A Digital · A Digital Government Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 9 FOREWORD Government leaders worldwide recognize the value of information technologies for social and economic

A Digital Government Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“My first objective is for our country to be a pioneering and successful global model of excellence, on all fronts, and I will work with you to achieve that”

King Salman bin AbdulazizThe Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques

“All success stories start with a vision, and successful visions are based on strong pillars”

Prince Mohammad bin SalmanCrown Prince

Foreword Acknowledgements

About IDC

01. eGovernment Transition Times

02. The Value of Government Digital Transformation Interview with Cisco: Connecting the Unconnected to Achieve a Truly Digital Government

03. Leadership Transformation

04. Omni-Experience Transformation

Interview with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE): Enabling Digital Transformation for Improved Utilization and Efficiency

05. Information Transformation

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Table of Contents

06. Operating Model Transformation

Interview with Saudi Telecom Company (STC): Changing Mindsets to Become More Transparent, Efficient, and Measurable

07. WorkSource Transformation

08. The Impact of Innovation Accelerators in Government

Interview with Ebttikar: Driving the Digital Transformation Journey to New Heights

09. Next-Generation Security: Balancing Data Protection and Innovation in Government

Interview with Advanced Electronics Company (AEC): Developing Local Skills to Support Government Digital Transformation

Conclusion

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FOREWORDGovernment leaders worldwide recognize the value of information technologies for social and economic development. In the late 1990s, the advent of the internet drove them to step up support for technology investment both in the public and private sectors. The goals were to increase overall access to technology for individual and enterprises, grow ecommerce, improve public sector service access and delivery, and spur the growth of new businesses. Notwithstanding the progress, technologies did not always make a deeper impact on society, such as transforming the way governments engaged with its constituents, how students learned, and how businesses created new revenue models. That deeper level of impact was in part due to technology that was not yet fully mature to generate that level of transformation, and in part due to government information society plans that lacked a clear strategic vision of how technology could change long-term outcomes, and clear governance models that allowed them to operationalize the strategy.

Technology has now caught up. The transition to the 3rd Platform — mobile computing, social media, cloud computing, and Big Data and analytics (BDA) — is digitally transforming nearly every aspect of individuals’ and enterprises’ lives. In addition, a new round of technology breakthroughs — robotics, natural interfaces, blockchain, 3D printing, Internet of Things (IoT), cognitive systems, and next-generation security — is ready to bring further disruption. Digital technologies are compounded by other societal factors that will accelerate digital transformation.

The National Transformation Program (NTP) is a unique opportunity for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to embrace digital transformation, not just to climb further the ranks of the UN eGovernment Readiness index, but to make a lasting impact at three levels:Transforming the administration: Digital technologies can be leveraged to innovate processes and integrate them with the front end, making them more efficient and capable of responding to change.

Transforming public services: Governments must offer a seamless, omni-channel experience to citizens, residents and businesses. They can leverage data to optimize service value streams across programs to offer a more personalized experience to citizens and businesses.Transforming the country: A more efficient, effective, and transparent government can help citizens and businesses become more productive and engaged with their communities. Government can help drive innovation across industries by making publicly available the plethora of data held by departments.

Digital Transformation is not a simple piece of technology that governments can implement to solve all their challenges. The Saudi government plays a key role in embracing digital transformation for the progress of the kingdom, but they must work closely with regional and local stakeholders and private sector partners to realize the benefits of digital investments.

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Following the unprecedented success of IDC’s previous report “Envisioning an ICT led Approach to Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Program”, we are honored to present our next report that is aimed to capture the value of digital technologies for more open, participatory and innovative governments. Our thanks go to HH Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdelaziz, HH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the many ministers, leaders and innovative thinkers that drive Saudi Arabia’s digital government strategy and programs.

We look forward to supporting future reports with IDC insights and analysis within the ever-evolving Kingdom.

Kirk CampbellPresident and CEOIDC

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Sponsored by:

Developed by:

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International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company.

This report would not have been possible without the support of IDC’s valued partners, the key stakeholders responsible for driving digital government initiatives in the Kingdom, and the IDC team that collaborated across different continents to put together insights, case studies, and best practices from around the world and link them to Saudi Arabia’s current digital government initiatives.

We are also grateful to our sponsors – Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, STC, Ebttikar, and AEC, whose insight and contribution were pivotal for developing this report.

ABOUT IDC

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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E-GOVERNMENT TRANSITION TIMES

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been investing in e-government programs for over ten years.

The e-Government First Action Plan (2006-2010), which put forward a vision to make the Saudi government more oriented toward users, focused on three strategic objectives:

• The provision of high-quality electronic services that are user friendly, secure, and available 24/7 for 150 priority areas

• The improvement of internal efficiency and effectiveness by facilitating seamless collaboration between government departments (e.g., by using paperless administration and electronic procurement processes for public purchases)

• The enhancement of the country’s prosperity by making eservices and knowledge key productivity drivers

The e-Government Second Action Plan (2011–2016) built on the achievements of the First Action Plan and focused on four strategic themes: (1) Building a sustainable egovernment-oriented workforce; (2) improving the experience of the public in their interactions with the government; (3) developing a culture of collaboration and innovation, and; (4) improving government efficiency. The execution of the Second Action Plan also centered on six work streams:

• eServices availability, maturity, and utilization• The development of shared infrastructure• Shared national applications (e.g., national databases and

eprocurement systems)• Human capital, communication, and change management• eParticipation (to support citizen involvement in government

processes)• The institutional framework through which the egovernment

program would operate (i.e., the leadership role and organizational form of Yesser, the governance and funding model, and the regulations covering egovernment)

The execution of these action plans and the work done by individual government departments in conjunction with Yesser has paid dividends. For example, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia improved its ranking in the United Nations (UN) E-Government Development Index from 80th in 2005 to 35th in 2014. The country’s ranking slipped slightly in 2016, to 44th; nevertheless, its position remains above the global and regional midpoints.The adoption of Vision 2030, which is a methodology and roadmap

01.

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for economic development in Saudi Arabia, and the adoption of the National Transformation Program (NTP), which is the key action plan for executing Vision 2030, are creating new digital technology investment opportunities. The NTP in particular comes at a time of profound transition, both for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the world as a whole.

Political and Social Transitions

• Rising Citizen Demands: Citizens are demanding a more transparent, participatory, and responsive government that provides seamless digital service experiences like those provided by commercial entities. Citizens are also more aware that technology can make cities safer, improve the quality of healthcare and educational services, and make electricity and water infrastructures more resilient. As such, governments that do not proactively respond to citizen demands risk being confronted by disenfranchised constituencies.

• Social and Demographic Changes: The steep rise in chronic disease rates, due largely to a surge in lifestyle health risk factors (including poor diets and a lack of physical activity), is changing the way healthcare services are demanded. The most prominent health issue in Saudi Arabia, and the larger Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, is diabetes. According to the International Diabetes Federation, Saudi Arabia had 3.4 million cases of diabetes in 2015. In other words, 17.6% of the adult population, or about 1 in 6 adults (aged 20–79), has diabetes. The rise in morbidity and mortality associated with other non-communicable diseases (e.g., cancer and cardiovascular diseases) is also alarming. Overall, chronic diseases are estimated to account for over 70% of all deaths in Saudi Arabia (per the World Health Organization). In Europe and some east Asian countries, these health problems are exacerbated by a growing elderly population, whose members tend to present comorbidities and live in social exclusion. Saudi Arabia has a very young population, but UN projections indicate that the proportion of citizens aged 65 and above will rise from 3% of the population in 2010 to 15% in 2050. Consequently, the government must adapt its welfare and health systems going forward.

• Public Budget Constraints: Governments around the world are under pressure to reduce costs, increase productivity, and cut waste. In particular, governments in the Gulf region have been experiencing intense economic pressures over the past two years because of declining oil revenues. This implies, for example, that governments cannot simply replace their legacy systems and processes outright; instead, they must transform incrementally by proving the value of new technology for specific use cases, and rapidly scale thereafter.

• Deepening Economic and Social Divides: Disadvantaged communities in certain areas of a country or city tend to live in a self-reinforcing vicious cycle of exclusion from work; they also typically remain dependent on multiple uncoordinated welfare

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programs. Members of these communities also face worsening physical and mental health conditions and are sometimes involved in criminal activities. Multiple government entities must therefore make great efforts to break this vicious cycle and ensure that disadvantaged groups absorb a greater share of public resources.

Technology-Triggered Economic Transitions

• Digital Transformation (DX) Altering Business and Society: Every business of every size is facing fundamental disruption because of new technologies, players, ecosystems, and ways of doing business. Moreover, the performance gap between digital thrivers and survivors is expanding, which can in turn accelerate economic and social divides. In this context, SAP recently

announced that it would invest SAR 285 million ($76 million) to create a public innovation cloud hub (the SAP Cloud Hub) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The SAP Cloud Hub will be established in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and is expected to support the nationwide DX goals outlined by the government.

• The Rise of Computer-Based Intelligence: Cognitive computing advances — along with the rise of robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), and machine intelligence — are enabling IT systems to mimic and enhance human intelligence in real time and are creating entirely new product categories and industries. For example, AI is changing the role of the knowledge worker. The ability to apply computing power to complex situations will thus become an essential component of clerical work, allowing public employees to personalize or contextualize services to individual constituents. Technology will become a cognitive companion, rather than a tool used simply to automate repetitive tasks.

• The Rise of the Data Economy: The intrinsic economic basis of the physical marketplace is scarcity. However, in the digital world, scarcity is being replaced by abundance. In fact, IDC reports that less than 10% of data is effectively used by organizations. The more often a digital asset is used to transform data into information, knowledge, and insights to improve user experience, influence decisions, and set directions, the more valuable it becomes.

• The Rise of the Platform Economy: Technology platforms are enabling many-to-many exchanges between businesses, consumers, governments, academia, and community organizations and are amplifying the network effect of economic relationships. Competition is also increasingly leading to platform-based

Every business of every size is facing fundamental disruption because of new technologies,

players, ecosystems, and ways of doing business.

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communities and ecosystems in which global technology players such as Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, and Google have a chance to dominate a given market. While market consolidation limits choices, it increases the power of consumers because a critical mass of partner ecosystems and solutions converges around a select constellation of platforms.

• The Talent Crunch: As rapidly changing technologies transform the market, businesses and public sector institutions that do not have employees with evolving up-to-date skill sets will fall behind competitors. People who possess business and IT skills are currently in high demand, particularly those with leadership, analytics, and coding skills and experience with managing large-scale projects.

Technology-Triggered Security Transitions

• New Security Fault Lines: Cyberthreats increase economic, social, and political volatility risks. Moreover, IoT, mobile devices, cloud and cognitive computing, and robotics are bringing about new opportunities but also expanding the perimeter of cyber and physical vulnerabilities.

• New Privacy Fault Lines: Wearable, mobile, and connected devices in cars, homes, cities, and on people — which are all linked to cloud-based telemetry and data — are affecting every aspect of personal, civic, and professional lives and changing the boundaries of privacy. Legislators are struggling to find a balance between the need to protect data and ensure privacy and the desire to innovate and improve collaboration across government departments, industries, and countries.

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In a few decades, IT use in the government has transitioned through three service delivery platforms:

• The 1st Platform: Mainframes supporting government back offices kept records of purchases, tax collections, and welfare payments.

• The 2nd Platform: Front-office contact centers and web portals started to provide eservices to constituents, and client-server applications enabled civil servants to automate middle-office processes (such as approving a building permit or determining eligibility to a grant program).

• The 3rd Platform: Technologies (including mobile computing, social media, cloud, and big data/analytics) are digitally transforming nearly every aspect of the lives of citizens (taxpayers, voters, patients, students, businesses, tourists, and communities), government employees (civil servants, military personnel, first responders, clinicians, and teachers), and government partners (other governments, private companies, and non-profit organizations supplying products and services to the public sector). The next round of technology breakthroughs, including robotics, natural interfaces, 3D printing, IoT, cognitive systems, and next-generation security, will further accelerate DX.

DX can help Saudi Arabia’s government not only improve its ranking in the UN E-Government Development Index but also make a lasting impact on three levels (see Figure 1):

• Transforming Public Administration: This level is not just about making government operations paperless; rather, it involves leveraging the power of digital technology to integrate processes with front-end operations and make them more efficient and responsive to change. In the context of Vision 2030, the development of shared services capabilities is the perfect example of how the Saudi government could transform public administration through digital technologies.

• Transforming Public Services: Putting services online is no longer sufficient; governments must instead offer a seamless omnichannel experience. They must leverage data to optimize service value streams across government programs. Cross-departmental collaboration will thus enable governments to offer a personalized experience to citizens, rather than forcing citizens to navigate siloed bureaucratic processes. Governments must further leverage digital technology to orient and integrate education, human services, and healthcare ecosystems around the citizen. In the context of Vision 2030, improvements along these lines can support the strategic goal of raising Saudi Arabia’s ranking on the UN E-Government Survey Index to a top-five position.

THE VALUE OF GOVERNMENT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION02.

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• Transforming the Country: A more efficient, effective, and transparent government can help citizens and businesses become more productive and engaged with the social fabric of local communities. Governments also sit on a treasure trove of data that can be utilized to spearhead innovation across industries. In the context of Vision 2030, the government’s DX plan can lift Saudi Arabia’s ranking on the Global Competitiveness Index to a top-10 position.

Figure 1: The Three Layers of Government Digital Transformation

Source: IDC, 2017

National governments have a responsibility to embrace digitalization to spur the economic progress of their countries. However, national governments should work closely with regional and local governments when doing so. In fact, IDC predicts that countries that can quickly move cities along their Smart City transformation journeys will have tremendous success in their digitalization efforts (chiefly, because cities account for nearly 60% of the global population, 75% of global gross domestic product [GDP], and 75% of the energy consumption of an average country). This is even more true in Saudi Arabia, where over 80% of the population already lives in cities. As digitalization becomes an important enabler of economic and social development, cities will play a fundamental role in achieving overall innovation, efficiency, and inclusion.

