English abstract
The study aimed to identify the strategies and plans for the digital transformation in the Sultanate of Oman, the reality of the digital transformation, the major affecting factors, and the future trends for the digital transformation. The study used a qualitative descriptive approach through semi-structured interviews and content analysis as tools for collecting data. The number of the conducted interviews were 14. The research sample covered four government institutions: Information Technology Authority (ITA), Ministry of Health,
ation, Royal Oman Police, and one institution from the private sector Bank Muscat
The study concluded to a set of results as follows: The Sultanate of Oman's interest in the information technology sector and the preparation of its own comprehensive strategy. As a result of this strategy, a special plan for digital transformation was emerged, which has been circulated to government institutions to achieve their goals. As well as, work is underway to prepare a new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector strategy to keep pace with current developments. Furthermore, the results showed that there are variations in the levels of transformation in the research sample institutions, but all of them have made clear effort, which helped in the progress of the Sultanate in the level of digital transformation, according to the UN report 2018, as well as, achieving progress in the other assessment aspects such as electronic participation. The most prominent transformation projects in the Sultanate were the infrastructure projects, and other projects such as the Oman National Computer Emergency Readiness Team (OCERT) and various Sas centers at ITA, in addition to other projects in institutions in the research sample - such as educational portal, e-health portal, and different service applications available on smartphones.
The study showed that there are auxiliary factors for the digital transformation, including political factors, awareness, media, partnership with the private sector and the desire of the institutions to transform. While re-engineering of the procedures in the institutions, the transformation infrastructure, lack of human competence and immigration, lack of financial resources, and others represented the challenges affecting transformation The most prominent future trends of research sample institutions are using technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, increasing the availability of more open government data, increasing the service applications of smartphones and transforming the Information Technology sector from a supportive sector to an investment sector that contributes to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
The study sums up with some recommendations. The most important are giving the ITA more authorities to implement the digital transformation project in the Sultanate, expanding the scope of partnership with the private sector in the implementation of this transformation projects to contribute positively in providing financial needs for its continuation, in addition to investing in the information technology sector, harmonize the organizational structures in the institutions for the digital transformation procedures by identifying and updating the tasks to suit their requirements and making them flexible and changeable structures to achieve the transformation goals, and intensifying the exploitation of the technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by the institutions in of intelligent technology projects that serve their work effectively.
