 I invite Mr. Yusef Albaqi, the CEO of SHIP Technologies. SHIP Technology is the official representative of the Open Group in Middle East. Yusef leads a team of consultants delivering exceptional value to their clients throughout their digital transformation journeys. Yusef's career spans more than 16 years, together with global management consultancies as consulting director for PWC and technology advisor director for KPN. Mr. Yusef, what do you think? It's such an honor to be here. It's a fantastic venue, excellent preparation so far, and amazing company. I think we can relate to a lot of the content that was presented earlier today. Just a thought, it's fantastic. One of the, when James and I were having a chat about this event, I understand we have a good representation from the Middle East. I figured it's going to take a short amount of time. We haven't had 45 minutes to read this quick. But we thought it's very important to bring some perspective about what's happening in the Middle East in terms of enterprise architecture. What is that? Especially when you're in the current situation, the current climate, or the climate that we are seeing in the Middle East. So just, very briefly, I think, just to bring briefly, we talked about the inter-technologies. Inter-technologies is a consulting firm that is highly valued across the Middle East, specifically. We're a small firm, we're an individual firm. We focus specifically on enterprise architecture and transformation. It's the name of our enterprise architecture. I'll talk about that specifically in a little bit. We are the representative of the whole group. So we've had an excellent relationship, it's been in the past six years now. And we try to stay as close as possible to reason to what's happening around us, and contribute as much as we can to the whole group and to the enterprise architecture. We were also one of the early adopters of IT for IT. I'll talk about some of the stuff that we're doing with that. And in the Middle East specifically, and give that context in the bigger picture. So over the years, what's been happening? So, you know, technology, we've done over 150 enterprise architecture projects across the Middle East. So this could be establishing the IT function, or actually, the architecture and designing the architecture for our clients, or operating the enterprise architecture offices for our clients. So we have a tremendous amount of experience. We have a lot of information. We have a wealth of depth and wealth of enterprise architecture capabilities. And that also, that gives us, you know, the prices for that exposure that we need to have more of you of what's happening in the markets around us. We've also done, I guess, so we've photographed as close to our heart, train horse, and more certified, or 2,000 Togathic professionals in the Middle East, which is a healthy contribution in my opinion, coming from our region. And we hope that this continues to grow more and more. One of the things that we're just about to launch, is that we're actually doing the Togathic area to the Middle East, so this is going to also welcome new new employees and new people into the Togathic area. And so far, we have done two executive writing implementations, which is, again, this is great for, you know, especially the threat of, you know, operating in all markets where, you know, adoptions can sometimes be different. But I think it's very important to all of our experience a little bit, how we manage students applying that executive writing is the right framework for the Togathic, given the good challenges that they are facing today. So, there's a lot of challenges that we are facing. So, you know, we've done a lot of projects, we've seen a lot of successes, but we've also seen how we sometimes doesn't work the right way. So I'm going to, although I have given, of course, very proud of, you know, our colleagues from the Middle East who have done very well in the area, but at the same time, I want to talk to my, you know, a little bit about what are the challenges that we are facing, what are the difficulties that we are facing going to be, and how we are trying to address those problems. So the first thing is, and this is something that we've seen a lot, and this is the mentality there, which is boiling the ocean approach when it comes to it. Let's do everything, start a big project, document everything, detail into the entity, and try to do it all in one go, and very, very quickly. Now, this is causing a lot of challenges, because enterprise architecture is not a snapshot, well, the deliverable could be a snapshot in time, but it should not be a snapshot in time. It should be in a live function, should be a living and breathing capability within the organization, rather than taking a few of how we look like six months ago or eight months ago. And the longer it takes to actually deliver the results, the less results you see, and this is the reality. So, at the same token, there's a big investment that happens. If we try to do everything in one go, or we try to do that for the ocean, we're going to have to spend a lot of money through it, and we're going to have to spend a lot of resources. And what this is, you know, a serious incentive that this is creating a perception that my return is going to come in very, very quickly once in a time, but the reality is, as I mentioned, there's a, I don't want to say latency, but the value that enterprise architecture delivers to an organization is with an influence, with the utilization of the enterprise architecture, not from the implementation of the enterprise architecture. So, oh, in fact, it's very interesting, we're just having a conversation, just having lunch with one of my friends, and who owns EA, and where does EA sit in the organization? Is this an IT function? Is this a quality function? Is it a strategy function? Is it a risk function? The answer is yes to all of them. And obviously the answer is yes. It depends how you see it, how you're giving it, and what is the value that you expect to generate out of it. And obviously what this means is that if there's confusion, it means that that understanding and that perception of value is also still missing, unfortunately in some cases. And we're, you know, we are in the Middle East, and we are consumer-driven. We are techies, and we'd like to buy things. So there's a lot of EA initiatives that are tool-driven, so they buy software, and it's going to solve a lot of problems. And the perception eventually is that, you know, at senior level in the United States, is that EA is a silver bullet which can initiate this project, sponsor it, pay for it, and suddenly it's going to solve a lot of problems. But we're going to know that's not really how that's happening. Now, given