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Figure 2: The Five Pillars of Digital Transformation

Source: IDC, 2017

Government Digital Transformation — Global Best Practices

DX is not a simple piece of technology that governments can use to solve all their challenges. Rather, it is a continuous improvement journey along five dimensions: Leadership Transformation, Omni-Experience Transformation, Information Transformation, Operating Model Transformation, and WorkSource Transformation.

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INTERVIEW WITH CISCO: CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTED TO ACHIEVE A TRULY DIGITALGOVERNMENTSalman Abdulghani Faqeeh Acting General ManagerCisco Saudi Arabia

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Salman Faqeeh has been appointed Acting General Manager of Cisco Saudi Arabia. In his role, he oversees the execution of a country-wide vision and strategy that delivers value to our customers and partners and also works closely with public and private sector organisations to support them on their digital transformation journeys.

Faqeeh has over 16 years of experience in the IT industry. He joined Cisco in August 2006 and has worked in several roles, leading key accounts and building strong relationships across sectors, including defense, healthcare and energy. Most recently, Faqeeh was Operations Director for Cisco Saudi Arabia, and led and managed the Public Sector business in the Kingdom.

Prior to joining Cisco, Salman worked with Microsoft Arabia, where he successfully managed the relationship with telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), and the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

Salman holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arabia.

Q1. If you were to explain the value created by Digital Transformation within the government sector, especially during today’s transformative times, how would you describe it in a few sentences?

“Connecting the unconnected” is the core principle that drives and defines digitization. Possible outcomes include accelerating GDP growth, creating new jobs, and building a sustainable innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Thus, digitization will help the Kingdom diversify its economy and achieve its Vision 2030.

During the Digital Age, by 2020, we expect 1 million new devices will be connected every hour. This will include everything from cars to weather sensors, oil pipelines, traffic lights, medical equipment or whiteboards at schools. Parts of the world that were left behind in the Information Age will have the infrastructure and information needed to move their nations forward at an accelerated pace.

Digitization opens unprecedented opportunities for the government sector and public services. A cutting edge digital infrastructure will help increase the Kingdom’s GDP, reduce spending and create jobs, and allow the government to improve public services and citizen experiences. It will enable entrepreneurs to build businesses, whilst providing accessibility and opportunities for education and technology-based careers.

As the largest technology market by far in the Middle East and with a

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young, fast-growing population marked by technologically literate early adopters, Saudi Arabia can make massive strides towards bringing about positive social and economic change and reaping the multiple benefits of the digital era.

Q2. How can digital transformation help the Saudi government increase convenience of accessing public services for citizens, improve stewardship and accountability for previous public finance resources, enhance social inclusiveness and partnerships, and create a data-driven culture that favours cross-departmental information sharing to achieve better public sector program outcomes?

Digital transformation has emerged as the most transformative means to ignite sustainable growth and improve society. Those countries and organizations that get ahead and embrace digital transformation will uncover limitless possibilities to drive innovation, growth and jobs of the future. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has immense potential to prosper in the coming decade and the government’s partnership with Cisco’s to accelerate digitization at a country-wide level positions the Kingdom for long-term prosperity in the digital age.

Countries, cities and communities around the world face an increasing array of challenges, from access to education and healthcare to congestion, security, and waste and water management. By digitizing, government entities are leveraging the power of technology to find efficient ways to provide more services with less, while enhancing livability.

There are multiple digitization examples and use cases that Cisco has worked on around the world which demonstrate how the development of an advanced digital infrastructure and ecosystem can build smarter, safer, and healthier countries in the digital era. For example, Cisco’s mobility solutions have helped governments promote greater productivity and better delivery of public services, by allowing employees from different departments to work together on their own devices from anywhere. In addition to improving productivity and reducing costs across government entities, these solutions also streamline operations and increase shared services and cross-departmental collaboration, transforming the way government entities execute their missions and serve and connect with citizens.

The range of solutions and benefits digitization delivers is extensive, from improving connectivity with the public to deliver personalized location-based experiences to delivering real-time analytics and providing easy access to government and citizen records in a safe and secure way.

Digitization will allow for a confluence of data from static sensors,

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as well as connected objects and people, to inform government processes and improve the delivery of public services and the management of infrastructure. By providing government and public sector entities with more data and knowledge to make the right decisions like never before, digital transformation will provide access to new levels of services such as healthcare, education and transportation.

Digital transformation will also help decrease operating and capital costs through new efficiencies and smarter decisions about resource allocation. It will drive economic expansion by providing services that attract businesses and retain professional talent, while enabling money-saving innovations across public services, as well as in public safety, tourism and more.

Q3. The National Transformation Program (NTP) will necessitate Saudi government entities to embark on transformation in challenging times. How do you see your firm enabling / complementing the digitization efforts of the Saudi government over the coming years?

Cisco has extensive experience in helping government organizations transform processes, implement a secure architecture, and deliver visionary solutions. Across more than 175 countries, we serve over 7,000 national government agencies and 8,000 regional and local government agencies.

As part of our Saudi Arabia Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, Cisco has conducted a study to identify the top avenues through which the Saudi government can deliver on the value of digitization, including strategies on healthcare, education, smart cities and smart grids, and cybersecurity, among others. We are making our global expertise in smart transformation, digital government, and connected healthcare and education available to the Kingdom and contributing a leading role in the development of Saudi Arabia’s ICT infrastructure and increasing digital skills and awareness to support government priorities.

To accomplish this, we have commenced with a digital acceleration program that focuses on digitizing 10 domains, while exploring other areas to determine the value that digitization would bring to them. We are also currently working on a number of pilots or ‘use cases’ that support plans for multiple government entities to accelerate their digital transformation. In addition, Cisco is working closely with the Saudi government to identify a range of collaborative opportunities in areas that include developing national IT infrastructure, skills development, accelerating business innovation, stimulating startups and enhancing research and education.

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Q4. As the Digital Government initiatives gather momentum and take shape, what technologies do you see having the maximum impact in Saudi Arabia over the next 2-3 years?

We estimate that by 2020, 71% of global network traffic will originate from non-PC devices including smartphones, tablets and televisions. Digitization and the Internet of Things (IoT) will also contribute to driving increased network traffic. The ability to secure data, act on the data and deliver services based on the data will determine the success of organizations. However, there is an important pre-requisite for successful digitization: digital ready networks.

Going forward, network connectivity will become increasingly easy as corporate networking shifts to an open model. An intuitive network provides automation, real-time analytics, virtualization and the limitless scalability of the cloud. It helps digital transformation by providing insights, automation and threat protection. For example, in the digital age, network devices can detect and shut down a pipeline spill automatically, or enable preventive maintenance in manufacturing plants.

As the race to connect the unconnected continues, the Internet of Things (IoT) will soon change the way we live our lives. IoT in consumer and business life will accelerate, connecting data, things, processes and people. More things will become intelligent and connected to address a range of business needs. Medical devices, appliances, performance monitors, connected vehicles and smart grids are some of the early areas of adoption. Intelligent systems will grow at a quick pace in 2017, as more applications and products become available. New products will by default have connected networks and Wi-Fi built into them, opening the door for new use cases and innovative business models.

Security will become even more paramount and the growth of connected devices and networks will largely depend on the success of being able to secure them successfully. The current generation of security technologies and architectures will not be sufficient to protect billions of devices in exponentially more complex connections. We also see a shift toward a cyber-physical paradigm, where we closely integrate computing and communication with the connected things, including the ability to control their operations. An approach to holistically integrate security vulnerability analysis and protections in both domains will become increasingly necessary.

Changing the way we work: according to 2016 research by Harvard Business Review, while individual workforce members are becoming more connected on their own, effective team communication has become more important over the past two years. Work collaboration with partners, suppliers, customers, consultants, as well as colleagues in dispersed locations has increased in importance. The next generation of collaboration tools will be cloud-based, mobile-first and

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capable of integrating various workflows.

Other important technologies which should be prioritized include cloud-based solutions, which are key in the Digital era, as well as big data and analytics, and social networks for business use, which will incorporate collaboration/unified communications (UC), shared information creation, and access and management, with a strong emphasis on security.

Q5. How prepared is the Kingdom when it comes to adopting these technologies? Please elaborate not only on the technology gaps, but also the regulatory, governance and skill gaps and how you would advise the government to address them?

A new study from IDC supported by Cisco shows that, when it comes to the skills needed for digitization, many countries are not ready. While digitization can accelerate and differentiate a country’s ability to progress, lack of adequate digital skills can limit the potential to digitize and grow economically. In order to reap the potential rewards of digital transformation, the world will need millions of people to fill information and communications technology jobs in every country, and in almost every field.

Via programs like the Cisco Networking Academy, a Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility program, we are working closely with government and public sector entities to develop the critical technical skills required for digitization. In terms of bridging the skills gap, we have a number of programs aimed at career building, training and developing IT skills needed to thrive in a changing economy. We are working closely with educators, employers, and relevant government bodies to prepare students and the workforce for the future.

Under Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Plan (NTP), one of the strategic objectives set out for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is to provide broadband services to all KSA regions by stimulating investment in infrastructure and developing tools, technical and regulatory frameworks – with key performance indicators having been sent as benchmarks to evaluate progress on these multiple fronts. Several other NTP initiatives aim to introduce regulatory frameworks to promote open source and free software, address cloud and IoT regulation, and drive local content. This is in addition the development of regulations aimed at addressing broadband penetration, including stimulating public telecommunications service providers to invest in the broadband infrastructure.

Through our country digital acceleration partnership and close working relationship with both the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, we are supporting the Kingdom’s multipronged efforts to bridge technology, skills and regulatory gaps and support the development of a robust, dynamic knowledge-based digital economy that achieves the objectives of Vision 2030 and drives the Kingdoms’ competitiveness in the Digital Era.

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Government leaders that want to achieve the intended benefits of digitalization need to move away from siloed bureaucracies that are risk averse and stigmatize failure. Government leaders must embrace collaborative innovations across department boundaries that favor rapid iterations and reward civil servants for learning from failures. To achieve this goal, governments must reconcile the diverse goals of different leaders. For example, when it comes to digital omni-channel services for citizens and businesses:

• Government mission executives must aim to leverage technology to reduce total expenditure (e.g., through self-services provision) and improve the overall public perception of the mission or agency. However, self-service provision sometimes neglects end-to-end service lifecycles and interdependencies with other missions; it also standardizes services that benefit from personalization.

• Technology executives must aim to enable web-, mobile-, cloud-, and social-based transactions. However, a tool-centric view, rather than a service-centric view, can lock enterprise architecture into rigid solutions, build “taller” silos, and marginalize non-IT-literate users.

• Program managers must aim to reduce the number of unnecessary interactions with citizens and prevent service complaints. However, program managers may erroneously standardize services that benefit from personalization, underestimate the cost and complexity of IT solutions, and underestimate the role of partners that are increasingly involved in delivering digital services.

• Procurement and finance managers must aim to minimize the cost of every purchase. However, they may neglect the lifecycle view of a digital solution that has many integration points and ignore the need to balance asset standardization with agile business change.

• Legal affair executives must aim to minimize liability and prevent the infringement of procurement, data protection, fraud, and health and safety regulations and policies. Unfortunately, this emphasis may create a very risk-averse culture that stifles innovation by building tighter controls on process inputs rather than program outcomes.

• Other rigidities may arise from the confusion between individual government departments and central agencies about which body is responsible for coordinating national economic development, providing shared IT and business services, and overseeing public expenditure performance and transparency. For example, ambiguity around strategy processes due to non-aligned budget, procurement, and technology cycles results in inertia and poor evidence-based decision making.

LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION03.

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DX facilitates the use of agile and affordable architectural building blocks such as software development kits (SDKs), application programming interfaces (APIs), mobile apps, web widgets, and containers. Combining these tools in a platform-based approach allows data to be used across multiple channels. However, such an approach must be based on a governance model that enables rapid prototyping, scales up plug-and-play services, and facilitates continuous innovation.This transformation of IT management practices is what IDC calls “Leading in 3D,” or L3D. This leadership model identifies the three main dimensions, or phases, involved in the pursuit of DX. The first phase, Innovate, pertains to developing the corporate elements of innovation; the second phase, Integrate, is about infusing innovation elements across the organization; and the third phase, Incorporate, depicts how infrastructure, services, user experience, and data can be applied to sustain this transformation (see Figure 3).

To foster the transition toward L3D, government leaders must reward employees and managers that align with citizen experience improvement outcomes, share knowledge across teams, and avoid stigmatizing mistakes and fixating on process compliance. Leaders must also work with personnel that favor independent, data-driven, decision-making processes that are supported by real-time analytics at every touch point of the constituent journey. Leadership DX requires government IT and non-IT executives to become more sophisticated in their knowledge of the service delivery ecosystem, including the digital accessibility of constituents, employees, and partners.

Source: IDC, 2017

Figure 3: IDC’s Leading-in-3D Model

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Furthermore, government executives need to anticipate and design services and operational innovations that improve the quality of interactions along the entire service lifecycle, chiefly by creating shared digital experiences that serve the needs of mobile, socially connected, digitally transformed citizens. Governments that fail to change their leadership paradigms will impede IT-enabled business innovation. IT functions in such governments will either be viewed as the providers of commodity back-office services or, worse, as cost centers.

In the context of DX, leadership and organizational models that leverage the national ecosystem are becoming increasingly important. Leaders understand that they need to share intellectual property to achieve better outcomes through the disruptive innovation of business models. This is true for digital public services as well as the digital economy.

For example, Singapore is striving to become a “Smart Nation” as it works to enhance living conditions, establish stronger communities, and create more opportunities for all. The government is putting in place policies and legislations to nurture a culture of experimentation, encourage innovation and the eventual adoption of new ideas (e.g., by funding research and development [R&D] and setting favorable legal conditions for startups), and secure the protection of data. The government is also explicitly looking to citizens and businesses to co-create impactful solutions.

