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NEWS
ADNOC AND GROUP 42 LAUNCH AI JOINT VENTURE COMPANY AIQ
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has announced the launch of AIQ, its Artificial Intelligence (AI) joint venture (JV) company with Group 42 (G42), an Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud computing company.
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The completion of the formation of AIQ follows the signing of the JV agreement between ADNOC and G42 in November 2019 with ADNOC holding a 60-percent stake and G42 a 40-percent stake in AIQ.
AIQ will focus on developing and commercialising AI products and applications for the oil and gas industry. The partnership brings together G42’s expertise in AI modeling, supercomputing and its world-class team of data scientists and software engineers with ADNOC’s world-class oil and gas industry know-how, domain experts and its vast amount of data.
The Chairman of the AIQ Board of Directors is Abdulmunim Saif Al Kindy TEZOS BLOCKCHAIN RECEIVES SHARIAH CERTIFICATION Tezos Gulf was established to foster ecosystem development in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the Tezos network, an open-source public blockchain for assets and applications. In accordance with that mission, Tezos Gulf has announced the assignment of Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) as its Sharia Advisor.
Shariyah Review Bureau has reviewed the Tezos blockchain’s governance mechanism, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, (ADNOC), with Peng Xiao (G42) Mansoor Ibrahim AlMansoori (G42), Ahmed Al Kuttab (ADNOC) and Alan Nelson (ADNOC) being appointed as Board members.
ADNOC’s partnership with G42 represents one of several digital transformation initiatives to embed cutting-edge technology across its entire value chain. Other digital initiatives include its AI and big data-driven “Panorama Digital Command Center,” its smart data analytics “Thamama Subsurface Collaboration Center,” its use of big data modelling tools for value chain optimisation, computer vision technologies, predictive maintenance machine learning technologies and use of blockchain for hydrocarbon accounting.
Dr. Alan Nelson, ADNOC Group Chief Technology Officer, said, “We are excited about the launch of our AI joint venture with G42 as it enables us to accelerate ADNOC’s adoption of advanced technologies and further digitalise our value chain to enhance efficiencies, performance and agility. The joint venture is testament to ADNOC’s drive to partner with local technology players to help grow the UAE’s innovation ecosystem and to drive long-term and sustainable value for the nation.” and formal verification techniques and issued a Sharia certificate marking the platform’s compliance with Sharia principles.
Tezos’ platform is backed by a global community of validators, researchers and builders. It is considered one of the first pure proof-of-stake blockchains. The Tezos blockchain has been utilised by numerous issuers of digital securities but mostly on the conventional side of the financial market.
“The engagement marks Tezos first step in promoting our open-source protocol to Islamic financial institutions in the GCC and South-Asia pacific region,” said Waleed Rassuli, Head of Tezos Gulf. “We see potential for Islamic financial institutions seeking to explore blockchainbased options for digital securities issuers and who also wish to issue securities on a platform that is compatible with the Sharia compliance ecosystem. We hope our blockchain will foster a vibrant version of the digital asset-class which will move the Islamic industry forward.”
Peng Xiao, Group CEO, G42, said, “This partnership with ADNOC offers the potential to create the AI tools for the oil and gas industry of tomorrow and we look forward to leveraging our state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure and specialised team of AI experts to help develop these new cuttingedge solutions. The use of AI, combined with G42’s supercomputing capabilities, as well as ADNOC’s industrial expertise and breadth of data, will unlock efficiencies across the entire value chain, inspiring new approaches to exploration, production, transportation, processing, distributions and sales.”
AIQ has started work on a number of key AI projects across the oil and gas value chain such as drilling performance, reservoir modelling, corrosion detection, and product quality. The scope of projects will be expanded to other areas as the JV
progresses.
The Sharia certification was conducted by Shariyah Review Bureau, a global leader in providing product Sharia certification, investment advice in light of Sharia standards and Sharia audit services. As a trusted partner, Shariyah Review Bureau is recognised by major national and international financial institutions which it has been serving for over 15 years.
