The Titans October 2019 by GEC Media Group

OCTOBER 2019 | VOL 3 ISSUE 7

2019 THE CHANGE-SPOTTERS AND CHANGE-MAKERS

MAJ. HAMAD KHALIFA, HEAD OF TELECOM DIVISION, INFRASTRUCTURE DEPT, ABU DHABI POLICE GHQ

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This is a very special month for The Titans magazine. We are pleased to announce that, under the umbrella of The Global CIO Forum, our CIO network has crossed a major milestone of 3500 CIOs from countries including— Middle East, Africa, Asia and USA. The Global CIO Forum is further re-iterating its commitment to the industry with this achievement and leveraging the CIO network to bring in their best practices to collaborate and co-innovate. Evolving from the traditional role of a media, GEC Media Group found its passion in not being a witness to what’s happening in the industry but to walk hand in hand with the industry and bring out products and solutions that address the need of the hour. The forum is walking towards a singular vision to be the ‘One Voice’ for the industry. The GEC Vision 2023 aims to re-live and re-affirm the commitment to the industry in providing a never-seen before platform for the entire business and technology ecosystem to thrive and work in a one-stop-shop model for all business requirements. The World CIO 200 Summit and Roadshow (first successful edition held in Saudi Arabia) is a celebration of this vision. In the month October and November the roadshow will be touring the rest of the 14 countries before culminating in the UAE. In this issue of The Titans, we are presenting a deep-dive insight into the thoughts of our INSPIRE Committee, who would be spearheading this transformational wave. The INSPIRE Committee aims to create a bench of exceptional leaders in the field of technology and transformation who have a forward-thinking and cognitive approach to modern business and who are the early advocates of change. Today’s CIOs face myriad challenges of increasing urgency and intensity. Amidst a sea of uncertainty and constraints, CIOs need to navigate with agility, focus and resolve. We present various diverse stories as such in this issue of The Titans. Hope you enjoy reading them!

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CONTENT

MAJ. HAMAD KHALIFA,

HEAD OF TELECOM DIVISION, INFRASTRUCTURE DEPT, ABU DHABI POLICE GHQ

18 NEED FOR SPEED 06

TOP CIO IN MEA

CHANGE IS CONSTANT

‘DUBAI PULSE’ PLATFORM RAKES IN 1.5 MILLION VISITS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

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INCORPORATING SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGIES

OCTOBER 2019

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CHANDER MOHAN RAINA, IT & SYSTEMS MANAGER WYNDHAM GRAND REGENCY DOHA

CHANGE IS CONSTANT

“All digital transformation predictions have one thing in common: change. Digitalization is creating more opportunities than ever before, but at the same time, it requires a new mindset and readiness to embrace change. Both companies and individuals need to accept the new reality of constant change to find a place in the developing digital world,” - Chander Mohan Raina, IT & Systems Manager, Wyndham Grand Regency Doha.

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OCTOBER 2019

TOP CIO IN MEA

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? Digital technology is increasingly transforming industries, seeping into every part of the business and escalating as a corporate priority. It’s therefore no surprise that the role of the chief information officer (CIO) is also transforming and increasing in importance. Digital transformation is changing every corner of business, from how companies source parts to how they deal with customers. Each change, both large and small, creates a demand for technology expertise and leadership.  It’s no surprise that technology is driving change within the CIO role. What is surprising is that CIOs don’t cite just one or two factors driving these changes; they point to several. Beyond technology in customer relationships, CIOs also say the use of big data and analytics, as well as more technology in the supply chain, are major influences. Given these changes in the CIO role and in technology, it’s only expected that CIOs must change as well, adapting their personal and professional skills to meet today’s demands and the new business environment. Those who don’t won’t be able to enact change— they risk becoming irrelevant.

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? We all know how the region has evolved in adapting technology during the last 10 years. One of the major support was the government driven megaprojects as you rightly said. In most of the countries in the region the private sector is liable to follow their footprints. This helps them to engage themselves in technology driven projects and eventually implementing them in their areas. Based on these government-led megaprojects, the private sector helps IT vendors to replicate the technology, though on a small or medium scale, in private sector. This eventually helps any country or region to be in sync with govt. compliances and methods.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? The next iteration of mobile connectivity, 5G,

is on its way. But this will be more than just a step up in speed. 5G will change how the world communicates and what we communicate with. By 2020, the way we connect will start to change rapidly. This may seem like a big claim for an era already defined by connectivity’s forces. But 5G may very well be worthy of that distinction: when it arrives and reaches mass adoption, nothing will be the same again. Even enterprise fibre still can’t quite deliver on that promise, nor can it give near-instantaneous interactions with a remote system. But 5G is set to rock both, delivering up to 10 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) data rates at latency as low as 1 millisecond. It’s this second statistic that is the most noteworthy. 5G will rival the best latency fibre can offer, but wirelessly. Considering the expense of adding a fibre link to every device, an equivalent, even superior, wireless alternative doesn’t need any further qualification. 5G will more than likely only be a reality in 2020. By then technologies like IOT, SDWAN and other cloud solutions will become more of a reality for many companies. Early adopters of these technologies will more than likely benefit immediately as others catch up. One of the changes that 5G will bring is more subscription services on cloud.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company? Yes we do implement new technologies to open up business areas such as central reservations etc. Here are three practical tips that I can think of to prepare our organization for the AI future: 1. Be Clear About our Business Use Cases for AI Discussions about AI often focus on the technology itself and not on practical use cases. We can avoid building the dreaded “bridge to nowhere” by finding the right machine learning algorithm to address a real pain point. Whether it’s personalizing customer service through a chatbot or developing improved data analytics focus on finding the best use cases connected to our organization’s value drivers, and prioritize AI investments there. 2. Train Existing Employees as You Recruit New AI Talent

When it comes to hiring AI talent, consider tapping into the worldwide talent pool and hiring programmers who can work remotely. You can always have your own internal team focus on statistical and mathematical modeling, rather than spending time on pure programming in various languages, which can potentially be handled by more junior team members or contractors. 3. Test Smaller-Scale (and Less Costly) AI Solutions Many organizations want to start taking advantage of artificial intelligence but simply don’t know how. Out-of-the-box solutions are a good way to get started quickly and avoid unexpected expenses. In addition, instead of investing heavily right away in training algorithms, tap into the technologies you need and pay only for what you use. Many big cloudbased deep-learning services have such AIas-a-service offerings, which relieve you of the need to set up your own infrastructure.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? Digital transformation is an actively discussed topic these days, but this was also true in the late 1990s and again in the mid-2000s. We started to computerize processes almost 30 years ago, and we have already implemented digital activities in our organizations. First, digital channels, or websites, connected companies and their customers. After that, digital processes emerged to support customer interactions. As companies’ digital ambitions quickly grew, they soon needed dedicated digital teams to manage new social and mobile channels. Practically all digital transformation initiatives of today are being built on so-called 3rd Platform technologies and solutions, including mobile, cloud, big data/analytics, and social technologies. Innovation Accelerators—IoT, robotics, 3D printing, nextgeneration security, and others—depend on the 3rd Platform and expand its capabilities. In the rapidly scaling digital marketplace, they have become the key growth drivers for many companies. Clearly, all of the digital transformation predictions have one thing in common: change. Digitalization is creating more opportunities than ever before, but at the same time, it requires a new mindset and readiness to embrace change. Both companies and individuals need to accept the new reality of constant change to find a place in the developing digital world.

