Dubai Smart Government evolution

From its inception in 2000, Dubai Smart Government has followed ambitious plans to become a world leader in e-government and smart government. May this year saw the accomplishment of the Emirate’s two-year plan to ensure services are available on mobile devices, with 96.3% of 337 of the most important government services being shifted to m-government.

Dubai’s smart government plans do not stand still, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, announced new aims for customer happiness and adoption, and integration of services with the aim of making Dubai the happiest city in the world. To deliver on these new ambitions, Dubai Smart Government has developed a new strategic approach, to match the evolving demands of future government.

Ahmed Bin Humaidan, Director General, Dubai Smart Government commented: “Our first decade was marked by successes in government transformation and work culture, e-Adoption and passing on the benefits of e-Transformation to the customer through time and money saving; while also having a positive impact on the environment from online transactions and e-services.

The primary driving factor for Dubai Smart Government’s initiatives today is delivering happiness to all of users, increasing satisfaction with services and also increasing service uptake.

Bin Humaidan explained: “Taking inspiration from our leaders, we redeveloped our strategy and vision last year, so that it completely aligns with the UAE and Dubai’s long-term 2021 vision to attain higher levels of customer happiness and trust, and become the smartest and happiest city in the world. The Dubai Smart Government Strategy 2014-2017, which we branded as ‘SG21’ focuses on smart connected services, lean administration, an open government and an enabling environment with our new vision to be a world class smart government for the 21st century.

“To reach His Highness’ vision is our number one goal, our focus is to make the people happy. If we want to make the customer happy, our strategy is basically built on the customer, putting the customer at the top,” he added.

This increased focus on the end user has been extended to all stakeholders — citizens, residents, tourists and business, and across all platforms. It is also at the core of developing any new service, which is now much more focused on what the end user wants, and what issues a new smart service can tackle for them, rather than serving the needs of the department first. The customer needs are now the first thing considered in development, rather than a later add-on.

“We design our services, that we provide to the customer, based on their needs, not the function of the department. We are moving towards integration, and collaboration, to make the services available in all channels, with the same usability, same look and feel, so whatever channel he likes, whether it is mobile, or they want to use the internet, or a smart watch or any new device, it will be available on that platform. It is integrating and creating value for the customer,” Bin Humaidan said.

To define and to drive the new strategy for Dubai Smart Government, the organisation created an Office of Strategy Management (OSM), which helped to turn the strategy into reality. DSG already had an advisory council, headed by the director general, with members from the top departments in Dubai government, to facilitate rolling out this strategy and the OSM assists in defining the strategy and each organisation’s role to deliver it.