Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 42 | Page 15

Nokia collaborates with Egypt’s MCIT to boost technology innovation and develop digital skills N okia is collaborating with a number of organisations to provide training to local talent in Egypt. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed aimed at supporting the Egyptian Government’s efforts to use new technology approaches for enhancing economic growth. Nokia and Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT)’s have signed two MoUs to provide local skill-building and employment opportunities to support the country’s Digital Transformation efforts. As part of the MoU, Nokia and the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), MCIT’s sector development and innovation arm, will jointly conduct a yearly innovation competition hackathon with Nokia Bell Labs. Nokia will also provide software development internships to give talented Egyptians opportunities to gain first-hand job experience. HE Eng Amr Talaat, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said: “We are committed to our vision of developing Egypt as a prominent global ICT player. We are confident that the agreements signed with Nokia will be extremely beneficial for the country’s youth and help us in developing competencies in the emerging technologies. “Such collaborations with technology leaders will enable us to propel our efforts to foster talent for the new technologies.” ///////////////// Kuwait Finance House adopts Blue-Prism’s robotic process automation solutions K uwait Finance House (KFH) has announced that it has adopted Robotic Process Automation solutions by Blue-Prism, built on Microsoft technologies. This makes KFH the region’s first company in the financial services industry (FSI) to implement a fully automated workflow system for retail credit and enables the organisation to empower its employees to better engage customers, optimise operations and transform services. Waleed Mandini, Group Chief Retail, Kuwait Finance House www.intelligentcio.com “Automation of our retail credit application creation and review process is a natural extension of our ongoing journey to introduce new, digitally driven efficiencies for customers and employees,” said Waleed Mandini, Group Chief Retail, Kuwait Finance House. “Microsoft has been an invaluable partner and mentor for us throughout this journey, aiding our technology team in the development of the Baitak Assistant and enabling us to empower our service teams to deliver enhanced customer experiences. Automation allows us to reduce waiting times for credit- application creation and streamline the approval process.” Working autonomously, the bot will calculate the customer’s eligibility status, accounting for current KFH policy and national regulations, and issue a credit- eligibility report. It will forward all relevant material to the Relationship Manager. The result will be a companywide reduction in workload, freeing up time for selling and cross selling. The bot will also represent a significant cost reduction, stemming from error reduction and increases in compliance. INTELLIGENTCIO 15