According to companies and industry experts in the region, cloud adoption is helping businesses in the Middle East and Africa reduce overall operating costs, increase profitability and seamlessly address market disruptions caused by Covid-19.
Thanks to the latest cloud solutions, many companies have been able to quickly adjust their business strategies, improve customer experience, become more adaptable and agile, and emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic that has upended the global economy and closed many businesses .
DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators, was one of the first companies in the region to perfect its cloud infrastructure when the pandemic hit the world in 2020. It helps logistics companies increase their business and keep goods flowing smoothly around the world.
By running cloud-based applications, we’ve found that we can maintain critical operations with minimal staff in the office during the pandemic
Mohamed Absar, Head of Logistics and Technology and Head of Projects and Solutions, DP World
The Dubai-based company deployed Oracle Fusion Cloud applications across its finance, human resources and supply chain operations before the pandemic began. The results are encouraging.
DP World’s finance team managed to reduce the monthly checkout processing time from 15 days to 3 days. The company cut budget time in half and accelerated invoice processing by 50 to 60 percent.
“By running cloud-based applications, we’ve found that we can maintain critical operations during the pandemic with minimal staff in the office…no friction, everything is so seamless,” said Mohamed, chief of staff for logistics and logistics said Absar DP World’s Head of Technology and Projects and Solutions.
“We were able to run the entire [back office] The office is unmanned. We never thought we would be able to run the company without on-site staff,” Mr Absal said.
The company employs 53,000 people and operates 128 logistics operations, including 90 shipping terminals worldwide.
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Globally, the cloud industry is booming. Spending on public cloud services is expected to grow 20.4 percent annually to $495 billion this year as companies accelerate their digital transformation in the post-coronavirus era, according to Gartner.
Total spending is up about $84 billion from 2020 and is expected to grow nearly 21.3% annually to nearly $600 billion next year.
“Enterprises, public sector organisations and SMEs [small and medium enterprises] Learn about the unique advantages of moving to the cloud, including higher ROI, in the UAE and the wider Middle East [return on investment]has the ability to explore new avenues for growth, drive innovation, deliver new services, save costs, and ensure strong cybersecurity,” said Leopoldo Boado Lama, senior vice president of Oracle’s Eastern Europe, Central Europe and Middle East Africa business applications.
According to industry experts, it is more economical for businesses to move to a cloud system hosted by a specialist company such as Oracle, Amazon Web Services (AWS) or SAP than to create their own servers, hardware and secure network infrastructure. It also reduces the total cost of ownership.
In the cloud industry, businesses pay only for those selective services or resources they use over a period of time.
Gartner says the new reality of hybrid work is prompting organizations to “ditch the use of traditional client computing solutions (such as desktops and other physical office tools) to power employees” and opt for the latest cloud solutions.
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, commonly known as Taqa, one of the UAE’s largest listed companies by market capitalization, is running Oracle E-Business Suite solutions for its key business processes.
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In 2020, the company adopted a multi-cloud strategy to address key challenges, including improving system availability and reducing outages, increasing security compliance requirements, and implementing a disaster recovery site.
Operational downtime, the company’s most critical KPI, dropped by 80 percent after implementation.
The company said the shift to cloud infrastructure computing has also boosted Taqa’s performance by nearly 30 percent, as the cloud solution improves availability and scalability for oil and gas users connecting to Oracle and non-Oracle systems across continents.
“With Oracle Cloud, we managed to achieve a certain level of efficiency after two months of operation—almost five times what we used to be through our old distribution center—resulting in over 95 percent availability across all customer touchpoints,” Raed Jameel Monagel, Saudi Arabia said the chief supply chain and business support officer of Arab Nahdi Medical.
With Oracle Cloud, we managed to gain some efficiency after two months of operation—nearly five times what we used to be through our old distribution center
Raed Jameel Monagel, Chief Supply Chain and Business Support Officer, Nahdi Medical Company
With approximately 6,000 employees and more than 1,150 pharmacies serving more than 140 towns and cities in Saudi Arabia, Nahdi is one of the largest pharmacy retailers in Saudi Arabia.
During the pandemic, the company’s order volume jumped from a few thousand online orders a day to more than 20,000 a day.
To contain the impact of the pandemic and modernize its supply chain processes, Nahdi implemented Oracle Transportation Management and Warehouse Management solutions to optimize its fulfillment operations, streamline its delivery services and leverage real-time data across the supply chain.
The company has increased its vehicle utilization by an average of 5% to 10% through fully automated freight planning and tracking using cloud transportation management.
The company said it has boosted product inventory in its pharmacies through more efficient deliveries.
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In September, Dubai-based Dulsco Group joined forces with Oracle to advance its digital transformation program aimed at enhancing customer and employee experiences, automating processes and increasing operational efficiency.
“In a rapidly changing market, we need more adaptability and resiliency, while continuing to provide innovative and reliable service to our customers,” said Dulsco CEO David Stockton.
“Partnering with Oracle will allow us to use a full suite of integrated applications to optimize our processes, allowing us to operate more efficiently, continue to innovate and scale our business at the speed we need.”
US tech company Oracle has announced a slew of new cloud-centric offerings in its ongoing Oracle Cloud World, as it battles the likes of AWS and Microsoft for market share.
New solutions unveiled at the Las Vegas, Nevada event are designed to help customers accelerate digital transformation, enhance product offerings, improve customer experience and make faster decisions through improved use of data and analytics.
Despite the benefits, security is always a challenge for cloud computing.
“There is no doubt that protecting data is now a top priority for business leaders. The IT security practices of many organizations that manage their own systems are inadequate on their own to defend against sophisticated threats,” Mr. Lama said.
“At Oracle, safety has been a priority since day one. We are addressing cybersecurity challenges with the world’s first autonomous database. Self-driving, self-protecting and self-healing, our autonomous database removes complexity , manual management and human error”.
Updated: 10/20/2022 7:09am