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The Journey to Smart Government in the GCC Countries: A critical insight

Dr. Saeed Al DhaheriAdvisor, Information Systems

20th GCC e-Government and e-Services Conference

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The Journey to Smart Government in the GCC Countries: A critical Insight

Agenda

e-Government Evolution

Smart Government: Concepts and Definition

Smart Governance Operating Framework

Comparison between smart city and smart government

Smart government maturity model

Enabling Technologies

Efforts in the GCC region to embrace smart government

Recommendations

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e-Government Evolution

IT evolution in government

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e-Gov 2G

e-Gov 3G

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Smart Government: concept and definition

Smart Government: an administration that applies and integrates information,

communication and operational technologies to planning, management and operations

across multiple domains, process areas and jurisdictions to generate sustainable public

value

Source: Gartner

The implementation of a set of business processes and underlying IT capabilities that

enable information to flow seamlessly across gov agencies and programs to become

intuitive in providing high quality citizen services across all government activity domains

Source: IDC

S.M.A.R.T (world bank definition)

Social: citizens and civil society participate and co-create with government

Mobile: engage with citizens and deliver info & services using mobile devices

anytime and anywhere and using cloud computing at the back-end

Analytics: using big-data analytics to drive policy action

Radical-openness: Open by Default to engage citizens in co-creating and allow

businesses to use data to innovate new services

Trust: effective cybersecurity so services are resilient, available and protect privacy

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Smart Government: concept and definition

Focus: mobile (smart phone) as the most convenient delivery channel

m-government and smart government is used interchangeably

Mobile is one part but Customer eXperience (CX) more matters

Customer experience – has 3 levels

Functional: Do you have what customers need

Accessible: how easy to do business with you?

Emotional: how customers feel when they make business with you?

Each country defines it their own way

Tiers and domains of smart government

city/state/federal tier

domain: transportation/health care/education/ energy/…/

The term "smart" is so overused that it has become almost meaningless

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Smart Governance Operating Framework

Smart governance operating framework: to support event capture and processing,

information exchange and analysis, user interface, and interoperability

Facilitates interoperability of different vertical applications

Supporting new ways to analyze info across tiers

Supporting integration of operational technologies

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Comparison between smart city and smart government

Smart City Smart Government

Main drivers Economic development, competitiveness

and environmental sustainability

Public value with particular reference to efficiency

and financial sustainability

Geographical &

Vertical Focus

Focus on multiple domains in one tier

(city)

Focus on one or multiple domains and multiple

tiers

Technology

coverage

look to connect city systems to create a

system of systems based on ICT and

instrumentation infrastructure and Smart

Government practices

focus on the business processes and

technologies that ensure seamless information

flow across government

Roles Private stakeholders, enterprise and

technology service providers, public

private partnerships, vertical sectors

Government organizations, in any tier, in a

service provider, regulator, buyer or consumer

capacity

Approach Mostly top-down (lead by prime minister

office)

Mostly bottom-up (lead by necessity) but

occasionally top-down

Both use innovation in social media, mobility, Big data/analytics, and cloud computing to improve

service delivery to citizen

Both require smart governance operating framework

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Smart Government Maturity Model

Model borrowed from IDC

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Technologies to deliver smart government & drive innovation in the public sector

Gartner: nexus of Forces IDC 3rd Platform

The Nexus of Forces “is the

convergence and mutual

reinforcement of social,

mobility, cloud and

information patterns that

drive new business

scenarios.” - Gartner

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Technologies to deliver smart government & drive innovation in the public sector

Value Challenge

Cloud Cost efficiency and

optimization

Standardization and

automation

Agility and speed

Adaptability

Security

Change management

New skills and competencies

Culture issues Mobile Workforce productivity

Information access

Customer engagement

Improve service delivery

Social Media Collaboration and

increased productivity

Customer engagement

Customer insight

Big Data Decision support

Information

management & reach

Real-time information

access

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Smart Government Efforts in the GCC Countries

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m-Government in Bahrain

m-Gov efforts exists but no formal program

eGovernment app store

Around 25 apps and 164k downloads

Covers gov services and utilities

New approach: services combined and

offered through one app

SSO and other features (alerts,,,etc)

