Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Abu Dhabi Smart Solutions and Services Authority (ADSSSA) on Monday partnered with Microsoft, to host an Innovation Summit at Jumeirah Etihad Towers, in the UAE capital. The event connected over 500 IT decision-makers with digital transformation experts to help them achieve more and further emphasised on how innovation can happen jointly.

Dr. Rauda Saeed Al Saadi, Director General of ADSSSA said, “We are glad to host the Innovation Summit in partnership with Microsoft, one of the world’s top firms in Technology. The Innovation Summit, being held in Abu Dhabi, reflects ADSSSA’s strategy of driving digital transformation across the emirate to stimulate business and investment and promote economic development as one of the main pillars of Abu Dhabi Development Accelerator Programme “Ghadan21.”

Al Saadi highlighted the vital role that innovative digital solutions can play to promote proactivity and drive innovation leveraging the power of Data which will positively impact the happiness of society in line with the authority’s strategy to widen its partnerships with the private sector to further enhance synergies and create incremental value from the joint initiatives.

Covering topics such as the power of Microsoft 365, the transforming government services through artificial intelligence, and datacenter management with Microsoft Azure, the summit offered presentations and breakout sessions designed to accelerate innovation, boost entrepreneurship and job creation, and support the UAE private and public sectors in their pursuit of excellence in the global digital economy.

“Microsoft today reiterated its ongoing support for the Government of Abu Dhabi as it continues to innovate on behalf of its citizens, residents, visitors and investors” said Sayed Hashish, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. “Digital transformation has the power to engage citizens, empower public servants, optimise operations and reinvent service-delivery models. Our shared digital future demands that public and private sectors join together, as we have with ADSSSA, to guide entrepreneurs and help create jobs and boost GDP, in line with Abu Dhabi’s accelerator programme Ghadan 21”.

Keynote speakers at the event included Dr. Rauda Al Saadi, Director-General of ADSSSA; Mansoor Al Marzooqi, Strategy and Planning Director, ADSSSA; Sayed Hashish, General Manager, Microsoft Gulf; Mohammed Arif, Regional Director, Modern Workplace & Security, Microsoft Gulf; and Talal Alqinawi, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft HQ.

Microsoft-led breakout sessions covered areas such as the Office of the Future with Microsoft 365, Transforming Government Services with AI, Data Centre Modernization with Azure, Intelligent Customer Service with Dynamics 365; Cloud Policy and Compliance, and Hybrid Cloud in the Government Sector. Microsoft partners PwC, Cloud4C, MDS, Crayon and Exceed addressed delegates on a range of topics, including public sector cloud journeys and the experience of the digital citizen.

The summit also featured an expo area with booths for Microsoft partners, as well as a Microsoft Azure showcase. In addition, ADSSSA demonstrated its TAMM initiative, a first-of-its-kind in the region that aims to consolidate e-government services into a single platform and move the service delivery model towards a ‘journey’-focused approach.

Following a significant surge in the demand for its cloud services in the region, Microsoft earlier this year announced it will make available its secure, flexible and intelligent cloud to regional customers through two dedicated cloud datacenters, one in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. These facilities will cater exclusively to the Middle East providing enterprise-grade reliability and performance, combined with data residency and the broadest compliance.

It may be noted that Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft Gulf opened its Dubai-based headquarters in 1991. Today, the Gulf office oversees Microsoft Gulf activities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and UAE.

The Abu Dhabi’s Smart Solutions and Services Authority (ADSSSA) has a legal personality and possesses the necessary legal capacity as well as financial and administrative independence in all matters. The Smart Solutions and Services Authority is aimed at developing smart systems for government services by focusing on the combined experience of all categories of customers, to improve and assist the work of the government services sector.  The Authority works with all government bodies to redefine services and offer them in a seamless, proactive and integrated manner, to meet the individual needs of each customer, through a multi-channel unified platform which provides customers with access to services anywhere and at any time.