Leadership Transformation Global Best Practices — U.S. Federal Communications Commission IT Transformation

Existing Challenges

When Dr. David Bray took over as the CIO of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in August 2013, the agency’s legacy IT spending was about 80% of its overall IT budget, and growing. The agency, which employs approximately 1,700 people, had over 200 different systems in place, or one system for every 8–9 employees, and more than half of those systems were over 10 years old. The agency used manual, paper-based, processes that could benefit from automation. In addition to technology challenges, the FCC had a revolving door of CIOs (nine CIOs had been employed in the eight years before Bray’s appointment).

Dr. Bray introduced three IT transformation goals for the agency:

• Agility: Improve the ability to execute the FCC’s mission, drive innovation with external stakeholders, and increase transparency across FCC activities.

• Resiliency: Improve IT scalability and stability while reducing system risks and increasing the availability of FCC data.

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• Efficiency: Reduce the cost of IT and new solutions, improve user experiences, re-use software across the FCC, and decrease the time needed to create new IT solutions.

Solution

Dr. Bray decided to implement a cloud-based data platform across the FCC that would meet the business needs of the agency’s bureaus and offices. However, deploying cloud involved changing how the IT department perceived its role in the agency. Historically, the FCC’s IT department created whatever IT system was needed, regardless of long-term sustainability.

Dr. Bray highlighted the benefits of cloud to his team, brought in new employees to drive innovations, and assigned a dedicated IT employee to serve as a bridge for each bureau and office. Dr. Bray also established a continuous process of working with business units to understand and document their priorities and workflows, share plans and progress metrics for all projects, monitor progress and deliverables, and incorporate bureau feedback.

Benefits

Due to Bray’s knowledge of the importance of early and visible wins to solidify support for larger-scale modernization initiatives, the first FCC deployments included a cloud-based version of the consumer complaint helpdesk (www.fcc.gov/complaints) and a cloud-based electronic comment filing system. These solutions exposed the FCC to cloud-based software; they also fulfilled the needs of the business units, improved functionality and user experience, and reduced operating costs. By the end of 2017, the FCC expects to have nearly 100% of its operations in the cloud.

Lessons Learned

Although the FCC is a relatively small agency, the leadership practices that were implemented would be effective for agencies of all sizes:

• Leadership DX requires government IT and non-IT executives to collaborate with each other, become more sophisticated in their knowledge of the service delivery ecosystem, and understand the digital accessibility of constituents, employees, and partners.

• The FCC leadership empowered a dedicated, nimble team to design services and operational innovations that would serve the needs of mobile, socially connected, digitally transformed citizens.

• Through the feedback loops and processes set up for digitalization, the end-to-end service lifecycles and interdependencies with all bureaus and offices were taken into consideration.

• Dr. Bray’s goals of agility, resiliency, and efficiency provided a clear vision for his team and were supported by cloud technology that reduced total expenditure and improved the overall public perception of the agency.

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Omni-Experience Transformation covers the infinite combination of interactive touch points between digitally-enabled governments and their citizens, partners, and employees. Citizens, partners, and state employees expect government agencies to use digital tools (e.g., social media, mobile and wearable devices, IoT, chatbots, and AI) to seamlessly provide services depending on the stage of the service experience journey they are in (see Figure 4).

Citizen omni-experience lies at the core of digital public services. For example, a new graduate might first look for job opportunities on a mobile app and then follow discussions on a social media platform to understand how current employees or interviewees rate their experience with a certain organization. The graduate may then fill out some applications using a self-service web portal and participate in face-to-face counseling sessions provided by the government job center.

Increasingly, an integrated approach is required to enable collaboration across government departments — chiefly, because constituents can use multiple touch points, and the consumption of public services has a systemic effect on the budgets appropriated by multiple departments. For instance, young citizens found guilty of anti-social behavior usually require the attention of criminal justice, probation, social, and education services. Collaboration across departments can also help governments reduce fraud, waste, and the abuse of resources (e.g., by quickly identifying citizens who are not entitled to receive welfare assistance under multiple programs).

At an early stage of Omni-Experience Transformation, government agencies manage citizen requests through multiple independent channels. The limited sharing of information within and across these channels is due to organizational history, legislative constraints, and siloed technology implementations. There are no communications with (or training for) government employees about good citizen experience principles.

At the most mature stage of transformation, qualified data about citizens and their preferences is used and integrated within and across channels, allowing government programs to offer a consistent and contextual experience. Citizen experience is a key component of the government program, and government employees are trained about and employ citizen experience principles.

From a purely technological perspective, investments in mobile-based digital services are currently a major focus area of governments. Of the 27 government CIOs from the GCC that IDC interviewed about DX

OMNI-EXPERIENCETRANSFORMATION04.

Figure 4: Omni-Channel Experience Platform

Source: IDC, 2017

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during its regional CIO Summits in 2016, 59% indicated that mobile computing was highly important for citizen engagement, while only 28% that said the same about social media (see Figure 5).

It is important to note that this focus on mobile, justified by the extremely high penetration of smart devices in the Middle East, should not drive government leaders to simply push the development of mobile apps. Apps should be rationalized to focus on the use cases that matter the most because, according to market estimates, the average app usage retention rate across industries is only 20% after 90 days. For other, less important, use cases, the responsive design of websites should be the most important consideration.

Existing Challenges

The U.K. government faces significant challenges in providing public services. Since 2012, austerity measures have put additional demands on public departments that are trying to tackle complex reforms with fewer staff and smaller budgets. Technology-enabled transformation has been instrumental in achieving a balance between improved service provision and cost savings.

4%

Low Importance

Low Importance

Moderate Importance

Moderate Importance

High Importance

High Importance

37%

59%

20%

52%

28%

Figure 5: The Role of Mobile and Social Media for Citizen Engagement

Omni-Channel Transformation Global Best Practices — U.K. Government Digital Service Strategy

Q. How important are the following specific digital technologies in terms of supporting the organization’s digital transformation strategy?

Note: Number of respondents = 27 government executives in the GCCSource: IDC, 2017

GCC - Government Sector: Importance of Mobile Technologies

for Citizen Engagement

GCC - Government Sector: Importance of Social Media for

Citizen Engagement

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Solution

The 2011 UK Government ICT Strategy and the 2013 Government Digital Strategy set ambitious goals that are regarded as the precursors of government DX across the European public sector and beyond. The key guiding principles of the strategies were:

• Making Services Digital by Default: This included promoting the usage of RESTful APIs and redesigning services based on user-centricity principles to support prototyping and the rapid scaling of new digital channels.

• Imposing Interoperability Standards: Openness favors the interoperability and standardization of common components. The government heavily pushed the openness agenda, allowing developers to reuse components and focus on value-adding activities, such as improving the user experience, quickly delivering new functionalities, and uncovering new use cases.

• Promoting Cloud-First and Agile Methodologies: The government aimed to change the current methods of performing work so that departments and agencies could reap the transformative power of cloud computing and rapid iterations instead of simply automating legacy practices and systems.

• Mandating Information Assurance Standards. This entailed reviewing the data classification policy to ensure that digital services and cloud computing could be leveraged in an agile manner while protecting sensitive data.

A Government Digital Service (GDS) unit was established directly under the U.K. Cabinet Office. In 2015, it received £455 million in funding, which was to be spent over four years.

• The GDS unit is adopting a collaborative and flexible approach to supporting departments. This unit will base its approach on the circumstances of individual departments and take account of the importance of managing existing systems. In September 2016, the GDS unit announced plans to establish a cross-government digital academy to train 3,000 civil servants a year. The unit is trialing work with the Complex Transactions Team and Infrastructure and Projects Authority to offer multidisciplinary advice in areas such as IT contracts.

• The GDS unit has established controls over spending and service design. The unit reported that these controls reduced spending on IT by £1.3 billion in the five years to April 2016. Digital expenditure of over £100,000 is subject to these controls.

• Cabinet Office controls helped increase the flexibility of department IT contracts. Moreover, the GDS unit worked with the Crown Commercial Service to diversify the supplier base. The unit also introduced frameworks such as G-Cloud and the Digital Services Framework (now replaced by the Digital Outcomes and Specialists Framework) to improve contracting with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

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Benefits

The DX pillars accelerated the deployment of digital services in the U.K. Key services were brought online, such as voter registration, tax account review, and viewing and renewal of patents and driving licenses. A unified government portal (Gov.uk) replaced hundreds of government websites and shifted the paradigm of user experience. A federated identity program, Verify.gov, and a unified notification service, Notify.gov, were launched to increase convenience for citizens and businesses interacting with multiple departments.

Twenty-five government services were selected for end-to-end service redesign. By March 2016, 15 of these services were available online and a further 5 were provided to the public in trial form. The GDS unit also determined positive net present values for 12 of the 22 programs for which data was available.

SME involvement in U.K. government DX projects improved thanks to new contractual vehicles. By November 2016, 64% of sales to SMEs were made via the G-Cloud framework. However, most spending continues to be with large enterprises.

Lessons Learned

Apply Human-Centric Design Thinking

The implementation of digital services should not focus on technologically transforming pieces of a process, such as filing a complaint, but should instead look at the end-to-end experience journey. Human-centered design thinking includes “innovation hubs,” or methods to design, incubate, adopt, and then launch and scale.

Essentially, human-centric design thinking is a simpler way of looking at user experiences and involves conducting root cause analyses of underlying challenges. In the U.K, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) provides an example of the pitfalls of not applying human-centric design thinking. In one of its recent digital initiatives, HMRC failed to adopt an end-to-end user experience view of digital services. HMRC’s digital service strategy moved more personal taxpayers online, thereby reducing the costs associated with telephone and postal communication. HMRC, through substantial staff reductions, also decreased the cost of its personal tax operations by £257 million between 2010/11 and 2014/15. However, HMRC misjudged the cumulative impact of its complex transition and released too many staff before completing service changes, even though the organization had maintained or improved its level of customer service up to 2013/14. The quality of service provided by HMRC for personal taxpayers thus collapsed in 2014/15 and the first seven months of 2015/16, when average call waiting times tripled.

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Services have subsequently improved, following the recruitment of additional staff, but whether this performance is sustainable depends on the success of its digital-first program. This is a typical flaw in the transition to online services. New channels are added, and the assumption is that they immediately supplement existing channels. That is not the case. For example, an online channel increases the accessibility of existing users who use telephone and paper channels and captures groups of users that may not have interacted through call centers. However, users need some time to get used to using this new channel; moreover, there is an added requirement to support or triage users. In some cases, it can take up to three years after the introduction of digital services for the volume of interactions to increase before a substitution effect takes place.

Leverage a Platform-Based Approach

Using a platform-based approach will ensure consistency of data cross channels while enabling the fast deployment of new digital services (such as mobile services). For instance, in 2011/12 the U.K. Met Office developed a mobile app that initially attracted only a fraction of the 400 million visits its website received per year. However, the app now gets about 400 million visits per year against the website’s 200 million visits. More nimble data and service architectures are easier to expose to a mobile environment. That said, adequate governance is required to foster an operating model based on data sharing and collaboration processes while complying with regulations on data protection, transparency, and intellectual property.

Provide Clear Guidance on the Usage of Technical Standards and Contractual Arrangements

The National Audit Office found that GDS unit guidance was overlapping in some instances. For example, blogs and service manuals were being used to provide guidance on contract management and the use of APIs. In some cases, guidance had been removed and web links broken. Standards were set as broad principles, leaving scope for interpretation and disagreement. The GDS unit had not provided detailed guidance on how to implement standards in practice.

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INTERVIEW WITH HEWLETT-PACKARD ENTERPRISE (HPE): ENABLING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR IMPROVED UTILIZATION AND EFFICIENCY

Mohammed AL JasserManaging Director, Saudi ArabiaHewlett Packard Enterprise

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Eng. Mohammed N. Al Jasser is the Managing Director for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, in Saudi Arabia. Previously, he was the Managing Director of Inma Technologies, a fully owned subsidiary of AlTurki Holding. He has held many positions in his career including the Vice President of the Enterprise Business Unit at Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC), and was the Board Member and Chairman of RIM Committee at Awal, an STC subsidiary, which now STC Solutions Company. Mr. Al Jasser worked with Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC), for more than 6 years, after a career of 10 years with multinational companies in the telecommunications industry such as Motorola, Ericsson, and Cisco.

He is married, and has three children. He Obtained a Bachelor Degree of Science in Electrical Engineering from Seattle University, USA, in 1997, and an MBA from the University of Leicester, UK, in 2011.

Mohammed Al Jasser is the Chairman of National ICT Committee, Saudi Council of Chambers since Jan 2018. He is also the Private Sector Chair of Advisory Committee for Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, MCIT, since Dec 2017. Mr. AlJasser is the Chairman of the ICT Development Committee in the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce Since Jan 2017. He was VP of INSEAD Alumni Association Steering Committee in Saudi Arabia until 2016. Mr. AlJasser is a Harvard Business School Alumnus since July 2015. Also, he is a member of the Advisory Council for College of Engineering at Al-Faisal University since April 2014, and he was a founding member of Oqal Angel Investment Community where he served on the board until 2012. Mr. Al Jasser is an Eisenhower Fellow since May 2009, and currently serves as Chairman of Eisenhower Fellowship Nominating Committee in Saudi Arabia.


