The Information Technology Authority (ITA) organized a 2 days capacity building workshop yesterday morning at Hormuz Grand Hotel to unveil the details of the 5^th edition of the Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment with the presence of Dr. Salim Bin Sultan Alruzaiqi and number of representatives from various government entities, private sector and SME companies.
The workshop began with a welcoming speech by Dr. Salim Bin Sultan Alruzaiqi, CEO of ITA, who said “We are pleased  to launch the Sultan Qaboos for Excellence in eGovernment to appreciate the efforts in the ICT sector for all government and private organizations including the SMEs”.
“This edition has been improved to world class standards in terms of award categories and criteria overseen by international experts in the field of eGovernance and digital services. New categories have been included to recognize agility in eTransformation, use of eParticipation channels in decision making and integrated services under the Whole-of-Government vision and public services through mobile channels”. He further explained.
The first day of the workshop highlighted the UN Report on eGovernment and the ranking of Oman internationally in a presentation delivered by Dr. Julia Glidden, an internationally recognized expert in the field of eGovernment, who enlightened the audience on the global trends and technologies including UN eGovernment ranking and the global benchmarking.
About Oman’s overall ranking in UN eGovernment, Dr. Julia Glidden mentioned that “Oman has witnessed an impressive rise in its overall UN Ranking where the Oman’s score  leaped from 112 in 2005 into 48 in 2014”.
She further added “this tremendous improvement is attributed to a number of factors among which the implementation of Focused Whole of Government Strategy to improve eService delivery,    the proactive embrace of Social Media & Mobile to engage with citizens and kick start innovation and the regulatory & policy framework which are in place””.
The second session of the workshop familiarized the audience with the award categories and criteria for 2016 which witnessed the addition of 3 new categories namely the best eTransformation achievement,  Best Service Supporting Doing Business  and Best eParticipation for Decision-Making initiative.
Dr. Ahmed Alhosni, a jury member, presented the Award 2016 categories and criteria which target government, private sectors and SMEs companies. He said, “the government entities can compete on 8 categories which are: Best Public Service – Government to Employee,  Best Public Service – Government to Citizens,  Best Mobile  Service – Government to Employee,  Best Mobile  Service – Government to Citizens , Best Service Supporting Doing Business, Best Whole of Government Service, Best eParticipation for Decision-Making initiative and Best eTransformation Achievement”.”
He added, “The private sector also will be able to compete on Best Private Sector Service, Best Private Sector Mobile Service. While the SME companies are competing for Best SME Service”.
The 2^nd day of the workshop will walk the participants through some of important topic related to the participation and registration in the award system along with a presentation on the role of social media in decision making and making strategic impact.
It is worth mentioning that the whole award process starting from registration, verification, up to jury evaluation and results   will be carried out through a secure web system and they will be published on the award website.