OCTOBER 2019

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GUEST ARTICLE

‘DUBAI PULSE’ PLATFORM RAKES IN 1.5 MILLION VISITS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

HIS EXCELLENCY YOUNUS AL NASSER,

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR GENERAL OF SMART DUBAI AND CEO OF SMART DUBAI DATA

Smart Dubai revealed that its flagship data platform Dubai Pulse – the backbone of the emirate’s smart transformation – has made a significant leap in terms of international appetite for the data it publishes, registering 1.5 million visits as of August 2019. The increased interest from users around the world came shortly after Smart Dubai Data – the Smart Dubai arm fostering the city’s data ecosystem – launched ‘Data First, The City’s Data Challenge’ in July 2019, where various government entities compete in a race to accelerate their sharing of Open and Shared Government Data. His Excellency Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General of Smart Dubai and CEO of Smart Dubai Data, said: “The spike in international interest in the Dubai Pulse platform is itself a significant accomplishment. It adds to the international attention our emirate has come to enjoy as it has been setting one precedent after the other across multiple

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OCTOBER 2019

sectors. This has prompted other cities around the world to take advantage of this access to our published data, to understand the catalysts behind Dubai’s success.” “Furthermore, the growth in the number of visits reflects the maturity of Dubai’s experience in sharing and opening its data through the Dubai Pulse platform,” H.E. added. “It adds another milestone to the Smart Dubai Data’s track record, where we strive to implement our leadership’s vision to establish Dubai as a world leader in data – the oil of the future.” “Data published by any city around the world would only enhance its competitiveness and attractiveness to foreign investment,” H.E. Al Nasser explained. “This transparency also serves to shed light on Dubai’s investment climate and opportunities, boosting the emirate’s appeal for business tourism and further establishing it as a champion of innovation in analysing and utilising data.”

“Data drives all strategies launched to enhance Dubai’s global image and soft power, showcasing the emirate’s achievements in every sector. It offers tremendous opportunities for Dubai’s citizens and residents, as well as anyone considering the emirate as a potential place to live and invest,” the Smart Dubai Data CEO concluded. A closer look at the visitor activity on the platform reveals a particular interest in the Roads and Transport Authority’s data. The RTA came first with 29% of all views, reflecting the importance of this sector for visitors and residents of the emirate alike. The RTA’s data also accounted for 54% of all data downloaded from the platform. Dubai Pulse now boasts 425 datasets out of a total of 2,000 that the platform is looking to add in the near future. The data includes holistic information on all vital sectors in Dubai, namely, business, the economy, education, the environment, finance, government policies, healthcare, housing, residency visas, security and justice, sports, and transportation (land and maritime). The data is split into two categories: Open Data, which is available for everyone and can be accessed anytime and without restrictions. Shared Data, meanwhile, is provided by and for the various participating government entities. The private sector or the wider public can request a specific shared dataset; the requests are then processed and a decision is made based on the application. The largest volume of views for data came from outside the emirate – specifically from the United States. Dubai Pulse was designed to be the backbone of the Dubai’s digital transformation, where open and shared data would be put at the disposal of the city’s stakeholders to help generate insights, enhancing decision making for the government and private sector entities. Data plays a tremendous role in achieving Smart Dubai’s main objective to establish the emirate as the happiest and smartest city on Earth.

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‘MULTIDIMENSIONAL IN FOCUS’ Bahrain is becoming the real FinTech Hub of the region due to vast support from the government to the new start-ups and entrepreneurs that are creating new business cases and applications that are utilizing FinTech and Blockchain. The Titans in an exclusive interview with Hasan Isam Naser Muhi, Information Security Asst. Manager, Kuwait Finance House Bahrain.

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? Yes, in the beginning it used to be a purely technical role, he/she needed to maintain all IT systems and services, nowadays the CIO must understand the business structure inside out in order to plan and innovate new technical business strategies. CIOs are now multidimensional in focus, they have to fulfil the company vision and comply with new laws and regulations at the same time keeping in mind reducing the cost and operating expenses as well. The new trend for CIOs is called IT orchestrating of all aspects, budgeting, infrastructure, security, cloud, automation, AI’s and Innovations.

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? The private sector is the key for any country’s success, why? Because they are innovating new technologies and ideas and thus will require the government to regulate all new things to ensure synergy across all provided services. For example, the adoption of Block-

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OCTOBER 2019

chain technology forced the regulators to create new laws, standards and best practices. In Dubai they are moving so fast with the implementations of Blockchain across all government services to create the first Smart City in the world. Bahrain is becoming the real FinTech Hub of the region due to vast support from the government to the new startups and entrepreneurs that are creating new business cases and applications that are utilizing FinTech and Blockchain. We are going to see more and more megaprojects led by the governments of the GCC region in the coming few years that will shift regulations and technology implementation standard worldwide and set an example for the world.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? With the adoption of IoT everywhere, everything is being connected to the internet, the only limitation was the speed of this connections especially for business critical and industrial IoT devices like medical, process manufacturing, pharma, automotive components, supply chain management and military. The concept of Big Data and will also benefit from the use of 5G due to the ability to process huge amount of information much faster, more than 20 times faster than 4G. Any technology or device that utilizes the need of remote control will benefit from 5G, busi-

nesses will be able to host more services on the cloud without worrying about the connectivity speed compared to legacy connections like MPLS based WANs. Gaming and entertainment industries will see a huge jump and change after the launch of 5G networks globally especially bandwidth demanding services like AI/NLP and VR/AR. Data streaming will be enhanced and increased with much higher efficiency.

TOP CIO IN MEA

HASAN ISAM NASER MUHI,

INFORMATION SECURITY ASST. MANAGER, KUWAIT FINANCE HOUSE BAHRAIN

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change?

