Dubai eGovernment CEO showcases department's expertise and experience at Global Forum in Singapore

On the sidelines of the event, an iGov Global Exchange Forum was organized under the theme 'Integrating Public Services, Engaging Citizens'.

Asia's largest infocomm and media event drew 60,000 international participants from governments, the industry and media from nearly 100 countries and regions across Europe, US, Asia and the Middle East.

Representing Dubai eGovernment at the event was Thani Abdullah Alzaffin, CEO of Dubai eGovernment, who showcased the experiences of Dubai eGovernment, being the first to be launched in the Arab region.

Alzaffin shed light on the many unheralded achievements made over the past nine years of the eGovernment initiative, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

He lauded the efforts made by the eGovernment team to fulfil its vision of ensuring customers access to remote services without having to physically visit department premises.

Alzaffin pointed out that the eGovernment initiative had two key offerings: the public eServices offered to individuals and businesses, and the shared eServices offered to government departments and the private sector.

"Combining centralization and decentralization approaches was a resounding success. On one hand, it incited departments to unleash their creative abilities in creating innovative service delivery channels, and on the other hand, maintained basic quality level in service delivery by providing central services,"

he added.

Alzaffin also spoke of the Government Resources Planning (GRP), which is the corner stone in the eIntegration process, being a unified and secure system in use at Dubai Government departments, assisting them in managing and operating the important part of their business through a back-bone support system covering Human Resources, Payroll, Finance, Purchasing, Inventory, Projects, Asset Management and related self services.

He explained that GRP helps the departments focus on their core businesses while it handles the back-office operations in an effective and efficient manner, enabling them to excel in delivering their services and reduce effort made to provide systems required to manage and operate financial and logistic electronic systems.

It also automates internal processes through a paperless work cycle, makes available budgetary control and fund check, optimises IT expenditure by sharing of resources across the departments, facilitates more accurate and faster end of month closure and consolidates balances of all departments, among other tasks.