Dubai Police joins Dubai eGovernment's AskDubai platform to provide 24-hour information on its services

Dubai Police is the fifth government department to move to the AskDubai platform for providing more dynamic and interactive communication channels to the public.

Callers can now obtain information on a number of common services of Dubai Police, including opening a driving licence file, driving tests, issuing of driving licences, vehicle registration, vehicle transfer, replacing vehicle number plate, vehicle examination at company site, technical examination system at EPPCO, fines inquiry and payment, good conduct certificate, and lost items.

"The growing list of services provided by Dubai Police have made it impossible for ordinary contact centres to handle the pressure," said Colonel Ahmed Bin Dalmook, Director of the General Department of eServices at Dubai Police. "State of the art systems that offer multiple access using advanced CRM systems have become essential to win customer confidence. Accessibility to information and services, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, has become a must. Further, the need for fully trained agents is paramount in all service organisations. All these factors contributed to our decision to join Dubai eGovernment's AskDubai service."

"AskDubai uses best-of-breed technologies to provide an integrated communication solution that ensures that the caller is greeted by courteous and knowledgeable staff," added Colonel Bin Dalmook. "We have collaborated with Dubai eGovernment to ensure that AskDubai attendants are fully trained in all aspects of our services so that they can provide accurate guidance to callers. Most importantly, AskDubai is geared to provide multiple choice of communication via Internet, fax, voice mail, E-mail and through the agent directly."

"It is a matter of great pride for Dubai eGovernment that Dubai Police has adopted the services of AskDubai," said Mahmood Al Bastaki, Business Process Re-engineering Consultant, Dubai eGovernment. "AskDubai has been especially created to handle the large-volume calls generated by departments like Dubai Police. We expect the trend of outsourcing the call centre requirements to gather further momentum, as it allows the departments to attend to their core operations and also rest assured that the response mechanisms are being taken care of by experts."

Outlining the advantages of an integrated and shared call centre for government departments, Al Bastaki said it serves as a single point of contact to government departments in Dubai, it is accessible round the clock, it provides bilingual support through multiple channels and it unifies inquiries, complaints and feedback.

Since its launch in June 2003, AskDubai has been adopted by four government departments, namely the Dubai Development Board, Land Department, Dubai Municipality and Dubai Civil Defence (DCD). It has handled more than 60,000 calls and 1,200 emails as of April 2004. In addition, it initiated more than 20,000 outbound calls, 550 online chats and over 50 faxes.

Customers can contact AskDubai on phone line 7000 40000 or submit their queries to help@dubai.ae available on the portal www.dubai.ae or send a fax on 04 330 3399. Those wishing to post comments can go to "Feedback." There is a facility to chat online with one of the agents. Users can also go to the "Schedule a Callback" link to be called back at an appointed time. They can choose "Chat and Talk" link if they want a representative to call them back on the telephone while they are still chatting online.