what's happening around us, and this is very important to put that in context, today there is this heavy pressure to imagine pressures. There's a lot of pressure coming in, and in the Middle East there is heavy force, and we're going to see how the government can adjust our board-driven revenues for governments. There's also a geopolitical unrest, when you see a quarter on this, this is doing to the sentiment of the buyers and of the organizations in general, is that there's that financial pressure. I would say, you know what, if there are initiatives that are competing for my dollars, where would I put my money? Do I put my money in matters of good work, of enterprise architecture, or do I put my money in some, and that's going to increase my top line? Is it going to be a better, more customer acquisition, as it can generate more revenue from? And the answer is, I'm under that pressure. My first priority is my top line, and my good order, you know, top data. And so, we are seeing this situation, and we are rethinking the private part of the country. So we are rethinking about how do we address the challenges that we are solving, and how do we reframe the question itself of why do we want to be sort of... We're making good strants in the background, so I'm walking through that. So there is, you know, there is the blackout at the end of the tunnel, the sun is shining again. And I would say that conversations that I'm having with my clients that we are having, are changing for sure. We are seeing this, and it is definitely affecting the way we are interacting in order for how our clients are actually seeing things. So digitally seen as the future, and that's given, I think, the majority of the world representations this morning and everywhere you hook in, and you search that you do in the conferences, digitally, digitally. So how do we do it digitally, and how do we marry into it? And how do we marry into the conversation? I think it's more important than just the execution. So the first thing that we are doing right now, we are having a conversation is we need to be focused on how to make a living. So focus on what is the business result, what is the business value that I'm trying to address, I'm trying to achieve using the press market. Rather than going in and mapping everything in my organization, what I need to be doing is taking a focus view of what is it that I'm trying to achieve as a business, what changes I'm going to implement, what transformations I'm going to take in the past, what I'm trying to address, and focus on the press architecture components around that function at first, and we grow in the press architecture, and we provide a steady step in the planning of the future. Digital is happening, so there is new technologies that are available, and there is a proliferation of new technologies. We're seeing everywhere in the cloud, the cloud adoption is massive, even in the 19th century, we're seeing artificial intelligence thinking in the next few years. New business channels are all together that are being opened up because of the new technologies. And obviously, people are thinking about new business models. It's no longer, how do I do my business this way and everybody must come to me. It's now about how do I collaborate, how do I partner, how do I generate more business value out of the ecosystem that's around. And we have to define that value, so it's no longer say, what is that, what's my deterrent investment on PA? I think that question needs to be changed, what is the value I'm going to generate when I have my place when I start my transformation. So the conversation is no longer about the value of the idea itself. The value is, what does the idea do in order to generate business value out of my other initiatives. And obviously, today we have to think about both side of the performance, which is in the first place, but we also have to think about risk and we have to see how this affects us as an organization. It's becoming more and more important for that executive level, because organizations are looking and saying, we don't want to fall into the same trap and he is supposed to hand over and overspend the work, so how do we address that and how do we make this go with the enterprise? And there is no silver bullet. I mean, that's very clear when we're having a conversation that the value of the enterprise is not in itself and by its value of the enterprise but it is in the capability that allows you to generate and allow you to innovate throughout your other transformation. So why did you do that? And that's also a very important question. We have to ask ourselves why are the hard lines given in the face of all the challenges, all the economic and what is the situation that we're in? Why aren't we moving to digital? What is happening there? There is new business models and everybody is talking about it and everybody wants to do it. The buzzwords are big in the Middle East. People are unfortunately or fortunately, organizations do feel that they hear a little bit of words and they won't be too effective. But there's also capabilities that are now available. So when we're talking about new business models that are being implemented, we are seeing collaborations, business-to-business partnerships that never existed before and could not have existed before had it not been for technology. So people are thinking. One of the things that I mentioned before is that technology is part of a larger environment. Our biggest sister company is an automotive business and we are definitely seeing the impact of digital effectiveness in the whole business. Whether it's Uber or actually coming to or knocking on our doors and we have to adopt and we have to adapt. The customer dynamic is also changing. So my client's customers are also changing. They're demanding more. They do their research better. They do their research faster and they make their decisions before they actually go and talk. So what is happening is people are getting smarter and the information is better. So what is this doing at the same time? Because there's all that reaction and all that, you know, IT is trying to keep up, keep up, keep up, buying new things, buying new software, buying new tools, integrating ITs, all of that. So what's happening is that IT landscape is also becoming more and more complex. So these are the factors that are pushing the market. But at the same time there are other points that the customer is demanding. The customer, once they've got the customer wants to fast and if you don't give your I need I'm going to go to the next available guide that customer loyalty is becoming very short tempered and it's on a very short heat. That's the smallest aggression from an either good organization that customers are using. And obviously