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company? With adoption of Fintech and Blockchain AI becomes a necessity, in order to grow your business faster and attract more customers you need to enhance your customer facing services and the way you interact and respond to your clients. AI based customer facing applications are

already in use by most large companies for marketing and support purposes, for example a bank with a chat bot that can respond to clients requests and answer questions will defiantly enhance the business and increase the number of customers. More than 25% of customer service operations will use AI according to Gartner. Leading organizations will embrace Artificial Intelligence in the workplace in many aspects including learning, support, voice recognition, feedback and personalized services.

More and more companies are moving away from the concept of in premise hosting, they are focusing on cloud services and hosting, this will reduce all running costs and free time to the company to focus on the core business and marketing. New technologies like Fintech and Blockchain are also being utilized more day after day to provide services to customers. IT operations and management approaches are changing rapidly, with new regulations and law to be complied with, companies are forced to change tactics when planning their new services and vision. I can see the market completely focused on Cloud, Security, Blockchain and AI in the few coming years with lots of regulations related to customer privacy and data protections worldwide.

OCTOBER 2019â&#x20AC;&#x201A; â&#x20AC;&#x201A;

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TOP CIO IN MEA

DRIVING BUSINESS INNOVATION “We define digital transformation as the fundamental rethinking of how we use technology, people and processes to radically change the business performance; which is a change on the way we operate and deliver value to our customers,” - Hashim Saeed, IT Head, Azizi Developments.

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career?

HASHIM SAEED,

HEAD OF IT, AZIZI DEVELOPMENTS

Historically, IT was a supporting function to business strategy, and CIOs were managing the day to day IT operations and services, doing the IT budgeting and planning and so on. However, the game has changed in today’s CIOs’ roles. It is no longer with just having the essential skill sets or being able to build c-suite relationships. IT is redefining the business strategy; therefore, CIOs will emerge into the front-line of driving customer engagement and business innovation. CIOs have to be the driver of the business changes. They need to serve as true business leaders, understand customers, and leveraging IT. This requires broad technical and deep business knowledge. Regardless of the innovations and technologies that CIOs intend to bring in to the organisation, the right CIO today and in the future will lead the digital transformation conversation, but in the context of business transformation rather than technology or IT transformation. Without the business context, digital transformation is hard to value. CIOs need to be just careful that it is being done for the right reasons and it’s not about technology looking for problems. For this reason, the business leader relationships are critical.

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OCTOBER 2019

The main aim of constructing a smart city is to provide good infrastructure to the residents, which we are part of. Therefore, it is very important for both private and public sectors to collaborate and support the development of this scheme. There are many different ways that private sectors can contribute and boost the government plans. However, we are focused on implementing the necessary technologies that will enable paper-free transactions. We intend to be fully paperless for both internal and customer transactions. As part of this transition process, we will create the necessary framework that will address digital procedures and will overcome the challenges related to the cultural barriers.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? We define digital transformation as the fundamental rethinking of how we use technology, people and processes to radically change the business performance; which is a change on the way we operate and deliver value to our customers. As an information technology leader dealing with the intricacies and complexities of enterprise technology every day, I can tell you that you can achieve this transformation with the need of information technology to provide the crucial infrastructure/platform that no one sees yet everyone relies on in order to do their work effectively. Information technology serves and supports the digital transformation initiatives that businesses intend to implement in order to improve their productivity, efficiency and increase revenue. Information technology is the backbone; in a simple term, “No IT, No Digital Transformation”.

TOP CIO IN MEA

INCORPORATING SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGIES Abdullah Al Raqadi, Director General of IT, Ministry of Health Oman says that IT will change many current roles to avoid any risks and ensure fastest outcome with big savings in term of time and money. Read on to know more...

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? I have seen the challenges and the rapid changes on technology and fast growth of 4th Industrial revolution becomes more challengeable on adopting these technologies on any organisation, keeping in mind the readiness, security and expertise. In addition, providing planners, end-users and management valuable data and technologies will ease their job for better user satisfaction.

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastestgrowing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? Public-Private-Partnership is very important on achieving greatest outcome for better government use of technology. With current financial crises, government will not be able to sustain unless there is win-win situation to expedite the adoption of technologies and its results. Therefore, private has to provide better solution for the government with sharing benefits; they have to look from the angle of long partnership rather than just a sale.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? Looking at data transmission rate between 4G and 5G we can discover the biggest changes, which is expected to be more than 20 times of 4G. That means the workload will become larger and faster. This difference will be definitely more significant in term of latency, quality and output. Therefore, cloud computing is likely to be a fantastic expansion with the introduction of 5G. The most areas where 5G will be more influence cloud computing adoption is Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Big Data, and Edge Computing.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company? At Ministry of Health, we have started using AI in Breast Cancer and it is implemented in five hospitals across the country, and we are piloting using AI in chest classification. As a plan, we are looking more to adopt AI for smart EMR, service operation, and supply chain.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change?

ABDULLAH AL RAQADI,

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF IT, MINISTRY OF HEALTH OMAN

In my opinion, Information Technology role is shifting from a tool to be used to an innovation catalyst and disruption. IT will change many current roles to avoid any risks and ensure fastest outcome with big saves in term of time and money.

OCTOBER 2019

THE TITANS

TOP CIO IN MEA

‘INNOVATION IS KEY’ Damian O’Gara, Group IT Director of Kentech Group believes that the private sector needs to continue to innovate, to push the boundaries of technological change, for the greater good. Private sector companies need to be dynamic and flexible to meet ever changing demands of these mega projects.

to meet ever changing demands of these mega projects. Innovation is key. I think the future is very bright with technology continuing to make people have more fulfilled and simpler lives.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? At Kentech Group we have a Cloud First, SAAS First policy. I see our investments in technology over the next 18 months shifting more to network technology along with cyber security. 5G is the next gen networks and I see continued improvements in network technology to be vital to cloud computing.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company?

DAMIAN O’GARA,

GROUP IT DIRECTOR, KENTECH GROUP

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? At the start of my career in 1994 the role of the CIO did not exist. An IT Manager was definitely a support role, focusing on housekeeping, performance modelling and capacity management, since lead times were so long for hardware provisioning. IT managers would look after mundane tasks such ensure reports coming out dot matrix printers were aligned, and COBOL programs ensured they produced the correct format. Ah, a bit of nostalgia there. Through the Dot com boom of the late 90s the role change beyond recognition. Today’s, CIO still has a small functional role, but works closely with the business and in some cases is driving the business, driving revenue and EBITDA. I see the role as cyclical with a company’s business strategy with

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the business strategy feeding the technology strategy and the technology strategy in turn feeding the business strategy. The role has truly gone through a transformation and I feel very grateful to have chosen this career through this exciting age of dynamic technological progression.

