E-Government in Dubai
Executive Summary
The Dubai Government was a brick-and-mortar organization for a very long time and later in the year 2001, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai made a decision of making it into an eGovernment. It was the first eGovernment’s to be developed around the Gulf region and it took two years to develop it completely. Currently, the Dubai eGovernment provides 2300 services and 90 percent of the Government services are available online. This is a big achievement for a newly developed eGovernment website. The website provides services for everyone including the businessmen, residents, and visitors of Dubai. This development has eased everyone’s lives and also made the government services more efficient. A simple service like the Dubai Police online could have so many services at the click of a button is astonishing. The Government e-services can be classified as G2B, G2C, G2E, and G2G types of e-commerce. Lastly, the Dubai eGovernment is an excellent example for providing services through the medium of the Internet and making it easy to access. This was followed by many other governments around the region.
Introduction
The Dubai Government went online on 29th October, 2001 after His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai made the decision in early 2000 related to it. It was a step to solve many problems related to government activities and to make it convenient to access the services of the government. Dubai Government is the first Government body in the gulf region to start web services (BBC News, 2001). It started with 24 government departments and two languages were supported by the website, i.e. Arabic and English. The website was divided in four sections, i.e. Online Services, Living in Dubai, Visiting Dubai, and Business in Dubai. Currently, Dubai eGovernment has 2300 services offered to the residents, visitors and businessmen of Dubai. The data centre is located in Dubai Internet City (AME Info,2001). The intention was to reduce the costs involved in internal government activities, increase efficiency and also to make Dubai as a leading business hub excelling in the latest technology. The site www.dubai.ae is the official government portal and it combines all the eServices that includes each and every one of the Dubai government departments, for example, ePay, eLearn, eHost, and AskDubai. Also, each government department has its own separate website, but www.dubai.ae integrates all of them together to provide a single portal.
Identifying the current state of Dubai government in offering its services to the public on the Internet.Initially Dubai Government was completely a brick-and-mortar organization where all the work was done manually. Presently, it can be considered as partial e-commerce as most of the services offered by it are online and also it has physical agents to provide service. According to the dimensions of e-commerce, the government of Dubai can be a digital and a physical agent, the products are services, and the process is digital and physical. It can be classified as G2B, G2C, G2E, and G2G types of e-commerce. First, G2B because many businesses require services from the government to legalize the business activity, to pay utility bills, issue and renew visas for employees, trade products and other activities. Secondly, G2C because the residents can pay their utility bills online, pay their traffic fines, issue and renew visas, lodge complaints, ask questions related to any service, and communicate with the government officials using the website. Also, visitors can enjoy some of these benefits online, and issue their visit visa’s hassle free before visiting the country. Thirdly, G2E as the government hires many employees through the web. And lastly, G2G as many inter-government activities between governments of other countries would be performed through a secured connection through the web.
The Work System Framework of the Dubai eGovernment can be described with the following attributes. Firstly, the Customer area represents the residents living in Dubai, the visitors visiting Dubai, the businessmen trading in Dubai, all the people who want to access the services of Dubai Government. Secondly, the product area consists of the services provided by the Dubai Government, for example DEWA bills, accessing the police department, issuing and renewing visa’s etc. Thirdly, the business process is divided in a few steps. Any individual can access the website related to the department of the government they want to access. Every individual has to register at that particular service with a unique ID, and should have an account with the department. After registration the individual can request for the service he requires. If any payment is involved, then the user is redirected to a secured page which accepts various forms of payments, example Credit Cards, ePay cards, etc. After the payment is processed, the customer gets a reference number related to the service, and given a time of 24-48 hours till the request is completed depending on the department. Fourthly, Participants involved include the employees of the different government departments, people requiring the service of the government, delivery people involved in delivering documents, technicians involved in providing the service, IT technicians handling the requests and the website. Fifthly, the Information provided is related to the services provided by the government, the recent laws introduced in the city, the latest news related to Dubai, awareness programs for the citizens, complaint area where residents can lodge and read complaints, recent crimes and criminals of Dubai, and other information related to the city. Lastly, the Technology used includes the personal computers used by the individuals to access the website, the servers, networks and database used by the website to store information and processing orders. The relationship between the work system and the information system is of type large information system supporting a number of different work systems because the government has a single information system with several department systems accessing it.
