Technology & IT | Wednesday 25 March, 2015 2:04 am |

King Abdullah Medical City (KAMC) has announced the completion of one of the first Oracle E-Business Suite implementations on Release 12.2.4 and ERP implementation in the cloud within Saudi government entities. Dubbed “ENJAZ”, the implementation follows a strategic direction that the Saudi government has taken in developing its technology systems to advanced solutions.
KAMC’s implementation of Oracle technology went live on the 9th of November 2014 and is part of a two phase process. The phase one solution brought in included Oracle Financial, Oracle HCM (HR, Payroll, Self Service, OTL) and Oracle Supply Chain (Inventory, Purchasing) running on the revolutionary Exadata & ExaLogic technological platforms implemented in KAMC’s main Data Center. The Medical City is located at two sites - in the Holy City of Makkah and in Jeddah, with both locations served by four data centers.
Under the direction of CIO Mr. M. Ba-Abdullah, KAMC has undertaken significant initiatives from the 2013, based on an innovative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Strategy that saw a major restructuring exercise within KAMC. Dubbed “ENJAZ”, the five-year plan consists of 40 initiatives, 16 of which have already been completed, 12 currently in progress and the remaining initiatives in the planning phase.
KAMC’s CIO, Mr. M. Ba-Abdullah, commented: “Oracle is widely implemented across Saudi Government entities and we knew that their solutions would help us develop our business operations. The E-business Suite has given us more flexibility and scalability that allows us to meet our business needs.”

Before implementing ENJAZ KAMC had silo’d data solutions that compromised data integrity and consistency. The human resources department had its own proprietary legacy system that was unable to integrate with any other system. KAMC’s finance and procurement processes were wholly manual with an old inventory system that was incapable of handling KAMC’s needs. ENJAZ aimed to standardized KAMC’s existing data that would then link all departments in the Medical City, as well as unifying and automating KAMC’s business processes.
One of the key successes of the ENJAZ project was the revolutionary changes it brought to KAMC’s human resources operation, by fully automating the HR processes. As a healthcare provider operating around the clock, all year round, KAMC needed a state of the art solution that could manage a challenging environment. Physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals work varied shifts night and day. There is a mix of permanent and contract staff, and multiple nationalities. The new implementation ensures that all services are available to them, regardless of the time of day or night. Passport renewal documents, vacations and other requests are easily accessible through ENJAZ’s HR self-service system, which boasts more than 26 of service offerings to all KAMC staff.
Major in the supply chain and medical consumables process were also addressed. Integration with the current HIS system was a major cornerstone for automating KAMC’s supply chain processes. One such process is the automation of the re-ordering process from the main warehouse. On-time delivery is a key benefit for KAMC. With the data more visible KPIs have been created for suppliers and government penalties accurately applied. There has been a reduction of expired items as a result of the implementation. Based on planning functions, the quantities are now ordered accurately, which means there are no shortages or excess quantities.

KAMC buyers have high visibility of purchasing and contract history that support improved decision making and better understanding of market prices, thus increasing their negotiating power with suppliers. Consumption rates are easily analyzed allowing planners to efficiently make next year’s purchasing schedules and forecasts, while permitting cost-effective analysis of purchases through tenders.

The Oracle systems also support drastically improved KAMC work assignments and performance evaluation systems. Purchasing and tender managers have high visibility to their teams’ performance and can effectively evaluate historical transactions. KAMC runs both cash- and accrual-based ledgers, with the same chart of account structure. This will enable KAMC to present its financial statements and financial reports to the Ministry of Finance from the cash basis ledger, while the accrual basis ledger will enable KAMC follow recommendations for best business practices by having accrual based accounting which is not commonly used in the public sector. The systems are now fully aligned with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance’s rules and regulations.

“KAMC aims to become the healthcare beacon of the Kingdom by 2020,” said Mr Ba_Abdullah. “To achieve this goal ICT is indispensable. As such KAMC has a clearer ICT strategy to continuously improve its technology, which will involve an evolving ERP system and business intelligence solution.”