everybody's feeling the crunch so everybody's believing for that knowledge that is the atmosphere. So nobody must be that guy and nobody must be saying that say, hey, we're on social media and we're real compliant. Nobody cares about that. Today, the average consumer is others say I want that, I don't want to be that. I want it the way I want to consume, not the way you want to consume. So these are meaning how all of these factors are affecting these conversations. The market has changed. Customer has been acting more and becoming more and more aware. So what are we doing with our clients? So we're setting the conversations actually and I just wanted to highlight very quickly about some of the stuff that we are seeing clients actually doing helping other organizations across the Middle East deliver on those elements so that they can actually adopt enterprise architecture in the right way in the digital image. So the one thing that I'm seeing and it's proving very, very effective is customer journey maps. What clients are doing, I think with my colleagues from Oracle just now to talk about customer journeys and mapping of customer journeys, leads essentially for us to understand that customer journey maps is an integral function of an integrated organization because this is how I bring it all together. This is how I bring my process, my technology, my channels and my customer into the picture which is always an most important element of it. I'm not telling why the A traditionally has been looking inward to say, this is what I have, this is what I do, this is how I do it. When I start by being a customer journey, I'm saying, well, this is how my customer sees me and this is what my customer expects from me. And these are again two sides of the same point. The customer sees and interacts with me the way the customer wants to interact with me. So when I'm plugging an enterprise of architecture and I'm implementing my architecture initiatives, it is very important that I don't stop at my organization. I have to understand what is my customer expecting from me so that I can interact with them. So this is becoming a very effective tool. There's a lot of design, there's a lot of planning that is happening. Cost and benefit and return investment calculations are happening. The difference is that we're seeing this happening micro-level development and micro-level. Rather than seeing the organization like our clients are not coming to us saying, well, how do I get the return investment to me? With my clients they're coming to me saying, well, what is the return investment if I actually implement this little capability in my mobile app? Or if I integrate that business-to-business capability or I call that AKI from my business point? So that conversation is changing on how do I measure my return investment and how do I plan? And the planning is more on my project. That's everything. So one of the things that we're also really I also believe that the gentleman before me presents also how quickly do I change the customer engagement system of engagement. We cannot change everything. We don't want to worry about it. But my customers expect me to be faster and my customers expect me to be more agile and they want it down but they want the coolest thing every day. So agility is absolutely essential. And understanding what that agility means and understanding what value that agility brings is also a function of enterprise hardware. So one of the things that we are doing quite a bit of is we are delivering what we call an MVP or minimum viable product. So within days rather than weeks we can actually deliver the capability that the pipeline is expecting in terms of digital transformation. Now that is not possible to do unless I have a robust enterprise architecture capability system because I need to understand what is it that I'm delivering in terms of digital transformation or what is the customer experience that they need to put to do. I need to understand why I'm going to find that information. I'm not going to take this to my hands to get my data out of systems. I need to find out exactly what products are whether they are micro-services whether they are APIs, it doesn't matter. What matters is I need to understand very quickly and very rapidly how do I deliver that value from inside out and how do I consume it from the outside. So we are going to now for example two of those are available for example global platforms API platforms etc. We are able to deliver within days working fully functioning capability. So this is just an example of what I think that uses Fitch recognition it has an IT sensors plugged into somebody's kitchen and to determine if the child is opening the fridge after a certain hour so that it sends an SMS message to their parents saying your kid is going to be chocolate set So that kind of capability is delivering that kind of app in about 24 hours is massive I open for the C-level executive to say I can do this I am now able to think how do I serve my customers better how do I actually reach my top line how do I increase my customer decision and at the end of the day we have to make it all work so it's not enough to say if we have technical difficulties it's not enough to say we have to cross architecture we can't apply yesterday's solutions to today's problems we have to be thinking about it and this is where IT team is coming in and to remind us about the conversations you are having on actually it's incredible because our clients are saying well I handed my entire supply chain technology out and the tools that we used to have and the processes that we used to follow do not catch up I was with a client just last week and we were talking about the systems we need to agility and how do we deliver fast and we said alright let's build an app for you and we built something similar to the screenshot I just gave and we built it within about half an hour and the client said he's like alright this is fantastic and he looks at the CIO and he's like well do I still need to go through all your process of quality checks and improvements and all of this and the CIO was like yeah of course you do it it's like okay so what's the point I'm still going to spend two weeks getting what I've done in half an hour it's still going to take me two weeks to go live so it's not enough to actually just implement EA it's not enough to play digital if you don't think about how do you manage digital in that kind of innovation and I truly believe that ITFRID is opening that door for opening the eyes of our clients to say well this is fantastic this is how we need to do this and this is how we can actually handle the agility that is required for us today to implement the AI and that's it thank you very much everybody and I have questions for you