Going virtual for a smart future
On October 26, Dubai will take yet another step into the ‘smart future’ by going virtual on the day in a bid to encourage residents to use smart channels to obtain governments services. All service transactions provided by government entities will be available only online and physical offices will be closed for the day.
The day, which will be observed as ‘Day without Service Centres, ‘aims to educate customers and government employees on using smart apps and online services, said a senior official. However, transactions that require residents and visitors to be at a service centre in person, will function as usual.
Abdullah Abdulrahman, director of Dubai Municipality (DM) centres, said: ‘Day Without Service Centres’ scheduled on Oct. 26 comes a week after Technology Week that takes place during mid-October. During the Technology Week, the civic body will display its online and smart services that customers can use without having to visit the municipality offices.
“The message we want to get across through the day is that the government is spending millions on the smart infrastructure and online services. It is the future,” said Abdulrahman.
Abdulrahman said this will enable the department to train its employees to use smart services, as well as provide information to customers on the types of services they can do online without visiting the municipality centres. While the municipality already provides most of its services to residents and establishments online, there are instances where customers still have to visit centres to perform services that require attachments or contracts. These services will turn smart, he said, by the end of 2018.
“Our services are either online, or almost-turned online. We want to tell customers that this is the future,” said Abdulrahman. “We want to tell them that they will not have to visit centres to finish their transactions anymore.”
The government has been moving fiercely towards making the city one of the smartest cities in the world by 2021. In April, Dubai Government announced its services will go paperless by 2021 as it launched its Dubai Pulse online portal that will enable Emiratis and expats to access hundreds of government services.
Earlier this month, Dubai leaders also announced the launch of the new Service 1 Centre that provides 14 government services to customers with the help of a single employee using artificial intelligence technology.
To achieve the government’s smart vision, Abdulrahman said training will have to be provided to government employees. The challenge in going smart, he said, is having to continuously teach new employees joining the government entity.
“You can spend a lot of time training an employee on providing smart services, but once he/ she is gone, you have to hire someone new and teach them all over again,” said Abdulrahman.
Additionally, going smart will require providing employees with the tools deemed necessary to achieve the government’s goals, which according to Abdulrahman is an investment for the future.
Customers’ fear is another challenge government entities will have to work on overcoming. Abdulrahman said: “When you change the way people are used to doing things, there will definitely be fears and uncertainty. People fear the system would be too abrupt or slow or that they would lose their money, but the government has been tackling this through smart programmes to provide the best services.”
The municipality will coordinate with government entities including Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs among others to mark the ‘Virtual Day’. He added that going smart will not happen without the cooperation among all entities.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com