| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The strategy for the Service Centre transformation was implemented according to the clear mission statement of the National ID Programme, in particular the first pillar: “To contribute to individual and national security through enhancement of personal identity in the UAE, maintenance of an accurate population register and provision of innovative e-services”. The initiative was conducted according to 4 Key phases:
(1) PLANNING: 2009-2010
The implementation of the Service Centre redesign strategy was conducted with a rigorous focus on improving customer service and establishing efficient result-oriented services. The plan focused on feedback, performance monitoring, competency development and on the provision of high quality services.
Strategic partnerships and Memorandums of Understanding between the ID Authority and a range of governmental, / private institutions were set up to enable the delivery of the initiative. The ID Authority presented its re-engineering initiative to many public and private organizations and participated in international and local conferences, in order to gain/share knowledge, receive feedback and hear other perspectives.
The Plans were also published on the ID Authority website, in order to allow the public to access its content and provide their comments. This measure contributed to building trust and transparency in government actions, elements much needed in order to guarantee the success of the 2010-2013 Strategy. Additionally, the ID Authority worked on developing a plan for the dissemination of the strategy and obtaining feedback and suggestions from various concerned stakeholders through media campaigns, brochures and mutual visits.
Following a strict methodology and chronology as outlined in the ID Authorities 2010-2013 Strategic Plan, the Team created a series of key milestones to ensure the program delivered the required outputs.
(2) PILOTING: 2010
The initial phase of implementation involved finalising the redesign of the Service Centers based upon process re-engineering outputs that included customer feedback. For quality testing purposes the new design was trialed at a limited number of sites. Milestones included:
* Decrease in average enrollment time from 30 minutes to 5
* Renewal of quality certification ISO 9001:2008 for EIDA´s quality management system
* Reduction in employee turnover from 12% in the previous year to 7.69%
(3) SCALING: 2011
The third phase of implementation focused on scaling and replicating the new Service Centers and their associated processes across the UAE. Existing Centers were refurbished and new ones were constructed in easily accessible locations. Staff were trained in the new methods of ID registration. Milestones included:
* Redesign of all existing Service Centers and construction of new ones – total of 55 Centers in all
* Creation of 25 new Centers combining registration with preventive medicine procedures
* Roll-out of SMS service to notify clients of the status of their application
* Deployment of mobile registration services for the elderly and people with special needs
(4) MONITORING AND REFINEMENT: 2012
The fourth phase saw the deployment of a range of specific initiatives, based on customer feedback and service performance, across all Centres in an effort to enhance the maturity levels of its solution. Milestones included:
* Introduction of new services, such as self-service eKiosks for ID Card management and renewal
* Smart Desks to enable a one-stop registration experience without visiting multiple counters (and queues)
* Creation of services based on employee suggestions such as the kids’ corner
* Free Wi-Fi Internet connection to keep busy professionals connected and productive while they wait.
* Awarded top 7 star classification for Government Service Excellence by UAE Prime Minister’s Office
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The transformation of the Service Centers under the leadership of Emirates ID was made possible through a comprehensive consultation process with the full value-chain of stakeholders. Two-way dialogue between the public and private sector, Service Center staff and communities and citizens enabled a full range of user requirements to be captured and acted upon. The stakeholders were as follows:
GOVERNMENT – Government actors were engaged throughout the redesign process to offer their insights on the necessary alterations and to champion the redesigned ID centers in their own work:
* Ministries of Interior, Health, Labor, Finance, Justice, Social Affairs and Higher Education,
* e-Government authorities
PARTNERS –A number of delivery and implementation professionals were brought in to ensure that the redesign of the Centers was timely, efficient and above all centered around customer service excellence:
* Technology companies (Morpho – Safran group, Gemalto, Emaratech)
* Consultancy companies (, Parsons Consultants, Oliver Wyman)
* Courier companies (Empost)
* Telecommunication and design companies
* Environmental organisations
CUSTOMERS – Citizens were consulted regularly to ensure the redesigned registration process was meeting the specific needs of citizens. Customers themselves are at the heart of all Center evaluations and continue to be consulted on a daily basis to ensure every aspect of the redesign continues to meet the highest levels of customer satisfaction:
