At the department of Economic Development (DED), Government of Dubai, IT is no longer a support function. It is in fact the key division that enables technology to work proactively for its business and the business community in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

For the people

Having just launched InfoTouch, a product that was completely developed in house, for the business community in Dubai, DED?s IT Division Supervisor Sultan Ali Rashed Lootah says that this is just the start. The road ahead at DED will now extensively look at sharing IT Best Practices to encourage greater public-private partnership.

?This is clearly the ultimate aim for any government that works for its people,? says Lootah. Technology obviously is playing the role of being the great enabler.

In keeping with the vision and directives of HH General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, UAE Defense Minister and Chairman of DED, to move rapidly towards full fledged e-Government procedures, the department has drawn up ambitious plans, that will be driven forward by the effective use of IT.

?Our brief is to enhance the prosperity and standard of living in the Emirate. We believe technology is the major driver in achieving progress. Besides creating an investor-friendly environment in Dubai, technology will be a tool for us to deliver value-added services that truly enhance the customer experience when interacting with the DED,? says Lootah.

Better partnerships

The success in integrating technology closely with the business is often a result of greater management buy in. At DED, the top management has in a sense mandated technological development and knowledge transfer as a key business strategy.

Going ahead, a key area of focus for Lootah and his department of 20 people is to facilitate greater government-private partnership. ?We work internally on solutions in order to meet customer expectations and we have adopted a capacity building policy that enables and accelerates the knowledge transfer process from our key partners,? he adds.

This policy allows DED and its partners to exchange intelligence and enhance the customer experience and quality of the service delivery. This follows onto its strategy to work with technology vendors as well. For example, on the Infotouch project, DED worked closely with its international partners Microsoft and Nokia to ensure that the product was on in line with international standards.

A growing area of interest for government departments with access to strong technology skills is to enable the sharing of technology best practices across the board. DED plans to ensure that knowledge sharing with other key departments is something it does consistently.

?DED has a record of sharing knowledge with other departments in the Emirate. As much as we are eager to develop and improve business environment, we are keen to share knowledge with our counterparts. We frequently conduct several meetings and conferences to share knowledge, exchange ideas and monitor performance issues across all technology areas,? says Lootah.

The link in the value chain

The launch of the InfoTouch product is in a sense the major link in the innovation chain for DED. Not only does this firmly put the department on the path to using technology to build intellectual property value, this is also being seen as the point of transition from being a technology user to a creator.

For the department?s customers -- the business community in Dubai -- this will mean better services, focused offering and ultimately a smooth workflow to getting streamlines government services and information.

?Being proactive is crucial in being customer focused. There are several driving forces such as technology, culture, education, and even the speed of business changing our customer?s needs. In order to be responsive and effective in meeting these challenges we need to develop effective tools. The IT team is transitioning from a strong support unit to one that creates value,? says Lootah. And as the IT decision maker and driver in the department, he believes the key value technology will deliver is an effective business friendly environment that will facilitate the effective development of business opportunities for the government and its people.

The future is about going mobile

Having made a beginning with its first product, Lootah is quick to add that this is just the start. Having seen success with InfoTouch, the future will see the department focus on offering increase and enhanced mobile services to the business community.

?Our customers are becoming more mobile savvy and demand more ways to save time, money and avoid hassles. We are working towards identifying barriers that affect the customer experience and tackling them by developing the right tools,? he says.

For DED as a whole, the commitment hereon is to invest in upgrading its existing infrastructure in order to facilitate deployment of cutting edge services and to enhance delivery channels. ?Clearly the next move is to strengthen the infrastructure to facilitate next generation delivery of services. We see mobile services as the next step, and this is all about enabling the community we service with the right information made available at their finger tips,? says Lootah.

The Department of Economic Development (DED) with the launch of InfoTouch, will now offer mobile access to trade licence information and services through Windows based pocket PCs and Symbian based Nokia mobile phones.

InfoTouch is being seen as the link between the technological and regulatory infrastructure and not only enables users to check the status of their trade license transactions right up to the payment stage through an interface that communicates directly with the DED database. In stage two, real-time transactions will be enabled.

Launched as a service targeted for business users on the move wishing to access business information, users can enquire about trade names and check the database without actually visiting the department. The application also enables users to monitor any fines related to existing licenses. In addition, a business owner constantly on the move can also track the status of his licenses in real time via InfoTouch.

InfoTouch, developed inhouse by the IT division at the DED on the Microsoft .Net platform is available to all Windows based pocket PCs users, available for download as a client side application. As part of this project, DED has also partnered with Nokia to develop a Java client application for Nokia 9300 and Nokia 9500 mobile phone users, allowing access to DED services over GPRS.

The application can be installed by downloading it from www.infotouch.ae, which is part of the DED website, which is also equipped to offer users detailed instructions about installing and using the application through both Windows based pocket PCs and Symbian based Nokia mobile phones.

?The DED has worked closely with its international partners Microsoft and Nokia in this project, to ensure that the application is in line with international standards and will facilitate our customers in dealing with business registration procedures. The DED also plans to extend the InfoTouch services to include other options at a later stage," he added.

?One of the strategic objectives of the Department of Economic Development is to create an investor-friendly environment in Dubai,? said Mr. Khalid Al Kassim, Deputy Director General for Development and Planning, DED.

By using the flexibility of Symbian platform and the Series 60 or Series 80 smart phones, the customer can develop highly tailored applications to enhance the productivity of their internal and external customers by providing secured wireless connectivity to corporate resources,? said Jarmo Hostio, Senior Sales Manager, Nokia Enterprise Solutions Middle East and Africa.

In order to ensure that the application was built securely, DED opted for the Microsoft platform, which gave it an industry standard product to build on.

? Furthermore, external security audits, creating redundancy and obtaining the best security equipment, software and practices have ensured a holistic security strategy, besides targeted training for staff to ensure secure and trustworthy service delivery of information,? says Lootah.

InfoTouch in its current launch phase will enable users to check the status of their trade licence transactions up to the payment stage, through an interface that communicates directly to the DED"s live database.

The application also enables users to monitor any fines that are related to existing licenses through a log in service using a dedicated user name and password. A business owner who is constantly on the move and yet in need of real time information can also track the status of all his licences via InfoTouch. Users of the service will also have access to the business Statistics and economic indicators in real time.

As a security measure, general business users will only be able to query and run basic information searches based on fields that require details like the trade licence number for example. ?However, a user will not be able to transact unless he actually makes a visit to the department and proves his identity and applies for a dedicated PIN and token number,? says Lootah.

In order to download the InfoTouch application, users must have access to a mobile device that runs on either Windows Pocket PC or SYMBIAN O/S technology. In addition, users need to subscribe to the Mnet service (provided by Etisalat) in order to ensure fast access to the Internet.