Al-Marri: 80 new e-services & transactions by next March
October 24, 2022
The Ministry of Labour held a ceremony to inaugurate the cloud computing procession which falls within the second phase of the digital transformation scheme, as part of the ministry’s strategy aimed at accelerating the development of services in line with future requirements and best technological practices, that conform to the broader objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by HE Dr. Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, Minister of Labour, HE Mr. Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, senior officials of MCIT, and representatives of private sector companies participating in the implementation of the project.
MoL seeks to take advantage of cloud technology in order to develop services provided to the public, raise the level of information security controls, make data-based decisions, improve business flexibility, reduce operational costs, and increase employee productivity.
MoL’s Digital Transformation Unit is working in partnership with Microsoft, Oracle, Al-Mannai and PricewaterhouseCoopers Middle East in Qatar to implement the cloud computing procession, as the premier entity in the State of Qatar to rely on cloud solutions in developing services.
HE Dr. Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, Minister of Labour, affirmed the commitment of the Ministry to implement digital government initiatives, for the sake of providing a better life for individuals and companies in the State of Qatar, pointing out that digitizing services contributes to achieving excellence in performance to ensure the quality of services and double the benefits for the labour sector and workers on the long-term.
In his speech during the inauguration ceremony, HE Al Marri explained that the Ministry launched approximately 55% of services electronically to contribute to achieving excellence in performance, expediting the completion of transactions and streamlining procedures, noting that the neoteric technologies depending on “Agile” methodology, this is part of the ministry’s strategy for digital transformation.
The Ministry is working at a steady pace and diligent effort to develop, modernize and launch nearly 80 new electronic services and transactions by March 2023, he noted.
As part of commending other cooperative ministries, he praised the Ministry of Communications’ tireless efforts to develop the ICT sector in the country, rendering Qatar a regional center for digital transformation in the region, and provided an attractive infrastructure for investment in this field, under the generous sponsorship of our wise leadership in this vital field.
The launch of the cloud computing process in the Ministry of Labour to provide fast, reliable and secure cloud services, accelerate the pace of innovation, and gain high flexibility comes in line with efforts to achieve our digital aspirations, indicating that a central data center will be established that the Ministry can use to facilitate the direct access process, data, and extract reports on demand to take advantage of artificial intelligence to facilitate the decision-making process, so that the Ministry of Labour will be a basic data reference for other ministries, he clarified.
Moreover, the meeting the requirements of the sector’s regulations and the requirements of compliance systems, within the framework of the Ministry’s strategy and directions
aimed at accelerating and developing services in line with future requirements and best practices.
He noted that the inauguration of the cloud computing procession came in partnership with (Microsoft and Oracle) to develop a plan based on cloud interoperability, which is the first of its kind to move to a cloud environment in line with the national computing policy, noting that MoL seeks by the second quarter of this year to render all the ministry’s services functional on secure cloud computing.
At the conclusion of his speech, the Minister indicated that the Qatar 2022 World Cup will be an exceptional World Cup, as it will be held for the first time in the region, pointing to the great role played by the State of Qatar in making this dream a reality we live in, while MoL worked to ensure appropriate working and living conditions that provided safety and healthy solutions for all workers.
Ms. Lana Khalaf, General Manager, Microsoft Qatar, said: “The Digital Transformation Program with the Ministry of Labour is a great example on how organizations can innovate on their own terms bringing different technologies and partners on Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Through our newly launched hyperscale cloud datacenter region, we are partnering with PwC, Oracle and Mannai Corporation to accelerate the Ministry of Labor’s digital transformation journey on Azure cloud with a state-of-the-art architecture
and security to enable them to innovate, optimize their operations and transform their services.”
“Oracle technology solutions have played an instrumental role in supporting the Ministry of Labour’s strategic initiatives over the past several years. The e – services platform is a key program that will significantly modernise the country’s labour sector, and Oracle technology solutions will yet again support the implementation of this national initiative”, said Cherian Varghese, Senior Vice President – Technology Software, Middle East and Africa, Oracle.
Bassam Hajhamad, Qatar Country Senior Partner at PwC in Qatar said: “We are proud to be part of Qatar’s transformation journey, in line with the National Vision 2030 and work with the Ministry of Labor from strategy through to execution to create a new e-services platform which will digitally transform the labour sector. This initiative is first of its kind in Qatar and we were delighted to collaborate with Microsoft, Oracle, and Mannai Corporation to deliver these innovative solutions and partner with the Ministry of Labor on their digital transformation journey to the cloud.”
For his part, Mr. Khalid al Mannai, Vice Chairman – Executive Committee, Mannai Corporation said “The development of new technology will give more visibility to the customer with real time tracking of the applications on the end user’s devices. It will also
enhance productivity and reduce the processing time of services from up to two months to a few days and the goal is to build overall trust and transparency within the process.”
At the beginning of this year, MoL launched the Digital Transformation Unit (TMO) with the aim of comprehensive transformation and providing the public and employers with a smooth user experience through innovative digital technologies and personal care, by taking advantage of agile software development, cloud computing and other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In the first phase, the Digital Transformation Department seeks to automate 80 services provided by the ministry, many of which are currently provided either manually or with very limited digital capabilities. It will also develop a new cloud-based technical infrastructure supported by providing agile solutions that transform these services provided by the ministry and make them available in a digital manner.
MoL is the first government institution in Qatar to fully adopt Agile and product management through a unified center for development and support (DevOps center), with an intelligent architecture that relies on the automation of processes and data, and these capabilities allow officials to take action, decisions, analytics, building new applications with ease and flexibility, and contributing to national initiatives related to data analytics and government digital services.
