Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Income Tax Authority
E-government Initiative
Traffic Authority
Ministry of Justice
E-Alexandria
North Cairo Elementary Court Website Project
Custom Authority
National Post Office
Bibliotheca Alexandrina


1. Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Smart Village Infrastructure Deployed by Raya

Summary:
Egyptian IT’s governing body •  the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) •  is growing in tandem with the country’s burgeoning CIT industry. After the establishment of several separate projects under the ministry’s auspices in the newly constructed Giza Smart Village, MCIT requested a systems’ integrator that does not only understand the complex nature of the task at hand, but can also deploy a solution efficiently and effectively. Raya’s breadth of knowledge and experience made it the ideal choice.

Technology:
• High Availability Local Area Network
• IP Telephony System with IP Phones sets
• IP Telephony Applications, like Unified Messaging and ARC Console
• Full Coverage of Wireless LAN
• Central Office Connectivity for PSTN Voice and Internet Links
• LMDS technology as backup

Benefits:
• Automate business process
• Increase productivity
• Reduce human errors
• Ensure constant connectivity between buildings
• Unified infrastructure


The information and communications infrastructure is being designed, built, and operated using three main building blocks: Network Infrastructure, Broadband Wireless Access, and a Network Operation Center.

The target of building a converged network is to provide MCIT staff with high-speed connectivity to their servers, as well as to other Smart Village buildings. The high-speed network is used to transfer voice, data, and video on a unified infrastructure managed by two resilient network operation centers.
The solution is based on products from market leader Cisco Systems, since the project requires an end-to-end connectivity provider from the desktop connection to the PSTN interface and from the end user phone to the call processing server up to the PSTN interface as well. New technologies like wireless and content switching will also help increase the productivity and efficiency of MCIT employees.

With the tremendous growth of Internet traffic and voice and video hungry-applications, MCIT also wanted to introduce the ideal broadband distribution method throughout their Smart Village technology campus. The LMDS technology being used not only serves as a backup for the terrestrial fiber optic communication, but also as a solid foundation for wireless data and voice distribution across great distances where laying cables is cost prohibitive. Using a solution from market leader LMDS-Alcatel with a single base station located in the Central Office, will allow voice and data traffic from PSTN to be seamlessly distributed to each of the five buildings located in the Smart Village.

Having implemented numerous projects on a similar scale, Raya’s contributions were highly appraised by MCIT. Raya’s Gold certification as well as its vast amount of experienced engineers were heavily considered during evaluation. The target was to build a Network infrastructure that should last for years, be well supported by trained engineers in case of any failure and to enable maximum up-time for the village mission critical applications as well as optimal performance and maximum benefit from technology features.

The solutions being offered for this project do not only address the present stated requirements; all the work being done also takes scalability and expandability issues into consideration. According to Mostafa Abdel Wahed, Director of Telecom, Infrastructure sector “Raya’s ability to offer an assemblage of technologies, as well as a unique combination of capabilities and characteristics, guarantees that its solutions will form both a solid base for a long-term partnership with the MCIT, and will ensure the Smart Village project’s success.”

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2. Income Tax Authority
A Centralized Database For Tax Payers

Summary:
A central part of the Egyptian Income Tax Authority’s ongoing quest to modernize its operations and improve its performance involves the implementation of a completely new and streamlined, information-rich system of tax audit, collection and reporting. Raya has been involved in the planning and implementation of that process from day one.

Technology:
• Microsoft Sql (database)
• Cisco (security)
• HP Open View (Enterprise Management)
• EDI Technology
• E-Government Gateway

Benefits:
• Central database
• Rapid exchange of information
• Significantly lower chance of error
• More efficiency for decision makers, employees and tax payers

The overall project’s integrated solution includes Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity, in addition to connectivity between the headquarters and the major branches via Raya’s public data network, which covers the major cities across the nation.

The new system keeps tax collectors on their toes regarding the implementation of new decrees and policies. For tax payers, it helps to produce tax cards quickly •  in days rather than weeks.

