Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority sets example of future-facing business continuity with Microsoft 365 and Azure

The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) serves as the centralized information technology (IT) organization for the Bahraini government, overseeing activities in digital transformation, operations and governance, and statistics and population. It manages the National portal Bahrain.bh, offering government services to the public sector. It also plays a key role in representing the government to service and product providers. iGA's history is rooted in innovation, being the first Gulf country to conduct a census survey around 1941 and transitioning to smart card processes for national identity in 2004.

Streamlining IT operations

In the early 2010s, iGA faced challenges with its on-premises infrastructure. “Managing everything on-premises required hardware upgrades every three to five years. Storage often reached maximum capacity, and we had to constantly patch systems and update our security posture,” recalls Hesham Ebrahim Al-Hashemi, Director of Government Systems Support and Maintenance Directorate at the iGA. The processes were time-consuming, costly, and impeded iGA from focusing on its core mission: innovating public services.

To overcome all challenges in one fell swoop, iGA adopted Microsoft 365 E3 to enhance productivity and collaboration. This shift enabled iGA to divide technical and operational efforts among subject matter experts, enabling government ministries to concentrate on daily operations. iGA's plan involved moving all data storage to the cloud, minimizing and ultimately eliminating reliance on on-premises servers. iGA adopted a Cloud First policy in 2017, leading the way among the Gulf nations in transitioning away from traditional on-premises data centers.

Enhancing ministries’ efficiency 

iGA also implemented Azure Backup to ensure business continuity and securely archive data. "Azure Backup brought a significant improvement in information availability,” Al-Hashemi highlights. “Before Azure Backup, our environment's retention and availability were around 30%. This has now been extended to nearly 100% of our workloads.” iGA also implemented Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) to ensure secure access for staff working anywhere, from any device.

Furthermore, iGA’s move from SharePoint on-premises to SharePoint Online revolutionized data management for government ministries. Previously limited by storage capacity and burdened with additional costs for archiving data, now the ministries enjoy unlimited storage and the ease of document management. “The Ministry of Justice is very happy with SharePoint Online,” notes Al-Hashemi. “The Ministry of Housing is also very satisfied. They are now handling internal administrative requests like changing office furniture through SharePoint forms, which is a lot more accessible.”

The ability to have virtual meetings using Microsoft Teams also led to smoother collaboration and saved significant time and resources across ministries, eliminating the need for physical travel and associated costs. "Each of us spent about five hours weekly getting to meetings. Extrapolate that to all 20,000 employees now working online, and you have 100,000 working hours saved per week," adds Dr. Khalid Ahmed Al Mutawah, Deputy CE of Operation and Governance at iGA.

Future of e-government and innovation 

The biggest benefit is iGA’s ability to shift from maintaining daily operations to value-adding work. “Before, we were concerned with maintaining infrastructure, email, and user storage,” Al-Hashemi remarks. "Now, we're looking at new products, like Microsoft Copilot, to see how we can enhance people’s effectiveness and efficiency. We are hoping the Copilot webinars will help our people maximize this AI-based solution."

Looking ahead, iGA remains committed to continuous improvement and innovation. iGA has begun a series of workshops to educate and encourage government employees to use the Microsoft Power Platform. “Low-code and no-code tools, like Power Platform, enable us to accelerate and simplify the development process. It empowers non-developer users to create applications that will benefit Bahrain’s ministries, citizens, and visitors,” shares Dr. Al Mutawah.

More new tools are also on the drawing board. Al-Hashemi notes, "We are planning to launch new products for the use of the government, like Microsoft Fabric, which would improve our reporting and big data analysis capabilities."

What’s most remarkable about iGA's approach to technology is not that it’s always a first-mover or early adopter. Rather, iGA ensures that any technological adoption is aligned with tangible benefits for the government and the people it serves. Al-Hashemi emphasizes, “If and when there's a benefit; that's what drives us to innovate."

"Innovation is in our blood, so we’ll continue to ask: what's next? It’s not just about being first. More than that, it’s about being a leader of change," sums up Al-Hashemi.