Dubai e-Government's Marketing Advisory Board reviews new measures to boost usage of eServices

The advisory board, comprising of representatives from various Dubai government departments and Dubai eGovernment, chalked out plans for the next stage of the awareness campaign and called for generating greater interest in eServices among all concerned parties, including government departments, private and business sectors.

"The marketing aspect has now acquired critical importance, with the eGovernment having reached a highly developed stage in the delivery of eServices. The portal is now ready to offer integrated services spanning several key departments through the sophisticated Content Management System and the Government Information Network," said Marwan Al Naqi, Community Outreach Officer/Government Sector. "The time has come for stepping up the marketing activity at various levels, so as to trigger an all-round and consistent interest in Dubai eGovernment and its eServices."

"The launch of e4all forms the key element of the next phase of the Dubai eGovernment marketing programme. e4all has been designed to offer value packages for individuals, small and medium enterprises as well as large corporations. This involves providing PCs or notebooks at special prices, customized hardware and software, installment schemes, end-user warranty and several add-ons such as free subscriptions to IT magazines," said Naqi. "The e4all initiative's overall objective is to enable Dubai eGovernment to act as a single point for acquiring knowledge about eServices. In the first phase, the project mainly targets government department employees. The rest of the sectors will be targeted in the next phase."

The attendees at the Advisory Board meeting discussed the role of new subsidiary teams including the community outreach team, marketing team, suggestions team and the follow-up and execution team. The role of the outreach team is to promote outreach plans, accelerate awareness of technology and increase the number of eService users. The role of the marketing team is to put in place strategies, evaluate current services, study and add on new services as well as delivery channels taking into consideration the needs of the community. The suggestions team will study new submissions and ideas, which contribute to increasing the efficiency and speed of eServices besides spreading the concept of creativity in work environments. The team will also work on strengthening the links between the Dubai eGovernment, businesses and the community in general. The follow-up and execution team will implement the decisions of the Advisory Board on Community Outreach and Marketing and all the other teams.

The Advisory Board discussed the list of major events and shows in Dubai for Dubai eGovernment's participation. The criteria was set for such participation, which included understanding the correlation between these events and Dubai eGovernment's activities, the number of visitors, media coverage and assessing each event's role in boosting Dubai's image as the economy hub of the region. Dubai eGovernment's participation in GITEX Dubai 2003 was also reviewed. The Advisory Board outlined new strategies to promote the participation of government departments under the umbrella of Dubai eGovernment during GITEX to make participation in this event more effective and result-oriented.