Tax returns can also be obtained as quickly as possible, as well as accurate information on how much taxes are owed, and instant updates of tax payers’ history.

Within the tax authority itself, top management will have access to crucial reporting at all times. Decision makers, employees and tax payers will all be benefiting from a more efficient system. In fact, a project like this will also serve to reinvigorate trust in the system as a whole.

Raya’s record of large, strategic, high level projects made it the natural choice for such a critical exercise. The company’s strong project management and after-sales support were among its major assets to fortify the solution. As a result, after the success witnessed in phase 1, Raya’s partnership with the Income Tax Authority was reinforced to move to phase 2.

“By helping to automate the Income Tax Authority, Raya has taken on one of the most challenging projects in the company’s history. It has also intricately intertwined itself with the modernization process currently taking place in Egypt,” said Eng. Fathy Abd El Aziz, Head of Income Tax Authority IT Department.

The project involves 2 Clustered Servers with Enterprise Storage, as well as:
• 200 Servers
• 184 Workstations
• 3000 PC’s
• 200 Routers & Switches
• SW License, services & implementation
• LAN for all branches and districts
• WAN connecting centers & branches
• Technical Support & project management
• Training

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3.E-Government Initiative

Summary:
In line with aggressive plans to implement e-Government in Egypt, the Ministry of CIT (MCIT) identified a pilot project to act as proof of concept for a broader e-Government framework in Egypt. MCIT elected to provide a facility to allow citizens to request their phone bills and effect payment through the Internet. They turned to Microsoft who, in turn chose Raya to develop the nation’s first e-Government solution •  a highly visible project and especially strategic for Microsoft.

Raya was faced with four major challenges:
• The number of telephone subscribers is 7.5 million
• The service needed to be 24x7, 7 days a week, non-interrupted access throughout the year.
• The design had to be user-friendly, ensuring ease of use for the sophisticated as well as the technology phobic user
• The system needed to be integrated with the Egypt Telecom’s existing software and hardware.

Solution
Microsoft was responsible to manage the project, while Raya had responsibility for developing all required software and for installing and configuring all the required server architectures. The solution consisted of two main components:


• The Customer Web Site Functionality
• Billing Service
Billing is one of the main services provided through this facility. Through controlled access, users can view the details of local as well as international calls. They can also view payments status and elect to make an online payment if they wish.
• Complaint Service
This facility enables a user to enter a complaint and track its status as it undergoes a series of states, until the complaint is ultimately resolved and an email sent back to the client.
• Notification Service
Through the notification service, users can elect to subscribe to receive notifications of penalties, line cut-off, and other generic notices.
• The MCIT Site Functionality
This is a secured site allowing administration of the system. Typical functionality includes managing and administering the notifications as well as the complaints. The administration module also includes defining and authenticating the controlled access of the system.

Tools & Technologies
This project is based on Microsoft’s dot Net enterprise server platform:
• Internet Information server IIS5.0
• Microsoft SQL 2000, using triggers, stored procedure and jobs
• Microsoft Exchange server 2000
• ISA server 2000 firewall

Technologies
• ATL (to implement COM objects)
• ASP and ADO
• HTML, CSS and DHTML
• XML to exchange the data
• VBScript and JavaScript

Benefits
This project has had benefits in three key areas. First, it has improved customer service by enhancing the PTT’s communication and accessibility, and above all by the facilitating payment of the telephone bill. Secondly, it has allowed Egypt Telecom to cut operating costs. Finally its success has provided a springboard for the MCIT to aggressively implement a broad e-government framework.

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4.Traffic Authority

Summary:

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had contracted Raya to develop the required application for the renewal of car licenses. The decision to contract Raya was based on Raya’s unique experience in developing solutions that integrate several applications each running on different environment and in different locations.

