Dubai Municipality - Best New Business Technology Solution - Other

Company: Dubai Municipality
Company Description: Dubai Municipality is one of the largest governmental institutions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with more than 11,000 employees and located in the emirates of Dubai. It serves the Individuals, Government entities, and the Business. It is considered as one of Dubai’s leading growth and development institutions in terms of the volume and number of its projects and services.
Nomination Category: Product & Service Categories - Business Technology Solutions
Nomination Sub Category: Business Technology Solution - Other

Nomination Title: Dubai Municipality Paperless Office Solution

If this is a brand-new product, state the date on which it was released. If this is a new version of an existing product, state the date on which the update was released:

The Paperless Office Solution of Dubai Municipality (DM) is a key undertaking that aims at eliminating paper completely from DM’s transactions, improve efficiency and enhance the effectiveness of the DM staff at all levels. The Solution integrates in all DM transactions enabling them to be completed with zero paper usage; it also enables bidirectional paperless correspondence between DM and external parties. The solution was first released in April 2019 and an updated version was released in Dec 2020. DM supported the initiative by issuing internal circulars and by signing memoranda of understanding with partners and suppliers, both inside and outside UAE to agree on accepting digital documents from DM as equivalent to the original paper versions.

The paperless project is a seamless component of all DM processes and services. It has the following features:

-Enables safe, secure and controlled paperless communication among DM Departments, as well as with external parties.
-Links digital documents to DM transactions.
-Enables authorized parties to perform municipal transactions and communicate with DM at any time, from anywhere and through any device.
-Automatically distributes digital documents from transactions or correspondence to the designated parties.
-Enables searching for digital documents by any available text data.
-Enables controlling, tracking, classifying, and archiving of digital documents.
-Enables digital signature to ensure authenticity.
-Integrates with other Government Departments and major partners within and outside UAE to eliminate the need for paper copies of original documents and certificates.

The solution provides the following functions:
-Incorporate digital documents in all municipal transactions.
-Correspondence configuration, preparation, sending, controlling, follow-up and response preparation.
-Digital signature, Indexing, classification, organization, version control and storage of digital documents within an integrated, controlled and searchable digital documents repository.
-Provide high levels of security and control on the access, use, modification and retention of digital documents.

The solution benefits include:
-Save about 21 million papers yearly, including one million by exchanging digital documents with New Zealand Government.
-Reduce average completion time of Municipal transactions by 33% and average correspondence preparation time by 60%
-Decommissioning 953 printers saving cost of maintenance, upgrades and supplies.
-Reduce the average document search time per employee by one half.
-Increased the integrity of DM transactions.
-Faster management decisions based on reliable and easily accessible relevant information.
-Improved customer satisfaction by 17%.
-The tangible benefits amount to about 10 million dirhams per year, however, the intangible benefits such as better security and control, reliability, and faster decision making greatly outweigh the financial benefits.

The direct tangible benefits are reducing cost by about 10 million dirhams per year, however, the intangible benefits such as better security and control, reliability, and faster decision making greatly outweigh the financial benefits.

-The Paperless Office Initiative was designed and developed by DM and aligned with Dubai Government Paperless Strategy.
-It had a challenging target to achieve paperless environment by December 2021, the target was achieved in December 2020 through the heroic efforts of management and staff. Dubai Municipality was awarded the “Paperless Stamp” on February 2021 by Smart Dubai Government
-Supported the Dubai Municipality Covid 19 responses by digitalized, integrated, and paperless services and processes.
-DM was positioned as a leading organization to provide Halal Certificates for governments and municipal organizations across UAE as a result of the integration with New Zealand Government.
-The solution is being used by 34 DM Departments,30 Dubai Government entities, and by local and international customers and partners such as Dubai businesses and New Zealand Government.

The solution resulted in major financial savings:
-Saving more than 20 million printed paper sheets costing around AED 10 million.
-Reduction of 58% in office boys and janitorial staff as of April 2021.
-Reduction of 100% in the yearly expenses on printers and supplies.
-The average document search time spent by DM office employees was reduced by about 44 minutes per day, resulting in saving of about 9% of office employees’ salaries.

The solution enabled DM to serve more customers, generate more documents without the need for additional staff or printers.

Enabled DM to reassign paper handling and distribution personnel to different roles to serve more customers without the need for substantial new recruits.

Employee satisfaction rates greatly increased due to the accessibility, flexibility, control and reliability provided by the solution.As one manager stated: “document nightmares are a thing of the past”.
The image of DM was greatly enhanced and it reflected an efficient, future oriented Government Organization that provides high quality, reliable services and conveniently accessible digital documents.DM is thus addressing their needs while saving them time and money.
The solution is a very likely candidate to be adopted by 43 Dubai Government Departments as a best practice in achieving a paperless environment.