UAE, November 1, 2014 – Dubai Smart Government Department (DSG) has recently signed an agreement with Dubai Chamber for the provision of technical support for e/smart shared services. The agreement was signed between H.E. Ahmad Bin Humaidan, Director-General of DSG and H.E. Hamad Buamim, Director-General of Dubai Chamber; on the sidelines of Dubai Chamber’s regular monthly meeting, during which time senior officials from DSG gave a presentation on their shared services.
The signed agreement aims to document the mutual understanding of the support to be provided by DSG to Dubai Chamber, including Government Information Network (GIN), eComplain, eSuggest, SMS Dubai and eSurvey. The agreement stipulates levels of support and priority-based response where DSG – which offers ICT services and applications to government and semi-government authorities – will establish channels for the support office to receive relevant requests from authorized employees, related to information, training, service access, maintaining data, adding new requirements or improving existing requirements, in addition to other support services.
Bin Humaidan said: “The agreement to provide technical support to most government entities will raise the bar on Dubai Government services and maintain high-quality results while offering optimal use of government resources to sustain the emirate’s excellence and leadership in transforming into a smart government. The move is in line with the vision of H.H Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the directives of H.H Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, to accelerate the implementation of Dubai Vision 2021.”
“The agreement serves as a key addition to our strategies aimed at maintaining sustainable high performance of the shared services we offer to government entities in general and some services related to the government entity with which we sign such agreements in specific. These agreements aim to maintain continuity in government work based on the best international standards, thereby offering Dubai residents a high level of happiness and contentment,” Bin Humaidan added.
During his presentation, Bin Humaidan shed light on the supervisory role of DSG in setting up strategies which direct and guide government efforts in implementing H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s initiative to shift into smart government. This role, according to Bin Humaidan, supports the objective to make Dubai the smart city capital of the world, as part of the ongoing cooperation and collaboration between Dubai government entities.
Bin Humaidan briefed the attendees on DSG’s process of development towards its current role in implementing the leadership’s vision of achieving the smart government’s initiative through a single app, a single sign-on and unified contact number. He pointed out that the essential apps offered by DSG to end-users include ‘MyID’ service for single sign-on to more than 250 government services through a single sign-on, mPay, mDubai and the Smart Employee app for Dubai Government employees’ HR services, among many others.
Welcoming the signing of agreement with DSG, H.E. Hamad Buamim stated that the cooperation between both sides will serve the business community and facilitate their tasks, which, in turn, will raise the level of productivity, accelerate business transactions, and increase customer satisfaction.
He said: “Promoting customer service systems is a key pillar to serving the business community. This is why Dubai Chamber is not that far from shifting into smart services. As part of our commitment to H.H. Sheikh Mohammed’s vision to transform Dubai into the world’s smartest city, the Chamber launched three new smart services during its participation at GITEX 2014. We are upbeat that these services will consolidate the concept of smart business community which we, at Dubai Chamber, seek to develop.”
“The Chamber’s smart applications include the smart membership app for exclusive access to Chamber’s services, smart business development app for business meetings, and ‘Africa Gateway’ app which allows users to explore investment opportunities. These applications aim to facilitate and enrich the users’ experience and help them do their jobs easily and seamlessly,” Buamim added. Buamim further pointed out that 47 per cent of the Chamber’s services are now smart. “We remain steadfast in our efforts to turn all our services into smart services, in addition to offering complementary internet connectivity for members and visitors at the customer service office. We recently organized the Africa Global Business Forum 2014 which was considered an environment-friendly, paper-free and smart conference where attendees and speakers communicated via iPads to ask questions and participate in surveys. This is a new smart app for the concept of modern business.”
Buamim further elaborated on the latest customer service systems adopted by the Chamber, which was one of the first entities to apply the Oracle Fusion and Siebel systems to boost service efficiency and speed and improve customer’s experience in completing transactions at the Chamber, saving up to 50 per cent of the time needed for the service.
For her part, Khawla Lootah, Director of Smart Services Department at DSG, showcased features of the upgraded version of mDubai App, which was previously launched at GITEX 2014. Lootah explained that mDubai App offers services for individuals in categories, including Health, Payments & Bills, Consumer Rights, Visas and Residency, Housing and many more. It is designed to respond to the opinions and needs of customers as per the priority order of these categorized sub-services, she said, adding that the user-friendly app is grouped in one interface, offering all relevant solutions through integration of the 16 entities participating in the app, such as the Journey Planner service.