Discussing the degree of success/failure of Dubai e-government in web-enabling its various public services.
The Dubai Government is quite successful in web-enabling service. This can be understood with an example of the Dubai Police. The website is www.dubaipolice.gov.ae. This is available in two languages, i.e. Arabic and English. The page is divided into online services, news and activities, and information and procedures. It has a search box which will search for any key words in the website. The online services include different sections. The fines and violations section includes traffic fines notification service, traffic fines inquiry and payment service, issuing clearance certificate. The Road and Transport Authorities include traffic e-services. Security Services consists of tourist complaint form, home safety service and follow up, let us fight the crime, inmate visits, change the color of vehicle and follow up, we are all police, application for security and barriers and follow up, al Ameen service, and victim support program and follow up. Miscellaneous services includes suggestions form, helicopter request service, SMS services, announcement of job vacancies and recruiting progress update, visit request to Dubai police museum and follow up, request a meeting with his Excellency the Commandant General. Companies and Institute services includes offers provided by the companies (yearly training plan) and follow up. There are so many services provided by the police department online which are useful to everyone in the city. Also, the site keeps the news updated letting people know the recent happenings in the city and related to the city. Many notifications are made and awareness programs are announced through this site and also, the latest crimes and accidents are reported online. Let’s take an example of paying traffic fines online as an example for the effectiveness of the eservices offered. The user needs to log into the site and enter the traffic fines inquiry and payment section. The user is given different options to check fines, for example, the user can check using traffic file, or license number with different source of registration of license, or car plate number, or also by the fine number which is given by the police or RTA. The coverage of this fines section is not limited to the Dubai police, but can also access all the other emirates police. The payment options are through eDirham or any credit card through a secured network. After the payment is processed, the user is given a reference number. Within 10 minutes the fine is removed from the car registration. Also the server is always available and never dead and can be accessed from any country. The website is easy to understand and easy to navigate. It has a Frequently Asked Questions area where a new user is guided to use the website in an efficient manner. Along with the online services provided, it even informs the prayer times, the pharmacies open all day and night and their phone numbers and address, other important numbers, accidents and road reports. The site also accepts several reports which normally are accepted in person only. Examples of these reports are reporting a lose cheque, report a stolen car, reporting any lost important ID card or passport, etc. To conclude, the website provides all the services which are available at a regular police station or police authority building. This shows that the government has made huge efforts to provide maximum services to the people on internet to ease their lives and to get the processes sorted faster.
Assessing the lessons learned in the process of moving Dubai government from a traditional bureaucratic setting to a dynamic paperless corporation (Conclusion). The step to transform the Dubai government from a traditional bureaucratic setting to a dynamic paperless corporation was a huge decision which was taken by the ruler of Dubai. It took two years for the IT people and the government officials to work together to develop and transform into an eGovernment. It was a result of a joint effort, and huge infrastructure provided by the ruler. With the start of 14 services in 2001, the website has gradually increased in the number of services every year. In a span of 5-6 years, the Dubai eGovernment has expanded so greatly, that it provides a total of 2300 services currently. It provides a total of 90 percent of government services online (UAE Interact, 2006). Also, it can be understood that the process was a very critical process and needed appropriate amount of time to complete. Any flaw in the eGovernment website could result in harming the image of Dubai. Therefore, creating an efficient service in so little amount of time is a big achievement for a newly developed eGovernment site growth. Lastly, many other countries around the region followed the excellent example of Dubai eGovernment and transformed their government into an eGovernment.
References
AME Info, Dubai e-Government launches data center at DIC, Date posted: 20/11/2001, Date retrieved: 15/02/2008
BBC News, Dubai Government Goes Online, Date posted: 01/11/2001, Date retrieved: 15/02/2008
Dubai eGovernment, Date retrieved: 17/02/2008
UAE Interact, Date posted: 04/09/2006, Date retrieved: 16/02/2008
This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Essays and Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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