* UAE citizens, with a focus on women, families, elderly and people with special needs
* Residents from overseas
* GCC nationals
Stakeholder involvement in the running and improvement of the Service Centers is a continuous and iterative process, through which the Emirates ID Authority aims to maintain its 100% record of population registration whilst meeting the needs of their customers.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The redesign of the Emirates ID Service Centers fell within a larger program of organisational change being implemented by the ID Authority. As the transformation was deemed mission critical for the delivery of the 2010-2013 Strategy, the budget and majority of resources were derived from the ID Authorities talent pool. The following specific resources were dedicated to the mobilisation of the project:
(A) HUMAN RESOURCES
• The ID Authority staff led the redesign and deployment of the Service Centers. Four categories of personnel were required to implement the redesign - full time employee numbers are listed below:
* 10 Business Process and Planning Personnel
* 7 Project Management and Implementation Personnel
* 10 Centre Staff and Support Workers
* 5 External Professionals
(B) TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
To facilitate the redesign of the service centres, a range of staff with specialist expertise areas were deployed:
* BUSINESS PROCESS SPECIALISTS – Business Process Specialists were used to ensure that every phase in the redesign and implementation of the centres was timely and efficient. In addition Senior Managers were used to contextualise the redesign of the Centers within the wider business process reengineering being conducted throughout the ID organisation.
* SERVICE ANALYSTS – Service Analysts were employed to conduct a rigorous benchmarking process for each aspect of the redesigned Service Centers against state-of-the-art examples from the public and private sector. Service Analysts made recommendations on the design and deployment of each service component.
* SYSTEM ANALYSTS – System Analysts were deployed to ensure that the redesigned Emirates ID Service Centres were fully integrated into the ID process and that all relevant pressure points within the wider system were assessed and mitigated within the Service Center deployment.
(C) FINANCIAL RESOURCES
The transformation of the Service Centres was funded with an initial budget of AED 25 million (7 Million USD) inclusive of personnel costs, technical costs and other expenses. Centers fell into one of three cost categories: (1) newly constructed, specially built buildings, (2) rented spaces for renovation, and, (3) combined centers at Preventive Medicine Centers. The range of Service Center types generated a multitude of individual projects which had their own budgets and scope. At the completion of the program, the final cost estimate is AED 28 Million (7.6 Million USD) owing to enhancements from new ideas generated during the implementation stage. Budget was generated from Emirates ID external revenue streams including fees from ID cards.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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Transformed Service Centers delivered high levels of customer satisfaction through:
1. CUSTOMER ORIENTATED SERVICE EXPERIENCE.
From the provision of ample parking through to the provision of UAE hospitality with free coffee and Arab sweets, a new Service Center design placed the customer was at the heart of every aspect of the registration journey. The result was an efficient experience entirely oriented to making the customer feel secure, comfortable and above all positive about their ID application process, whilst boosting customer satisfaction. The first class Center facilities received the highest level of award possible for the delivery of government services – 7 stars of excellence by the Prime Ministers office.
2. EFFICIENT BIOMETRIC ENROLLMENT
Outsourcing biographic data application steps to Typing Centers and the creation of Smart Stations for biometric enrollment transformed a once multi-queue, multi-counter experience into an efficient one counter visit. Photographs, signatures, fingerprinting and iris scans could now all be undertaken at one desk, slashing enrolment time from 27 mins to 5 minutes, resulting in an enhanced daily biometric enrolment capacity of just 6,000 in 2009 to 22,000 in 2011.
3. INCLUSIVE, MOBILE REGISTRATION CAPABILITY
Innovative mobile registration services for customers who find it physically challenging and time consuming to personally visit Service Centers, such as the disabled, elderly and people with special needs, helped to make the registration process more inclusive. The success of the initiative led the ID Authority to launch a paid mobile registration service, which is now available for other social groups, such as busy professionals.
4. INTEGRATED GOVERNMENT SERVICES
The use of shared systems for seamless integration and secure protocols for data exchange enables migrant workers to register for a National ID card while undertaking other mandatory residency requirements such as medical screening. This output means that migrants, many of whom are low paid, do not have to navigate any more government bureaucracy than necessary.
