From ambition to action: The Kingdom’s digital transformation roadmap for 2024

From ambition to action: The Kingdom’s digital transformation roadmap for 2024

discover | Tuesday - 16 / 01 / 2024 - 7:55 pm

In its quest to place its name at the top of the list of developed countries, the Kingdom launched the National Transformation Program in 2016, as the first program of the Saudi Vision 2030 in artificial intelligence, automating resource planning systems, and helping businesses to carry out an integrated digital transformation in companies and public and private establishments, and the most important of these sectors is (the General Administration of Transformation). Digital in the Ministry of Education)

Indeed, the country’s focus is on diversifying its economy and reducing dependence on oil, making stimulating innovation a crucial priority. Digital transformation in various sectors, from smart cities and e-commerce to healthcare systems and renewable energy, is changing the face of Saudi society.

However, like any other country seeking to secure its economy for the future and enhance the lives of its citizens, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia set itself a challenge, and harnessing digital technology to modernize government services was the starting point.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology worked to develop the e-government application,
It was called the unified national platform, which connects all government services, but works side by side with service centers that provide services to citizens who do not have access to the Internet.

In terms of government efficiency and effectiveness, the operational model and organizational structure of the Digital Government Authority, which is responsible for the digitization of the entire government, has been designed. This includes piloting new technologies – including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) – to improve the performance of ministries across government.

In addition to the governmental aspect, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s goal – which is to build a modern state for the future – required it to embrace emerging companies; Where young entrepreneurs can build “unicorn” companies (startups valued at $1 billion or more). For this reason, the concept, strategy, operating model and roadmap of the National Digital Innovation Center were designed. Which enhances the values of innovation and entrepreneurship among young people, and also works to transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into a regional center for innovation and a global player in the digital economy.

In other initiatives aimed at encouraging private enterprise,
The Saudi government has hired specialized companies to develop an open source program to make government data openly available to companies, as well as a strategy for electronic sports “E-sports” and “E-gaming.”

From an international perspective, a World Government Summit was launched that will promote the exchange of ideas on digital government and best practices. The first one was held in 2019. Its fifth edition is planned to be held; The 2024 Digital Transformation Summit, entitled “From Ambition to Action: The Roadmap for Digital Transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” will be held on June 5 of this year in Riyadh.

According to government data revealed at the LEAP 2023 conference in Riyadh,
More than 340,000 people work in the digital, communications and IT sectors. Women’s participation in this sector also expanded rapidly to 32.5% (compared to 24% in 2021).

Vision 2030 included the environmental scene; NEOM City, the ambitious project launched by Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Saudi Prime Minister on Tuesday, October 24, 2017, which aims to create a future city powered by renewable energy, is a clear example of this. By leveraging digitalisation, NEOM is set to become a global innovation hub and a model for smart city development.

The serious challenges facing digital transformation in the Kingdom
No one denies that launching new automated software is just the beginning of the digital transformation process. The second stage becomes continuous improvement and overcoming obstacles to ensure success.

According to the Digital Transformation Index 2020, the three main obstacles associated with digital transformation, identified by participants in institutions in the Kingdom, were as follows:

Cybersecurity (31%)
Data management (29%)
Economic disruptions related to the pandemic (24%).
Data privacy and cybersecurity concerns

On average, Saudi Arabia is exposed to 160,000 cyber attacks every day. With the majority of companies in the region looking to expand their digital transformation initiatives, this number is likely to rise easily.

To put this into perspective, the more data stored in an organization’s cloud, the more tempting it becomes for cybercriminals. Therefore, it is not surprising that data privacy and cybersecurity are considered the biggest barriers to digital innovation by companies in Saudi Arabia.

For organizations aiming for successful digital transformation programs, this means one thing: privacy and cybersecurity are two critical aspects that they must prioritize to avoid costly and destructive security issues.

Logix ERP plays the role of a guardian angel; It has highly advanced permission controls to protect critical data and help protect against cyberattacks from hacker groups outside the organization, as well as unauthorized access to information from within it.

Inability to extract valuable insights from excessive data and/or information
Business Intelligence (BI) is an absolute necessity for any organization to make accurate and time-critical decisions that will impact the digital transformation efforts of the entire organization. Hence, it relies heavily on methods and technologies that collect and analyze data which will serve as the basis for guiding the business.

When company decision makers have access to real-time data, they are able to derive more informed insights and develop strategic actions that align with business goals.

Unfortunately, a case study of business intelligence in Saudi Arabia shows that one of the major challenges facing organizations in the region is data selection and…