Shariyah Review Bureau provides endto-end Sharia advisory solutions to banks, insurance firms and asset managers around the world. Over the last few years, it has been actively advising and certifying entities and their offerings in the blockchain and fintech sector. SRB’s services are centrally deployed, and offer Sharia supervision, functionality, and quick turnaround in product certification. This has become an attractive option for fintech establishments. In addition to reducing Sharia scholarly overheads, this approach helps clients centralise their firm’s Sharia certification and Sharia audit administrative and operational tasks.
UAE TO SPEND $73 MILLION ON AI IN 2020
The UAE is set to spend $73 million on artificial intelligence (AI) systems in 2020, the highest in the Middle East, boosted by the UAE government’s digital innovation drive, industry experts announced recently.
Thanks in part to the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, AI is being embedded into every sector – from The National Information Technology (NIT) Academy and global technology company SAP have to develop Saudi talent for the workforce of the future, supporting Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.
In this partnership, the NIT, a not-forprofit training institute, has joined SAP’s flagship digital skill build initiative, the Young Professional Program, as part of its aim to provide Saudi nationals with advanced and accelerated training programs to develop a “job-ready” talent pool.
“Our strategic partnership with SAP through its Young Professional Program is supporting digital skills development, and bridging the gap between supply and demand of information and communication technology talent by
increasing job opportunities through training on the latest technologies for Saudi nationals,” said Majed Al-Ghassab, NIT Executive Director. “Through this initiative, Saudi talent will be empowered to meet the requirements of the current and future job market.” The NIT was established by four founding stakeholders: Saudi Aramco, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC), and Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC). Building on the success of the Young Professional Program in Saudi Arabia since its launch in late 2012, NIT is joining forces on the upcoming edition of the program in the Kingdom. The Young Professional Program is a three-month training and development opportunity for unemployed or underemployed local university graduates that teaches technical and functional knowledge of the latest technologies, along with soft and future skills. Participants graduate as SAP Certified government e-services and smart traffic, “The UAE’s government-led AI to the current healthcare environment, strategy is delivering major benefits to enforce lockdowns and support in e-services that can be accessed contact tracing. in the social distancing era, and help
As a result, the UAE’s AI spending on residents and businesses to save time AI systems is set to grow by 19.7 percent and money,” said Praj Calthorpe, Deputy from 2019, reaching $73 million in 2020, General Manager, Condo Protego. according to a recent report by IDC. The “Thanks to the strong results of the UAE AI spending leads the region and country’s AI deployments, Abu Dhabi accounts for about one-fifth of the total and Dubai are continuing to lead the in the Middle East and Africa, which is set Middle East in AI projects in Smart to reach USD 374 million in 2020. Cities.”
Abu Dhabi and Dubai have moved up in global Smart Cities rankings, now in the top 50 Smart Cities worldwide, and the highest in the Middle East and North Africa, according to The Institute for Management Development’s Smart City Index 2020.
Additional Emirates – Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain — are investing in smart government and Smart Cities plans to enhance daily lives.
As AI progresses from plans to implementations, the Smart Dubai AI Ethics Advisory Board recently convened to identify bias, to ensure fairness and data privacy, to bring accountability in explaining complex algorithms, and to highlight cybersecurity.
Still, successful AI projects need more than the high-level view – they also require knowledgeable and experienced channel partners. Partners should be aligned with technology vendors that are AI leaders and
NIT ACADEMY, SAP TO SUPPORT EMPLOYMENT IN SAUDI ARABIA’S ICT MARKET
Majed Al-Ghassab, NIT joined hands
have experience in deploying AI projects. Associate Consultants with globally recognised certifications, ready to kickstart their careers within the company’s ecosystem of customers and partners.
With 77 percent of the world’s transaction revenue touching an SAP system, the program helps its participants to gain a competitive edge in the job market and at the same time it supports organisations to find sought after skilled talents to satisfy their hiring demand.
