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UAE e Government Project
Introduction
We live in an increasingly interconnected society, where the Internet has spawned tremendous improvements in efficiency and customer service. People use the telephone and the Internet to get service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The players/stakeholders in e-commerce today are not only Business (B) and Consumers (C) but also Government (G). That is, governments not only execute laws and operate administrative systems, but also conduct activities related to business, such as procuring/payment for products and services, disclosing/notifying information, and imposing/ collecting taxes. Hereafter, B stands for Business, C stands for Citizens or Consumers, and G stands for Government.
What is driving the Internet?
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Technology growth (computing and telecommunications bandwidth)
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Business investment in technology and adoption of technology
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Growth in the adoption of the Internet by Citizens and Consumers
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Changes in Citizens and Business Expectations
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Competitive pressures
What is e-Government?
E-Government
is the delivery of government services and information to the public
using electronic means. In other words, it is the use of Information
and Communication Technologies to promote more efficient government
by allowing better access to information and making government more
accountable to citizens.
Source: Scott Fairholm, Electronic Gov Implementation Devision, Commonwealth of Virginia
E-Government is electronic government which evolving operational model where government institutions use new electronic channels (especially internet, mobile technology, Call Centers, Digital TV) to deliver services to:
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The public (G2C)
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Their own employees (G2E),
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Business partners and suppliers (G2B), and
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Other governmental organizations (G2G).
With the Internet end user, that means customers, employees, the private companies as well as all ministries and agencies themselves do have a new channel to access government services as well as information, guidelines and policies.
We consider that a government fulfills the following six roles:
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Provider of public services (the ‘vendor’ in business sense).
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Purchaser of materials needed for its operations (the ‘buyer’ in business sense).
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Supervisor of law and institution (i.e. ‘enabler’ for IT society)
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Collector of taxes, duties and tariffs needed for operation of government services.
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Facilitator of transparency in G-TO-B processes
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Content holder of large information including valuable statistical information.
What are the goals of E-Government?
Customer online – not in line: Effective delivery of public goods and services to citizens via quick response government can be attained, WITHOUT the intervention of a public official.
Strengthening good governance: Providing accessible information to its constituents promotes transparency and accountability in government.
Broadening public participation:
The opportunity for direct participation for all citizens, from all
sectors, to be more actively involved in the policy and decision
making process of government is enhanced.
Improving the productivity and
efficiency :
Procedures are simplified to cut red tape. Effective delivery of
services, better productivity of the bureaucracy, and increased
savings can be expected.
Promoting priority economic
sectors:
Providing governments goods and services is not limited to citizens.
Industries and other key economic sectors, once incorporated into
the e-government strategy.
Expectations:
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Independent from time and location
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Accessibility 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days
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Self Service and Better Access
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Immediate services and results
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Faster, better, cheaper
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Customized Services
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Make it easy for citizens, private sector, other ministries/agencies and employees to obtain service and interact with the federal government
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Improve government’s responsiveness to citizens, private sector, other ministries/agencies, and employees
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Serve customers through the most appropriate channel
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Capture consistent customer data in all channels
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Share customer data throughout all ministries and authorities
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Share common internal services for processing customer data
The importance of E-Government:
For private corporations, government is very important to and deeply involved in our businesses. If government does not proceed with utilizing IT, digitization and online operations, we have to continue making our government-related processes manually. For instance, we will have to continue printing out our documents on paper in order to submit them to governments. So even if private corporations out effort into utilizing IT and putting business process online, their output (e.g. increased efficiency and productivity) will be quite limited in this case. In other words, companies’ successful investments in IT depend on the extent government administration is also digitized.
E-government in UAE:
A steering committee of the UAE Federal Government was set up under a cabinet resolution (1/631/2001) to provide the road map of e-government. This committee which is facilitated by the Ministry of Finance and Industry under the chairmanship of His Excellency Dr Mohamed Khalfan bin Khisrbash. The committee emphasizes that “Information Technology” should be used as a tool to re-invent and reform our current “management” of the government.