Digital transformation is truly valuable. It’s been scientifically proven by many studies that investment in ICT and digital transformation is strongly linked to increasing economic value-add and economic growth. That’s why it has become a mainstream line of thinking that governments must focus on digital transformation, not only to enhance public service experience and citizen engagement, but also to bring in efficiencies and GDP growth in general. Digital transformation is particularly important to the Saudi government for these reasons:• Effectiveness and efficiency: governments aim to become more effective and efficient in providing better services in a more transparent way to users, irrespective of whether the users are citizens or expats. In terms of IT and digital transformation, this means making better use of resources — ensuring no duplications, enabling smooth and easy process, and enabling informed, data-driven decisions by utilizing data analytics. • Consolidation of different government assets: The Saudi government

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currently has multiple datacenters, and multiple government entities are doing overlapping things. The introduction of a national Digital ID could allow citizens and government officials to receive and deliver services in a much more effective way. In Saudi Arabia today, there are several hundreds of different government public sector datacenters. With digital transformation, the government can – and has the opportunity to — consolidate these installations into a handful of datacenters, to achieve a more optimized CapEx investment model.• Directing human capital into more focused and professional competencies: The consolidation of 500 datacenters will downsize the number of people needed to run IT operations. However, many employees can be reassigned to new jobs or trained in areas like data security and Internet of Things (IoT). In the end, the net result will be better jobs for Saudi Arabia. • Strategic direction: With digital transformation, the government can accelerate positive outcome and improve citizen experience, which enable greater focus on government core business in various sectors such as healthcare. A good example of that is the ministry of health’s “Unified Digital Medical Record”, an initiative that will help the ministry improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare sector through the use of information technology and digital platforms that enable a data driven insights, informed decision making, and most of all a highly positive citizen experience. It is important to point out that Vision 2030 through NTP2020 has set aggressive targets for creating unified digital medical record for 70% of Saudi citizens by 2020.

Q2. How can digital transformation help the Saudi government increase the convenience of accessing public services, improve the management of public finance resources, enhance social inclusiveness and partnerships, and create a data-driven culture that favors cross-departmental information sharing to achieve better public-sector program outcomes?

In the kingdom’s Vision 2030, technology and innovation are regarded as key enablers across the various sectors of the economy. For that reason, the government is keen on deploying citizen-oriented digital services that result in effective and efficient service delivery, reduce the government’s cost of operation, and increase transparency. Another important aspect of government digital transformation in the kingdom is information sharing. Data is power, and there’s a national initiative for open data, under very senior leadership from the Saudi government, aiming to ensure that data is available across different government entities, for better planning of services, regulations and policies; available for business, to better plan their investments and operations; and available for global organizations, like United Nations and World Economic Forum, to show the performance of the Saudi economy. Digital transformation will also lead to more inclusion of Saudi citizens. We’ve seen great focus on the Universal Service Fund and the standardization of services of the rural area, aiming to bridge the digital

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divide between urban and rural areas. When citizens have access to the Internet, they have access to a world of content and information that is so beneficial. That automatically increases inclusion and economic value-add especially for society segments like rural areas and women, giving them services and opportunities they wouldn’t have without access to Internet. Another great example in this regard is Ministry of Interior’s “Absher” portal, which enabled a lot of citizens and expats across the kingdom to complete most of the services they require from MOI’s different agencies in an easy and efficient matter, reducing government’s cost and improving citizens’ experience.

Q3. The National Transformation Program (NTP) will compel Saudi government entities to embark on transformation in challenging times. How do you see your firm enabling/complementing the digitization efforts of the Saudi government over the coming years?

By acting as a true partner and a positive corporate citizen. HPE brings a lot of value to the digital transformation momentum in the kingdom. HPE is historically one of the founders of Silicon Valley, so it has great history and a great wealth of knowledge, coupled with huge resources that can could add value to the kingdom’s economy, including R&D, advisory and consulting resource that could contribute to various government, semi-government and private sector organization going through digital transformation. Therefore, a key aspect is sharing knowledge and experience and helping our partners create a roadmap that’s aligned with their strategy and objectives on how to transform their business and implement digital transformation. We’re currently engaged with many stakeholders doing knowledge sharing workshops and specific design engagements to help them create the right environment for digital transformation.HPE is also supporting the kingdom’s digitization efforts through introducing enablers based on its global experience. A noteworthy example is “Cloud28”, a digital community that connects Cloud service providers, ISPs and system integrators to share solutions, experiences, knowledge and content, and helps them engage in joint Go-to-Market activities to promote Cloud adoption and transformation. Cloud28 has been a successful global initiative for HPE, and HPE KSA is in the process of enabling Saudi businesses to be part of this community. Another example is the “Pathfinder” initiative, which aims at taking Saudi businesses of a certain scale to the global market.Another aspect of supporting the kingdom’s digital transformation is bringing latest innovations in HPE’s product portfolio to the Saudi market. For example, the concept of consumption-based IT, an innovative model that has just been launched by HPE and is being rolled out in the kingdom, in which customers will pay for outcomes rather than hardware or software assets.

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Cloud is definitely pivotal for the kingdom’s digital future. We expect a great deal of investment from local and international players in Cloud technologies and services. HPE, as a market leader in Cloud infrastructure, is aiming to bring the latest and most innovative technologies to the market, to enable our clients to setup the right eco-system around Cloud services.IoT is another technology that’s gaining traction in the kingdom, and is expected to have a notable impact in the coming years. The market is witnessing increased interest and activity around IoT from government, semi-government and private entities, with high-profile events and discussions involving all stakeholders. HPE is always at the heart of these discussions sharing existing offerings, international experiences, and views around the advanced services that can assure current and prospective clients that they’ll have the right support and access to information when needed for planning their operational excellence targets, and for ensuring their business continuity and availability.Cyber security is also an area of great importance. It’s essential to both Cloud and IoT, and with increased digitization, security risks increase. For that HPE has security in the DNA of its portfolio of products and services. Securing services here in key, as security isn’t only about product design or solution, but also about the services around these products and solutions, to ensure having the right process, procedure and policy for securing infrastructure and services and guaranteeing business continuity.

Q5. How prepared is the Kingdom when it comes to adopting these technologies? Please elaborate not only on the technology gaps as well as regulatory, governance, and skill gaps. In addition, how you would advise the government to address these gaps?

There has never been a time that the kingdom is more ready than now. The government has been moving fast and in the right direction to fix any gaps. This’s evident in many actions taken by the government, like the new cloud regulation, and continuous government efforts to review the national digital strategy regulations related to ICT. Challenges are faced on many fronts, and efforts are being made to overcome them and significant progress has been made.HPE believes that the IT industry is an ecosystem of interlinked factors, each adding value and enabling others to add more value. Ecosystem thinking is important to overcome challenges and fix gaps, and increase ICT sector’s contribution to GDP growth as well as overall development of the economy.Another area of focus is human capital development. ICT market provides great job opportunities for Saudi citizens, males and females. Skillset and capability development and continuous learning are key to ensuring that the kingdom will have the right resources to support

the various investments made by government and private sector in digital transformation and ICT in general. HPE is pleased to say that it has signed an agreement with the ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) to develop the skillsets of Saudi citizens in different ICT areas. HPE will be collaborating with MCIT to launch a set of ICT training tracks across the kingdom through different delivery partners. The pilots have already been completed and the outcome is very encouraging, and we’re looking forward to building on that success with accelerated training delivery plans aiming to provide ICT training to over 2,400 Saudi citizens.

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Transformed governments treat data as a valuable asset; in turn, information becomes the currency of a dynamic experience chain between governments and their extended stakeholder ecosystems. The impact of technologies like big data/analytics and cognitive computing in the government arena is expected to be far and wide. For instance, IDC predicts that, by 2019, 15% of government transactions (e.g., tax collection, welfare disbursement, and immigration control) will have embedded analytics.

Governments around the world recognize that data is the core currency of government DX. The widespread availability of data lowers its cost; nevertheless, governments must be able to harness the power of data by processing it to obtain information, knowledge, and insights that can support better decision making, increase transparency, personalize services, and reduce waste. Governments around the globe have put data at the center of their digital strategies:

• “Information is a valuable national resource and a strategic asset to the federal government, its partners, and the public. To ensure that the federal government is taking full advantage of its information resources, executive departments and agencies ... must manage information as an asset throughout its lifecycle to promote openness and interoperability and properly safeguard systems and information.” — U.S. Federal Government OMB Open Data Policy: Managing Information as an Asset

• “Make better use of data — not just for transparency, but to enable transformation across government and the private sector.” — One of the five key building blocks outlined in the U.K. Government Transformation Strategy 2017–2020

• “Singapore’s Smart Nation is built upon the collection of data and the ability to make sense of information. Insights gathered from data will contribute to forming solutions that can help improve lives.” — Media Factsheet: Smart Nation Sensor Program

Thirty-seven government CIOs from the GCC region were interviewed about big data/analytics solutions during several IDC CIO summits in 2016. Of this total, 27% had already invested in analytics and 11% had invested in big data solutions, while 56% were planning to invest in analytics and 43% were planning to invest in big data technologies by end of 2017 (see Figure 6).

INFORMATIONTRANSFORMATION05.

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IDC surveys in the U.S. and Western Europe indicate that big data/analytics can add value a variety of use cases. These include:

• Harnessing the increased volume, variety, and speed of data brought about by IoT, particularly in the context of Smart Cities, to optimize traffic, improve public safety, and enhance environmental protection

• Personalizing services through digital-first open-data architectures• Increasing efficiency of back-office processes such as finance,

human capital management, and procurement• Reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in areas like tax collection and

health and human service programs• Increasing capacity to prevent and respond to cyberthreats

For government finance officers, these use cases come down to applying a data-driven decision making process. Such a process can enrich the continuous cycle of budget planning, program execution, and performance review:

• At the planning stage, big data/analytics solutions can help reduce the disconnect between policy decisions taken at the elected official level and the process changes that program officers need to implement to rapidly translate policy decisions into effective and efficient services.

• At the program execution stage, big data/analytics solutions can help streamline operations.

• At the performance review stage, big data/analytics can be used to enhance compliance through the continuous monitoring and forensic analysis of risks.

Figure 6: The Role of Mobile and Social Media for Citizen Engagement

Q. Which of the following technologies / solutions and services have you implemented or are planning to implement in future?


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As an example of the performance review stage, Pôle Emploi, the French central government welfare agency in charge of employment-related services, applied risk management practices and IT solutions to increase efficiency and reduce financial and operational risks. In 2011, Pôle Emploi employed approximately 50,000 civil servants in 135 offices across French provincial departments and used 900 local agencies as front-end access points for citizens. The agency also offered online services and had 40 contact centers. Total annual expenditure at the time was around €35 billion. At Pôle Emploi, financial risks had traditionally been audited externally, by the Cour des Comptes and by private auditors, but cost control pressures and a merger with another large agency necessitated a stronger internal focus. Consequently, a whole unit (Maîtrise des Risques) responsible for internal risk control and audit was created. As part of the transformation, Pôle Emploi also implemented a new integrated risk management solution, called Logiciel Intégré de Suivi et d’Améliorations (LISA).

LISA has fundamentally changed the way agency business is conducted. For example, a process describes how to record unemployment requests. The process defines how to make the evaluation, what questions to ask, and what information to record in LISA. For each of those activities, there are precise descriptions of operational risks and the controls needed to reduce them. Moreover, each regional office needs to complete a questionnaire every year that ranks 70 activities based on the levels of risk and control. The average is then shared with all regional offices, and, if the regional office needs to improve, the managers responsible for it must establish an action plan.

From a technological standpoint, two key inflection points are driving Information Transformation — platforms and advanced analytics:

• Platforms are N-tiered solutions based on cloud computing and APIs that can help establish a standard language for on-demand data collection and processing. These platforms build incrementally on the existing data management tools.

• Advanced analytics capabilities provision, scale, and contextualize real-time predictive and prescriptive insights at the point of decision making. Big data/analytics and machine learning look beyond siloed reports to discover patterns through the increasing volumes and variety of data.

An important focus area for governments in the realm of Information Transformation is open data. Open data can deliver value in terms of increased transparency and accountability in digital administration and can be an engine for the growth of the digital economy. In fact, by engaging with the startup ecosystem, community organizations, and global ICT suppliers, governments can use open data programs to trigger new services and business models.

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For example, Transport for London’s (TfL) open data program powers an estimated 500 travel apps in the U.K. Over 42% of Londoners use these apps, enabling millions of journeys in London each day and giving customers the right information at the right time through their channel of choice. In 2009, TfL had launched a special developers’ area on its website to promote the use of open data. A year after launch, the number of developers that had registered to consume TfL’s open data was in the hundreds, but now the number of developers has surpassed 8,500.

TfL also engages with global companies to provide further incentives to developers. For example, in September 2016, TfL partnered with Amazon Web Services’ City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge and Geovation to organize a hack week. Developers could win several prizes during this week, including six months of office space rent and access to technical and subject matter experts. As the TfL example indicates, it is important for governments to align the strategy, process, people, technology, and data architecture attributes of their open data initiatives (see Figure 7).

re 8

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Figure 7

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Information Transformation Global Best Practices — Allegheny County Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ Usage of Analytics

Existing Challenges

Health and human services departments and agencies are under pressure to improve capacity and outcomes because of changing citizen needs and expectations. These entities must also meet the increased demand for services, particularly services that blur the boundaries between government departments and agencies. For example, many families rely on multiple social programs to thrive, yet these programs often exist in isolated silos or are even duplicated because of disconnected systems and processes.

Many agencies are also operating with reduced budgets and fewer personnel, which creates challenges in meeting legislative and policy changes and overseeing benefit administration (e.g., problems with enrolment, verification, and benefit delivery).

The Department of Human Services of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, determined that it needed to leverage and integrate data to improve its child protection services. In Allegheny County, more than 10 years of health and human services data was available to help case workers make initial maltreatment screening decisions at the child protection hotline, but standardized protocols for using data to make referral screening decisions did not exist. The county also did not have a method of systematically weighing information in an equitable manner across all referrals and did not understand what information could be correlated to predict future adverse outcomes for children.

Solution

Human services researchers built a screening score model based on information that was already collected and identified more than 100 child and family history factors (e.g., mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, and community indicators) that, together, could predict future child referrals or placements. The county developed a screening score based on each general protective service call (i.e., non-child protective services call) of alleged child maltreatment it received. The screening score takes the risk of re-referral into account (if a call is screened out), as well as the risk of unnecessary placement in foster care (for those calls that are screened in).