5. REWARDED, ENGAGED STAFF
A staff suggestion system was implemented in 2012 to receive, evaluate and manage the suggestions of employees and reward them for their creative and innovative ideas. The system generated over 960 suggestions in its first year, 10 times higher than the number of suggestions made in 2011. The output contributed to (1) enhancing employees’ interaction with the administration of the Service Centers, (2) increasing work efficiency and increasing productivity, (3) creating an environment that spurs creativity and innovation, (4) maximizing cost savings.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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A three-pronged approach was deployed to ensure that all aspects of the Service Centre transformation program were conducted to time and budget, and met ID Authority quality standards – ISO 9001:2008.
1) ALLOCATING OWNERSHIP
To ensure excellence and pride at the heart of all the changes, the ID Authority gave ownership of individual projects to specific staff members. This approach ensured individual program parts were safe-guarded by internal champions who oversaw the implementation of their initiative, monitored development and ensured progress targets were met.
2) MEASURING PERFORMANCE
Progress of the Service Centers is measured by:
(a) Constant monitoring of customer satisfaction by the Customer Services Department through the installation of CCTV at all service points. Queue build ups are noticed and corrective actions implemented quickly. The Director General has a 100” monitoring screen in his office enabling him to monitor situations himself and take direct action if necessary.
(b) Analysing performance against set indicator targets. Operational Workflows were redesigned to be synchronized with physical movement across the centers providing a seamless biometric enrollment experience to the customers. This enabled tangible Key Performance Indicators to be measured as:
* Daily registration capacity of the registration and preventive medicine Centers = 3.33% over the target
* Percentage of national citizens registered = 6.39% over the target
* Percentage of registration of residents = 12.55% over the target
* Percentage of citizens who renewed their ID cards = 3.42% over the target
By 2012 the ID Authority was achieving 94% of its targets for strategic performance. During the same year, the ID Authority achieved 73% of its targets set for operational performance.
* Percentage of complaints solved in due time = 11.46% over the target
* Percentage of customers’ satisfaction with services = 9% over the target
* Average proposals submitted for each 100 employees = 6 times more proposals submitted
* Percentage of implemented/presented proposals = 15% over the target
* Average training hours = 24% over the target
* Percentage of trainees = 50% over the target
3) CONTINUOUS EVALUATION
To complement the indicators, the ID Authority adopted the “Excellence Star” system as an innovative way of evaluating performance of individual Centers. Service Center outputs are evaluated according to ten specific criteria and the highest performing locations are rewarded. The sense of competition between Centers helped to raise service delivery quality, and ensured that poorer performing Centers could take best practice from the peak performers. Furthermore, ‘secret shoppers’ are deployed in selected centres to test services and ensure the consistency and quality of registration delivery.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The transformation of any customer-facing operation such as the Service Centres routinely presents obstacles and operational challenges unforeseen during planning.
(A) LOW LEVELS OF MIGRANT ENROLMENT
PROBLEM - Unlike bi-lingual natives and white collar professionals, many low paid migrant workers have poor knowledge of Arabic and English, making it hard for them to understand the benefits of obtaining an ID, let alone how to undergo the mandatory process of enrolment.
SOLUTION - A coordinated campaign saw brochures produced in English, Arabic, Hindi and Bangla, and distributed to new arrivals to cover the key languages spoken/read by the migrant demographic.
OUTCOME – Migrants better informed, which coupled with new processes to combine residency permits and ID applications, helped Emirates ID achieve its 100% registered population target.
(B) LEVERAGING STAFF INNOVATION
PROBLEM – Centre staff had first-hand experience of what worked and did not work in the Centers yet had no clear way to pass these suggestions on to management.
SOLUTION – An employee suggestion system was introduced to capture and act on employee feedback and reward good suggestions.
OUTCOME – 960 staff suggestions were generated by a pool of 650 employees in 2012. Major new projects have already been implemented from these ideas, including the introduction of award winning childcare facilities. Outcomes helped Emirates ID win the Best National ID Programme accolade.
(C) REDUCING STAFF TURNOVER
PROBLEM – The redesign of the service Centers met with some internal opposition from certain staff members used to the established practices.
SOLUTION – A comprehensive training system provided all employees with the skills to adjust to the new practices and a proactive approach to promotions helped staff feel valued.
OUTCOME – A 12% reduction in staff turnover in 2012 alone.
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