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MHC INTERVIEW
Digital by Mandate: How Government Agendas Are Reshaping Citizen Communications

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MHC Host
Sharon Jones Malloch, Head of Content Marketing at MHC

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Guests
Mahmoud Jaafar, Regional Sales Leader, DTech 

July 21st, 2025

Across the EMEA region, governments are moving quickly to modernize services under national digital agendas. Countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey are advancing digital-by-default initiatives designed to improve speed, accessibility, and citizen experience. 

But transformation doesn’t stop at portals and online services. It ultimately shows up in the communications citizens receive—notifications, confirmations, regulatory notices, and service updates. In regions serving highly diverse populations—often representing dozens of nationalities—communication must be multilingual, inclusive, and consistent across channels. 

In this Expert Insights session, Mahmoud Jaafar of DTECH shares how rising citizen expectations are shaping government priorities—and why modern communication infrastructure is essential to delivering on those commitments. 

In this video, you’ll learn:

  • What is driving digital-by-default mandates across EMEA 
  • How citizen expectations are influencing government transformation 
  • The challenges of serving diverse, multilingual populations 
  • Why system-generated communications often become a bottleneck 
  • How agencies can better align communication systems with modernization goals 

Key Takeaways

  • Digital transformation in government is being driven by citizen expectations.
  • Communication systems are central—not peripheral—to modernization.
  • Diverse populations require inclusive, multilingual communication strategies.
  • Public-private collaboration is accelerating digital adoption.
  • Modern communication platforms help governments deliver consistent, scalable citizen experiences.

Meet the Host and Guests

Sharon Headshot no border

HOST
Sharon Jones Malloch
MHC Head of Content Marketing

Sharon leads content marketing at MHC, overseeing strategies that fuel sales and demand generation. With more than a decade of experience in customer communications, Sharon brings deep insight into customer pain points, industry trends, and the critical role of solutions in managing regulatory communications. Before joining MHC, she honed her marketing expertise at Doxim, Messagepoint, and OpenText.

Mahmoud Jaafar Headshot

GUEST
Mahmoud Jaafar,
Regional Sales Leader, DTech 

Supporting digital transformation initiatives across ministries, municipalities, and regulatory authorities throughout EMEA. 

Want to Read Instead of Watching the Video?

Below is the complete transcript from this Expert Insights session with Sharon Jones Malloch and Mahmoud Jaafar.
Use the accordion sections to expand and explore the discussion in detail. 

Introduction

Sharon:

Hi everyone, I’m Sharon Malloch from MHC and today I’m joined by Mahmoud Jafar from DTECH to talk about how digital government agendas across EMEA are reshaping citizen communications. And how DTECH is helping those public sector organizations respond. 

Let’s start with a quick intro. Mahmoud, can you tell us a bit more about DTECH, your role, and the types of government clients that you work with across the region? 

Mahmoud:

Of course, of course. So First off, thank you Sharon for this interview today. 

Actually, I lead the regional sales team at DTECH, and we have a strong focus on supporting public sector organizations undergoing digital transformation. My work spans across the EMEA region and includes collaboration with ministries, government sectors, municipalities, and regulatory authorities, and some government owned companies. Now these organizations are usually navigating complex modernization initiatives. 

DTECH helps them align with those technologies that improve citizen services and user experiences. And just to add also over here that many of the public sector engagements we support, especially across UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they are communicating with incredible, diverse populations. And in some cases, this means that they are serving over 100 nationalities. Each one of those nationalities is having different languages and communication preferences. 

And that makes intelligent, inclusive communication not just important, but essential. 

Sharon:

I know across your region, there are more and more of these digital-by-default mandates from government such as the national digital initiatives in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. From your perspective, what is driving these initiatives and what do organizations struggle the most with as they’re responding and working to modernize? 

Mahmoud:

Of course, mainly those initiatives or the momentum actually behind those initiatives are driven by citizens, by people themselves, because their expectations are for more, faster and more accessible services. 

Now these people are mirroring what they are experiencing within the private sector, and they’re expecting the same within the public sector at the same time. But there’s another powerful play of course over here. There is cooperation and synergy happening between governments and private sector. 

When governments in the region launch digital initiatives or mandates, the private sector often moves fast and swiftly to implement and operationalize those visions. And this kind of synergy is helping to accelerate the digital transformation at scale. And to be honest, we can see it here in UAE and in the middle east region as well. 

So to keep up with this pace, the government and private sector will need to invest more and more on disruptive and agile customer communication technologies that will support. 

Sharon:

One thing that we’ve discussed, that is often overlooked, is the actual citizen communication that actually gets delivered to residents members beneficiaries. So why do you think CCM customer communication management systems are such a critical piece of the modernization?

Mahmoud:

Yeah. So even when when when governments and large organizations owned by governments invest into digital platforms, they still send out some outdated, confusing, or perhaps not personalized communications. And that’s where CCMs really plays a critical role. It is essential and it ensures that people receiving those documents and messages understand what they are getting. Those messages are personalized, they are timely, they are compliant. We have to remember also that government bodies are massive, complex organizations just like any normal enterprise but with more constraints and more regulations.

For example, in some countries we can see that a national postal office can have up to 2,000 maybe 6,000 points. As you can imagine, reaching citizens across such a wide network requires a centralized CCM platform and can unify this messaging, ensure consistency, and speak to all people in one voice. It’s not just about operations or operational efficiency. It’s about building trust as well.

Sharon:

Right. There’s a lot of limitations, but citizen are expecting a lot of personalization.

Mahmoud:

Yes. So, it’s a big task to fill.

Sharon:

What is the role of MHC working with DTECH and what specific gaps are we helping to fill? What made MHC a partner that you were looking to work with as you support these digital government agendas?

Mahmoud:

Yeah. This is where our partnership actually comes in place. So, MHC solutions help fill a critical gap over here by enabling such high volumes, providing secure and personalized communications that are compliant, okay, and traceable. And what makes MHC stand out as well is the low-code platform gives government bodies, or government entities, the flexibility to adopt communications without having IT involvement. So it reduces or removes strain from them.

And for DTECH, this kind of partnership with MHC is a natural fit to be honest with you. And both companies are focused on helping government bodies modernize responsibly and efficiently. The team at MHC has been helping and incredibly responsive with us, and collaborative, which helped this move quickly and supporting us in our regional efforts as well.

Sharon:

Well, that’s awesome. That’s great to hear.

Sharon:

Thank you so much for this discussion today and before we go are there any last words or recommendations that you would have for public sector leaders watching today?

Mahmoud:

Of course. Digital transformation is no longer optional for government organizations. It’s expected. But success doesn’t come from technology itself. It’s about choosing the right partners and can move quickly without compromising on compliance, security, and trust.

Sharon:

Okay. Well, thank you again Mahmoud for your insights today. Thank you to all of you who are watching and tuning in. 

I hope this conversation has given you some helpful insights about the need to modernize citizen communications in response to these digital government agendas in EMEA. And if you’re working on digital transformation in the public sector, visit either of our websites, either DTECH or MHC, and reach out. We’d love to speak with you. Thanks again Mahmoud for joining us. Take care and we’ll see you all next time.

Mahmoud:

Thank you, Sharon. Thank you very much. Take care. Bye-bye.

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