IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress Examines the Progress of the Kingdom's Digital Transformation Journey

With the giant leaps Saudi Arabia is taking in its drive towards digitalization, International Data Corporation (IDC) this week hosted the virtual edition of its IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2021. With more than 200 senior executives, government leaders, and digital transformation (DX) experts participating online, the event — which took place on Monday, December 7 — took a deep dive into the Kingdom's innovative DX journey and examined the progress of its National Transformation Program (NTP).

The event featured the Saudi e-Government Program (Yesser) as its Strategic Partner and highlighted the NTP’s strategic implementation of 3rd Platform technologies in multiple areas across the Kingdom. It also contextualized the program's role in driving the country towards a future characterized by a stronger national identity, an improved citizen experience, a more diverse economy, an enhanced government, and heightened social responsibility.

"Despite the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact, the Kingdom's robust ICT infrastructure — which was developed in line with the directives of the National Transformation Program — has enabled government entities to offer services in an efficient and seamless manner, while also playing an instrumental role in mitigating the effects of the pandemic," said Eng. Khalid Suhaim, Yesser's vice president of digital platforms. "The Yesser program has worked closely with government organizations to support them in offering more services that serve citizens' needs. We have developed an innovative approach to egovernment services that revolves around the citizen, which aligns with the objectives set out by Saudi Vision 2030 around the expansion of eservices offered and the promotion of applications adoption among government entities."

Combining informative panel discussions, robust case studies, and essential insights from influential industry leaders, the IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2021 presented an ideal platform to dissect what lies ahead for the Kingdom as it steps up its digital ambitions.

"The Saudi government has been steadily increasing its focus on digital transformation over the past few years which positions the kingdom well in a post-pandemic world," said Hamza Naqshbandi, IDC's regional director for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. "The focus on digital transformation is expected to accelerate as the Kingdom intensifies its drive to attract new investors, bridge the digital divide, and further enhance citizen satisfaction and trust whilst meeting the needs of rapidly changing demographics, balancing costs, and optimizing efficiency."

With governments around the world coming under ever-increasing pressure to bring together citizen-centricity and operational effectiveness, the event's keynote address – presented by Massimiliano Claps, research director at IDC Government Insights – urged public sector leaders to embrace a new E.T.H.I.C. that makes the delivery of efficient, trusted, highly-responsive, inclusive, and convenient public services a reality. Other discussions explored the use of artificial intelligence to enable intelligent and predictive security, the implementation of a cloud-driven platform approach to drive effective business outcomes, and the deployment of cloud-based backup and disaster recovery services to facilitate business continuity.

The delegates also received valuable end-user insights from respected industry peers such as:

Hany Almansour, General Manager for IT, General Authority for Awqaf

Motref Abdullah AlSahli, CIO, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT)

Khalid Alfaheid, CISO, Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture (MEWA)

Dr. Waleed Al Fehaid, Senior Representative of a Major Government Entity

IDC would like to thank its valued partners for joining the IDC Saudi Arabia Government Congress 2021: Strategic Partner – Saudi eGovernment Program (Yesser); Platinum Partners – Red Hat, Nutanix, Riverbed, Fortinet, Oracle, Dell Technologies, Cisco Systems, Informatica, and BTC Networks / VMWare; Gold Partners – OutSystems, F5, and Rubrik; Silver Partner