Page 49 - SAMENA Trends - February 2022

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

others are at an advanced stage of data- Aloufi says: “Almost all the countries driven government and to efficiently
driven digital government,” Abdul Mobeen in the Middle East are currently racing implement them to drive the quality of
Khan, Strategy Execution, Program against each other to achieve 100% Data- life and support their national socio-
Management, ITSM, Cybersecurity & Driven paperless government. However, economic development. Data-driven
Governance Practitioner and Trainer, UAE most countries are lagging behind and government is key to achieve sustainable
and Chairman of the 2nd Data-Driven needs to catch up fast. These countries development and the United Nations
Government Conference, says. “The UAE is need to expand their bandwidth and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
one of the most advanced countries to have encourage people to start searching by 2030, while most countries have
digitized its public services, while Dubai for public services online.” The current enhanced E-participation and data-
Government is the first to have become rapid development of ICT has brought centric approaches and increased the
100% paperless government in the world, about high performance and increased focus in building digital capacities,
which is a huge achievement.” The Data- integration of the computing environment, according to a recent United Nations
Driven Government will also expand the big mobile computing, and hyper-connection. report on E-Government. The conference,
data and bring all the citizens’ individual This led to a stratification in data quality is supported by – The Saudi Ministry
data in one server. Race for excellence in and a sharp increase in quantity, according of Communications and Information
effective governance gains momentum to a report, titled Data-Driven Smart Technology (MCIT), Jordan Ministry of
and is the focal point of discussions at the Government by the United Nations. “While Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship,
2nd Data-Driven Government Conference. in the past, there was mainly ‘passive UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention
Globally governments are working on the data’ that data holders or owners created (MOHAP), Dubai Health Authority (DHA),
digitization of the public sector, especially while passively responding to the request Emirates Health Services, Sharjah Research
key government departments, authorities of the data collecting actors, there is now Technology and Innovation Park, Saudi
and regulators, to offer a seamless a rise in ‘active data,’ which data holders Digital Government Authority, Ajman Free
service delivery across all the channels. volunteer to produce,” it said. At the 2nd Zone, International Association of Artificial
While some are at the beginning phase Data-Driven Government Conference, a Intelligence, Oman National Energy Centre
of data-driven government set up, others distinguished expert panel of speakers (NEC) and Oman Information Technology
are migrating to the next-generation will include government decision makers Society.
solutions. In his opening address at the and international industry experts who
2nd Data-Driven Government Conference, will discuss the region’s vision of data-

Salam Taps Optiva BSS Platform to Launch New Saudi MVNO

our expansion into realizing the exciting
possibilities of the digital services future,”
said Abdulmohsin Al-Joyan, Salam Mobile
CEO. Optiva BSS Platform equips Salam
Mobile with rapid launch capabilities and
provides total cost of ownership (TCO)
savings by addressing all of its end-to-
end MVNO business monetization require-
ments. The turnkey BSS suite, architected
as a cloud-native and designed for private
and public cloud deployment, goes beyond
traditional billing, allowing for real-time
storefront provisioning, monetization and
cross-service promotion delivery. These
Saudi Arabia’s Salam (formerly ITC) has revenue management solution, allows capabilities support Salam in creating a
selected Optiva’s BSS Platform to enable Salam to quickly and cost-effectively unique offering to grow its customer base
its new MVNO. Branded as Salam Mobile, conceptualize and introduce new digital with an enhanced, personalized digital ex-
the MVNO aims to bring innovative digital service offerings to customers. The plat- perience. “The MVNO segment continues
services to Saudi Arabia’s fast-growing form provides real-time billing, charging to proliferate worldwide and offers opera-
consumer market segment. Through this and fulfilment that will differentiate Salam tors the opportunity to create — in a matter
partnership, Salam Mobile will deploy Op- Mobile offerings. “Salam Mobile’s line of of minutes what used to take days — ser-
tiva cloud-native BSS technology on its business will be built upon our strong en- vice packages that deliver unique custom-
state-of-the-art, private cloud infrastruc- terprise customer base. By collaborating er experiences,” said John Giere, President
ture. Optiva BSS Platform, a best-of-suite, with Optiva, we will accelerate our journey and CEO of Optiva.
end-to-end, pre-integrated customer and into the consumer segment and continue
49 FEBRUARY 2022