The E Government project will improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions between the Federal Government, business and the people residing in UAE. More importantly, Electronic Government will improve information flows and processes within all government Ministries.
The systems and processes of government will be re-engineered to capitalize on the potential benefits of new ICT applications. This process re-engineering will redefine the way each government department performs its tasks in the new ICT environment. The introduction of Electronic Government will give us the outcome below:
- Innovative Services.
- Managed government information as a strategic resource.
- A government that is closer and more transparent to the people and businesses.
- Better formulation of government polices.
- Greater partnership between the government and private sector.
- Functional integration within the government.
- Effective information flow to facilitate policy development and implementation.
To manage this project effectively steering committee has decided to phased out this initiative into 3 phases:
Phase
1 : Creating a E Government Strategy
Phase 2: Contracting out the chosen e government application
Phase 3: Implementation the chosen e government application.
Phase 1 of this project is now underway and hopes to be completed by June 2003. We have a selected IBM consulting, an international management consulting firm to guide us in this first phase.
Part of the requirements of this phase is to set a clear vision and selection criteria for the E-Government projects. To formulate this The UAE Federal Government e-Government Steering Committee held an important workshop on Sunday 11th May at Abu Dhabi. The workshop facilitated by IBM Business Consulting Services was opened by His Excellency Mohammad Khalfan bin khirbash (Ph.D), the Minister of State for Finance and Industry. The purpose of the workshop was to agree to an initial vision for the evolving UAE Federal Government e-Government Strategy and review the criteria for the future selection of e-government related opportunities for implementation.
The keynote speaker at the workshop was Philip Moody, the IBM E-Government Practice Leader. He shared his experience of what other governments are doing internationally in this field and talked about the lessons learnt from them. He noted that the UAE is a leader in the GCC for e-Government development and said that this project gave the UAE Federal Government an opportunity to cement that position for the future.
During the workshop the Committee Members (Undersecretaries drawn from various ministries and government agencies) and the IBM Team worked to generate a draft vision that will be refined during the current strategy phase. It was agreed that the vision needed to include aspects which recognized the importance of integrating Federal Government policies and the need to create a knowledge based government environment. It is the intention of the UAE Government to improve its effectiveness and efficiency using e-Government as a catalyst.
The committee members also discuss the criteria for the selection of propose project for the e government. Some of the criteria agreed were that project selected need to cut across various ministries and can be applied in the near future. These projects can be categorized under government-to-government, government to business, government to employee and government to citizens. These criteria selected will ensure that any e-government projects will benefit all the parties concern and will deliver the outcomes of mentioned above.
Another senior IBM Business Consulting Services executive Richard Jones, the Public Sector Leader for the United Kingdom observed that the current level of leadership commitment and active participation by the committee members would ensure the future success of the UAE’s e-Government initiatives in his concluding observations.
In his closing remarks His Excellency Dr Khirbash said that with the formulation of the electronic government vision, we can now path our way to implement electronic solutions that will greatly benefit the government, employees of the government, businesses and the citizens of the UAE. E-Government will be the catalyst on to transform the government towards a “Knowledge Base Government”.
What is the E-Government Strategy and Foundation Project?
The E-Government Strategy and Foundation Project is an overall study umbrella to assess the readiness of UAE Federal government to transform to an electronic government and transactions. The project will establish the E-Government strategy for the complete Federal Government covering all ministries.
To get to an efficient and successful e-Government it is important to develop a strategy, which means creating a road map how to get there, including the principals defining a new organization:
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Mission, vision and value statements
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Broad services goals and objectives
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Appropriate business models
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The alignment of people, business processes and technology
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Relevant and measurable performance metrics
Benefits of E-government to UAE Federal Government:
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Improve organizational performance by increasing efficiency
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Improve own work management and control
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Encourage ownership
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Career development and Streamline internal processes
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On-line integration between different departments and ministries
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Exposure to new delivery channels and technologies
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Reduce paper work and manual communication requirements
