The COVID-19 pandemic engulfed countries and industries worldwide, disrupting businesses and forcing them to identify alternative ways to conduct their operations, whereas governments were compelled to take drastic measures to cope with the outbreak.

The government of Saudi Arabia responded to the global pandemic boldly and swiftly. It adopted proactive measures to deal with the outbreak. Flight bans, lockdowns, social distancing, and work-from-home policies were some of the protective initiatives put in place to help curb the spread of the disease; indeed, we are all now observing the effectiveness of such measures as daily cases are dropping significantly, and the cure rate reaching 95.9 percent.

In March, when the impact of the pandemic was realized, the Ministry of Education closed all public and private schools to protect students from COVID-19 and accelerated e-learning. Similarly, the Ministry of Health (MoH), in collaboration with other entities, launched a number of e-health initiatives such as “Mawid” and “Tawakkalna” — mobile apps for the public to report and track COVID-19 cases. Social distancing, curfews and other controls affected critical sectors like retail, wholesale, and civil works, pushing citizens toward e-commerce, delivery applications and e-government platforms.

The disruption caused by COVID-19 emphasized the value of unified communications and collaboration to the level where they have become an integral part of business continuity requirements. Online collaboration tools such as conferencing and productivity suites are helping to minimize the impact of the outbreak by enabling employees to work from home. Collaboration and IoT-based solutions are being utilized by the healthcare sector enabling telemedicine and remote healthcare management. Meanwhile, collaboration solutions for the education space are making distance learning and proctoring possible. 

The new norm we are living and the need for increased online collaboration have put the telecommunications network to the test. Since the start of the pandemic, demand on network capacity in Saudi Arabia and data transfer capabilities via fiber optics and mobile phones have skyrocketed. As demand was rising, the supply of high-bandwidth connectivity and cybersecurity solutions needed to parallel this growth to maintain a robust cloud and network infrastructure as well as effective disaster recovery.

While a great number of operational activities at Mobily are digitized and automated, the company had to put in place additional short- and medium-term mitigation plans to address the pandemic’s impact on its business. Priorities had to be shuffled to address the pressing need to provide undisrupted business continuity to customers.

Mobily also reevaluated its sales engagement platforms and revisited its online go-to-market strategies through digital channels. Additionally, the company identified alternate sources of the supply-chain through vendors to overcome delays caused by international flight bans and lockdowns. Employees were also equipped with home-based systems and applications to manage online services and orders to retain business confidence.

Mobily has already stepped up its efforts in supporting businesses and the government to showcase its commitment toward national digitization and Vision 2030 in these critical times. To support the government, Mobily is hosting the coronavirus map for the National Health Information Center, where real-time updates for coronavirus and related statistics are featured. Mobily also activated a centralized pipe for MoH hospitals’ Internet support, network security and capacity requirements.

On another front, we at Mobily believe that digital transformation is no longer an option for most businesses; it has become a necessity. In the past few months, organizations have been observed to increase spending on e-commerce, virtual learning, digital banking and online medical consultations to name a few. At Mobily, we are going beyond just providing robust and secure network infrastructure and fast connectivity; we are utilizing big data and analytics, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and chat-bots to complement human-to-human interaction and reinvent approaches for customer support and IT help desk services without jeopardizing our customer or employee safety.

As we navigate these critical times, we all need to stand together and employ our collective expertise and capabilities to serve businesses, the community and government to overcome the crisis. Mobily is fully equipped and ready to support the Kingdom through its commitment, digital portfolio, and extensive expertise. All Mobily solutions are tweaked to serve the new needs brought on by the pandemic and are offered with unprecedented responsiveness and quality.