MoTC announces next phase of digital transformation programme

The Digital Transformation for Small and Medium Business Enterprises (DTSME) programme, an initiative of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), has announced the digital accelerator programme, which is the next phase of its digital transformation objective of transforming businesses in Qatar. The digital accelerator programme will be an enriched version of the DTSME programme, with a realigned focus on sector, business establishment segments, and technology domains. It is targeted at increasing the overall ranking of the country in utilising emerging technologies, such as Internet of Things, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Artificial Intelligence. The programme will commence in early 2020 with a niche focus on business maturity levels and approaching the transformation of SMEs in Qatar through both physical in-site transformations as well as online.With the extension of the DTSME programme, MoTC further aims to strengthen the ecosystem of business establishments through digital empowerment in key sectors by creating value for all stakeholders in Qatar’s digital economy.Officially launched in 2018, the DTSME programme enabled technology partners to connect with SMEs easily over a set of interactive sessions detailed on the online portal www.GoDigital.qa. The programme’s portal served a dual purpose of transferring knowledge, tools, and opportunities; and it also provides a physical and virtual space for businesses and SMEs to network. The programme has executed around 250 interactive sessions till date. Partners of the DTSME programme include the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Qatar Development Bank, Communications Regulatory Authority, Ooredoo, and Microsoft. All partners are committed to delivering the importance of digital transformation to SMEs through offering digital solutions utilising the support of over 40 service providers. Since its launch, DTSME has empowered SMEs to optimise their business models through digital solutions and facilitate digital partnerships between SMEs, government entities and technology enablers.The e-Commerce domain workshop organised by the programme guided SMEs in utilising different platforms to ease the process of payments online. One of the workshops, ‘Collect payments efficiently: An Efficient and Quick Way for Business Owners to Get Rid of the Hassle of Payments Collection’, was executed by MaktApp, a DTSME’s local service providers to support SMEs in collecting their payments online using the cloud based invoicing platform. Other e-Commerce service providers and payment integrators in Qatar were constantly executing sessions throughout the duration of the programme. Some key service providers in the e-commerce domain are DohaBank, QPay, and Tess Systems, among many others.A set of different interactive sessions on Web Enablement and Cloud were also executed to support SMEs with the process of building websites and integrating Automated intelligence (AI) in their business models with the use of cloud platforms. Reem al-Mansoori, assistant undersecretary for the Digital Society Development Sector at MoTC, said: “The digital transformation of SMEs will support Qatar’s digital economy by enhancing the level of digital maturity through digital enablement, innovation and incubation. We believe that SMEs are one of the engines of a thriving digital sector in Qatar, and for this reason we are focusing our efforts to enable them with the right technology tools.”She added, “We are proud to announce that the execution of the DTSME workshops has led to reaching 6,000 unique SMEs and digitally transforming over 600 SMEs across all three focus domains of web enablement, e-Commerce, and cloud. Project manager Noor al-Malki said: “The relaunch of the programme will support the initial vision of promoting digital innovation, competitiveness, and growth of business establishments to enhance Qatar’s digital ecosystem in key sectors through digital enablement, furthermore creating value for all stakeholders in Qatar’s digital economy.”