The front-end of the screening model was built directly into Allegheny County’s child welfare case management system (KIDS). An algorithm is now run for every child listed on a referral, which includes data on all individuals listed on that referral (siblings, biological parents, alleged perpetrator, etc.). The algorithm pulls data from KIDS and Allegheny

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County’s data warehouse to generate over 800 variables that are each weighted against a value that is stored in the Algorithm Configuration Application.

Benefits

To test if the model might improve the accuracy of screening decisions, the agency scored thousands of historical maltreatment calls and then followed the children in subsequent referrals to see how often the model was correct. The model showed that the higher the risk score is, the higher the chance of a future event (e.g., abuse, placement, and re-referral). The model also revealed that 9 out of 10 children with the highest risk scores were re-referred within two years of the initial call. Only 1 out of 10 children with the lowest risk score were re-referred within two years of an initial call. By analyzing this historical information and applying it to an analytic model, the county is improving its child welfare decision-making processes (previously, 27% of the highest risk cases were screened out and 48% of the lowest risk cases were screened in).

Lessons Learned

• Allegheny County treated data as a valuable asset so that information became the currency of a dynamic experience chain between the county government and its constituents. The county had a decade of information that it could analyze in depth to identify the risk factors that determine the final outcomes.

• The county developed a screening score model by focusing on a set of specific use cases related to child care. This enabled the county to determine the requirements of the solution.

• The user interface was designed to provide insights at the point of decision, allowing case workers to easily reduce the risks of improper screening.

• Data integration and data quality were important parts of the project, as they ensured the analytic algorithm could run on reliable data.

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Operating Model Transformation defines “how” work gets accomplished in terms of DX. It describes how to make operations more responsive and effective by leveraging digitally connected services, assets, people, and partners. Operating Model Transformation enables governments to spend more time and energy on tailoring services by integrating their digital connections to citizens and partners with their internal digital processes and projects. Governments that embrace DX need to re-align processes and technologies to move to an integrated service delivery platform that supports omni-experience. For example, if a small business owes value-added tax (VAT) but also has a corporate income tax credit, it should be able to compute a final sum independently instead of dealing with two different units of the tax agency.

Integrated and collaborative operating models can take one of two forms — either vertical convergence along the service lifecycle (covering back-office resource management to citizen relationships) or horizontal collaboration across organizational boundaries. The latter is more complex because it is slowed by legal, budgetary, technical, and cultural challenges. Nevertheless, horizontal collaboration can improve the efficiency of back-office shared services (e.g., those provided by Consip in Italy in the realm of public procurement) and can rationalize front-office citizen portals (e.g., the mon.Service-Public.fr citizen window into central government services in France). Horizontal collaboration can further create the conditions for a more profound transformation of organizational and financial models. For instance, the Whole Place Community Budgets scheme in the U.K. aims to improve the efficiency of local public sector entities and to rebuild public services around people and communities rather than around bureaucratic functions. Integrated and collaborative operating models will require governments to focus on outcomes like preventing avoidable hospital admissions and reducing readmissions. However, its benefits might prove difficult to achieve due to implementation challenges and a lack of incentive for public bodies to work together. In many countries, collaboration is being extended beyond government boundaries, since the most convenient and trusted touch point for citizens is often a commercial or non-profit organization.

Such a level of integration cannot be achieved by implementing consolidated enterprise applications for an entire government. In such a case, implementation would be too slow and management too complicated. Rather, Operating Model Transformation can be achieved by adopting platforms that can integrate multi-vendor software modules; 3rd Platform archetypes, such as SDKs, APIs, mobile apps, web

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widgets, and containers, enable plug-and-play services and consume data while the underlying platform ensures the consistency of data and the integrity of processes.

By design, the traditional enterprise software used by governments focuses on enterprise needs rather than specific user needs. Solutions include case management, payment processing, and enterprise resource planning. Over the past two decades, it has been common for purveyors of enterprise software to offer extended suites of solutions that are designed to work together while displaying a common software interface. These architectures, which are based on 2nd Platform concepts, have become outdated, and many government agencies are working to reduce the cost of maintaining their larger legacy installations. Moreover, despite the influence and efforts of CIOs to establish agency-wide IT standards, more spending decisions are occurring at the program level, and agencies are not as tied to legacy vendor connections as they might have been in the past. At present, agencies can pick from a variety of cloud-based enterprise solutions, and integration can be coordinated by systems integrators. Pre-integrated suites are no longer as necessary as they once were.

Decommissioning legacy systems and gradually replacing full suites or modules with 3rd Platform–native capabilities must be a high priority in government CIO architecture road maps. These road maps will lead to a decomposition of government enterprise architecture in which services can be plugged, played, and shared across departments through the platform (see Figure 8).

The U.K. Blue Badge pilot scheme is a perfect example of how plug-and-play services, based on API data exchange, can fundamentally transform government operations and provide a more convenient service delivery to citizens. (Blue Badge is a scheme for people with severe mobility problems.) In the U.K., Warwickshire County Council and the GDS unit worked with a group of ICT suppliers to digitalize Blue Badge transactions using a generic approach that could be applied to many locally delivered public services. The pilot project took the Blue Badge application as the principal use case and looked at how eligibility could be proven through yes/no attribute confirmations in real time. At present, applying takes 10 minutes and a badge can be delivered to a recipient within a few days (in comparison, the entire process could take several weeks in the past).

The project focused primarily on the Blue Badge application process for 40% of badge holders (around 160,000 disabled people annually), whose eligibility could be proven through the sharing of verified attributes between central and local government bodies. Blue Badge eligibility checks were confirmed in real time with a notional Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) endpoint, and vehicle checks were confirmed with a Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) endpoint.

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Government shared services centers can be powerful enablers of Operating Model Transformation. Shared services centers that embrace DX will be able to benefit from federated identity provisioning, architectural interoperability, and collective purchasing power. In turn, these centers will be able to provide more effective and efficient services (e.g., public cloud services) that support enterprise business innovation.

In Denmark, Statens IT is an agency under the Ministry of Finance that provides IT services to 10 ministries and 14,000 users. Statens IT is responsible for providing effective IT support services and ensuring high-quality and consistent IT service delivery across the Danish government. The Statens IT program was launched in 2008 to operate a central standardized IT infrastructure, run efficient IT services, set the foundations for further digitalization of the state, and optimize IT operating costs at the state level. The program included multiple projects, including the setting up of a service desk, the consolidation of datacenters, the standardization of desktop configurations, and the establishment a government-wide framework agreement for outsourced IT services.

Statens IT learned a few hard lessons along its transformation journey, and benefits were realized more slowly than anticipated. Some of the key successes included moving away from small IT operations to a professional delivery organization, standardizing service processes to align with customer expectations, aligning roles and competencies to the new operational structure and processes, and enabling cross-departmental collaborative governance.

Cloud computing will also help the government transition to new operating models. In the past few years, government IT leaders surveyed by IDC have clearly changed their attitude toward cloud. Initially, these leaders only saw cloud as a method of avoiding upfront infrastructure costs. However, most are now building business cases based on cloud’s ability to improve manageability, reduce maintenance and upgrade costs, and get applications up and running faster.

Concerns about data security and ownership still impede public cloud deployments; of the 37 government CIOs from the GCC interviewed about cloud computing in 2016, only 8% had already invested in public cloud computing. Nevertheless, cloud orchestration platforms now support hybrid environments that can harness private clouds for sensitive workloads and public clouds for workloads with less stringent compliance requirements. In fact, 30% of the GCC CIOs that IDC interviewed in 2016 had already invested in private cloud, and a further 38% planned to do so by the end of 2017 (see Figure 9).

National and global vendors are investing in datacenters in the Gulf region, which will make public cloud a more viable option for workloads such as website hosting, email and web conferencing, application development and testing, and customer relationship management (CRM) knowledge tools (e.g., frequently asked questions on public-facing websites).

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Operating Model Transformation Global Best Practices — Italian Audit Court Cloud Adoption

Existing Challenges

Corte dei Conti, the Italian Audit Court, is responsible for auditing and overseeing the accounts and budgets of all public institutions in Italy. The Corte dei Conti is a 150-year old institution that has legacy processes and IT services, but it now aims to embrace continuous improvement and agility.

The IT department needed to move away from the time-consuming management of physical infrastructure and instead focus on providing an excellent IT service that could help 3,000+ employees increase productivity. Specifically, the department aimed to allow employees access to applications from anywhere and any device, all while maintaining high levels of data protection and complying with the government-wide mandate to cut costs.

Solution

The answer was a hybrid cloud environment that supports virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The infrastructure runs on 25 public instances, which run between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. each day. Each department has a dedicated virtual private cloud (VPC) and a virtual private network connection between the VPCs and the court’s datacenters. The architectural design placed strong attention on security in order to replicate the on-premises security model in the hybrid cloud environment.

Figure 9: Cloud Adoption Among Governments in GCC

Q. Which of the following technologies / solutions and services have you implemented or are planning to implement in future?


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Benefits

• Increased User Flexibility: Magistrates can now access applications on their laptops, tablets, and smartphones from home or from the institutions they are inspecting.

• More Effective and Efficient IT Management: The IT department can focus on developing services for internal and external clients rather than managing hardware infrastructure.

• Asset Cost Reduction: The court has saved approximately €40,000 in device and energy consumption costs.

Lessons Learned

Replicating the same security levels that the court has on premises (in terms of data protection, network access, and other security measures) right from the architecture design phase increased IT management confidence in the solution.

The consumption-based pricing model the court utilized necessitated adjustments to IT service management processes. IT executives now have increased transparency and accountability over cloud service usage.

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INTERVIEW WITH SAUDI TELECOM COMPANY (STC): CHANGING MINDSETS TO BECOME MORE TRANSPARENT, EFFICIENT, AND MEASURABLE

Dr. Tarig Mohammed EnayaSenior Vice President – STC Enterprise Business Unit

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Dr. Tarig Mohammed Enaya is STC Enterprise SVP. Enaya joined STC as Senior Vice President for the Enterprise Business Unit in September, 2014, and was appointed as a Chairman of two key STC subsidiaries, STC Solutions and STC Specialized. He is leading the successful integration of both subsidiaries into the fabric of STC’s Enterprise Business Unit, resulting in the emergence of a regional information communication technology (ICT) leader. Prior to joining STC, Enaya served in several senior executive roles at key global and local organizations which included serving as the managing director of Cisco Saudi Arabia, and CIO at the King Fahd Medical City.

Q1. If you were to explain the value created by Digital Transformation within the government sector, especially during today’s transformative times, how would you describe it and your role in it? Also, in your opinion, how can digital transformation help the Saudi government?

STC will be a key enabler of the digital transformation of the state for both public sectors and private sectors, in alignment with Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The vision’s objectives focus on keeping pace with global technologies, expanding in the area of data and broadband, and accelerating the localization of technology according to the best international standards. In addition, to facilitate people’s lives by providing all of their services automatically, easily, and digitally with high security and reliability. It is a mindset and family of practices that focus on doing things in a transparent, efficient, and measurable manner, where the party delivering the service makes itself accountable to the customer. In this case, the customer is the person benefiting from the delivery of a public or government service. For government sector organizations, digital transformation gives them the trigger they need to adopt this new way of thinking and delivering services to the public.One important example is the Ministry of Interior’s national registry of citizens and residents. Absher, the ministry’s official e-services platform, would not have been possible without this registry. Likewise, the Ministry of Commerce and Investment has a database of registered businesses linked to the national registry. These two huge databases are also linked to the databases of the Department of Zakat and Income Tax and the General Organization for Social Insurance, among many others. This matching allows the government to run national initiatives in an effective manner.

Q2. As the digital government initiatives gather momentum and take shape, what technologies do you think will have a maximum impact in Saudi Arabia over the next 2-3 years?

• Obviously, mobile apps, because of their convenience, intimacy, and security. Over the past decade, most people have experienced the internet for the first time through mobile devices (essentially smartphones), and this will continue to be the case in the foreseeable future.

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• So, yes, anything mobile will have a very high impact on shaping the lives of people — but that is on the interface end.

• When it comes to how digital services are structured, infrastructure will increasingly be built around cloud resources so that quality of service remains the same during seasonal demand spikes.

• Big Data practices will also play another major role on how digital services are measured and how people interact with public services.

• Greater levels of IT-based automation and more Internet of Things (IoT)-based services like those used in early warning systems, traffic/environment monitoring systems, and energy saving systems will also support Big Data implementations in Saudi Arabia.

• Investment opportunities in internet of things (IOT) market are large and they are expected to reach SAR 30 billion until 2030 in Saudi Arabia.

• Outside the world of IoT, notarization services, civil status services, and other more personal and security-sensitive services built around biometrics and encryption will flood analytics and storage systems with huge amounts of data.

Q3. How prepared is the Kingdom when it comes to adopting these technologies? Please elaborate on the technology gaps as well as the regulatory, governance, and skill gaps. In addition, what’s your advice to address these gaps?

At the infrastructure level, almost all populated areas are covered with some form of internet connectivity — mobile, fixed wireless, or even wired connectivity. Essentially, anybody who has a smartphone can benefit from digitized services. What is truly missing at the infrastructure level is ICT services — not their availability, but rather the culture of having them as a service.

Most organizations have their own dedicated IT infrastructure and datacenters, with sizable teams to manage these setups. While this strategy was good and effective in the past, it does not work today since it prevents organizations from scaling the digital services they offer. It is important to note that this does not mean that an organization should not have its own IT infrastructure. Rather, the organization should be discriminate about what it houses on site and what it hosts in the cloud.

That said, the Kingdom needs more IT professionals who know how to architect service-based ICT infrastructures and understand the value of smooth user experiences. These professionals should know that what counts is not the technology, but the service being delivered.

When it comes to governance and regulation, a single national database is an unfamiliar and misunderstood concept. In Saudi Arabia, the national registry of citizens and residents is an important database, as is the corporate database of registered businesses in the Kingdom. These are very sensitive databases that need to be safeguarded; at

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the same time, they are national resources that are essential to offering services and doing business in the Kingdom because they address a very essential question — who am I dealing with, and can I trust them?