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? The private sector needs to continue to innovate, to push the boundaries of technological change, for the greater good. Private sector companies need to be dynamic and flexible

We have started using AI algorithms within our corporate IT. The technology helps us source the best fit candidates for our business based on historical patterns. Having said that we have a lot more to do with AI and I expect we will be discovering more use case scenarios as our digital transformation gains pace.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? IT has already hugely changed. I don’t think the term IT is actually applicable any more, and I see the term being replaced with something more appropriate to reflect the shift towards the business. I see my team at Kentech Group shifting to be far more closely aligned with the business. We are moving away from Infrastructure support due to cloud computing, and software development since we have a buy not build policy. We are moving to a structure where we support the business operations at the coal face.

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TOP CIO IN MEA

A PATIENT CENTRED APPROACH

Whether its AI, IoT, Machine Learning or time travel, Anto Pius, IT Manager of Aster DM Healthcare believes that businesses must start with a firm understanding of their objectives, then work backwards to find a solution that fits, rather than pouring investment into exciting innovative technology and attempting to shoehorn in.

ANTO PIUS,

IT MANAGER, ASTER DM HEALTHCARE

It is crucial for government to involve private sector as large segment of Healthcare is still catered by private sector. To achieve the core objective of project/scheme (e.g. e-health/ other project), it is essential that private sector is involved right from the beginning. Projects like eHealth have a wide-ranging implication on the patient to ensure patient safety and continuity of care. The ultimate outcome of involving the private sector will help to improve the quality of Healthcare and health outcomes, empower patients with their own health information and establish a knowledge platform for planning health action, all through the secure, appropriate, and timely sharing of accurate and reliable health information.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing?

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? In the last two-decades, we have experienced a rapid progress in IT system and next 5-10 years are going to astonishing. Presently CIO protagonist is to prepare organizations for the future to lead the technology strategy in a most comprehensive way. With AI pitching in Healthcare, we have to sync with our broader business strategy. In many digital businesses the IT strategy will remain the core element driving the business dynamics.

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5G - With rapid growth in wireless demand inevitable over the next five years, planning for the future of wireless starts now. 5G is expected to become mainstream and designed to support ultra-reliable, low-latency and massive data communications in which recent medical trend will be taken to the next higher level and significantly provide doctors deliver remote health care medical fraternity.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company? Yes, AI has remained a defining factor of the

past decade, and the technology has reached something of a collective cultural obsession in recent years. Whether its AI, IoT, machine learning or time travel – businesses must start with a firm understanding of their business objectives, then work backwards to find a solution that fits, rather than pouring investment into exciting innovative technology and attempting to shoehorn in. Aster is exploring an opportunity for AI executions at large scale to improve patient safety, decision making processes, to drive better customer experience, etc. A short time ago in Medcare we have implemented customer interaction with use of AI to find doctors, book appointment, doctors search based on symptoms.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? Digital transformation is business transformation. We should perhaps be calling it ‘digital evolution.’ Because a successful digital transformation should not be about reinventing the wheel, but rather a gradual, pragmatic process. Innovation is a journey, and it starts with your current business model. Today’s patients demand choice and flexibility in how and where they access care. Telemedicine (utilizing video conferencing over mobile device or web portal) allows them to access a primary care physician or specialist from home. Advances in electronic health records and cybersecurity measures mean patient information can be securely stored, accessed and shared. Telemedicine improves the customer experience while allowing provider organizations to cut their own operating costs, improve patient outcomes, minimize hospital visits, and meet Government mandates to lower total cost of care per patient – all critical elements in the industrywide transition to value-based care.

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NEED FOR SPEED

As one of the critical national grids, telecom infrastructure is up for a major upheaval. With great advancements in 5G, AI etc speed is becoming the food for digital transformation.

MAJ. HAMAD KHALIFA,

HEAD OF TELECOM DIVISION, INFRASTRUCTURE DEPT, ABU DHABI POLICE GHQ

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OCTOBER 2019

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How have you seen the network and telecommunications sector evolve in your career span? What are the new technologies in this sector? The telecommunication sector has a big impact on each technology and as you know the main factor of any infrastructure is the telecommunication. So, moving from coaxial cables to fibre optic is one of the most important innovation on the telecom sector, as well as the wireless telecom such as LTE technology and the latest 5G. This can make our work very challenging. Nowadays, it’s the time to focus on how we are going to use the new telecom techniques in our benefits. Developing new software and programs that need to be adopted in our new environment of work to simplify the work process and be more efficient at work.

What kind of partnerships are you looking for in the Telecom Segment? How does public private partnership play a key role? The partnership is more important to be successful in ICT - Information & Communication Technology field, since there is no party working solo. It has to be a teamwork where they can produce some great products and services. The public sector is dependent on private sector in many levels and vice-versa. For instance, there are some products to be used in the Data-Center that the public sector cannot provide it unless via a third party. Example: Aruba and the AP’s Access points for the wireless connection that we can see at each shopping mall or even at any government entities.

Why is 5G a major game changer for Telecom? What are the challenges and opportunities that you see? 5G is the key to be number one around the world, and we can see that very clear in the economic war between the United States of America and China. Each country wants to be the first in implementing the 5G technology. It will change the behaviour of the telecom

sector everywhere as well as each companies and organization depend on telecom to deliver their products or services and I would say the first companies need to adopt this are the services providers everywhere. The challenges: l Who will support who l How much it will cost? l Are we ready for this jump and changes? The opportunities: l Speed - As we are reaching the future we need to be faster than before and hence need to have speed up. l Private sector should enforce this technology into the public.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Everythings is possible to enhance the people’s lives and work procedure. Artificial Intelligence is not a buzzword anymore. I believe that Artificial Intelligence is going to be the smart food for digital transformation. And, as the vision of UAE federal Government and Abu Dhabi 2030 smart government and digital government need to be ready as soon as possible. I hope that the Academic sector will look into the future and prepare more programs for the students to have some AI professional and expert.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? The answer is a visit to Smart Dubai Authority and Abu Dhabi Digital Authority. We are already passing the digital transformation.

In brief, which technology of 2019 attracted you the most? Have you planned to implement the same in your organization? Yes, LTE is the big project that we are working in at the moment as well as the safe city of Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi Police GHQ. The latest technologies have been installed and used there. However, the LTE project is taking a little longer to finish but it will have a big impact in our policing work.

OCTOBER 2019

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TOP CIO/CDO IN MEA

KRISHNAN GOPI,

CHIEF DISRUPTION OFFICER, GEMS EDUCATION

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OCTOBER 2019

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THE DISRUPTORS

“Technology disruption journey at GEMS Education is aimed at creating agile, scalable and future ready technology capabilities for the needs of education of tomorrow,” - Krishnan Gopi, CDO, GEMS Education.

