SECOND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT at Emirates National Schools, describes how the school is embracing the second wave of its digital transformation

Emirates National Schools

(ENS) aims to provide students with educational programs that develop character, use technology to improve learning, and prepare students to be leaders and community members.

Formed by Presidential Decree and owned by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, ENS first opened its doors in 2002 in Mohammed Bin Zayed City. Since 2002, the school has grown to six campuses, serving the Emirate of Abu Dhabi with locations in Mohammed Bin Zayed City, Al Ain City, and Abu Dhabi City, while ENS also includes campuses serving the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah and its latest campus in Dubai.

ENS’ Head of Information Technology, Abdulrahman Khaiwi, has more than 36 years of experience in the IT industry and most recently spent 25 years at the head office of telecommunications company Etisalat.

Joining ENS in 2017, Khaiwi spoke with Technology Magazine in 2020 about the process of implementing a smarter, more efficient way of delivering IT to the classroom, utilising a ‘four-pillared’ scheme to focus the transformation on planning, people, vendor management and customer-centricity.

Now, Khaiwi is leading the schools’ second wave of digital transformation, focusing on modern solutions, enhanced service delivery, and proper security controls to enhance business offerings and add value to students, parents, and staff.

Embracing technology on ENS’ second wave of transformation

Accelerating the use of technology

A key component of ENS’ first wave of digital transformation involved changing the perception of IT from its ‘legacy’ origins to highlighting how it could add value.

Since those early stages, as part of ENS’ digital transformation, several innovative technologies have been introduced. This, which Khaiwi describes as a multifold technology acceleration, enables a 360degree, holistic view of the business priorities, and has been key to achieving the school’s goal of operational excellence.

“Some of the major projects we have introduced are facial recognition and AI-based time and attendance solution, which is interconnected with our human capital management solution, with our management dashboards, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) and payroll,” he explains. “Another one is our new human capital management solution that covers the complete cycle of HR requirements, starting from talent acquisition throughout the staff career path.”

As part of the transformation, ENS has also carried out an upgrade of its ERP system from MS Dynamics to Dynamics 365. “This had many benefits, from supportability, functionality, security, integration and simplicity,” Khaiwi adds. “We have also introduced more than 50 different dashboards and reports for the C-level management and department heads using Microsoft Business Intelligence, Power BI.”

ENS has also introduced modern cybersecurity measures, essential not only

Abdulrahman Khaiwi

TITLE: HEAD OF IT

INDUSTRY: EDUCATION

LOCATION: ABU DHABI

With over 36 years of experience in Information Technology industry, my career began in Lebanon working in a bank for 6 years before moving to Sharjah Municipality and later joining Etisalat as Chief Supervisor IT records and statistics. I spent 25 years at Etisalat Head Office, holding various positions, including Senior Manager Technical Administration in charge of operations for all Etisalat Datacenters. In 2017, I joined Emirates National Schools as the Head of IT and am currently leading the second wave of Digital Transformation, focusing on modern solutions, enhanced service