Issues like this are essential to the effective application of technologies to meet business needs, particularly large-scale public or commercial services needs.

In my mind, the only real way to address this skills gap is for government organizations to transform from service providers to regulators through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Government organizations should also widen the base of people participating in the success of the economy, create more jobs, and provide a leaner service delivery.

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WorkSource Transformation is about orchestrating internal and external talent to make sure governments have a workforce that is ready to embrace DX. Governments are changing the way they achieve business objectives by effectively sourcing, deploying, and integrating internal (full-time and part-time employees) and external (contract, freelance, commercial, and non-profit partners) resources.

WorkSource Transformation optimizes the productivity and flexibility of internal and external contributors, identifies the right resources and competencies to achieve government mission outcomes, creates an agile modular structure, facilitates relationships, and maximizes the productivity of interactions with citizens and across the ecosystem.

WorkSource Transformation also aims to ensure that all personnel have access to standard, interoperable technology, as this would enable employees to make more effective use of digital interactions and collaboration, connections, relationships, and tools such as machine intelligence, cloud, and social media applications. Organizational structures and physical office spaces must also be conducive to digitally enabled open business processes and innovation. These processes must enable the government to embrace the future of work, so that public servants are most efficient and effective in policy making and service delivery, regardless of the location in which they operate.

In the skills and competencies domains, governments play an important role, not just in terms of digital administration and digital public services (see the U.S. Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy example), but also in terms of the broader digital economy. For example, in the context of cybersecurity, Australia’s four-year Cyber Security Strategy aims to improve the security of the country’s online environment and enable innovation, growth, and prosperity. To address the shortage of cybersecurity professionals in the workforce, the government is fortifying Australia’s education system by integrating cybersecurity at an academic level and establishing centers of excellence across universities. The government is also working with the private sector and international partners to raise awareness of the importance of cybersecurity across the country.

The Australian Cyber Security Research Institute (ACSRI) is Australia’s first coordinated strategic research and education body that incorporates government agencies, private-sector organizations, and academic institutions (researchers). It seeks to support the government’s focus on cybersecurity by responding to cyberthreats and identifying opportunities for highly skilled

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WorkSource Transformation Global Best Practices — U.S. Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy

Existing Challenges

Governments face increasingly sophisticated and persistent cyberthreats that create economic and security challenges. To counter these cyberthreats, governments must acquire security tools and employ a cybersecurity workforce that has the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to protect critical infrastructure and detect and respond to cybersecurity incidents when they occur. The U.S. federal government, like governments in many other countries, faces a cybersecurity workforce shortage. In fact, based on a 2015 review of federal cybersecurity policies, plans, and procedures, two key observations were noted about the federal cybersecurity workforce: 1. Most agencies identified that a lack of cybersecurity and IT talent

was a major resource constraint — one that impacted their ability to protect information and assets.

2. Initiatives to address this challenge exist, but implementation and awareness of these programs is inconsistent.

Solution

In the United States, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued OMB Memorandum M-16-04, “Cybersecurity Strategy and Implementation Plan (CSIP) for the Federal Civilian Government,” on October 30, 2015. The CSIP called for the OMB and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to publish a cybersecurity human resources (i.e., workforce) strategy and identify possible future actions. The Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), announced on February 9, 2016, built on the CSIP activities while calling for innovations and investments in cybersecurity education and training to strengthen the talent pipeline.

In July 2016, a Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy was published. The strategy highlighted the following areas of action:

cybersecurity professionals. Organizations in Australia’s private sector have also invested in developing cyber-skills. For example, Box Hill Institute of TAFE in Victoria is developing a 12-month cybersecurity apprenticeship with a Certificate IV qualification in conjunction with private sector entities. Australian banks and telcos have also partnered with universities to fund technology course scholarships, including cybersecurity degrees.

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• Identify Cybersecurity Workforce Needs: This area entailed improving the government-wide cybersecurity workforce by identifying key capabilities and capacity gaps to enhance workforce planning.

• Expand the Cybersecurity Workforce Through Education and Training: This involved working with educational institutions, professional organizations, and other experts in cybersecurity program guidance from P-12 through university-level education to significantly expand the pipeline of skilled cybersecurity talent available for the government.

• Recruit and Hire Highly Skilled Talent: This involved enhancing government-wide and agency-specific efforts to expand the cybersecurity workforce through the recruitment of highly skilled talent and streamlining the hiring and security clearance processes while still meeting applicable law and standards.

• Retain and Develop Highly Skilled Talent: This entailed promoting an enterprise-wide approach to retention and development (to support the continued enhancement of the cybersecurity workforce).

Lessons Learned

The OMB and OPM considered the following principles in developing the strategy:

• Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility among agency leadership, employees, contractors, private industry, and the American people.

• The cybersecurity workforce includes employees who join the federal service at different times in their careers and have different levels and areas of expertise.

• The cybersecurity workforce includes a mix of technical and non-technical professionals focused on all aspects of the institutional mission.

• The Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy is a government-wide human capital strategy requiring ownership and action from multiple agencies and entities.

• Initiatives focus primarily on the federal workforce, with the understanding that contractors also play vital roles in federal cybersecurity.

• Initiatives will provide resources to non-cyber professionals, such as foundational cybersecurity training and development, as well as career mobility opportunities.

• While every agency is responsible for managing cybersecurity risks and will have staff that serves part of the cybersecurity workforce, most civilian personnel hold positions in agencies with cybersecurity missions, such as the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security.

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The next round of technology innovations that are accelerating DX across industries include:

• 3D printing• Augmented and virtual reality• Cognitive computing• IoT• Robotics

IDC believes that cognitive computing and IoT are going to make the biggest impact on government DX. Robotics will have a profound impact, but only in the context of specific service domains such as defense, policing, and emergency response. 3D printing and AR/VR will only impact a very limited set of use cases.

Cognitive systems include a new class of products that learn and reason, creating solutions that go beyond big data/analytics. Although still in their infancy, cognitive solutions are the next step in bringing new layers of intelligence to the analysis of unstructured and semi-structured data. Cognitive systems enable knowledge curation and continuous automatic learning based on previous experiences, both good and bad. The functional attributes of a cognitive software platform include:

• Deep natural language processing and analysis for information ingestion and human-style communication

• Learning in real time (as data arrives)• Identifying patterns and using learning for current situations• Predicting and recommending possible outcomes• Scoring outcomes with evidence for human analysis• Cycling back to the start, practicing continuous learning, and

making systems better over time

With the abundance of multi-structured data that includes forms, online applications, identity credentials, and locations, governments will begin to deploy cognitive systems to optimize operations and transform the citizen experience. Cognitive systems will also be used to provide more sophisticated automated customer service agents (e.g., by using chatbots to answer some of the routine questions currently handled by human operators).

Cognitive Systems

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Defense and intelligence agencies are presently using cognitive systems to foresee and prevent the actions of bad actors. For example, cognitive systems are expected the change the nature of cyberconflicts. As more cognitive systems come online, nation states will initially employ these technologies for cybersecurity operations; by 2018, cognitive systems will be used to replace the human hand in low-level and relatively simple defensive operations. By 2022, all low-level and most mid-level cybersecurity operations will be handled by cognitive systems.

Welfare and tax agencies will also be primary users of cognitive computing systems in their drive to provide beneficiaries with optimal services. Decision trees are among the most widely used machine learning algorithms in certain situations (e.g., in tax investigations). The U.K. Pensions Regulator (TPR) is collaborating with the Better Use of Data team within the GDS unit to use machine learning to make predictions about what pension schemes will do in the future (i.e., determining whether a scheme will make its return on time, be late, or not make a return at all). By using data about pension schemes going back several years, TPR has been able to build a supervised machine learning model that learns from existing data and can be used to make predictions about how a pension scheme will behave. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is similarly deploying AI at the Walter Reed Medical Center to better predict medical complications and improve the treatment of severe combat wounds. This deployment will lead to better patient outcomes, faster healing, and lower costs.

Cognitive computing is being applied to provide an omni-channel citizen experience (e.g., through the growing use of chatbots). As an example, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) of the Australian federal government developed NADIA, a virtual assistant technology, to help provide the best possible service and support to NDIS participants. NADIA combines a human face and voice with cognitive intelligence. NADIA was developed in response to demand from people with disabilities for more accessible and personalized information. It was also created to remove obstacles in the government’s communication methods (e.g., the government making use of call centers that are of no help to deaf or mute individuals and uses mail forms of communication that are inaccessible to people who cannot use their hands without assistance). NDIS plans to use NADIA to complement other channels of information as it increases the number of participants from 40,000 at present to 460,000 in 2019. The NDIS hotline receives around 5,800 general enquiries and 1,200 provider enquiries per week from a participant base of 32,000 and an active provider base of 700.

At the operational level, cognitive computing can improve efficiency. For example, the city of South Bend, Indiana, had more than 20 overflow events at its sewage treatment facility in 2011 and consequently received substantial fines as wastewater reached an adjacent river.

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Officials thus made use of cognitive computing in the wastewater plant to determine more efficient routes for the untreated wastewater. This solution prevented the city from receiving additional fines and negated the major costs associated with a significant overhaul of its system. In a similar fashion, the Department of Health in Las Vegas, Nevada, used AI to analyze thousands of tweets for words or phrases that would indicate possible food poisoning (rather than randomly selecting restaurants to inspect). Tweets were connected to specific restaurants and inspectors were dispatched to check for any health violations. This approach led to citations in 15% of inspections compared with just 9% when inspections were random.

Public security is changing from apprehending criminals to preventing crime by identifying people and communities at risk and putting in place adequate measures to reduce those risks. Cognitive computing can enhance the capabilities of police forces, border control forces, and other public security agencies to predict and proactively reduce risks.

For example, in the U.K., Durham Constabulary is planning to use an AI system named Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART) to make decisions about whether suspects should be kept in custody. HART was developed by Durham Constabulary in conjunction with the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. It will use data taken from the police force’s custody system and will classify suspects as being at a low, medium, or high risk of committing an offense if let loose. HART draws on 34 variables, 29 of which are based around prior offenses, along with postcode, gender, and age information. The constabulary does not include ethnic background as a variable, as doing so would raise concerns over bias (as in the case of the application of AI in the United States). Furthermore, the postcode attribute includes only the first four characters (of the code) to prevent identification of the street in which the subject lives. The system utilizes 509 decision trees and can produce 4.2 million decision points, drawing on five years of data.

HART was first tested in 2013 and was 98% accurate in identifying low risk suspects and 88% accurate in identifying high risk people. HART is not meant to replace decision making by custody sergeants; instead, it is to be used as a support tool to improve the consistency and quality of decisions.

Five broad categories of robots are expected to make an impact in government domains, such as in defense and intelligence, public safety and security, land/sea surveying, and infrastructure and asset inspection:

• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Also Known as Unmanned

Robotics

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Aerial Systems or, More Commonly, Drones: These are aircraft controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or remotely by a pilot. While UAVs were initially used in military operations, their usage is vastly expanding into public security and safety operations. UAVs now monitor traffic and public order and carry supplies to areas that are difficult to reach after natural disasters.

• Autonomous Vehicles (AVs): AVs include autonomous and semi-autonomous cars, trucks, trains, boats, and other self-moving vehicles. These vehicles can fulfill the main transportation capabilities of a traditional vehicle by sensing and navigating through the environment without human input. AVs sense their surroundings using technologies such as radar, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), GPS, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, obstacles, and relevant signage. AVs will change mobility, particularly in cities, and will impact government fleets, such as public buses and blue light vehicles. Autonomous watercraft also patrol some oceans with sophisticated sensor instruments, collecting data on arctic ice and sensitive ocean ecosystems in operations that are too expensive and/or dangerous for crewed vessels.

• Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs): These are underwater machines controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or remotely by a pilot. They include ethorobotics, robot fishes, and robot swarms, as well as robot submarines. They can be used to survey sea beds and patrol harbors.

• Exoskeletons, Also Known as Exoframes and Exosuits (EXOs): These are wearable machines that consist of an outer framework worn by a person and powered by a system of motors that boost the wearer’s strength and endurance. Originally designed for military personnel, EXOs are being applied to help people with disabilities and support maintenance and overhaul personnel that need to lift heavy objects such as military airplanes and navy ship spare parts.

• Humanoid Robots (HUMs): These are autonomous or semi-autonomous machines that are wholly or partly built to resemble the human body and replicate its functions (e.g., moving across rugged terrain, grasping objects, and mimicking facial expressions). For the purposes of this report, this category includes:

1. Full-body semi-autonomous robots built for reporting conditions within potential hazardous environments (such as nuclear power plants) or responding to disasters in extreme environments

2. Explosive ordnance robots with arms and hands mounted on wheels or tracks that are used by military and police bomb disposal units

3. Robots that can climb high structures (e.g., bridges, wind turbines, and buildings) and crawl into pipelines and sewers for inspection and maintenance

Robots are expected to deliver three kinds of business benefit:

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• Greater Effectiveness: Robots are better than humans at performing calculations, lifting and moving heavy loads, and carrying out repetitive tasks in certain contexts. Robot capabilities can increase the precision of these activities, enhancing the quality and consistency of outputs. In life-threatening areas such as disaster zones or war zones, this enhanced effectiveness can save lives.

• Increased Efficiency: Machines can carry out programmable tasks without taking breaks, and their productivity can be enhanced through technological progress — two aspects that represent an advantage in terms of efficiency relative to humans. Humans need breaks, and their productivity can only be increased to a certain extent through training and repetition or by fundamentally changing the way tasks are organized. By using robots for certain tasks, humans can concentrate on other activities, such as those that require creative thinking, reasoning, and learning from experience. Humans can also focus on creating new ideas and things that artificial agents are less adept at performing.

