'Focus is on shaping up government e-initiatives'

Departments in Dubai government have been told to "shape up" their electronic initiatives to increase the number of residents and visitors transacting with the authority via the internet.

Salem Khamis Al Shair, eServices Director of Dubai eGovernment, said 91 per cent of all the government departments have been e-enabled since the end of last year, but there are still some areas that need drastic improvements.

"Now what we are more focused on is in shaping up government departments. Maybe because we have been focusing on outwards rather than inwards," he said.

For one, Dubai eGovernment is going to revamp its portal – www.dubai.ae – due to its unsatisfactory content and design. Dubai.ae is the eGovernment's official public portal, which integrates all the e-services of government departments.

"Dubai.ae is a piece of our project that we are not very happy with," he told Emirates Business. "Now we are working on a serious makeover of Dubai.ae in terms of the look and content. Towards the end of this year, hopefully, you will be seeing a different Dubai.ae."

Compared to other government websites, however, Dubai.ae is doing well, observers say. It has updates on what is happening in the emirate, holds information on simple but much-needed information such as how to get a Dubai visit visa for a family member, for a maid or for a friend; how to get a driving licence, how to renew your car registration; how to get a National Identity Card and how to obtain a resident visa for your parents, among others.

It also links to widely used interactive sites of government entities where visitors can make traffic fine inquiries and payment, recharge Salik road toll, check flight information from Dubai airport, pay electricity and water bills and register complains.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs eGovernment Survey ranked the UAE in fifth position in terms of transactional services, just behind more e-developed nations such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the United States.

It also placed the UAE 32nd among 192 UN member states in the 2008 eGovernment Readiness Index, while the country achieved twelfth position in the web measurement index, which rated the online presence of national websites and selected ministries, including health, education, welfare, labour and finance. The UAE also has the highest web measure index in the region.

But in a survey conducted recently by Dubai eGovernment, majority of Arabic respondents said they could not find the desired information in the website.

Among the 1,244 Arabic respondents, 54.3 per cent says they could not find the information they were looking for, 36.7 per cent said they found the information easily while nine per cent said they found it after looking for a while.

According to Ahmed Al Aqqad, a website designer, information is the most important component of government portals because customers need information more than they need e-services. He said a customer needs key information on a continuous basis whereas dealing with fines and transacting via e-services occurs only occasionally.

Despite the diligent effort exerted in preparing the portal of Dubai government, it only provides the profiles and contact information of government institutions. "I feel that the portal can achieve success only if it simplifies communication with government officials. This will certainly put a heavy burden on the content team because it is not an easy task," said Al Aqqad, as quoted by e4all, Dubai eGovernment's monthly bulletin.

In a country where expatriates amount to more than 90 per cent of the population, immigration laws and regulations and changes to these rules are the most awaited news. Unfortunately, Dubai eGovernment has no control over the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD), thus it cannot mandate the department to post up-to-date news on its website.

"DNRD is a federal government entity that doesn't come under our jurisdiction. We do liaise and work with them and provide services for them, however, we cannot impose things on them or restrict some of the work that they do. It is up to them," said Al Shair.

Dubai government's portal also lacks the system of geographic information that displays detailed interactive maps, plans, new projects, infrastructure data, road conditions and public transformation information. It is further suggested that the portal needs enriching local news and societal activities.

On the other hand, 909 respondents took part in the English questionnaire. Of the total, 45.6 per cent said they found the information they were looking for in contrast to the 40.4 per cent who said they did not. Fourteen per cent said they were able to find it after a while.

Those satisfied with the information provided on the English homepage thus outnumber those who are satisfied with the Arabic homepage, although the content is quite identical on both.

Leslie John, information technology specialist and user of the portal, said he does not search by switching from one link to another but rather uses Google search engine within the website.

He said although Google can be used on both homepages, the search engine is unique for its ability to search using the origins, synonyms and antonyms of a word. This feature is much more powerful in the English version and so search results are usually more accurate and better than they are on the Arabic one.

When it was explained to the respondents that many suggestions they made on department websites, they unanimously said it was difficult to obtain such information and services because it was scattered.

In addition to the Dubai.ae portal, the government also has AskDubai, a bilingual contact centre connecting an individual to all government departments.

To use this service, customers can log on to AskDubai.dubai.ae or call 700 040 000. It aims to provide a single point of contact per channel for selected department services.

According to official statistics, since the launch of AskDubai in June 2003, a total of 587,400 calls have been answered by the contact centre; in addition to 76,057 outbound calls, 17,369 e-mails handled, 513 faxes received and 3,339 online chat requests processed.

And most recently, Dubai residents and citizens who need specific information or wish to report any grievances regarding Dubai Courts may do so by contacting the call centre.

"A lot of people have filed complaints," said Al Shair. "We are human beings. If I go to any organisation and get your work done but that of other people doesn't get done, they will definitely be upset and complain."

Things, however, are not as smooth as they sound.

In an ideal e-government, users expect to see channels of contact with the government unified in one portal, one telephone number and one short message service portal.

However, more than eight years after the launch of the Dubai Government portal and the unified contact centre AskDubai, the initiative is still confronted by a jungle of contact centres, that can confuse a user who wishes to contact government departments. Some departments own more than one telephone number in their respective contact centres and to make matters worse, some have several contact centres.

Consequently, a user needs a learning course to obtain a number for getting the desired information.

eeeMore unreasonably, users go through a long journey of trial and error and wrong communication with government departments until they get access to the right telephone number.

The experience is even more frustrating if the user happens to be outside the UAE, as a series of international calls have to be made only to be greeted by interactive voice messages from the contact centres.

"We have to improve not only the technology but also the processes themselves. This is one of our main challenges," said Al Shair.

"Rolling out the e-initiative in Dubai was not easy, but there was a will behind it and there is a push from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. We know what we are trying to achieve and we know we are being evaluated."

Currently, the emirate has created more than 140 criteria to gauge the performance of each government department's e-services.

Asked if Dubai eGovernment has the power to impose rules on more than 22 departments to "shape up", Al Shair said: "The e-services quality evaluation is done every year and then we send the report to His Highness. Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the list."

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