Who is Chief Disruption Officer (CDO)? How has the role of a Disruptive CIO/ CDO in the education sector evolved? The role of the Chief Disruption Officer (CDO) is to foresee disruptive solutions that will alter the industry landscape to drive better outcomes to the bottom line. Digital Transformation requires people who can take the lead in a permanent cycle of change. By experimenting and adopting disruptive technologies, CDOs allow organisations to disrupt rather than be disrupted. They constantly pursue technology breakthroughs and help

adopt a culture that promotes disruption. As the digital age scrambles the traditional organizational structure, CDOs must not only launch the organization on its digital trajectory but also help it fundamentally evolve. The rate of innovation and the adoption of technologies has increased exponentially in the last ten to fifteen years. Digital transformation across industries are re-shaping business models, opening up new avenues of opportunities while also creating new competitors (Tech Giants, Ed-Techs) for traditional businesses. Amidst all this, the education sector is also not insulated from these pow-

erful forces of disruption. Today, the need of the hour is to have a Disruptive CIO / CDO to leverage technology as a strategic differentiator. They need to challenge the status quo to drive incremental improvements and create agile and future-ready technology platform for the needs of education of tomorrow.

What kind of transformation are you driving at GEMS Education? At GEMS Education, we have embarked on a Disruption Journey (FY18-21) to leverage technology as a key differentiator and com-

DISRUPTION PILLARS

OCTOBER 2019

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ENVISIONING GEMS EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY FUTURE STATE

petitive advantage. Currently, I am leading the charge to challenge the “status quo” by disrupting from within to create agile, scalable and future-ready technology capabilities for the needs of education of tomorrow. These technology initiatives, broadly classified under six themes (disruption pillars), are being executed in a phased manner over 3 years - Fix the Fundamentals (FY18-19), Strengthen the Building Blocks (FY19-20) and Accelerate Disruption (FY20-21). The successful execution of our FY18-19 initiatives has already resulted in huge increase in customer experience, process efficiencies, cost optimization, standardization and control improvements. The current Disruption Strategy is aimed at: n Enhancing end to end customer journeys with increased digital offerings n Enhancing teaching and learning offerings & strengthening education system for future learning needs n Building our own software intellectual property for competitive advantage n Harnessing the power of data for better analytics, faster decision making and greater competitive intelligence

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OCTOBER 2019

Building schools of the future using Disruptive Technologies n Driving operational excellence through streamlined, integrated and fully-automated processes n

We recently went through the GEMS Connect App, which looked very interesting. Tell us more about the app and its features. How secure is it? GEMS Connect app, launched in June 2019 has received tremendous feedback from our parent community. Designed to address the needs of existing as well as potential parents, the app is a one-stop-shop for parents’ ability to interact with schools for a host of administrative services and information requests. Key features include the ability for parents to access their child’s academic information, access school details such as curriculum, facilities etc., manage all kinds of payments, enrol in school activities, review attendance, raise service requests, receive real-time notifications to track their child’s location in the school transport and communicate with schools. The app also has an AI powered

chatbot – GEMS Genie, to assist parents on general and administrative queries. The launch of this app is only the start of our ambitious mobility journey. Future plans include building dedicated student and staff apps, student progress tracker across academic years, online learning and assessments, augmented / virtual reality features, education CRM, an online shop and an even smarter GEMS Genie. This app will also include gamification, with a “learning is fun” ideation to motivate learners. The app has been developed through secure rapid app development platform while incorporating security principles from the design stage. with biometric capability enabled for secured login. Furthermore, the application data locally cached is in an encrypted format.

How do you manage to keep this disruption on track? We have been able to keep Disruption journey on track by minimising the gap between business strategy & technology alignment and eliciting continuous communication with key stakeholders. Bringing about organisation-wide cultural change and creating an

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GEMS CONNECT MOBILE APP

environment where employees are energized and enthusiastic about making and sustaining change is not always easy. Embedding a universal set of governance, processes and tools across the program through proper change management has helped us achieve our objectives. The innovative approach of system integration of multiple disparate systems and the “out of box mind set” of handling projects stands out. Besides the design and organization of the disruption program, employee engagement plays a key role. Key people initiatives such as IT All Hands meet, star of the month, cricket match, bowling outings, birthday celebrations, tech talk series are conducted to cultivate a culture of ‘oneness’.

What advice do you have for other institutions looking to pull off their own digital transformation? Organisations looking to pull off their digital transformation need to challenge the status

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OCTOBER 2019

quo by disrupting from within. It is all about businesses building positive customer, employee, and partner experiences. Alignment of all the right ingredients to achieve transformation requires more than an A-to-B roadmap. It requires an integrated approach by linking business strategy to transformation ambition and executional discipline. Business transformation initiatives can falter at even the most high-performing companies. For a successful digital transformation digital maturity and a modern organization culture are of paramount importance. Organization should keep customers at the heart of their service offerings, instil “Fail Fast, Fail Early, Learn from Mistakes” culture, adopt agile processes and encourage innovation throughout their disruption journey. The critical success factors in achieving Disruption / Digital Transformation are n Eliciting strong sponsorship from Board / CEO in driving organization wide change n Instilling a mindset / culture change for “Disruption”

Securing timely investments , monitoring RoI to measure perceived benefits n Encouraging right business ownership backed up with KPIs n Attracting the right in-house talent pool, providing continuous training opportunities n Basing technology decisions on long term / strategic view instead of tactical relief n Streamlining internal processes to reduce time to market of products / services n Continuously engaging key stakeholders throughout the disruption journey n Celebrating successes & recognizing high performing individuals n Collaborating with strategic / right partner eco-system To succeed in the disruption journey, it is important to have a long-term vision, achieve quick near-term wins, and have the right mix of people, processes, and technology. It is also important for organizations to constantly scan the market to acquire, integrate, or collaborate with start-ups or other potential disruptive innovators to stay ahead of the curve. n

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ADOPTING RIGHT TECHNOLOGIES

“CIOs role now sits in the front lines of business and started to become role of a game changer in the board room,” - Sasidharan N, Head of Payment Technology, Mashreq.

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? Earlier days CIOs were considered as custodians of technology and primarily focused on building and delivering legacy technology and services to various functions within the organization. On the other hand, they were also seen as someone continuously challenging and controlling ever increasing IT spends. Advancements in technology blended with renewed business models started demanding superior outcomes from technology and it increasingly started challenging expectations on CIOs. Thus the role slowly started to expand and cover modern world challenges in conducting business and its growth aspirations. Today’s buzz words are digitization & innovation and it helped organizations to replace human interaction by bringing out new ways of interacting with customers in its most elegant and creative ways using variety of digital channels and techniques. Today several businesses are driven based on technical / digital capabilities alone and became the only face to customers. Fast changing technology landscape and digital capabilities led by constant innovations are introducing new dimensions to ways of doing business and creating win-win situations for both customers and organizations. This has resulted in CIOs role becoming dynamic to handle broad mix of responsibilities and outcomes such as adopting right technologies, experimenting with new technologies in the horizon, enhancing user experience, digital transformation, nurturing talent and fuelling innovation across businesses. Information security and risk handling became another important focus for CIOs with the digital echo systems opening up new type of threats and exposures. In addi-

SASIDHARAN N,

HEAD OF PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY, MASHREQ

OCTOBER 2019

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tion, financial institutions especially are facing tighter controls from regulators and water tight demand on compliance levels. In nutshell, CIOs role now sits in the front lines of business and started to become role of a game changer in the board room.

