Head of Technology at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company , Saudi Arabia
Mohammad Shalan is the editor of a book titled “Innovative and Agile Contracting for Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0” that is published by IGI Global in 2021.
He is a Bilingual, multidiscipline motivated business-technology interpreter. Enthusiastic to get more people in the digital transformation train and an optimistic builder in the 4th industrial revolution.
Mohamamd is a practitioner, author, guest speaker and researcher with published chapters, articles and presentations. Willing to distilling complex problems into simple solutions, add value and volunteer.
He is well certified and connected with 9 professional certifications (PMP®, PMI-RMP®, CSX®, CRMA®, ITILF®, CISA®, CGEIT®, CRISC®, CXO®), active membership in 6 well-recognized professional organizations, and attended distinguished training classes in 16 countries. Adding to his master’s degree in telecommunication engineering from University of Jordan.
Mohammad is a working professional since 1995 in the Technology industry and Digital Transformation leadership. He has worked out major operational assignments, portfolios, programs and projects spanning in more than 50 countries. His assignments include distributed activities, numerous dependencies, heavy correspondences, multiple vendors and multi-discipline contractors.
Currently Mohammad Shalan is working as a Head of Technology at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company is Saudi Arabia and Volunteering as the Digital Transformation Director for the Saudi Chapter of Project Management Institute (PMI).
Session: Innovative Contracting for Resilient Smart Cities
No one or enterprise can do everything by its own or using the internal resources. Thus, it is important to collaborate with others either because one might lack the resources or the know-how.
Traditionally, it was easy to have a list of partners and to right a contract that will govern the relation between the owner and the contracted party. Emerging technologies and business dynamics created an environment where traditional contracts are no longer fit; similarly, are the contracting styles, processes, and procedures.
Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation is transforming everything and creating a new business future. Contracts are affected in several aspects including:
• Having more contracts and more options
• The need to act quickly and timely
• The focus on continuous innovation and partnership
I am discussing a real scenario from my experience. Aqarat has been a master real-estate and land developer since 1945, They used to acquire a huge land of say 1 Million Square meters, they develop it in few years and sell into pieces called blocks and plots after making the main infrastructure of streets, electricity and water. In this Aqarat are used to contract with 2 or 3 subcontractors to complete the job.
Today, we are moving toward building a smart city in which you need to care about implementation and operation. Emerging technologies are major part of the city. We cannot rely on 2 or 3 main contractors; we need to introduce new concepts such as
• Agile planning and implementation
• Long life innovation and operation
• Value deconstruction and complex infrastructure
• Working at the leading edge
For this reason, we need to deal with large number of contracts to avoid utilizing old technology and have a multilayer contractor who are not delivering value in agile manner.
Innovative contracts and contracting styles are utilized to improve efficiencies, cope with the organization needs, and facilitate agile, trusted, and near real time transactions.
One Important characteristic of the Industry 4.0 enabled projects is inviting a lot of changes because the final product cannot be defined from the early start, and here it comes the requirement for innovative contracting.
Innovative contracts are introduced to comprise a set of holistically approached techniques that aim at enhancing the collaboration between stakeholders and combine several factors of effectiveness.
Learning outcomes:
- Building innovative contracts to generate value and enable collaboration.
- Handle the changing business dynamics and related emerging technologies.
- Understand Smart Resilient Cities to enhance human lives, behaviors and experience.