Benefits:
• Convenient channel for citizens
• Effective means of communication
• Improved services quality
• Reduced costs

Citizens in Dokki are now able to choose between visiting the traffic office or renewing and paying their car licenses renewal fees or any traffic infringements from their homes. Credit cards or cash on delivery payment are both accepted, and the renewed license is sent to the citizen’s home within 48 hours.
The 2nd phase of the project is being rolled out to cover all districts of Giza, and the 3rd phase will cover the whole nation. “This system is being used here for the first time and Egypt is considered one of the first Arab countries to deploy it,” says general Sherif Gomaa head of the public administration of Giza traffic attorney.

According to major Hossam Korany, IT department head in Giza traffic attorney, Raya indeed faced major challenges when implementing this project, such as user-friendliness and security of the application in addition to integrating the systems of both the Ministry of Interior (car license system) and the Ministry of Justice (traffic infringement system) and the payment facilities of the National Post Authority and Banque Misr. Today, the system is being actually used, receiving citizens requests and responding in a timely fashion.

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5.Ministry of Justice
Access Your Fines Though the Net

Summary:
Raya implemented an automation project for the Ministry of Justice in order to improve service delivery to the public. The project aimed at adding value to the current work process applied in the traffic attorney offices by interconnecting 29 traffic offices ( 3 main offices with 26 subsidiaries) and allowing them to share essential data concerning traffic tickets, traffic violation records, licenses history and related records of court procedures. Along these lines Raya’s solutions were designed to allow traffic offices to deliver services more rapidly and efficiently, and to significantly reduce traffic clearance procedures.

Benefits:
• Easy access to all citizen’s inquiries
• Convenient, effective and efficient channel
Anyone now can inquire and pay in any of the 26 subsidiary traffic offices instead of having to drive a long way reach one of the three main traffic offices, namely Cairo, Giza and Alexandria.
The need for this project emerged from the resolution of the Ministry of Justice to overcome the problem caused by the incompatibility of the existing traffic attorney applications with those adopted by other ministry institutions. Additionally, the operating systems and equipment used by the traffic attorney offices had become non • Y2K complaint

Such a large project needed a core application that is feature-rich, dynamic, integrated and web-enabled to fulfill both the ministry’s operational requirements and the public service level expectations. Raya’s team designed, developed and implemented the required application, as well as availed a web service to the public, using multiple technologies with seamless integration and interoperability. This web-based application is streamlined to automate the department’s internal work cycle. It has an open architecture to allow the public to inquire about the traffic violations through the Internet. It is worth mentioning that the ministry decided to partially allocate the traffic ticket’s revenues to extend the implementation of the project to cover all the traffic attorney offices nationwide.
“The project will revolutionize the traffic attorney systems,” said Eng. Moahmed Safwat, Head of the Judicial Information Center at the Ministry of Justice.” It is a replica of the traffic attorney project implemented in Signapore, which is the leading country worldwide in the automation of the public attorney offices and courthouses.”

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6.E- Alexandria
Hay Sharq Automation Project Roll-out

Summary

Following the successful implementation of Alexandria’s Hay Sharq automation project, the Ministry of Administrative Development has decided to expand the project to six other Alexandria districts. This represents yet another serious challenge for Raya, which is required to deliver the results in less than a year.

Benefits:
•  One single database for work cycles, licenses, penalties and certificates...etc
•  Increases the efficiency, transparency and accuracy of workflows
•  Enables municipalities to monitor the work and performance of employees
•  Offer better quality of citizens’ services
•  Provides secure access and repository of systems’ data

The E-Alex project is grounded in the Administrative Development Ministry’s understanding of the importance of establishing electronic infrastructure, via which citizens can obtain easy, reliable and non-bureaucratic access to all kinds of services.

The district automation system takes all operations that offer services to citizens into consideration. The system consists of 65 work flows, and includes all citizens’ order procedures -- beginning with order placement, papers, specifications, fees payment, output results, and follow up actions on the department or the citizens.
This is in addition to the licenses, letters, reports, violations, data, decisions and other related data that result from the follow up and reporting systems that do not follow a work cycle flow.

