Integrated NOC project nominated for international award

The nomination came in the European IT Forum, which was held recently in Paris. This forum is an annual event, which has been running for over 15 years and is sponsored and run by IDC. Officials from Dubai Municipality and their consulting partner, IBM Business Consulting Services have participated in the event which attracts eminent speakers from across the world and is attended by business and technology leaders from various industries across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Abdullah Al Shaibani, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Technical Services, said the nomination of NOC service is a recognition for the civic body's e-Government initiative that has won the municipality both local and international acclaim.

"Dubai Municipality has delivered a significant level of transformation through the introduction of a portal and the use of online e-Government services. To date, over 50 per cent of all DM services are offered online whereby the customers can complete all aspects of these transactions online. Over 1.3 million transactions have been recorded through the portal since the introduction of the e-Government initiative," said Al Shaibani.

Commenting on the No Objection Certification (NOC) service, which was nominated for the award, said Ahmed Hashim Bahrouzyan, Head of e-Government Services Section at the Information Technology Department, who attended the event in Paris: "An NOC is a crucial document or collection of documents issued by different departments within Dubai Municipality, Etisalat and DEWA. The NOC is required to support all building and maintenance activities in the Emirate of Dubai. In the past, construction companies had to submit the required paperwork for the NOC to many departments within DM and then also obtain the requisite approvals separately from Etisalat and DEWA. With the large volume of construction activities in Dubai, the manual processes used to cause some level of frustration for the construction companies."

"In 2005, Dubai Municipality, Etisalat and DEWA joined forces to create an integrated cross-department NOC system through which customers are able to submit one request for an NOC and the system directs these NOC's to the relevant authorities across different Government entities based on the type of request. The introduction of this service has resulted in significant transformation of this key process resulting in substantial savings for businesses and customers within the Emirate of Dubai who deal with these government departments," he said.

David Dockray, Global Leader, Strategy & Market Development for IBM Business Consulting Services, who highlighted the project during his keynote presentation at the event, said: "From hundreds of projects that met the criteria, the NOC project at Dubai Municipality was one of three projects nominated for the IDC EMEA 2005 award by IBM for both its transformational and integrational aspects. Being nominated for such a prestigious award is indeed due recognition of the continued excellence of Dubai Municipality in the e-Government field. We believe that the e-Government initiative of Dubai Municipality is a major success story and we are proud to be associated with this initiative."

The IDC EMEA award is given for ICT innovation and business transformation. Selected IT led transformation projects are nominated from various countries across EMEA and an independent panel of judges selects the top IT transformation project from the submissions.