The upcoming program will be the first of its kind in the Kingdom, including training and certification in data science, along with analytics cloud and predictive analytics.
The Young Professional Program has become a global best practice that supports the immediate employability of young talents in technology through collaboration and partnerships.
The program has, since its launch in 2012, trained and graduated more than 2870 talents across 25 countries globally with over 580 from Saudi Arabia, therefore created sustainable work opportunities for the new digital economy.
ORACLE’S SECOND-GENERATION CLOUD REGION IN THE UAE GOES LIVE
Oracle has announced the availability of the first of two planned second-generation Cloud regions in the UAE. The addition of the Dubai Cloud region marks the availability of 26 Oracle Cloud Regions worldwide. The opening is part of Oracle’s aggressive plan to have 36 Cloud regions by July 2021. Located in Dubai, the new Cloud region will offer all Oracle Cloud services, including Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Cloud Applications.
“The contribution of digital economy to the UAE’s GDP stood at 4.3 per cent in 2019, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has set a target to double this contribution by enhancing the country’s digital readiness. Oracle’s second-generation cloud region in Dubai will help accelerate the digital transformation initiatives of organizations across the UAE’ government As part of its broader efforts to empower Emiratis, drive forward employee skilling in the H.E. Abdulla Ali Bin government and Zayed Al Falasi, DGHR achieve central goals of the Dubai Strategic Plan, the Dubai Government Human Resources Department (DGHR) has partnered with Microsoft, bringing together their respective skilling programmes. A virtual online ceremony saw an MoU signed by H.E. Abdulla Ali Bin Zayed Al Falasi, Director General of DGHR and Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE.
The Riyada program aims to empower the Emirati workforce and equip them with technical, behavioural and professional competencies. Microsoft will provide support under one of its pillars of its Tomoh Emiratization programme , which aligns well entities, large enterprise and SMEs, thus directly supporting the country’s economic vision,” said Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban, Senior Vice President, Technology, MEA & CEE, Oracle.
Etisalat, one of the leading telecommunication operators in emerging markets, is the telecom partner for the Oracle Cloud region in Dubai.
“With this strategic announcement, Etisalat will be part of Oracle’s growth path on bringing the next generation of cloud to the region. During this unprecedented period, global markets are looking at enhancing digital services availability and adding new capacities for businesses and the entire community. The partnership with Oracle further complements the existing in delivering central aspects of Riyada, offering internship and secondment opportunities at Microsoft to UAE nationals. The practical applications will include training and equipping Emiratis with worldwide on the job skills by shadowing professionals within Microsoft as well as offering them professional certification courses to accelerate their careers.
“This partnership with Microsoft is focused on delivering world-class training to enhance the performance of UAE institutions,” said H.E. Abdulla Ali Bin Zayed Al Falasi, Director General, DGHR. “We are confident that this agreement will serve to further elevate the Emirates as a global innovation center. The training and expertise provided to Emirati talent will enhance the skills of a future generation, cementing the UAE’s status as a diverse digital hub of creativity and innovation.”
“Our organisation is committed to supporting the UAE future vision of a digital nation. The Tomoh programme will equip Emirati youth with globally recognised skills capabilities of Etisalat which brings flexibility and availability for the private and public sector through the deployment of Oracle’s next generation of cloud services,” said Salvador Anglada, Group Chief Business Officer, Etisalat
Oracle has a unique dual region strategy that enables customers to deploy resilient applications in multiple geographies for disaster recovery and compliance requirements – without having sensitive data leave the country. Customers that want to run critical systems of record in the cloud need fully independent cloud regions for disaster recovery purposes with multiple sites in the same country to meet data residency requirements.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is a secondgeneration security platform, conceived and architected on security-first design principles. Innovations like isolated network virtualisation and pristine physical host deployment, enable customer isolation from other cloud tenants and from Oracle personnel as well as reduced risk from
advanced persistent threats. – a key pillar of the National Agenda and aligned to Vision 2021, thereby driving the nation’s digital transformation and global competitiveness,” said Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft UAE. “We seek to deepen our contribution to the Emirati community throughout the 21st century, by empowering the next generation of young talent.”
