how important it is to come up with one integrated solution that can deliver multiple services for one body, say the government of Saudi Arabia.”
“If the government wants to deliver integrated services then it has to look into everything as one, to integrate process together, and pass the job on to not only technically sound providers but also those who are working in these industries to integrate their knowledge and gain their buy-in. Unless we achieve that and understand that then clients and providers will come up with solutions that are conflicting in structure, that are conflicting with the vision of the users, and the processes of government agencies. So technology is one element, and I think it is the easiest to fix in terms of what needs to be done. The most important aspect of any work is the grand vision, the foresight of a government that wants change, which wants to realize their objectives, and appreciates that a holistic approach to development and e-government is most suited to realizing the change. Everything beyond that is manageable, including the IT.”
And what has Baharoon himself learnt from Al Medinah? How has he benefited from the scheme to create the Kingdom’s first smart city? “I think IV has made some positive steps. It is time to share whatever we have achieved with other clients, and with other players. We learnt a key conclusion, that when you stand behind your commitment and you have faith in what you are doing, then you will gain support from both the government, businesses and society in general. I am saying to my colleagues in the industry, don’t think short-term. Don’t be scared to be honest and believe what you are doing. Try to do something that will bring long lasting results for society and yourself. You can only be a winner if you do it right and with honesty,” concluded Baharoon.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Alex Malouf
Quelle/Source: It-Arabia, 30.10.2007
