Dubai eGovernment forms subcommittees to ensure unified marketing of eServices

A meeting attended by representatives from 11 key departments and headed by Marwan Al Naqi, Community Outreach Officer - Government Sector, Dubai eGovernment, recently finalised the composition of the various subcommittees whose main objective is to ensure ways to unify marketing of existing eServices as well as new services on Dubai eGovernment portal.

The government organisations represented at the meeting were the Dubai Ports and Customs Authority and Free Zone Corporation, Justice Department, Department of Health and Medical Services, Department of Electricity and Water, Development Board, Dubai Municipality, Dubai Police, Dubai Government Workshop, Real Estate Department, eTQM College, and the Department of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.

"The joint marketing of eServices is the next major challenge facing Dubai eGovernment, because it is very important to provide the public with unified solutions," said Marwan Al Naqi. "Dubai eGovernment needs to project itself as a one-stop window for eServices, offering users the benefit of accessing services of different departments without navigating through many sites. A unified marketing plan also means that the different departments will not be required to spend on marketing efforts on individual basis."

The meeting also decided the specific goals and tasks of the 6 newly formed subcommittees. The first group's responsibilities will be to offer suggestions for improvement of eServices and simplifying procedures. Group two will devise a long-term plan for the marketing and implementation of eServices. Group three will focus on existing government channels and suggest new ways to improve or add to these channels. Group four will be responsible for the follow-up and execution of all proposals as well as study project feasibility. Group five will attend to the packaging of eServices with the aim of allowing users to access multiple services with minimum clicks. Group six will be in charge of suggesting new eServices based on public needs and ways of implementing them.

The marketing advisory board will work on marketing campaigns in order to create awareness among the public about the importance of using eServices, with the ultimate objective of providing 70 per cent of public services through electronic channels by 2005.

"The marketing advisory board is committed to finding effective ways in fine-tuning the marketing and community outreach initiatives for the benefit of end-users as well as the participating departments," said Al Naqi. "The key objective of forming these six subcommittees is to present a simplified and user-friendly access to various public services. As these groups consist of individuals who have good experience in their respective fields, we expect them to make a very important contribution in improving the understanding and the marketing of eServices provided by Dubai eGovernment, to the public."

"Having put a world-class infrastructure in place, Dubai eGovernment is now engaged in creating a program that will motivate the people to use our portal for most public services. Certain segments of the population are still not comfortable with using online services. In order to educate users, we will be strengthening our community outreach programme by demonstrating the benefits of online services. We believe that the suggestions and proposals of the newly formed subcommittees would go a long way in helping us achieve our objectives of bringing the portal and the community closer," said Al Naqi.