The Tomoh programme has been carefully designed based on research looking at the current and future needs of the UAE job market. It is aligned with the objective of deepening collaboration with Emiratisation initiatives and focused on three core pillars: ‘Learn at Microsoft’ – that offers internship and secondment opportunities to UAE nationals and involves learning of globally recognized skills. ‘Work at Microsoft’ – an opportunity for Emiratis to pursue careers at Microsoft, either through direct hiring of experienced Emirati professionals, or under the ‘Microsoft Aspire Experience’, designed for fresh graduates. And Skill-Up Digitally – that enrolls students, job seekers and entrepreneurs into a powerful digital skilling programme, enabled by the Microsoft Cloud Society.
SAUDI BUGSHAN COMPANY TRANSFORMS BUSINESS OPERATIONS WITH IBM CLOUD
Saudi Bugshan Company (SBC), in collaboration with its technology arm Brmaja Commercial Company (Brmaja), has selected IBM Cloud to host its IT infrastructure. This transition aims to support SBC’s business growth plans and meet its critical need for infrastructure performance and enterprise-grade security, while accelerating the company’s digital transformation.
SBC is the holding company of one of the largest conglomerates in the Middle East and North Africa region and has its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It comprises 47 companies in various sectors, including food and beverage, distribution and trading, healthcare, real estate, hospitality, education and automotive.
With its diversified portfolio of operations, SBC needed a secure and flexible cloud environment to be able to meet the requirements of each industry Global leader in robotic process automation (RPA) Automation Anywhere has announced AARI (Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface) – a smart digital assistant designed for a new era of work that brings consumer experiences to the enterprise.
Available via Automation Anywhere’s cloudnative RPA platform, Enterprise A2019, AARI makes it easy for anyone to participate in the automation of day-to-day business tasks, through business friendly user interfaces.
Like the popular digital assistants Siri and Alexa that have become ubiquitous in our personal lives, AARI provides an easy-touse, bot-to-human interface that oversees various business processes. AARI enables all users to further simplify everyday tasks, improve collaboration between teams, and provide best-in-class customer service – either on-premises or in the cloud. Now, every employee can participate in the it serves and address their unique set of challenges. As a result, it selected IBM Cloud for its interoperability and now has the flexibility to deploy and run different industry-specific solutions from IBM and other technology vendors, as and when the need arises.
As part of the agreement, Brmaja and IBM Services worked closely to consolidate and migrate SBC’s mission-critical workloads and overall IT infrastructure, which were running across multiple physical and cloud environments, to a single IBM cloud. Today, SBC does not only benefit from enhanced business continuity and uninterrupted operations but is also able to rapidly meet its computing resources demands, without having to invest in additional hardware or physical infrastructure. automation economy from the device or application of their choice – from data lookups across multiple systems to complex escalation scenarios.
AARI represents a dramatic departure from any other automation technology available today by simplifying tasks, like reporting and staying on top of urgent requests, collaborating with colleagues, apps and bots, automating escalations and approvals to speed up requests, as well as increasing customer satisfaction with a faster call resolution.
“AARI completes our vision to ‘automate automations’ by creating a digital assistant for the new era of work – enabling anyone to automate from anywhere at any time
Dr. Hatem Bakheet, Group CEO of Brmaja, said, “To address the ever changing needs of the industries in which SBC operates, Brmaja and IBM joined forces to transform the company’s IT landscape and enable it to benefit from a secure and flexible cloud environment.”
