President of Umm Al-Qura University Dr. Bakri bin M'atooq bin Bakri Assas launched yesterday the second advanced version of the Administrative Communication System (MASAR) which enables dealing electronically with all departments of the university and has been developed in line with the latest specifications and standards contrary to the last version. During the meeting which took place at his office at the university campus in Abidia, Dr. Assas also launched four new electronic services on UQU Portal.  

At the commencement of the meeting which was attended by UQU Vice President Dr. Yassir bin Suleiman Shoushou, UQU Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship Dr. Hani bin Osman Ghazi, Dean of Information Technology Dr. Fahad Al-Dossari, Vice Dean of IT for e-Transactions, Dr. Atef al-Hejaili, Advisor to UQU President Mr. Essam bin Hassan Margooshi and a number of officials from the relevant departments, the Director of Archives and Administrative Communication Center Mr. Abdullah Al-Suleimani reviewed the program's multiple features which include the ability to operate the system on different computers through the web or smart devices and that logging into the system  takes place vis the user of the employee.    

He added that transactions can be classified into administrative  and circulars, linked to archiving system and sending them via emails. Also,  emails and e faxes can be transferred to transactions and employee and departments classification feature can be added using subject or transaction, along with linking administrative transactions with each other and enabling search feature for every one without notes and attachments. He indicated that the system enables university clients to query by phone. 

After that, Vice Dean of IT for e-Transactions, Dr. Atef al-Hejaili reviewed four services tailored for faculty members and employees related to personal profiles. These services he said, enable updating personal information and were designed to filter and revise data of university affiliates and create solid database including all their important information. Besides, the ID card printing service which is requested electronically by the faculty member or employee and can be delivered to his work location.  In addition to travel request service which is taking place electronically starting from the travel department, then the travel agent to book tickets, passing via budget and planning department  after that directing the agent to issue the tickets.  He added that these services also include e-clearance which enable faculty member or employee to submit his e-clearance request  via UQU Portal and this request can be approved or rejected by each relevant department. He went on to added that the applicant can follow up status of his request and review any available notes and then print the request after receiving all the approvals without needing to refer to any department in the university.      

For his part, UQU Vice President for Development and Entrepreneurship Dr. Hani Ghazi  reiterated the importance of keeping pace with the e-service evolution as a main tool of development  witnessed at the university. He said extensive changes swept the website content to make it one of the best international quadrilingual websites lauding the support and directives of UQU President Dr. Bakri Assas and the cooperation of all departments of the university in such manner which enabled the deanship of information technology to provide a series of e-services which will have positive impact on upgrading services provided for university affiliates.   

In turn, UQU Vice President Dr. Yassir Shoushou said by launching series of services today including the administrative communication program (MASAR), all university transactions will be conducted electronically including  e-letters, e-approval of  personal signatures. "This version is the second in the project, which was launched in 1435H, to transfer all university transactions  electronically", he elaborated, adding that in the first version, paper transactions were reduced by 80%. He explained that the e-services development project comes as part of the university's strategic plan in line with the Kingdom Vision 2030 to provide high quality services to beneficiaries in the shortest possible time.   

He added that MASAR program adds  many features including; instant conversations between users and  those responsible for the transactions, reducing transactions steps, providing notification and alert service, in addition to enabling detailed search using wide-ranging search elements and providing late transaction reminding service for users. "The program is  reckoned the fastest administrative communication system  in browsing the documents attached with the transactions and is adopted by many government agencies", he expounded.        

All the more, Dr. Shoushou said the launching of this updated version was preceded by  series of workshops  for all affiliates of the university including faculty members and employees, indicating that the system provides a precise and detailed report about the performance of each employee and will be used in the evaluation process in this regard. He then lauded support and directives of UQU President Dr. Bakri Assas to provide all necessary means to upgrade educational environment and services. He also extended his thanks and appreciation to all those in charge of the program including deanship of information technology and documents and administrative communication center for their exerted effort  in producing this new version of the program.  

Then, the UQU President Dr. Bakri Assas launched the new e-services including the administrative communication program "MASAR"  which will get rid of all paper transaction by 100% valuing the support attached to the university by the wise government in such manner which contributed to providing the attractive environment for research and educational process at the university main campus in Makkah and its branches at Jamoum, Al-Lith, Adhm and Al-Qunfudhah provinces. He explained that more than 90 electronic services have been developed recently to serve more than 120,000 affiliates praising efforts exerted by UQU Vice Presidents. Deanship of information technology and all relevant parties which have contributed positively to developing e-services according to latest quality standards.