During the Hajj Pilgrimage program by the Saudi Government for western countries, a random
draw is conducted for lottery-based pilgrims to be able to participate in Hajj. When it was launched
on the Saudi Hajj Ministry’s Motawif website, it crashed. Initial fact findings on the Hajj program
indicate that specific issues led to the failures of the Hajj program and IT failures.
Website crashes: The website “Motawif, which prospective pilgrims use to apply for Hajj visas
and package booking, crashed multiple times due to the high volume of user entries.
Payment failures: Pilgrims faced payment blocks or reversals when they used the payment
systems for booking and package confirmation.
Communication failures: Pilgrims experienced their emails and social media accounts are not
accessible during the Hajj.
Transportation failures: Pilgrims had experienced the route buses or booked buses not arriving
on time which were supposed to take them timely. Also, there were reports of pilgrims getting lost
and having difficulty finding the proper transportation.
Medical care failures: During the hajj, medical care management also faced criticism and failures
such as hospitals being overwhelmed by the patients and having trouble getting the care they
needed.
Complex IT environment: The Hajj program includes a variety of IT systems such as
accommodation, transportation, medical care, agencies, and collaboration between the entities
involved in Hajj. In order to function smoothly and uninterrupted, these systems need to be wellintegrated and synchronized which would prevent total IT failure. One system’s failure may cause
the entire system to fall.
Weather or climate: During the Hajj pilgrimage the environment is covered with high
temperatures, sandstorms, and humidity issues. In such conditions, IT equipment and tools would
be difficult to maintain.
Lack of expertise: The authority may have faced a lack of experts to manage and maintain its IT
infrastructure during the Hajj pilgrimage. This led to IT operational errors and failures.