Increased regulatory and compliance requirements are driving the need for improved security and resiliency. Through its cloud adoption as well as IBM and Brmaja’s support, SBC now benefits from market leading data and app protection and open source innovations to some of the world’s largest and most enterprises as they protect sensitive data. IBM Cloud also offers access to higher value technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Thing (IoT), allowing SBC to build and develop new innovative cloud-native applications and solutions to support its business.
Tarek Zarg Al Aioun, Country General Manager, IBM Saudi Arabia, said, “SBC’s adoption of IBM Cloud to harness its true potential is a testament to the company’s commitment to innovation and to lead the
AUTOMATION ANYWHERE UNVEILS THE FIRST DIGITAL ASSISTANT AT WORK
market by example.” with a simple interface that can manage automations,” said Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-founder, Automation Anywhere. “This technology democratises RPA so that anyone in an organisation can participate in the automation process, moving humanity closer to the full promise of a digital workforce where enabled by bots, we can achieve more than it was ever possible before.”
AARI will further democratise RPA in the enterprise by empowering every employee to trigger and interact with bots from any app, anytime, anywhere. When combined with Automation Anywhere’s Discovery Bot – the company’s integrated process discovery solution with auto-creation of bots – AARI increases the ability for all users to participate in automation, resulting in faster business outcomes, lower operating costs, and better employee experience.
AARI is available worldwide with pricing starting at $35 per user per month. Other platform components must be purchased separately.
ELITSER TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES NEW BRAND IDENTITY
Elitser Technologies (Elitser), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company has unveiled its new logo and announced a new corporate brand identity – right from the company website, social media platforms and messaging; signifying its evolution and enthusiasm to grow in the digital era.
This marks a significant milestone in the company’s journey, providing an opportunity to reflect on everything that the original Elitser brand stood for and everything that it now aspires to become as the solutions provider moves forward into an exciting future.
Jignasu Rathod, CEO, Elitser Technologies, said, “It is not just our logo that has changed.
We’ve transformed our website, our social media, our messaging and our focus to better reflect the way we help our clients to be more effective with their IT modernisation, transformation initiatives and success measurements.”
The new logo represents the way Elitser delivers its end-to-end solutions and services to its enterprise clients across industries by integrating technologies and domain expertise.
Each color in the logo represent ideas, insights, technologies, industries and geographies. The arrow between the colors symbolises Elitser’s commitment to deliver integrated solutions to various industries across different geographies. The black color text creates a sense of power, authority and sophistication.
Along with the new identity, Elitser has also rearticulated its core values: Respect Everybody, Work with Honesty & Integrity, Deliver Quality, Adopt Change and Learn & Share the knowledge.
Rathod added, “Our mission is a refined version of what we have always known best about ourselves: ‘To evolve into a leading IT company providing cutting edge solutions to our clients by integrating technologies, practicality and aesthetics’.”
Since its inception in 2003, Elitser has experienced tremendous growth. The company became a trusted partner of global top-notch software vendors in the ITSM and Infrastructure Management software space and a leader in providing solutions and services for its esteemed clients.
“Our approach of providing consultingled strategies and technology-led solutions have enabled our enterprise-level customers to direct their IT transformation initiatives towards business agility, innovation and growth,” Rathod said. “Behind the new look we are still the same company and same team, dedicated to providing you the best possible services and solutions. We’re incredibly proud of the work that we do at Elitser and thankful to our dedicated employees, committed partnerships and satisfied clients that have accompanied us in our growth story.”
With a fresh new corporate identity, Elitser Technologies aims to continue its campaign and growth to be a preeminent provider of IT solutions and services to global clientele.
MCAFEE ANNOUNCES SAAS-BASED SUITES
Kathleen Curry, McAfee
McAfee has announced the expansion of its MVISION portfolio with three all-inone software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution offerings – McAfee
Device-to-Cloud suites. These suites are designed for customers who are adopting a cloud first stance and desire a simplified portfolio approach for device-to-cloud protection.