Under e-government initiative

Awards: Best app for smart devices award

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m-Government in Saudi Arabia

Although high smart phone penetration but

m-gov adoption in early phase

No formal smart gov program exists

Multi-channel service delivery part of the 2nd gov

action plan

Mostly SMS service and some apps for smart phones

No national awards in m-gov

Yesser 2nd e-gov action plan

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m-Government in Qatar

m-gov exists but no formal program

20 apps (10 apps for Gov services)

Some SMS services

No formal smart Gov program exists

Mobile portal

Qatar National ICT Master plan 2015

No multi-channel service delivery

No national awards in m-Gov

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m-Government in Oman

m-gov exists but no formal program

Mobile portal

Gov app store but only for Android platform

Around 28 apps (13 gov apps)

SMS services

No formal smart gov program

eOman Strategy

No national awards in m-Gov

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m-Government in Kuwait

m-gov exists but no formal program

Gov portal not responsive design

Gov portal app exists

30+ apps (20 gov apps)

No formal smart government program

No national awards in m-Gov

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m-Government in UAE

Formal program exists with clear mandate

Higher committee for m-gov

m-gov road map

m-gov guidelines

Mobile Gov portal and most of gov websites

Gov app store

More than 100 gov apps

m-Gov awards

Best m-gov service awards

ME e-gov and e-services excellence awards

Issue with the naming convention

m-Gov الحكومة الذكية =

Smart Gov Program exists in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

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Smart Government and Smart City: the Case of Dubai

Dubai Smart city strategic plan

3 years plan

Holistic and Integrated approach

6 pillars and 100 initiatives

Transport, Communications, Infrastructure

Electricity, economic services, urban planning

Converting 1000 gov services into smart services

Focus on smart phones as a channel for service delivery

Leadership: under supervision of the crown prince

Higher Committee reports to Sheikh Mohammed

Public-Private Partnerships

Dubai gov Initiative 2021 launched during 2nd Gov Summit

Dubai e-gov department renamed Dubai smart Gov

“Our ambitions is that this project

touches the life of every individual in our

country, or every mother in her house, or

employee in his work or investor in his

project, or a child in his school or a

doctor in his clinic; our goal is to achieve

a happier life for all and we ask God to

help us achieve this .“

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Vision: Seeks to create a new environment for the

life of people in Dubai

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Smart Government and Smart City: the Case of Dubai

Connected gov approach

Standards and guidelines

eService delivery excellence model

Smart gov hosting standards and policies

Dubai smart government program

MyID: is a SSO for all e-services (17000 users)

Integrating National ID for authentication

Partnership with private sector such as universities

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Smart government in the GCC Countries: Current reality

Smart phone penetration in the GCC is among highest in the world

penetration crossed the 50% threshold early last year.

42% of all searches conducted are on smart phones

All GCC countries have m-government initiatives but most countries lack policy

and guidelines with the exception of the UAE

Lack of formal smart government programs in GCC countries except for the UAE

Adoption of new enabling technologies (cloud computing, big data and social networking

in the enterprise) is very limited

Regional GCC m-government awards good thing

m-gov award of the GCC governments

Best m-gov service awards (UAE)

ME e-government and e-services excellence awards

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GCC Cooperation in Smart Government

GCC Guidelines strategy for e-government as approved

by the GCC Supreme Council in the 34th GCC Summit

Approved set of joint initiatives between the GCC countries

Citizens-focused: Strengthen the role of e-government

in the provision of services provided to GCC citizens

Multi-channel service delivery for identified shared services

Single GCC portal for the shared services

UAE efforts to drive cooperation in smart government

GCC ICT Ministers Forum during the 2nd gov summit 2014

Recommendations focused on set of e-government initiatives during the 3rd e-gov

conference in Dubai

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Recommendations

GCC Countries should establish Policy and guidelines to drive m/smart Gov adoption

Leadership sponsorship is a must

Establish Smart Government Operating Framework to ensure interoperability

Strengthen cooperation between GCC Countries in smart government

Establish national awards in m/smart government in GCC countries to creative

incentives

GCC Governments need to embrace new technologies (cloud, Big Data, Social

Networking) to enable smart government