Riyadh – Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with Germany’s leading enterprise software SAP on Wednesday at Future Investment Initiative to enrich the digital services provided to Hajj and Umrah pilgrims.
According to the deal, SAP will develop innovative cloud technologies to transform the operations required to host millions of pilgrims every year.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Dr. Mohammad Saleh bin Taher Benten – the Saudi minister of Hajj and Umrah, and Steve Tzikakis – SAP’s president of EMEA South.
The cloud-based technology will help Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to unify all its pilgrims related data which runs in collaboration with hundreds of travel agencies worldwide.
It helps ministry get real-time updates and insights into the pilgrim-travel experience.
The analysis will support ministry to enhance its crowd-management, transportation and logistics services, and also the health and safety of pilgrims.
“The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah’s digital transformation is aligned with our vision of making a pilgrim’s journey easy and predictable, within an environment of peace and tranquility,” said Benten.
“As the number of pilgrims on Hajj and Umrah grows steadily, we can easily scale up on the cloud to enhance our operations. This helps improve the effectiveness of both our staff and infrastructure in order to optimize travel experiences for all,” he added.
The advantage of moving to cloud-based technology will be to save around 25 to 50 percent potential costs, and it will reduce hardware costs as well.
“By using our real-time analytics and Internet of Things solutions in the cloud, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah can enhance travel processes, optimize transportation routes, and support digital payments for the more than 2 million pilgrims from 168 countries who arrive in Makkah each year,” said Khaled Alsaleh, the managing director of SAP Saudi Arabia.
“We are pleased to play an important role in supporting the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah in providing a peaceful, more enjoyable and safe travel,” Alsaleh added.
The highly anticipated outcome of the FII is the SAP’s commitment to invest SR285 million i.e. $76 million for the next four years to help ministry reach its digital transformation.
Saudi crown prince at FII Riyadh summit on Wednesday committed to transform middle-East into a ‘new Europe’ in the next five-years and he is given dedicatedly to modernize the middle-East without shunning its Islamic values.