Available immediately, all three suites include McAfee MVISION Insights, the industry’s first proactive and actionable threat posture capability that prioritises risk, predicts the success of countermeasures and prescribes remedial actions, said the firm. The solutions will be showcased as part of MPOWER Digital 2020, McAfee’s free, virtual event taking place October 29 through November 13.
McAfee Device-to-Cloud suite options include: • MVISION Advanced: Proactive endpoint threat prevention that includes next-gen defense mechanisms and rollback remediation to protect against ransomware and other advanced malware. • MVISION Premium: Comprehensive endpoint and data protection, with
AI-powered Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Data Loss
Prevention (DLP Endpoint), to more completely defend devices and data from advanced attacks. • MVISION Complete: Unifies
McAfee’s full endpoint security portfolio with MVISION Unified
Cloud Edge, that combines
McAfee’s award-winning Secure
Web Gateway (SWG), advanced DLP and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) to deliver complete deviceto-cloud protection. MVISION
Complete enables organisations to better safeguard their digital transformation efforts and distributed workforce, with unified threat and data protection across all threat vectors – endpoints, web and cloud.
The release of these newly designed suites bolsters the McAfee MVISION portfolio and provides security that spans devices, network and cloud. Simple cloud management with better visibility and control; automated responses and updates that increase staff productivity; and unified policies on endpoints, web and cloud all help lower total cost of ownership at a time where many organisations are looking to trim budgets.
“McAfee is committed to providing new and updated security delivery models that make security easier to buy and manage, and help drive businesses forward in any environment,” said Kathleen Curry, Senior Vice President, Global Channels, OEM and Strategic Alliances, McAfee. “The Device-to-Cloud suites were built with our partner community in mind. At inception, we had discussed with partners their needs to ensure we got it right—from pricing to implementation services, which will all be partner driven. Together, we will deliver a premium experience to our customers.”
READY FOR THE NEXT NORMAL
MUBARIK HUSSAIN, DIRECTOR OF IT, BLOOM HOLDING, SHARES INSIGHTS INTO HOW THE GROUP WAS ABLE TO RISE UP TO THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19, ENSURING BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND SETTING PRECEDENCE FOR BUSINESSES TO SEAMLESSLY TRANSITION INTO THE DIGITAL AGE.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic drove organisations to accelerate their digital strategies and initiatives to avoid disruptions to day-to-day operations. This meant doubling down on technological investments and utilisation and empowering the workforce to transition and be efficient in the digital era.
The impact of the pandemic reverberated across all industries, affecting businesses of all shapes and sizes, including enterprises such as Bloom Holding, a leading player in developing premium real estate as well as managing and operating communities, schools and hotels.
Since its establishment in 2007, the firm has expanded its operations and launched several landmark projects across the region. The UAE-based real-estate player had most of its IT transformation projects in place prior to the pandemic’s onset. However, most of these initiatives had a blend of digital as well as physical elements.
Mubarik Hussain, Director of IT, Bloom Holding, says, “We had quite a few internal transformation projects lined up for 2020 such as enhancing server infrastructures, new devices and equipment for schools and running detailed PoCs on new technologies. As a company, our priority has always
been on how we can digitally enhance ourselves and what kind of innovative solutions we can add that would help us to cater to our customers more effectively.”
However, most of these transformation projects required physical aspects such as people being present at certain locations, infrastructure hardware, etc.
“At the time, none of us could anticipate that requiring physical equipment and operational logistics would be a challenge,” he adds.
When the lockdown was enforced in the UAE earlier this year, Bloom Holding was focused on ensuring all its lines of businesses (LOBs) were supported in terms of growth and development.