Raya will train 720 employees on the implemented system. It will do so by conducting 20 man days of training for four resources, who will then conduct daily sessions, 5 days a week for 9 weeks, to train the 720 employees.

Having successfully delivered and implemented a number of e-government projects aimed at enhancing the quality of business- and citizen-oriented services, Raya has become a strong and trustworthy government partner.

Upon the successful delivery of the E-Alex project, Raya should expect to be brought in to automate all of Egypt’s governorates as well.

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7.North Cairo Elementary Court Website Project

Summary:
The North Cairo Elementary Court, Egypt’s largest court serving an estimated four million of the capital’s citizens, wanted to facilitate judicial procedures and processes under its jurisdiction. Raya built a web portal to help NCEC provide citizens with as many online court services as possible.

Benefits:
• Facilitating integrated online court services
• Reduction of crowds at court itself
• Ability to expand web portal to include more services in the future
• One-stop-shop for information on court rulings
• Round-the-clock technical support and maintenance

As Egypt’s largest court serving around four million Cairo residents, the North Cairo Elementary Court (NCEC) was keen to become the country’s first court to provide its services online. NCEC’s goal was to facilitate court procedures and processes for those under its jurisdiction, via a user-friendly web portal. Raya’s successful implementation of the project has helped citizens within the court’s jurisdiction obtain easy online access to a multitude of court services. The project has resulted in an acceleration of all judicial procedures and processes, saving much time and effort, and reducing crowds at the court itself.

The thousands of lawsuits and court cases being handled by NCEC -- the largest courts in Egypt serving millions of citizens under its jurisdiction -- every year, have resulted in delays in the judicial processes, and unnecessary crowding at the court itself. With an extensive history of successful projects in this field, Raya was brought in to build and launch the court’s website.

Solutions & Benefits
• Easy access to an updated timetable of the court’s hearing sessions
• Easy search for court rulings
• Online submission of complaints
• Ability to view the status and sequence of lawsuits online
• Availability of online and printable forms and applications
• Easy to access many of the court’s offices translation department. Office of the president of the court via mail
• Easy search for the documents applied to the translation department
• Easy access to circuits schedule of the full, partial, and courts
• Provision of information about different sections of the court, its jurisdiction and the courts affiliated with it, as well as general instructions for citizens online

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8.Customs Authority
Breaks with Tradition and Red Tape….

To bypass its administrative hassles, the Egyptian Customs Authority needed a state of the art virtual private network capable of supporting real time data, voice and video applications. Raya Telecom delivered a VPN that has allowed the authority to fully automate its internal jobs cycle, and connect its headquarters to remote sites. With its powerful new high-tech communications infrastructure, the customs authority now runs a completely automated system providing seamless operations -- and resulting in direct public satisfaction.

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9.National Post Office
First to Deliver Connectivity….

Ahead of all competitors participating in interconnecting the National Post Office, Raya Telecom was the first to deliver. On 15th January 2004, the offices of El Beheira and Kafr El Sheikh governorates were ready for fast and secure data exchange through Raya Telecom’s nationwide public data network. The data network’s reliance on up-to-date MPLS technology, 24/7 support, superior technical skills and strong management has ensured a solid, flexible and scalable infrastructure for the National Post Office operations.

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10.Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Powered by Raya Bandwidth…

Powered by Raya Telecom 155 MB/sec bandwidth - STM1, Bibliotheca Alexandrina is now able to expand the Internet archive collection by capturing websites from within Bibliotheca Alexandria. Moreover synchronization with the Internet archive in San Francisco was greatly enhanced after the upgrade. The STM1’s bandwidth supports the library’s server farm to enhance the quality of services provided by the library to its personal and online visitors. This bandwidth increase will also be beneficial to various digital projects taking place at Bibliotheca Alexandria. With the support of Raya Telecom professional services, the library offers rapid access to its resources, while ensuring security and the ability to host and update its archives round the clock more efficiently.