4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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E-Government Authority has implemented the strategy by phased approach and defined intermediate milestones to review the implementation. The excellence team monitored the implementation phases. The strategy was broken down into goals and measurable objectives, where each objective was transformed into action plan assigned to respective sections of EGA.
RAK.ae initiative was started in 2004 as a “Simple Website” with static pages and list of departments and their contact information. It included links to other department portals, policy statements, downloadable forms and documents. It lacked site reporting tracking or analysis features. In 2006, RAK.ae was enhanced towards the second maturity phase where a basic centralized e-Services portal was introduced with a limited set of informational services, online forms for applications and registrations. User interaction was via emails, online surveys and feedback forms, basic account inquiry, basic benefits enrollment and limited online help, support and FAQ. By 2009, RAK.ae was improved to include full transactional services portfolio including Online Payment and larger set of information services. Through 2011 to 2013, RAK.ae was moving rapidly to be “Integrated Government Gateway” with multiple user channels, RAK.ae Online Portal, mRAK Mobile Gateway and RAKPay Mobile Payment Application, which supported end-to-end electronic transactions, cross-department content sharing and information, centralized e-Services repository and cross-government reusability. RAK.ae as a framework consists of 4 layers, Access & Presentation, Applications, Content & Data, and Integration.
“Access & Presentation” action plan includes, but not limited to, RAK.ae Online Portal design and development, mRAK & RAKPay Mobile Application Development, RAKiosk self-service kiosks development and maintenance, RAKSearch enterprise search engine development.
“Application” layer action plan includes backend system applications that provide the core functionalities/business operations. The functionalities/business core systems include RAKConnect SMS Gateway, Solr Enterprise Search Engine Platform. And RAKServices for services exposure for cross-system communication.
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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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RAK.ae implementation and operations are managed by RAK Electronic Government Authority with association of different stakeholders across the emirate. One of the key stakeholder was Sheikh Saqr Program for Government Excellence (SSPGE) who worked closely with EGA e-Services team to implement RAK Government centralized e-Suggestion and e-Complaints system, as well as RAK Talent Development Service. “Al Hamra Real Estate” was major stakeholder where RAK.ae was utilized for Al Hamra Communities Utility e-Payment. Environment Protection and Development Authority (EPDA) in RAK toke care jointly with EGA of defining and implementing environment license e-Services for businesses around the emirate. Also Etisalat telecommunication company for mobile bill payment module. RAK Courts worked jointly with EGA on RAK courts’ notary e-Service. A list of charity organizations, like Rahmah Charity, Bait Al Khair Charity, Charity Authority and Emirates Red Crescent Charity, who worked together along with EGA to define centralized charity e-Service through RAK.ae framework. Also the list of stakeholders includes RAK Lands Department who was stakeholder for e-Services like statement of letter and Grant of Land. And the list also includes large number of governmental entities that contributed in the formation of RAK.ae framework, like, RAK Municipality, RAK Tourism, Human Resources Department, Economic Department, RAK Investment Authority, RAK Free Trade Zone and Ruler’s Court.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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RAK.ae is purely a government initiative with 100% funding from the RAK government. RAK.ae is a joint responsibility of EGA e-Services Section in collaboration with Infrastructure and IT Systems Section. RAK Government funded about 15 million AED for the initiative till 2013. RAK EGA e-Services section developed RAK.ae platform jointly with the Software Development Outsourcing partner for human and technical resources mobilization.
RAK EGA e-Services section utilized 2 section managers, 1 Business Analyst, 1 Content Supervisor and Translator, 1 Customer Channel Supervisor, 1 Project Manager, 1 Enterprise Architect, 4 Software Developers, 4 System Administrators, 4 IT Administrators.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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One of most successful outputs was a centralized charity e-service that improves charity organizations businesses rapidly by ensuring their compliance with RAK Charity Authority rules and regulations.
Also, RAK e-Suggestions and e-Complaints service as part of RAK.ae gateway was another successful output as it provides a single communication window for emirate’s society to interact with RAK Government regarding any suggestion or complaint related to RAK Government services.
And the centralized e-payment gateway, for RAK Government entities, facilitated the offering of payment e-services aiding the emirate’s citizens, residents, businesses and visitors performing transactions anytime and anywhere.
RAK Courts’ Notary e-Service is a very successful output as it improved the interaction between end-user and the courts system for notary issuance matters.
All of that and much more being delivered to the end user through multi-channel platform, through web portal, mobile applications and self-service kiosks, ensuring high availability and accessibility.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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RAK EGA established a measurement framework to evaluate the Key Performance Indices (KPIs) that are pre-set for every e-Service proposal prior to development. The framework consists of measurement constructs, a process for deriving target values, possible corrective measures and reporting scorecard. A list of tools and systems were developed or acquired to evaluate activities and business performance. That list includes but not limited to the following,
1. Custom reporting based on Jasper reporting framework.
2. Web Transactions and User Interaction evaluation reports via Google Analytics.
3. Payment Transactions reports through Payment Gateway reporting dashboard.
4. Customer Satisfaction evaluation through RAK.ae online surveys, polls and feedback systems.
And for systems (Hardware & Software) monitoring and evaluation the list includes,
1. Periodic and frequent security vulnerabilities scanning and penetration testing for RAK.ae different systems and user channels.
2. RAK.ae systems and user channels performance evaluation and benchmarking.
3. RAK EGA Datacenter systems and business services & processes management and monitoring platforms.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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One of the main obstacles that we ran through, during different phases of RAK.ae initiative, was the alignment of different missions and visions of the different stakeholders to harmoniously comply with RAK government global vision and strategy. The obstacle was overcome by conducting frequent collaboration sessions and meetings with the stakeholders and by performing sufficient analysis and studies for e-Service proposal.
Also, market exposure and awareness of services availability within RAK society was an obstacle that is being overcome through designing and implementing annual marketing campaigns as well as continuous digital marketing through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) to track organic traffic towards RAK.ae services and user channels.
Other obstacle was the lack of technology awareness and trust in technology in RAK society, and it was overcome through conducting free training programs for RAK society that took place in RAK EGA training center.
And finally, another obstacle was the lack of backend systems and automated processes in some of RAK governmental entities and authorities. This obstacle was overcome by working closely with RAK EGA PMO office, through their plans for implementing complete automated paperless processes and systems for different authorities and departments, and finally integrating with these backend systems.
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