| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The implementation of the strategy had to take many aspects into consideration and had to follow a sequential process.
First, the team had to evaluate and study different digitalization solutions and release an RFP accordingly. Based on the software selected, the team had to identify the proper hardware infrastructure and connection between the sites, where they had to also release another RFP for the hardware. This had to be sequential as each digitalization solution had its own hardware requirement and needs.
After releasing both RFPs, the team had to select the proper solution that would serve the sector to achieve its strategy considering technical and financial aspects of the proposals. Also, the team has considered the long term total cost of ownership of the project, where they have considered the expected future operate and maintenance cost of the projects.
In mid-2012, both software and hardware solutions were selected, where the hardware project would need to start first to lay down the necessary infrastructure for the software that would digitalize the documents. The software selected was Document Management System based on Microsoft. Implementation of the hardware has followed the attached implementation plan.
After having the hardware infrastructure laid out, software implementation and customization had to start. …. etc
Eventually, A strict plan had to be applied for the actual adoption of the system. As a beginning, Mujahdeen IT department would train one employee in each branch to handle the document management system which would be responsible over sending digitalized requirements to the head office. Such gradual shift has helped to get the strategy accepted by employees, especially non educated
ones. After 12 months, the IT department would train the rest of the administration employees of how to use the system.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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There were many stakeholders of this project, as it had involved all the employees of Mujahdeen sector, especially administration employees. Main contributors to the success of this project were the Information Technology Department Team who has followed the implementation plan of the strategy thoroughly. Hewlett-Packard as a Hardware infrastructure vendor was also one of the main contributors to the success of the project. AlMoammar Information System was the local system integrator who has connected the dots between the software and hardware vendors, it has also worked on the custom. Microsoft were the software vendor for this project.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The total resources who contributed from Mojahdeen on this project is 40 employees. Three employees from each division e.g. Human Resources, Inventory ..etc. Also, an employee from each branch as mentioned above. These employees were part of the transformation team and were lead by the IT department to coordinate with the local vendors.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Faster response time to requests and papers, especially at branch offices.
Automated reporting features for documents and requests, flagging pending ones.
Tracking Inventory
Retirees don’t have the need to travel long distances to collect their benefits
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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1. The formation of a specialized working group to follow up the implementation of the strategy, which has already been prepared.
2. The formation of a working group in order to gather another observations and writes questionnaires.
3. Review what has been implemented by the weekly periodical meetings.
4. Request to assess the work of other parties before a neutral and related strategy in the field, for example:
National Information Center and Microsoft Corporation.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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During project implementation there were two main obstacles:
1-project coordination with different parties: we had to align the IT Hardware vendor, IT Software Vendor, local partners, and implementation partners. This obstacle was overcome through a semi-weekly project progress meeting where we would discuss all the concerns and raise all issues and follow up with them accordingly to ensure the success of the project.
2- Resistance: employees were resistant to the change to digitalized rather than paper. This was overcome through enforcement from management for a gradual change where they have assigned a project champion in each branch.
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