Technology saves Alba 20pc of expenses

CIO Knowledge Club, an exclusive platform where experienced and nominated CIOs and IT managers gather to share their valuable knowledge and experience with other members in the area of Information and Communication Technology, has organised an open meeting of its members, who are executive directors of IT departments and centres of various public and private sector institutions in Bahrain.

Ahmed Hujairi, Chairman of Gulf Future Business (GFB) group, a unique management consultancy, explained that this meeting was part of the club’s activities in order to provide a permanent platform for networking among its members and keeping them updated on the latest developments in the ICT sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the region and the world. 

“Exploring new horizons of development of this sector in the Kingdom and increasing its share market in the region were also goals of hosting such an event,” he added.

He pointed out that the club was keen on choosing the first-row ICT leaders to be members in order to provide a participatory platform that will move forward in promoting the ICT sector in the Kingdom. 

“The club is also keen on bringing up topics at the centre of the members’ interests and provide them with an interactive environment in order to view each other’s experiences.

During the meeting, senior IT manager at Bahrain Aluminum Company (Alba) Essam Hadi introduced a comprehensive presentation on work mechanisms of the company’s IT department and explained that the correct use of IT had achieved savings of 20.5% of the department’s expenses.

Hadi assured the department’s readiness to meet the technical requirements of the sixth production line when it is launched especially, he said, after the acquisition of profound experiences the department gained through working on the fourth and fifth lines.

“The department has worked over the past years on three major principles which reinforced its support for production processes of the company. These principles -- speed, flexibility and simplicity -- enabled the department to play a supportive and active role in the promotion of production processes in general and to increase interaction and communication between different departments and with other companies,” he added.

Discussions that followed Hadi’s presentation focused on the importance of optimal investment in the ICT sector at the public and private sectors’ institutions, the need to quickly go more towards automation techniques in light of the current economic challenges, in addition to raising production efficiency and enhancing competitiveness and gain customer satisfaction through the use of those techniques.