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? Creating a digital echo system is one of the key components in a smart city development strategy. Smart city plans touch up on many spheres of life and are considered heavy, multi-dimensional and complex. These schemes need broader spectrum of expertise & capabilities, and presents unique challenges to deliver outcomes. Collaboration between public and private sectors, open up opportunities for private companies to work with government closely and it creates a winwin situation for both segments. Public sector can leverage on private companies for technology advancements and technical knowhow of designing and delivering. Private companies are investing time and resources on developing new capabilities driven by cross-market research & innovations. By a collaborative approach public sector gets an opportunity to deliver their dream schemes and put these technologies to daily use for the welfare of the society. This ultimately results in new business opportunities for private sector and higher cost efficiency & expertise for public sector. For example, in response to a ‘go-green’ campaign, manufacturing and automobile industry can respond with echo friendly solutions and implementations. A digital echo system powered by block chain can completely eliminate papers in government transactions and dealings, gives greater flexibility for the society to conduct transactions securely and reliably.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? 5G is set to disrupt the digital world with its speed and performance. 5G can be 100 times faster than 4G. It can outperform the

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OCTOBER 2019

fastest broad band home networks in existence today. Low latency will be a key differentiator and it will hugely uplift device interconnectedness. 5G will enrich scalability, flexibility, functionality and accessibility with cloud computing, adds agility to provisioning. AI and NLP requires ability to process massive amount of data as it gets adopted and matures. 5G will enable efficient real time data streaming and enables even mobile and remote devices to work with innovative technologies seamlessly using cloud. Device interconnectedness will hugely open up avenues for further integration and automation. It is also believed that 5G and cloud computing can give life to Internet of things (IOT), paving way for another round of digital revolution.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company? In payments, zero touch processing (also called STP) and self-service are key aspects to digitization strategy. This enable customer to efficiently conduct business using digital channels and depends on it fully for all their needs and requirements. We innovate technologies that can digitally process instructions, even if they are initiated using non-digital means. It unifies the customer experience and bring predictability and traceability to transactions. Innovations around AI, ML, NLP and data analysis plays a huge role in achieving this objective. We have ongoing partnership with Fintech’s and global players to create AI and digital capabilities that helps us execute our strategy. These innovative tools and techniques are highly re-usable and can be applied to automate or enhance different business areas and use cases. Few examples of digital assets and technologies that we have created working with our partners: • Vision robotics: World’s first AI based vision robotics solution, which can do visual validations by doing a deep pixel level forensic type analysis and instantly take business decisions even on financial instruments. Vision robotics use advanced AI algorithms to deliver its capability & it is also using propriety AI algorithms to solve specific prob-

lems that the generic algorithms are unable to resolve as of now. • Track and trace: An industry leading solution capable of tracking real time status of transactions from initiation to settlement. The solution has intelligent hooks in to each processing hop and smartly pulls data to create full trace of transactions. This capability can work on a self-service mode to customers. • Investigation engine: A state of art, all automated investigation engine capable of interpreting, classifying, resolving queries or complaints on transactions. The solution applies NLP and an intelligent query interpreter to instantly accept and resolve queries / complaints in a fully automated manner. This solution is capable of easily integrating with track & trace to acquire analytical information as an input to its intelligent processing engine. • Analytics: built on data layer presents a broader and deeper analysis on transaction processing capability and efficiency from a customer perspective. Innovations and investment decisions are driven based on these analytics. We continue to work rigorously to expand and further mature these digital capabilities and apply it to solve business problems and/ or create new opportunities.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? IT will require new tools, techniques and operating models to embrace digital change. Collaboration will play a major role in achieving digital change outcomes. Agile working models will yield quicker & faster results in designing & executing digital changes. Organization will have to nurture talent and digital savvy workforce to deliver transformation and drive innovation culture all through. Change management practice will re-vamp by itself, Continuous Integration (CI) / Continuous Delivery (CD) augmented by test automation will further evolve and expand to cover different aspect of AI & Digitization. Data analytics will take a centre stage in driving key investment & innovation decisions and will be used to measure outcome and impact of digital change. All these will have to be supported by superior and robust IT infrastructure to aid adoption and transformation.

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WEAVING DIGITAL STRATEGIES “To maintain a sharp competitive edge, BFSI sectors need to embrace AI and weave it into their business strategy,” Sivakumar V, IT Head, Dubai First.

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? The role of CIO has seen a great change as Technology’s influence in business increasing. From a role of just maintaining the main frame and providing and supporting infrastructure in Electronic Data Processing room, the role of CIO has changed multifold in the last 25 years. Very Rapid changes were seen in over a decade since business started recognising the importance of technology and its advantage in business enablement and enhancement. The current CIOs role has a greater demand to align more to business than before in order to contribute to the front line effectively. Now, most of the CIOs are in the board room as they have the unique advantage of both understanding the Business and how to better enable them through Technology .

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? In this region, due to visionary leadership the government sector always either competing or ahead of private sector in terms of technology adoption. In such healthy competitive

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OCTOBER 2019

scenario, the technology gap between both these sectors are more or less non existent. In such a scenario, Private sector can contribute effectively in most of the tactical plans while the government sector focus on strategic direction and other areas of governance. The Private sector can act as Fintech to the government agencies and getting the technological solutions effectively implemented for smart city projects. While the government can concentrate on strategic initiatives such as Finance, Health, Security and Welfare, etc. to ensure inclusive growth and development of the region.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? This fast-paced way of life has increased the amount of traffic on the Internet, and lower latency is becoming a bigger deal as people rely more and more on an ‘alwayson’ responsive network connection. From applications perspective most of the industries requiring greater agility are started adopting to Cloud services. The cloud computing bring innumerable flexibility from just computing and storage perspective to support innovations on demand. If this combine with a low latency network, certainly it has to be a game changer in most of the industries. 5G being the next-generation ultra-low latency with massive connection density, and high reliability will be crucial for mission critical