• Improved Safety: Tasks that involve carrying heavy loads, using dangerous tools (e.g., chainsaws), and operating in extreme environments (nuclear plants, fires, outer space, deep waters, and disaster zones) are either life-threatening or impossible for humans. Robots can make these tasks possible and safe for human operators to control remotely.

• However, problems with full automation and limited battery life, as well as ethical and legal concerns and budgetary constraints, make the widespread deployment of robotics in government a long-term effort. IDC research indicates that most robotics technologies, except for UAVs, will only become mainstream in the government domain beyond 2025. Nevertheless, in their technology roadmaps, governments are outlining key collaborative milestones with the assistance of academia and industry and will continue to invest in research and development (R&D) to build robots that can perform a variety of tasks (e.g., lifesaving operations in dangerous and hazardous situations).

• Governments will need to train developers and operators and educate the public on the role of robotics in saving lives and communities, thwarting terrorists, and helping with the maintenance of physical assets. Additionally, government agencies guide policies and legislation to enable the use of robotic technology while preventing nefarious use. These agencies should also be prepared to analyze, use, and leverage the data that robots collect to make additional improvements based on that data.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are two different but related technologies that are changing the way humans interact with computers. VR places end users into a completely new reality, obscuring their view of the real world. In contrast, AR looks to overlay

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality

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digital information or objects onto a person’s current view of reality.

AR and VR will impact government policy-making and service delivery only in few domains:• AR is being used to provide richer experiences to tourists visiting

a city or a specific attraction such as a museum. It is also being used to provide an overlay of digital information that can make the work of field inspectors (building, water, and electricity distribution network inspectors, road engineers, etc.) and police offices safer and more efficient. For example, at the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland, 3D models of proposed building projects can be displayed on the screens of mobile devices as if they are parts of the environment. This technique offers a way to show the actual mass of a project on a live and fluid image of the landscape.

• VR is being used to train armed forces, police forces, and emergency services personnel by immersing them in specific scenarios. For example, the U.K. Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE), which works with science and technology providers, academia, and small companies, is developing cost-effective VR capabilities for U.K. armed forces and national security employees. In 2016, CDE funded a U.K. electronics engineering consultancy to develop a VR skills assessment system that would identify candidate training needs. This system will help reduce training burden in terms of cost and equipment and identify the range of cognitive skills that military personnel require for their jobs. For example, the system can show the strengths and weaknesses of an individual in the areas of multitasking, speed, spatial awareness, navigation, and memory. A series of VR challenges and skill tests can then be produced, providing the trainees with the same cognitive workload as real-world activities.

3D printers create objects and shapes from a digital model or file by successively placing down layers of a material using different print technologies (e.g., print head and inkjet nozzle technologies). These printers are typically used in additive manufacturing environments in industries such as architecture, construction, design, and healthcare.

3D printing use cases are limited in the government domain. Some cities are piloting the use of 3D printers for planning and zoning purposes (e.g., to build models of land development projects). Government agencies that possess numerous physical assets that require repairs during field operations, such as armed forces and, to a lesser extent, police and fire brigades, are expected to use 3D printers. U.S. Navy ships, for example, already carry 3D printing devices.

3D Printing

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IDC predicts that the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints will grow from 14.9 billion at the end of 2016 to more than 82 billion in 2025. IoT has passed the inflection point and is a reality that can deliver business benefits in the public sector and beyond, chiefly because of three factors:

• The Pervasiveness and Affordability of Sensors: These include cameras, scanners, RFID tags that measure quantities in a certain environment (e.g., light, temperature, acceleration, and liquid levels), and actuators (e.g., motors, wheels, claws, and pumps). Thanks to advances in nano- and bio-sensors, microprocessors, batteries, and energy harvesting and scavenging, these sensors and actuators can now be embedded in communication devices, wristwatches, vehicles (manned and unmanned), clothes, electronic appliances, physical assets, and even the human body.

• The Ability to Install Embedded Objects into Networks: For a long time, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and distributed control systems (DCS) have been used to trace physical assets and monitor their statuses. However, this activity used to happen within the boundaries of one organization and usually relied on dedicated networks designed to use proprietary protocols. Nowadays, wired networks, cellular (4G/5G) networks, low-power wide area networks (LPWANs), WLAN/short-range wireless networks, and satellite transmission can connect those sensors and actuators to IP networks, thereby enabling more agile architectural solutions.

• The Objects’ Augmented Intelligence: This refers to the ability, thanks in part to high-frequency data processing, event-driven rules, and machine-to-machine communication, to automate and control activities independent of human decisions — in other words, based on contextual information, such as stereoscopic correlation, environment models, travel plans, obstacle avoidance, and navigation. It is important to note that not all objects can understand and swiftly respond to environmental complexity. Some devices never will, and others will be limited because network performance will be affected or security risks are too high (e.g., eavesdropping via wirelessly connected objects). In these scenarios, intelligence will only reside in some central nodes. Nonetheless, thanks to progresses in areas like business rules engines and event-driven architectures, augmented intelligence systems are beginning to be deployed, and many will be capable of

Internet of Things

More convincing use cases exist in other industries, such as healthcare (3D printers have a role in surgical implants and skeletal procedures) and manufacturing (e.g., for more efficient spare part inventory management and the collaboration of 3D printers and robotics on the production floor).

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self-maintenance, self-configuration, and intelligently responding to the environment without human intervention.

IoT platforms bring together multiple capabilities, including device management, connectivity management, data management, and applications and analytics. IoT applications in the public sector can span a variety of domains:

• Defense: For example, wearables that improve the safety and operational capabilities of military personnel and assist in asset tracking and supply chain optimization

• Environmental Monitoring: For example, tracking air quality, humidity, illumination, noise, and wind and optimizing waste collection

• Health and Social Care: For example, wearable devices that track the vital signs and activities of patients

• Public Security and Safety: For example, video and noise surveillance, body-worn cameras for officers, and earthquake and flood sensing

• Tourism: For example, the maintenance of heritage sites and the optimization of tourist queues through RFID tags

• Traffic and Transportation: For example, monitoring traffic flows, managing bus and taxi locations and occupancy, embedding actuators into traffic lights and digital signage, and enabling vehicle-to-vehicle communication and autonomous driving

• Utilities: For example, water and electricity metering to manage demand, load, and outages and smart street lighting

• Infrastructure Management: For example, tracking the wear and tear of roads, bridges, and other assets to optimize maintenance and public building automation

It is important to note that cities, as part of their Smart City investments, are currently the primary users of the IoT in the public sector. However, central governments have an important role to play in terms of policymaking (technical standards, IoT security guidelines, implementation guidelines, and R&D funding). Governments will also be active in the service domain, where they will play a direct service provisioning role (e.g., in defense, police, border protection and customs, and transportation and infrastructure) beyond the city borders.

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INTERVIEW WITH EBTTIKAR: DRIVING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY TO NEW HEIGHTS Mr. Khalid Al-ShangitiCEO – Ebttikar Technology Company

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Mr. Khalid Al-Shangiti is the CEO of Ebttikar Technology Company, a leading ICT solutions provider in Saudi Arabia. In this role, he is responsible for leading a force of over 1,500 IT professionals. He is an IT veteran and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the ICT field, and has held numerous C-level positions in leading public and private sector organizations in Saudi Arabia over the course of his career. Prior to joining Ebttikar, he acted as director and advisor to the CEO for strategy and business development at Saudi National Water Company

Q1. If you were to explain the value created by Digital Transformation (DX) within the government sector, especially during today’s transformative times, how would you do so in a few sentences?

DX within the government sector has many benefits that are not limited to citizen convenience. For example, DX provides government leaders with the essential data needed to make informed decisions. Most political, economic, or security-related government decisions, even those in the service of the House of Allah, are based on information. Because the absence of information undermines the state’s ability to make decisions, the creation of consolidated information banks has become an integral part of modern state management.

In addition to its benefits in terms of citizen services and convenience, DX enables numerous organizations to connect to a single consolidated database. As such, it provides government officials with the ability to improve plans, craft strategies, and work on reports that previously were not available. In addition, DX cuts the time, effort, and money required to fulfill citizen requests.

Q2. How can DX help the Saudi government increase the convenience of accessing public services, improve the management of public finance resources, enhance social inclusiveness and partnerships, and create a data-driven culture that favors cross-departmental information sharing to achieve better public sector program outcomes?

Saudi Arabia started its DX process by expanding and inter-connecting the databases used by government agencies and implementing digital infrastructure. These initial steps produced notable results, and many others are planned as the kingdom continues along its DX journey.

Similar to how programmers can determine the quality of computer programs by measuring the number of clicks required to accomplish a given task, the Saudi government can increase the effectiveness of citizen-oriented DX by reducing the time and number of steps required to deliver a service. The government can also improve efficiency by lowering the number of officials involved in service delivery, and

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ensure that services are available 24/7 throughout a year. Even during holidays, work and procedures should not be halted at any time. In addition, service procedures should be fixed, flexible, and known to all, and both citizens and government agencies should be provided with sufficient information to spur economic development in line with the Saudi Vision 2030. Nevertheless, there are numerous service delivery challenges in Saudi Arabia — for example, most services are still provided by human clerks. As such, the quality of a service should not depend on the experience of a particular provider; rather, the elements of the service should be previously defined and known to both the requester (i.e., citizen) and the provider (government agency). A lot that needs to be done to ensure that data is constantly available, services are transparent, and service improvements are continuous. Efforts must also be made to eliminate duplications and limit paperwork. The introduction of bank cards two decades ago faced similar challenges, but ultimately succeeded in altering consumer and banking culture.

Q3. The National Transformation Program (NTP) will compel Saudi government entities to embark on transformation in challenging times. How do you see your firm enabling or complementing the digitization efforts of the Saudi government over the coming years?

There is a strong emphasis on reducing the dependence of the Saudi economy on oil revenues, particularly with the recent dip in oil prices. However, the scarcity of financial resources is a key challenge hindering the achievement of this vision. At Ebttikar, we believe that human and natural resources are alternatives that can be used to support the lack of financial resources. For example, it is possible to improve the human element through training and technology knowledge transfer to create a cultural base that deals automatically and professionally with the new government approach toward digitization.

Ebttikar also depends on smart solutions to limit operational and procurement costs. Our firm has extensive experience with operation, maintenance, and managed services contracts, and we make use of smart solutions (such as virtualization) in all our programs, platforms, and infrastructure. As such, we can easily re-engineer infrastructure and replace components that need regular maintenance with more secure and easily managed virtualization.

Q4. As the digital government initiatives gather momentum and take shape, what technologies do you think will have a maximum impact in Saudi Arabia over the next 2-3 years?

Companies in Saudi Arabia that are planning on increasing their spending over the short term will likely invest in production lines (particularly in the case of industrial companies) but opt to rent

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computer programs and other digital infrastructure. As such, cloud computing technologies can be expected to gain traction as they support environments with leased tools and devices. In addition, secure communications, more reliable internet services, and personnel who are skilled in modern technologies will see increased demand. Investment in transport and communications technologies will also be vital as manufacturing and cargo handling will be important components of Saudi Arabia’s future growth. As roads and other transportation means will be at the center of further economic development, logistics services will need to be build and developed. The technologies used in port shipping programs will also have to be revitalized. For example, China, the owner of the world’s biggest port, adopted a state-level approach toward creating a road network and used the most advanced computing technologies in ports to automate cargo movements quickly and efficiently.

In Saudi Arabia, “investor convenience” needs to be made an overriding priority, just like government digitization for the citizen’s good has been a centralizing principle. Like citizen convenience, investor convenience would entail simplifying investment procedures and enhancing an investor’s knowledge of those procedures (including time required to start or complete a project).

Q5. How prepared is the Kingdom when it comes to adopting these technologies? Please elaborate on the technology gaps as well as the regulatory, governance, and skill gaps. In addition, how you would advise the government to address these gaps?

The Kingdom faces several technical challenges in adoption of these technologies. To address these challenges, all organizations and stakeholders must have an in-depth understanding of the technologies at hand, as this will enable them to choose the most suitable equipment for a particular application or project.

When embarking on their development journeys, the governments of many Asian Tigers initially set elusive goals at the state level, and there was a large gap between their visions and their capabilities at the time. At present, Saudi Arabia is in a similar situation. To reduce this gap, Saudi Arabia needs to craft carefully written, comprehensive, and precise objectives. Separate executive plans involving all stakeholders also need to be created. Similarly, to bridge skills gaps in the kingdom, education curricula need to be closely aligned with labor market requirements. In order to avoid a situation in which university graduates need to obtain additional certifications to start working at major technology firms or elsewhere, all educational processes need to be redesigned to meet the demands of organizations across the Kingdom.

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The shift to 3rd Platform technologies presents new opportunities to transform government administration, public services, and the broader digital economy. However, this shift also broadens perimeter security vulnerabilities and increases the complexity of preventing and countering attacks (see Figure 10).

IDC predicts that, in their attempt to tackle new risks, 60% of nation states will have a stated cybersecurity policy by 2020 and at least 30% will have cabinet-level positions focused solely on cybersecurity by the same year. The role of digital technologies in influencing a country’s politics and policies is increasing. Moreover, the ability to defend against cyberattacks will become more important, and deploying defensive measures will spread across the broader government ecosystem. This trend will be reflected by the elevation of cybersecurity into the center of national security discourse. A government’s stance on various cybersecurity issues and proposed responses to them (especially in terms of maintaining a balance on the liberty-security continuum) will become part of public manifestos. The first cabinet-level positions focused on cybersecurity will also emerge, as cybersecurity’s newly gained importance will warrant assumption of political responsibility. The integrity of information systems and, increasingly, operational systems such as traffic signaling, water management, and electricity distribution systems connected to IP networks will be of national interest.

IT security increasingly includes traditional system security (e.g., packet monitoring, virus monitoring, and detection of hacking attempts) and physical security that has an IT component (e.g., computerized door locks and access control, security video monitoring systems, and more). Interest and investments in both types of IT security continues to grow.

