eUmra industry
The digital revolution has made the travel industry, one of the largest online business categories in the glob. The next decade will be witnessing an inevitable growth of the online travel business in Middle East because of the rapid development of the Internet applications in that area.
Implementing the Saudi government vision, the Ministry of Hajj MOH reorganized the overall structure of the Umra industry adopting the latest online business technologies to secure continues interaction between all involved parties in this industry through a licensed entity; we name it an "Umra Application Service Provider" UASP. Al Alamiah.net has become the largest UASP in the market serving more than third of Umra operators in the kingdom and their agents around the world.
From the moment this revolutionary vision was implemented, a new industry was born, eUmra ultimately defining the new Umra practices thus rendering a great service to all Umra pilgrims coming to the holy places.

Bab Al Umra
Over the last two decades al Alamiah has pioneered information technology, computer business, and networking solutions in Saudi Arabia. Today, al Alamiah.net (a member of al Alamiah group) has capitalized on its vast capabilities of the e-commerce, internet applications and integration services to develop "Bab Al Umra" www.babalumra.com as an online distributed application that facilitates the registration, and tracking of Umra pilgrims through a secured backbone guarantees the electronic flow of data between the local Umra operators and service suppliers in the kingdom, and external agents around the world as well as the governmental bodies.
"Bab Al Umra" is the name we chose for our system, which is literally means, the gateway to Umra. "Bab Al Umra" satisfies the requirements of the Ministry of hajj and sets as an excellent example of how the modern technologies can strengthen the Islamic culture and heritage all over the world.
A deep level of understanding of the local technological needs and expectations has established the trust and confidence of our clients when seeking advice. An innovative and creative work environment has attracted talented professionals from many disciplines. Our team includes technology consultants, application developers, customer care officers, marketing team, as well as a distinguished management staff.

Vision
We aim to be the number one UASP in the market and maintain our leadership position in this business.

Mission
To invest in the latest Internet business technologies and form strategic alliances to empower our clients with a real competitive edge, enabling them to face the competition challenges and fully exploit the driving force of the Internet.

System overview
The logical path of the system starts, when the Umra operator creates an Umra package, which is made up of accommodation, transportation, catering, and additional services such as medical insurance., then Umra operator define the prices of that package and send it to " Bab Al Umra" , which in turn send it to the Ministry of Hajj MOH for approval. When the MOH approves this package, the Umra operator will offer the package to its external agent outside the Kingdom to start selling it to pilgrims. The external agents will start creating group of passengers for that package and entering their passport information into the system. When the external agent flags the group as complete, it is sent to "Bab Al Umra" for further processing. If the Umra operator gives the approval to that group, then Bab Al Umra will send this information to the MOH to check the data of individual passengers and give to each passenger a MoFA number (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), which will be used to retrieve Visa from the Saudi embassy. The external agent through "Bab Umra" will be notified to pass by the embassy to collect the visas for the accepted passengers of the group.

Features
Visa booking engine: This module is one of the most important parts of the system, the purpose of this module is to produce the final product of the entire system, which is the Umra visa as described in the System Overview paragraph. The booking engine is facilitating the registration process of Umra pilgrims utilizing state-of-art technologies. This module is also facilitating the Umra procedures for Pilgrims, External agents, and Umra operators. The system provides distinctive quality of services and added values by minimizing registration time and cutoff paper work.
Transactions module: The passenger during the pilgrimage period pass through different events, those events are defined by MOH and are called transactions. The moment the passenger receives the visa, the system start tracking the movement of the passenger, his arrival to the Kingdom, for example the passenger entered the hospital or departure form the kingdom. It is the responsibility of the Umra operator to record all those transactions to the system. The transactions will be handled to MOH through "Bab Al Umra" to have a clear idea about the current status about each passenger.
Al Barakat loyalty program: The concept is to promote Umra operators for acquiring more clients and increase their market share. Al Barakat is simple loyalty program, the more you register passengers on the system, the more you gain points. Bab Al Umra systems define the points gained automatically for each Umra operator based on pre-settled formula. Also the system defines different types of attractive rewards and the points in return of each one.
Insurance system: While creating an Umra package, the Umra operator can specify if a medical insurance is to be included in that package like any other feature. Bab Al Umra is controlling the features available to Umra operators like insurance types available, and prices.
Professional eMarketplace: The purpose of this part is to enrich the experience of the External Agents in buying packages using web technologies and to bring more qualified sales leads to our clients Umra operators. The system allows the Umra operators to promote their allotment offers online, Any external agent can register on the system an online external agent (OEA). The account will be inactive till Bab Al Umra approves this OEA and activate its account by giving him a username & password. Then the OEA will be allowed to view all posted allotment offers of our Umra Operators and start the negotiating phase with one of our Umra operators till they reach an official agency agreement together.
Public eMarketplace: The purpose of this part is to promote our External Agents and bring to them qualified leads. Any Moslem surfing the net can visit our portal and register as an online Mutamer (OM). The OM will be provided with username and password that allows him to view the Umra packages posted by External agents and he can search the packages available in the country of departure. Once he settles on a package, the OM can choose the nearest agent in his city for buying the package.
Islamic Mart: This section provides any Moslem surfing the net, the pleasure and the power of e-commerce shopping, which include stat-of-art a complete online store flavored by the spirit of Holy places includes various merchandizing from QURA"AN CD's to famous Islamic books, all what you can buy from Holy places you can find it in this unique online store.

Islamic portal: Building successful Islamic portal extends far beyond the mere technical development of a website. Key features of our Islamic portal include; meeting the international standards for the content, offering the highest level of service and interactivity, and understanding the culture and user habits of our target audience everywhere. The Islamic portal contains very dynamic and comprehensive Islamic contents as well as interesting services.

Benefits

• "Bab Al Umra" system is a distributed application in which different entities log into the system, and using the Internet as a communication media. Based on this fact we have developed very rugged security model to control the authentication and authorization functions to determine exactly who does and who doesn't have the right to access the system and to protect the data flow over the system.
• "Bab Al Umra" system providing full reporting capabilities, covering all user requirements according to their specific needs
• "Bab Al Umra" system and its different interface levels, are designed to be user-friendly and enables users to save time in managing potential and complex requests
• Multilingual interface application, which allows users all over the world to interact with system
• "Bab Al Umra" system provides our clients with competitive advantages over their competition as it include unique features such as the professional & public e-marketplaces which help our customers market their services through the system in a very creative and unique approach.
• "Bab Al Umra" system provides an incentive system to strengthen the loyalty of our clients and their agents, through which valuable rewards are given when usage of the system increase and more pilgrims, are registered on the system.

Service strategy
We have developed a combined strategy to serve our clients based on three main elements :
Customer care : We have allocated trained representatives to make regular visits to our clients and ensure their satisfaction and to immediately meet their requirements. We also render technical support services around the clock Helpdesk, which we have, great experience through our experience as an Internet Service Provider.
International marketing : We have allocated potential resources for this strategy includes, professional marketing personal and sufficient budget. We participate in major travel & truism events in the world and we conduct annually a series of road-show programs for our clients to meet their potential customers and to present our latest technologies in this business.
Franchising partners : We have assigned group of franchising partners covering all potential marketplaces in Middle East, Fareast, Europe, and North America. Main responsibilities of those partners will be; promoting Bab Al Umra services and our clients offers within the assigned marketplace, Facilitating the visa processing by liaison with Saudi consulates, Local helpdesk services, data entry services, and many other important functions.
Contacts : To be on the inside back cover