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applications such as IOT and other innovative technologies like, VR, AR, NLP, Big Data, AI, Edge computing, Video data streaming, robotics, etc. These innovations will also introduce several investment opportunities for cloud businesses. Lower latency will be norm for many next-generation applications and will, of course, benefit the vast majority of current ones. 5G technology will bring major improvements to the cloud computing world. This is due to the fact that most technology innovations can be more efficient when clouddependent. 5G, in turn, improves that integration with its low to zero latency, making for

smoother communications. From healthcare applications to autonomous vehicles, and even down to wearables and mobile apps, the cloud is a useful space for non-device storage. Making use of the cloud with 5G connections will boost performance of these innovations. Cloud-based products and services are expected to become more reliable, faster, and efficient.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company? Artificial intelligence (AI) will empower all organisations to completely redefine how they operate, establish innovative products and services, and most importantly impact customer experience interventions. This is becoming a differentiating factor in business now a days. To maintain a sharp competitive edge, BFSI sectors need to embrace AI and weave it into their business strategy. AI-powered bots & DPAs are being used to enhance customer experience front. Further, Intelligent personal investment products based on AI are avail-

SIVAKUMAR V.

HEAD OF IT, DUBAI FIRST

able at scale. Moreover, BFSI sector are moving towards custom in-house solutions that leverage sophisticated with Cognitive computing, natural language processing, machine learning, pattern recognition, Robotics and probabilistic reasoning algorithms to aid various areas from customer experience, to risk and investment banking with complex decisions. In our BFSI sector, which is a highly regulated and process driven industry, we use these cutting edge technologies across various departments to achieve a better experience & improve experience & efficiency for our customers and back office process respectively.

How will IT evolve or transform in the midst of digital change? Digital is the form of service delivery through channels to customers and stakeholders and IT will always remain the back bone of digital delivery. The world is changing from IT enabled services to Digital enabled services where it touches/reaches directly the customers instantaneously. This is more of convenience and comfort for the customers to effectively engage with your products and services and an agile platform to improve business. As Digital services is so quick to reach and transact with the customers, the backend IT services need to catch up on the speed, agility and security that is demanded by the Digital world. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big challenge for IT where it needs to match up between efficiency and cost.

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CREATING VALUE FOR BUSINESS

The success of smart city implementation will depend upon the collaboration between government and private sectors. Mohammad Shahzad, CIO of RDK Group says that for the private sector, in order to capitalize on the opportunities created by smart city initiatives, engagement with government in more collaborative and creative ways is necessary.

AI is the buzzword of 2019. How are you gearing up to embrace an AI future? Do you use technologies to open up new business areas of the company?

MOHAMMAD SHAHZAD, CIO, RDK GROUP

How have you seen the role of a CIO change in so many years of your career? CIOs have nowbecome business strategyenabler and one of the key members in Executive management and Leadership team. They become business leaders and strategist from backroom, tech-focussed role because of urgent business need for rapid digital transformation. The CIO role has been expanding both in depth and breadth. There isn’t a business strategy today, in any industry, that doesn’t require some element of technology, whether it’s building an app, or providing customer insights in each and every touch point in the organization.

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OCTOBER 2019

Yes, Ofourse. We have done partnership recently with Dubai based Crypto company – Darico to tokenized our some of the premium real estate properties. Through the collaboration, we want to explore together the prospect of offering crypto mortgages, where monthly payments can be made using virtual currencies, it will enable the public to own fractions of an apartment — including luxury real estate in Dubai. AI will definitely impact employees by increasing their productivity and eliminating repetitive tasks; AI will help management significantly to take more informed business decisions; increase efficiency and give quality time for creativity, strategy, critical thinking, planning etc.

Driven by government-led megaproject schemes, the region is quickly becoming one of the world’s fastest-growing regions for smart city development. How can the private sector help boost government plans? Becoming a smart city is not just the responsibility of a government entity. The way forward in how we engage the private sector is to not think of it as a group of vendors or sponsors, but as a true partner. The success of smart city implementation will depend on collaboration between government and business, these partnerships will encourage smart city growth, allow developers to tackle challenges, open up commercial and service opportunities and plan the intelligent road ahead. For the private sector, in order to capitalize on the opportunities created by smart city

initiatives, engagement with government in more collaborative and creative ways is necessary. The rise of the digital ecosystem: An ecosystem develops around the city’s digital infrastructure, leading to new products, services, businesses and revenue opportunities. For example, smart street lights with Wi-Fi, or traffic congestion sensors whose data can inform retailers, or dispatch services. Another example is how Abu Dhabi has partnered with a Swiss company around telemedicine, determining how to provide solutions, do so equitably, and ensure that there’s a good flow of funds.

Why is 5G a major game changer for cloud computing? Using 5G, enterprises will be able to rapidly transmit data to and from multiple clouds and billions of edge devices with increased reliability and security, reduced latency and dramatic improvements in bandwidth — this will eventually help businesses transform the user experience for their customers and optimize processes across industries from retail to financial services, transportation to manufacturing, to healthcare and beyond. Enterprises are increasingly seeking ways to move more complex workloads to the cloud, and they are turning to hybrid cloud strategies to help them securely and seamlessly transmit data across a variety of IT environments. The data transmission rates that 5G proposes to bring – (up to 20 GBPS, that’s 20 times what 4G ever promised) – were unimaginable even a few years ago. That kind of speed changes everything. Latency would disappear. If the infrastructure in a corporate environment is decentralized into the cloud, 5G will further increase employees’ ability to interact with these cloud systems as if they were directly connected.

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INSP I 32

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The World CIO 200 Summit and Roadshow – The world’s biggest IT and Innovation Excellence program is taking the event a notch higher with Global CIO Forum’s ‘INSPIRE Committee’. The INSPIRE Committee aims to create a bench of exception leaders in the field of technology and transformation who have a forward-thinking and cognitive approach to modern business and who are the early advocates of change. As the valuable committee members, the 7 pillars or ambassadors of the committee will be together shouldering a shared responsibility of propagating the concept of the 7 disciplines – Innovation, Network, Strategy, Passion, Implementation, Relationship and Excellence – through various thought leadership pieces, social voicing and a unified yet tailored viewpoints to these segments from the inception to the conclusion of the tour. A peep into the Inspirations;

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I N

Innovation in digital transformation is all about creating and nurturing a culture that not only allows your team to be fearless to change but also inspiring creativity and tapping the untapped territories. It is all about believing that there is no time like the present. This pillar is led by Ashith Piriyattiath who firmly believes in the idea that ‘Innovation is the key to transformation’. The pillar would capture the innovative and open-to-risk and open-to-change mindset of our IT leaders who have to invest their faith in the following. “Innovation is one of the Key theme pillars for this years World CIO 200 summit and we are focusing to throw more lights on to the application of digital innovation in the society, Government, Business and Industrial world...etc. Also, we would be encouraging the next generations to pay attention in bringing the Innovation based transformation or innovative transformation rather than adopting the usual practice of going behind technological trends. Digitization, Digitalization, Digital Innovation, Digital transformation, are the different inter related processes in transforming organization’s/ Business’s nature and culture which leads to a digital revolution. Out of the above four, “innovation” is the base and it is most crucial to the continuing success of any organization.”

