Page 16 - Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Enhancing Innovation and Participation

ICT has been a key enabler for all the implemented ESS. In most cases, the latest technologies were utilized through
leading edge solutions deployed as cloud-based and/or centralized shared services. Innovation was critical in all
aspects of the ESS as government entities’ needs and requirements were determined collaboratively and
knowledge exchange and dissemination formed a major part of the implementation of ESS.
As of today, ESS have been very successful in achieving operational efficiencies in the form of cost savings of AED
4.3 billion (USD 1.2 billion) (from 2003-2015). They have also received a happiness rating of 84.3%, based on user
feedback.

2.2 Implementation
Extensive engagement, participation and collaboration among Dubai Government entities were extremely
important during the implementation of ESS. The ESS were implemented in waves, whereby each ESS followed an
initial implementation phase through the coordinated gathering of requirements, and the development stages,
which included the creation of pilot government entities.
Subsequently, ESS were rolled out gradually to all other government entities which needed these services. This
was an ongoing process and each rollout time frame varied based on the service and entity (e.g. Government
Resources Planning rollouts took 3-6 months, whereas electronic payment took 1-2 months depending on the
entity).

ESS were also enhanced with new features to meet the customer requirements and to stay competitive with
respect to advances in the industry.

ESS were implemented through well-defined core processes as listed below:
▪ ESS Requirements Definition
▪ ESS Design and Implementation
▪ ESS Rollout
▪ ESS Infrastructure Management
▪ ESS Customer Management (includes Account Management and Customer Incidents Management)
Streamlined and well-defined processes were critical to the success of the overall initiative. Some examples
illustrating the growth and uptake of ESS over the years have been given in this case study.
GRP was launched in 2003 with 15 ESS (HR, Finance, Supply-chain, etc.) in 7 entities. By 2016, GRP had more than
30 ESS in more than 50 entities. Over the years, project management, electronic procurement and mobile supply-
chain management, etc. were added as enhancements to the GRP suite of ESS.

Figure 1 – GRP ESS example

14 U4SSC series