Globally, across all industries, total security spending is expected to rise by about 3.4% year on year in 2017. Government security spending will be a little higher than (closer to 5%), and investments in network and security monitoring will be higher still. Steady growth in IT security spending is occurring due to the prevalent threats to government systems. These include foreign attempts to tamper with political parties, elections, and the computers and networks hosted by central government agencies. Threats to a nation’s physical infrastructure (dams, bridges, water systems, and more) are also key concerns. As such, routine network-traffic monitoring is necessary,

NEXT-GENERATION SECURITY: BALANCING DATA PROTECTION AND INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT09.

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along with tracking attempts to exploit weaknesses and data/system compromises.In the short term, budget constraints will hinder the adoption of new security measures. Government agencies will continue to invest at least 70% of their IT security budgets in traditional security solutions, such as endpoint security, network security, and identity and access management (IAM), leaving little room to address new and evolving security threats. This strategy will be inadequate to secure government systems, as the security landscape has changed and continues to do so. For example, social media and mobile apps have magnified the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of individuals and businesses, providing a larger attack surface to the very people and organizations they want to keep out.

In any case, limited budgets (due to volatile economic conditions), legacy contracts with vendors, lack of contemporary skills, and legacy architectures will limit a government’s ability to accelerate investments in next-generation security measures such as predictive and forensic analytics. Government agencies will thus see an increase of cases of identity fraud and theft, ransomware, and phishing scams.

The most mature governments CIOs and chief security officers will:

• Make data protection a business priority• Build security to protect IT systems from the inside out• Take a proactive posture through penetration testing and using

predictive analytics to identify threats before they occur

These CIOs will also leverage new tools, such as blockchain, to take care of the vast and increasing amounts of digital content they produce and process.

Blockchain can be a powerful tool to protect digital content and transactions. According to IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Government Predictions 2017, government blockchain penetration will gain momentum; 30% of government agencies across the world will have at least one blockchain test project in place by the end of 2017. Blockchain solutions can clarify the rules about who has control over specific types of information; they can further ensure data integrity and accuracy and can confirm who retains long-term authority over a piece of data, especially when it comes to updating or modifying that data. If resourcefully applied, blockchain technology could be a key tool for confirming data origin and accuracy, tracking updates, and establishing true data authority for millions of different data fields (see Figure 11).

These potential capabilities mean that blockchain has many broad applications beyond pure financial transactions. For example, blockchain can provide a continuously updated view of a set of transactions that has no central point of control or failure, as well as being able to facilitate rule-based smart contracts related to government IT services and compliance management.

Blockchain in Government

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The capabilities that can be achieved through blockchain solutions could lead to significant advances in the realms of digital voting; land registries; patent, copyright, and trademark issues; and smart contracts associated with IoT solutions. Distributed ledger technologies like blockchain also help create a structure for governments to reduce fraud, boost security (especially against data tampering), and establish new relationships with citizens in terms of the way data is collected and shared in a transparent manner.

In the public health domain, blockchain is being used in a pilot program to promote the tracking and analysis of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), which are reports generated by patients themselves in response to the effectiveness of a particular treatment. Stock trading firms have also had discussions with government bodies that oversee stock markets about the possibility of using blockchain to reduce operational risks while facilitating the processing and settlement of financial transactions.

For example, the Estonian government’s eHealth Foundation is using blockchain to manage patient healthcare records. Dubai Customs and Dubai Trade are two institutions that are piloting the use of blockchain for a trade-finance and logistics solution — a blockchain solution that transmits shipment data, allowing key stakeholders to receive real-time information about the state of goods and the statuses of shipments into and out of Dubai. These early programs are small and may only involve a few people; however, these first steps can help push blockchain into the mainstream over the next few years.

Best Practices in Next Generation Security for Governments

In summary, several key trends will impact the next generation of IT security globally:

• By 2021, 50% of online transactions will use biometric authentication processes, which have broad user acceptance, ubiquitous technology infrastructure, and low implementation costs.

• By 2019, more than 75% of IoT device manufacturers will improve the security and privacy capabilities of their products, making them more trustworthy among technology buyers.

• Over the next two years, 80% of consumers whose personally identifiable information is impacted in a security breach will stop all interactions with the affected business.

• By 2018, 70% of enterprise cybersecurity environments will use cognitive/AI technologies to assist humans in dealing with the vastly increasing scale and complexity of cyberthreats.

• By the end of 2017, 50% of enterprise customers will leverage analytics as a service to help solve the challenge of combing through security-related data and events.

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• By 2020, over 80% of enterprises worldwide will invest in incident response retainers.

• By 2020, more than 25% of enterprises will secure their IT architectures through cloud, hosted, or software-as-a-service (SaaS) security services.

Most governments are working to improve the visibility they have of their own computing environments. While doing so, they need to keep in mind that their environments are dynamic — and so is the “surface area” of what can be attacked. Indeed, attacks now extend all the way out to IoT sensors in roads and water systems.

Because “zero day” attacks can be devastating and hard to combat, numerous government agencies are investing in continuous monitoring. In 2015, for example, the United States Department of Homeland Security initiated a continuous diagnostics and mitigation process to protect and secure federal IT systems and networks. This process starts by administrators identifying what IT hardware and software assets exist on an agency’s networks. Thereafter, the administrators establish how these assets are configured and determine where vulnerabilities exist. Next, the security administrators work to establish the network boundary and associated controls, tools, and procedures for authenticating all individuals using the government network in question. From there, different levels of authorized access can be properly managed. The end game is to limit the physical boundaries and provide a set of tools to help agencies react to security events and establish a risk-based system of prioritization. These efforts can help identify intrusive and malicious system activities, even if a specific security threat has not been identified.

Governments often rely on third parties and contractors to manage their system operations, so the realm of what needs to be protected often extends into the offices of those contractors, as well.

In recent years, governments have gone from not having a clear window into what is happening on their networks to making massive investments in security tools, establishing clear processes, and taking a more unified threat management approach to IT security. Governments have moved away from just supporting a single traditional firewall to using all-inclusive monitoring and security products. These products provide dashboards that highlight ongoing events on government systems; they also support multiple security functions, including machine and network firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention solutions, antivirus and anti-spam programs, content filtering programs, and data loss prevention programs.

Many government CIOs and chief security officers seek solutions that can bridge the gap between siloed systems. Traditionally, systems integrators and providers of network security solutions have helped meet this need. Today’s unified threat management approach to security and associated defense architecture allows for the exchange

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of threat data across existing security systems. Process automation aimed at increasing a government agency’s security posture is highly valuable when individual threats are detected. Malware analysis dashboards capable of monitoring external threat intelligence feeds and network monitoring tools that can quickly highlight problem areas based on suspicious packet traffic are also highly valued.

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INTERVIEW WITH ADVANCED ELECTRONICS COMPANY (AEC): DEVELOPING LOCAL SKILLS TO SUPPORT GOVERNMENT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Mr. Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Duailej President & CEO – Advanced Electronics Company (AEC)

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Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Duailej is the President & CEO of Advanced Electronics Company. He is highly experienced and competent business leader, with more than 30 years senior executive experience at the helm of many national and international companies throughout the Middle East. Mr. Al-Duailej has extensive management experience at a Chief Executive Officer and Board of Director levels, with diverse experience in executive management, governance, marketing, strategy development and transformation. He is particularly experienced in enhancing shareholders value through business growth, diversification and turnaround strategies. Over the years, Mr. Al-Duailej held various senior executive positions; CEO & MD of Saudi Printing & Packaging, Group President of Middle East Specialised Cable Company, CEO of Al Oula Real Estate Development Company, CEO of Adwan Chemical Industries company, and GM for the Chemical Division at Adwan for Trading and Contracting company. Prior to that, he held several key positions at SABIC company. Mr. Al-Duailej is a current Chairman of Saudi Advanced Industries Company and board member of several Saudi limited and publicly-listed companies; including Saudi Printing & Packaging Company, Al Salam Aircraft Company, Rafal Real Estate Development Company, Taiba Holding Company.


Digital transformation enables citizens and residents to access government and public services rapidly and transparently. It also allows individuals to participate in national development, which generates high levels of government confidence and social justice that impacts citizen life in a positive way.

Q2. How can digital transformation help the Saudi government increase the convenience of accessing public services, improve the management of public finance resources, enhance social inclusiveness and partnerships, and create a data-driven culture that favours cross-departmental information sharing to achieve better public sector program outcomes?

There is no doubt that the Saudi government has made many steps toward digital transformation. The Saudi vision 2030 is a great example, and the National Transformation Program (NTP) 2020 is only one of several building blocks of digital government.

The Government of Saudi Arabia can make the most of the digital transformation by optimizing the use of digital government services, and publishing the data and statistics related to digital procedures and services provided by all government entities. This will increase government accountability and governance. Furthermore, the NTP 2020 has adopted many practical programs that will bridge the gap

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and increase the knowledge curve in the Kingdom.Advanced Electronics Company is one of the leading companies contributing to the government’s digital transformation journey. The company has undertaken many large national projects related to ICT, and recently achieved great success with the National Labour Gateway, the largest national egovernment Portal for the Human Resources Development Fund of the Ministry of Labour. The company has many national capabilities and is playing a major role in digital infrastructure, information security, and management and operation of large-scale projects.

Q3. The National Transformation Program (NTP) will compel Saudi government entities to embark on transformation in challenging times. How do you see your firm enabling/complementing the digitization efforts of the Saudi government over the coming years?

New technologies will play a major role in achieving digital transformation, including cloud services, Big Data, information security, Internet of Things (IoT), broadband communication, and multiple social networking applications and platforms. Digital and smart cities will also create a proper environment that will encourage learning, knowledge, and creativity.

Consequently, AEC strongly encourages highly qualified Saudis to work together with distinguished international experts to benefit from the new science and technologies emerging from the digitization field. AEC has thus created an internal unit of world-class management consultants that is deeply integrated with the company’s local and core capabilities.


Clearly, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems will continue to serve as the application backbones for many government entities; however, they will be complemented by vertical web portals delivering cloud services that rely on secure data and networks. In addition, digital channels that facilitate communications between the government and citizens/enterprises will become standard, especially considering that about 50% of the population is below 35 years and Saudi Arabia has the most internet users among all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. AEC will thus focus on developing such architecture in the next two to three years.

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Q5. How prepared is the Kingdom when it comes to adopting these technologies? Please elaborate not only on the technology gaps as well as the regulatory, governance, and skill gaps. In addition, how you would advise the government to address these gaps?

A great deal of the NTP initiatives relies on public-private partnerships (PPPs). To foster successful PPPs, the government should create a clear regulatory framework and define the scope of the initiatives. At the same time, the government should assume some level of risk when co-investing with the private sector. The tendering process should also be clear to avoid vendor disillusionment. These are the areas that AEC will focus on in the near term. Moreover, skill and technology gaps represent opportunities to create more qualified jobs for young Saudis and continue the country’s modernization. AEC has proven that it can fill both gaps successfully.

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CONCLUSION

DX will unleash tremendous opportunities for government leaders to adapt public administration and public service delivery. To realize the potential benefits and minimize risk, senior government executives should envision a roadmap that entails all the five pillars of DX (see Figure 12):

• Leadership• Omni-experience• Information• Operating Model• WorkSource

Leadership

DX breaks value chains. To build new capabilities, reconfigure service delivery value chains, and design financially sustainable programs, government leaders must embrace a combination of strong internal sponsorship and innovation from the middle out (i.e., innovation from inside the particular organization). Leaders must be catalysts for change, but people in lower ranks should also be able to generate new ideas. Since government leaders want to extend the impact of DX from public administration and services to the broader economy, they must engage with the broader ecosystem to configure new value chains.

Omni-Experience

Digital services will be at the core of the omni-channel citizen experience transformation. Focus must be placed on designing an end-to-end service journey that increases convenience for citizens and businesses. For a broader set of constituents, like voters, international donors, non-profit institutions, and government suppliers, digital omni-experience can help boost the transparency of the government and increase trust it its leaders and programs.

Information

Governments must treat data as a strategic asset. They must enhance information governance and security practices and apply interoperability standards to have more integrated and higher quality data sets that they can use with advanced analytics and cognitive tools. The payouts will be reduced administrative waste, increased personalization of public services, and greater data valuation and monetization opportunities in the context of the broader data economy.

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Operating Model

Siloed government operations must be broken down. Without back-office service re-usability, administration efficiency and transparency will be hard to achieve. Furthermore, without cross-program information sharing, an omni-channel experience cannot be offered across public services. As government leaders look to engage with the broader ecosystem, open innovation operating models must be on the agenda.

WorkSource

Governments must enable their employees to play an active role in DX by offering them the work tools of the future (e.g., mobility solutions, social collaboration, analytics, and dashboards for autonomous data-driven decision making). However, government workers alone cannot meet the increasing demand for more convenient, efficient, and transparent public services; as such, partnering with commercial technology and service providers will be key. Product-driven technical SLA-centric contract enforcement will stifle innovation, while collaborative governance will favor service innovation. In the context of the broader data economy, cognitive computing and robotics will be the most disruptive forces in the lives of workers across industries. These forces will increase worker safety and efficiency but may also drive extreme automation and thereby reduce the need for the following employees:

• Service workers (e.g., contact-center operators, loan and insurance clerks, and tax auditors)

• Logistics-center packaging operators• Manufacturing equipment setters and operators• Drivers

Governments should work with private sector organizations and educational institutions to design a roadmap for re-training personnel and changing educational programs. Furthermore, governments should build social safety nets for those who may experience extended periods of unemployment.

IDC Team

MASSIMILIANO CLAPS Associate Vice President IDC Government & Health Insights - EMEA

HAMZA NAQSHBANDI Country ManagerIDC Saudi Arabia

PETE LINDSTROM Vice PresidentSecurity Strategies

SHAWN MCCARTHY Research DirectorIDC Government Insights

ADELAIDE O’BRIEN Research DirectorGovernment Digital Transformation Strategies

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