With the immersive invasion of internet as well as smartphones’ applications and digital social networking, people become more socially connected through virtual spaces instead of meeting in physical public spaces. Virtual interactions gain more prominence than physical meetings. The term Network also imbibes the concept of Partnerships into it. CIOs need to be ready to partner and collaborate with business owners or stakeholders, whose business is undergoing a transformation. This is the stage in a CIOs career when he seriously needs to play the “Partnership” role. Stakeholder. This pillar led by Venkatesh Mahadevan who propels the approach of implementing ICT tools that not only connects peers with peers but also brings back the power of face-toface networking and creating a knowledge-based economy. “In today’s ultra-competitive world, where market dynamics are changing faster than you can imagine, operating in Partnerships is imperative. As CIO’s, we probably are the most reliable/ trustworthy partners for business to help them achieve their objectives. I cannot but emphasize the crucial role that an effective partnership can play. I have always said that for a Digital Transformation Program to be successful, it is compulsory for us CIO’s to strike a great ongoing partnership with business and keep it flourishing.” 34

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Synergising the Mind & Technology Economy The biggest tech show in the Middle East, North Africa & South Asia

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Today’s CIOs face myriad challenges of increasing urgency and intensity. Amidst a sea of uncertainty and constraints, CIOs need to navigate with agility, focus and resolve. It goes without saying that a well-conceived plan or strategy is essential in charting a course successfully. It is undisputed that CIOs need to have a better understanding of their businesses’ technology needs, both in the short as well as long term. They are also called upon to be more effective at driving partnerships and shared accountability with the business. This pillar is led by Ajay Rathi. The sections in this pillar capture the experience and wisdom of our IT leader & volunteers, who are senior IT leaders on different aspects of IT Strategy & how it linked to overall originations performance & vision. n Primary role of the CIO in IT strategy & organization strategy, describe more specifically the “underbelly” of IT strategy development. n How CIOs tackles the very current challenge of how IT leaders can effectively tackle digital transformation in their organizations, challenge for IT leaders to go beyond engagement to business intimacy. n IT strategies should incorporate the means for adapting and adjusting to future changes in the IT and business landscape.

You don’t have to be a tech geek to be a digital transformation leader. All you need is passion. Digital transformation efforts remain isolated in many businesses, but its passion that drives the journey. Its about being passionate, informed and experienced and initiating a mix of technology-first and customer-first approach. It is imperative that the Leaders work in partnership to drive Passion across the organization and lay the foundation for the organization to be able to adapt itself to the changes, both digitally and otherwise in the coming days. This pillar led by Yahya Al Mawali and will imbibe the following key aspects; n Nurturing the passion n Championing opportunities n Decentralizing the passion within the team n Impleneting the right ‘Passion’ tools in the organization. n Changing organizational behavior and structures

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Implementation— It is not just a word, it’s a procedure. Initiation includes the information gathering, conceptualizing, and planning for the adoption of an innovation, leading up to the actual adoption decision. Implementation includes all the events, actions and decisions involved in putting the innovation into use. This Pillar led by Mohammed Mahnashi The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made remarkable progress in the field of e-government. Business processes, support for IT applications and data, and greater integration as well as the use of appropriate technologies and infrastructure; this is the framework in which Enterprise Architecture is the only empowerment, which underpins the most integrated and strategic e-government. “As we all know that with the e-transformation initiatives IT plays an essential role, as the main player and enablers for the success implementation of the government goals. So implementation is not just a word, it’s a procedure. Initiation includes the information gathering, conceptualizing, and planning for the adoption of an innovation, leading up to the actual adoption decision. Implementation includes all the events, actions and decisions involved in putting the innovation into use.”

It focuses on the need for CIOs to build up a key survival skill with the ability to manage relationship with various stakeholders as a way to influence business strategies. No longer are the days when IT can just focus on keeping the lights on. As part of their multifaceted roles, CIOs should embrace the relationship dimension which may require them to tap on extended networks to build a strong ecosystem in IT and beyond. You are ultimately communicating with individuals, so identifying the correct persons in the relevant communities is essential. CIOs have to translate stake-holders’ needs and wants and having good relationships will ease such conversations. We should prioritize functions that are more critical from a day-to-day, operational view in terms of relative importance and criticality for the business. This pillar is led by Dr. Esam AlFalasi. This team contributions & enrich our communities with insight more on relationship • The Power of Building Strong Relationships with Key Stakeholders • Corporate Relationship Management • Making Relationships Work for You • Technology as a Business Partner • Leadership is a Relationship OCTOBER 2019

THE TITANS

TOP CIO IN MENA

For IT professionals, excellence is like a never-ending list of project implementations and enhancements to improve systems and technology for businesses. There can always be better ways to perform or make something especially in the realm of Information Technology where new inventions and innovations are developed faster than ever before. This team contributions & enrich our communities with insight more on Excellence. This pillar is led by Dr. Jassim Haji. During the last two decades the world has seen a sharp increase in the number of multinational companies. The 21st century has seen “Internationalisation‘become the primary strategy for companies which intend to expand their business across nations. According to a recent ‘Business Week‘ article, Chief Executive Officers are being driven by a simple truth: “to survive is to be global‘”. Globalization has brought in an influx of cultural identities at the workplace. The influence of national culture impacts the

THE TITANS

OCTOBER 2019

workplace but global companies have generally ignored the nuances of national culture and its significance to an individual‘s behavior. Instead they have employed policies which aim at urging high performance from their employees while the existence of intercultural misunderstandings has been an impediment to such performance. As people from different cultural groups take on the exciting challenge of working together, cultural values sometimes conflict. We can misunderstand each other, and react in ways that can hinder what are otherwise promising partnerships. Oftentimes, we aren’t aware that culture is acting upon us. Sometimes, we are not even aware that we have cultural values or assumptions that are different from others! This conflict of culture has been confirmed by Hofstede (A Duetch Professor) who states, “When people are interacting with each other across cultures, their cultural values could make them say or do things that are misperceived as intentional.” The cultural problems associated at the workplace can also be associated with a divergence between the employees’ national culture and the company‘s corporate culture. Thus, in different environments, employees strive to carry out their duties within the guidelines of the corporate culture which have originated in specific environmentswhile they are under the influence of their own unique national cultures.

SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 2019

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