CASE STUDY
continuously look for ways to optimise
search results and ensure best inventory
availability in record time across a large set
of suppliers across the globe.
Can you tell us how you have
adopted cloud strategy across
the organisation?
In 2016, after outlining the draft of our
Digital Transformation strategy that
focuses on improving efficiency and
OUR PRODUCT TEAM PLACES
EMPHASIS ON BUILDING PLATFORMS
THAT ENHANCE USE OF EASE AS
WELL AS ASSURE SIMPLER USER
EXPERIENCE AND INTERFACE.
order platform offering a state-of-the-art
digital booking system for government and
corporate entities.
Since its soft launch in December 2018, this
product has won over several government
entities as its clients, serving more than
300,000 employees and generating more
than SAR one billion worth of transactions
through the platform. Almost 40% of total
Elaa transactions were done through our
Elaa Corporate platform.
Set to revolutionise C&G travel solutions,
Elaa brings together a team of local experts
at Elaa and C&G travel advisors to simplify
government travel arrangements. It will
replace the time-consuming process of
travel bookings for government entities and
companies in Saudi Arabia, which is totally
dependent on manual work, written sign-off
and physical documentation.
customer centricity, we focused on drawing
on the latest technologies as the real
enabler of change. technologies that play a support function,
as well as building highly sophisticated core
platforms like customer-facing systems.
Accordingly, we found that we would need
to deploy many systems in a short time.
This meant a massive amount of CAPEX
investment and months if not years of wait
time. For this, on-premise servers were not
an option and we adopted a cloud-first
strategy that not only enabled us to save on
capital expenditure but also enhanced our
time to market. Our cloud strategy is central
to our Digital Transformation and brings
higher levels of operational efficiency and
productivity organisation wide. Such a strategy is important for fast go-to-
market capabilities and enable us to achieve
the highest level of efficiency across all
touch-points.
Can you explain how you have built
up the online travel agency from a
technology perspective?
We are a tech-driven company and our
focus has been on integrating off-the-shelf
www.intelligentcio.com
We continue to focus on investing in
advanced technologies to further position
us as the leading travel agency in the region,
with our online business recording strong
and consistent growth.
What have been the main IT
achievements of your organisation
in the past year?
We have had several new initiatives and
accomplishments this year. For example,
Elaa, the travel management company
of Seera, launched an electronic travel
Elaa’s latest product enables total
automation of approvals, travel policy
enforcement and real-time travel order
status updates. It also enhances the
employee experience through its transparent
and trackable online system.
Adding to ease of access, local data
residency is stored and accessible in
dashboards to facilitate effortless analysis
of travel bookings. Any new rules or
government regulations pertaining to travel
can be easily incorporated in the system –
together contributing to a more efficient,
swift and seamless process.
Elaa’s product provides decision-makers
with the right data to reduce business travel
costs. It immensely enhances the efficiency
of our clients. For the first time in Saudi
Arabia, government entities can do their
travel bookings electronically and travellers
INTELLIGENTCIO
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