IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Dubai eGovernment today announced the launch of a host of innovative new channels, services and initiatives to complement the portfolio of 600 online services currently offered on its portal www.dubai.ae, as part of an ambitious strategy to accelerate the momentum towards electronic services on the eve of its second anniversary, which falls on October 19. The new offerings, announced at a pre-GITEX press conference, include mDubai, a new channel that has been developed to deliver messages through mobile phones and PDAs, e4all, a community IT literacy solution, eLibrary, the online library service, eJob, the online recruiting service, and AskDubai, the state-of-the-art contact centre. "It is a matter of pride for Dubai eGovernment to go beyond the goal of offering online services, by adding a host of advanced and forward-looking initiatives on the eve of our second anniversary," said Salem Al Shair, Director eServices, Dubai eGovernment. "These new strategies will considerably boost our capabilities to deliver eServices to the community and businesses and take us closer to the goal of providing over 70 per cent of public services online by the year 2005." "GITEX Dubai presents us with an invaluable opportunity to showcase these unique initiatives aimed at enhancing the people's and government department's readiness for e-governance as well as expanding the channels for interactive communication between departments and customers through new channels," Al Shair said. "Visitors at Gitex will be encouraged to try out the different services under the guidance of experts from the respective departments, as well as staff from Dubai eGovernment." The capabilities of m-Dubai will be demonstrated by several government departments at GITEX Dubai 2003. mDubai allows the departments to deliver short message service (SMS) messages to their database of customers using the Dubai eGovernment messaging gateway through the dedicated portal www.mdubai.ae. Dubai eGovernment's target is to have 12 departments sending nearly half a million SMS messages to their customers in the first phase of the project. "mDubai is an example of how Dubai eGovernment is leveraging cutting edge technology to launch new channels to allow delivery of information anytime, anywhere and while on the move," said Khalifa Al Khalafi, Director General of the Land Department. "We have started using mDubai to deliver SMS messages to our customers and we are delighted to report that the service has been well accepted. mDubai opens an innovative new channel that allows government departments to convey instant messaging to our customers." mDubai provides a unified structure for mobile services via the Dubai eGovernment infrastructure. It allows government departments to utilise SMS for sending notifications to a database of subscribers through SMS gateway located in Dubai eGovernment infrastructure. It also allows departments to publish content to the WAP using Dubai eGovernment content management system. In the next phase, PDA applications will be built to serve citizens, businesses, staff and other government employees. "We feel mDubai is set to become an important information and notification delivery channel with all government departments, going by the exponential penetration of mobile phones in the UAE," said Salem Al Shair. "More than 65 per cent of the UAE population owns mobile phones. WAP subscribers are set to register a growth in 2004 reaching a figure of 173,000." "Mobile delivery channels also bring a host of advantages to the people as well as the government departments. As far as the customers are concerned, they do not have to pay subscription fees or SMS charges for push messages. No computer knowledge is required. The government departments, on the other hand, benefit by way of a ready-made set-up without the pressure of managing SMS/WAP gateways," Al Shair added.

Dubai eGovernment will also showcase eLearn, the significant new initiative aiming at boosting online education under the umbrella of e4all. eLearn will act as a catalyst in helping Dubai eGovernment reach its goal in providing eliteracy to the public. Fahed Al Othman, Managing Director, Humansoft, said: " The visionary outlook and the steps taken by Dubai eGovernment have enhanced our position as a leading institution providing online courses. Our partnership with Thomson NETg has enabled us to offer to the public over three thousand English and Arabic online training programmes". "Our target is to increase internet and PC usage through value packages in order to educate the public and the private sector on services by providing classroom and on-line learning programmes, in partnership with leading global IT players and training institutes. e4all provides value-for-money packages for government employees, registered businesses and citizens" said Rihab Lootah, eServices Provisioning Manager, Dubai eGovernment. The project involves providing PCs or notebooks at special rates, customised hardware and software, installation scheme, end-user warranty and several added benefits. Also in the spotlight will be eJob, the unified platform for job-seekers and recruiters. The Dubai eGovernment stand will demonstrate how job-seekers can post their CVs and track their status, while the government departments can view all the CVs posted on the portal and recruit directly from the shared database. eJob enables job-seekers to register online, giving them a never-before opportunity of having their CVs accessed by various departments simultaneously. Candidates need only apply once, as the sophisticated search agent will alert them to new vacancies. It eliminates the need to run from one department to another, or fax the CVs individually. "Services like eJob have helped government departments to leverage the high-tech systems of Dubai eGovernment to enjoy several benefits, without making heavy investment that is usually needed for this type of services," said Hammad Al Shaibani, Director General, Department of Islamic Affairs (Awqaf). "With eJob, Awqaf can scout for the right type of recruits by scanning the central database that stores all registered CVs. We get a wider list to choose from. It allows us to interact directly with candidates when we want to fill up vacancies. eJob has simplified the complete chain of recruitment and selection." The state-of-the-art services provided by Dubai eGovernment's contact centre AskDubai (dial 7000 40000) will also be highlighted, including easy access via phone, fax or email, all 24 hours of the day. Manned by trained attendants, the contact centre is equipped to provide all information on eServices and individual services of different departments. People can also submit their queries through the portal www.dubai.ae by using different options and selecting the channel of response. AskDubai will serve as the centralised customer service centre for all users of government services. Rashed Al Matroushi, Director, Dubai Civil Defence, said: "We are in constant touch with AskDubai to ensure that the public queries on Dubai Civil Defence are answered correctly. AskDubai has ability to handle multiple queries and deliver them through a channel of caller's preference thus making it the most efficient contact centre." eLibrary is a programme aimed at underlining the importance of adopting new technology to make public libraries more effective in providing information and knowledge to larger sections of society. It allows for quick browsing of information resources at Dubai libraries through online access to books, periodicals, audio-video tapes and compact discs. Online searches could be carried out by author or topic-based keywords as well as through a wide-ranging collection of subjects, catalogues and websites. Ahmad Al Matroushi, Director General of Dubai Development Board, said: "Our task of interacting with thousands of tenants, landlords and suppliers, has been simplified ever since Dubai eGovernment launched initiatives like mDubai and eJob. We are now able to communicate more effectively with our customers and deliver higher levels of service. We are also using the AskDubai service to create a more satisfying communication link with our customers. "

Quelle: MENAFN