In this regard, the company began to evaluate and implement solutions around the smart building, IoT, machine learning, analytics, distance teaching/learning platforms, and so on. The company was looking to deploy solutions that enabled proactive monitoring and predictive analytics for maintenance and support, reducing on-site visits. Hussain says, “We were looking at these technologies in terms of monitoring the energy efficiency of buildings and performance of equipment to gain deeper insights. We were also
looking at consolidating educational projects and moving to the cloud. We decided to refresh a lot of our infrastructures and equipment, in terms of upgrading ERPs and deploying cloud environments.” This also led to additional challenges, such as ensuring the new platforms could be quickly adopted and expanding utilisation so that activities could be conducted remotely. “The sudden shift to working from home throughout the COVID-19 outbreak was very challenging. We had to enable staff through IT cloud application solutions, ensure VPN connectivity for data centre applications and make sure remote IT support was available,” he explains. Hussain adds that the firm also had to increase security and monitoring of environments, ensure identity and access management were controlled and avoid rushing new applications into the new environment. “Most of all, we had to ensure every integration is security checked and compliant rather than based on user demands.” Other challenges that Bloom experienced included deploying mass devices and software in a short space of
TECHNOLOGIES FOR DIGITAL AGE
The technology solutions that were implemented at Bloom Holding include: • SAP S/4 HANA Cloud, Success
Factors • MS Office 365/Teams, Sharepoint • Google Classrooms • FOCUS ERP • ISAMS school management information system • SIEM solution, IT email security solutions, Network infrastructure and firewall security solutions • Virtual Learning Environments,
Educational applications • Smart buildings IoT solution • Veeam Backups for servers/
Office 365 time as well as installing new solutions to enable remote working across its LOBs – which included property, hospitality, education and facilities management companies. “We currently support over 10,000 end-users including office staff, teachers, students enabled for remote working, remote teaching and remote learning as well as blended learning.” Hussain and his team also had to make sure staff, teachers, and students were trained to use the new technology solutions. “Business continuity had been built into our IT landscape and technology solutions, which were mainly cloudbased technology solutions. Deploying additional devices and technology solutions required substantial coordination and planning between the IT department, IT partners and business, which included staff, teachers and students,” he says. “We had to make sure all stakeholders were able to adapt efficiently and learn quickly and are now able to carry out their day to day activities and enable business continuity if social distancing and remote working, teaching and learning needs to take place.” According to Hussain, as Bloom already had digital transformation strategies as a priority, it was a lot easier to adapt to a completely remote working environment.
“Making the 100 percent transition into the virtual world quickly across all our business lines was definitely challenging but having a cloud-based architecture made it a lot easier for us.”
It was critical for all companies to digitalise, otherwise they risked not just being left behind but locked out from the market, according to Hussain.
“Industries that were purely relying on physical contracts have been gravely impacted over the past few months because they suddenly find themselves unable to communicate with their clientele. This is because they were too reliant on customers coming into their premises. These firms are finding it challenging to adapt to this increasingly digital environment we find ourselves in.”
COLLABORATIVE TOOLS
Communications systems deployed by Bloom Holding include: • MS Team/Google Meet with corresponding application suites such as Office 365 products,
Google Classroom have been important for remote working, remote learning and remote teaching. • Cloud based ERPs such as
SAP S/4 HANA on HEC and
FOCUS ERP, have supported remote working for staff and operations as well as cloud-based
IT infrastructure management solutions to manage the IT infrastructure.
Hussain points out that the trends that have emerged from the pandemic such as remote work models, contactless payments, automation, social distancing policies, reduced contact points, less physical interactions, and so on, will continue to see a long-term effect and therefore, regional businesses have to urgently propel their digitalisation drives.
Over the next couple of years, we will see Bloom Holding developing an overarching omnichannel approach to reach customers across all sectors at any time. Businesses are seeing the returns and rewards on digital technologies.
“Digital companies are able to continue to grow, expand and reach their customers. As more people have adopted digital channels in the past few months, the potential to reach additional customers is now wider,” says Hussain. “Companies can successfully grow in these times and continue to grow even after the pandemic because the buying, learning, teaching, customer experience will have altered customer behaviour going forward with the shift from physical to digital. We are excited to continue to offer unique solutions and quality services across our business units to offer customers genuine value-adds.”
