Case study July 25th, 2016
How the Invest Easy Reform transformed the business climate in Oman
The Invest Easy portal was the first true e-government initiative in Oman which transformed the way businesses operate and improved the local business climate.
We went well beyond a typical software development project, re-thinking the way government and businesses interact and changing legislation to make transformation of this scale possible.
Challenge
The goal of the project was to optimize commercial registration and activity licensing processes and introduce annual financial reporting. This required rebuilding Oman’s National Business Register and integrating 18 government institutions to allow for fully online e-services.
Solution
A single point of access for government e-services
The Invest Easy portal, a single point of access for all government e-services for entrepreneurs in Oman, brings together 76 services and allows companies to submit digitally signed documents to Oman’s National Business Register. Entrepreneurs can now apply online to start a business, acquire licenses, amend registry data, prepare financial reports and utilize a number of other services.
Portal development started in the beginning of 2014. Work was completed in stages and finalized by the end of July 2016.
World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking
In 2017, Oman jumped 127 places in the Starting a Business category
Impact
Next level of efficiency and effectiveness
In 2017, Oman made an unprecedented leap in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, jumping 127 places in the Starting a Business category. The improvement was a direct result of the optimized business registry processes and the Invest Easy portal.
Invest Easy was not just about digitalization of processes. The project took business-to-government and intra-government operations to the next level of efficiency and effectiveness. Invest Easy introduced a new age of doing business in Oman and set the foundation for continued development of Oman’s business environment.
110
Reduced the time required to register a company online from 1 week to 110 seconds.
2
Decreased application processing time from 6 days to less than 2 days.
46,000
Invest Easy saved entrepreneurs over 46,000 hours in the first 10 months post launch.
Important milestones
Company registrations
In August 2016, a month after final stage of Invest Easy was launched, a record of nearly 40% of all company registrations were completed using the portal.
Legal persons registered
Between 2014 and October 2016, the number of legal persons registered increased by nearly 65%.
Annual business reporting
We also worked on legal, procedural and technical reforms to introduce compulsory annual business reporting and company cancellation in case of non-compliance.
International and regional awards
2015
GCC eGovernment Award for the best government to business e-service.
2016
H.H. Sheikh Salem al Ali al Sabah Informatics Award in the Government category.
2016
Al-Roya Economic Award for best government to business e-service.
2016
The Global Enterprise Registration (GER.co) rating awarded Invest Easy the highest ranking, naming it one of the 5 best government-to-business (G2B) solutions in the world.
2016
World Summit on the Information Society awarded the platform 2nd place in the Business & Commerce category.
2017
As a direct result on Invest Easy portal, Oman made an unprecedented leap in the 2017 Ease of Doing Business ranking of the World Bank, jumping 127 places in the Starting a Business category.
Transforming governments, transforming societies
The right digital tools applied properly can dramatically transform citizen-government interaction, changing the way societies work.
A digitally-enabled government is citizen-centric, proactively meeting needs when it comes to social security and taxation. It literally changes the way citizens interact with and experience their government.
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