Questions/Answers

Metrash2 is a smart application designed and developed to be the Ministry of Interior’s electronic service delivery channel for smart devices. Metrash2 is based on the Qatari government’s long-term strategy to offer electronic, integrated, and sustained services for citizens, residents, and public and private organizations and to make them accessible to all categories of the Qatari community. Metrash2 supports six major languages for a community that accommodates nationals and residents from different countries. These languages are English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Urdu, and Hindi. Metrash2 currently offers 180 electronic government services; more and more services show on the application after securing the necessary approvals from stakeholders, to cater for the ever-growing public and business needs of the people in Qatar. Metrash2 has a measurable impact on subscribers’ lives as it cuts service application and execution time down to two minutes, which saves user time and eliminates the need to pay personal visits to government offices to apply for such services. The number of G2C, G2B, and G2G operations has increased tangibly as Metrash2 provides full eServices cycle including payments, a matter that led to a stunning yearly average of 3,000,000 executed transactions, the query transactions not counted. Metrash2 has duly become the favorite eService channel for the Qatari community and is planned to be one of the World Cup2022 main electronic channels for entry visas for the officials and the audience that will attend the tournament matches.

Metrash2 is developed in partnership with local and international companies providing governmental services and is available in 6 different languages and applies web accessibility standards. - Guarantee work equality for employees by providing a unified way to access working rights information. - Ability to report children, women or labor abuse. - Providing online service for banks and companies to easily release mortgage on loans settlement to facilitate loan services. - Promoting environmental friendly policies by switching printed papers with electronic documents and reducing the transportation need to obtain government services.

Using Metrash2 to apply for and obtain government services supports both SDG No. 8 and No. 9. and targets. Metrash2 application is a smart utility that is introduced to the Qatari community as a genuine part of the Qatari Government’s continuous programs and initiatives to promote the digital transformation of all kinds of enterprises in Qatar, be it large, medium, or small size, empowering businesses as well as individuals, elderly people and persons of disabilities included, to excel with the use of modern digital government services. Metrash2 has been assessed and marked high on the reports projected by the relevant government digital transformation assessments that are conducted annually since 2015 in Qatar. Metrash2 adopts and adheres to the best regional and international practices on implementing digital transformation, its challenges and potential socio-economic impact, especially on the public sector. Metrash2 aims to use information technology capabilities in the government sector to achieve the highest rate of service provision, efficiency, and transparency in line with Qatar’s Digital Government 2020 Strategy. It also comes as a reflecting mirror for Qatar’s rapid development of a knowledge-based diversified economy that comes in line with Qatar’s National Vision of 2030, contributing to its digital transformation goals.

Metrash2 is one of the electronic service channels that is used as a utility by the Qatari government towards the efficient management of resources, infrastructure development, and the control of traffic congestion and pollution. The social and economic complexities of modern societies, the Qatari society included, pose certain challenges to all governments; that is why adopting and applying smart and sustainable city concepts—of which technology is a crucial component—is key to ensuring an attractive and sustainable standard of living for both nationals and residents of Qatar, taking into consideration the specific circumstances of the Qatari society.

Applying for and obtaining public or government services by all eligible categories of the Qatari community, companies and individuals, nationals and foreigners, has always been available in MOI’s public service centers where applicants or their representatives consume a huge amount of papers, time, and effort to process such services. MOI has promoted such services to be accessible through electronic channels where service applicants, elderly people and persons of disabilities included, use Metrash2 application or visit MOI’s eServices portal to apply for such services, anytime, anywhere, while enjoying the convenience of their handheld smart phones and/or devices. The services outcome; namely, the official documents may be also chosen to be delivered to the service applicant’s address by the designated mail courier. Lately, MOI has introduced the highest possible level of automation for some of Metrash2 services for the business community in Qatar, where no human interaction is required as subscribed companies only set some initial preferences for some services; e.g., Resident Permit renewals and the service is run automatically on certain days of the month, producing detailed reports for subscribed companies. Interaction with Metrash2 application stakeholders is available from the application itself or by calling the HelpDesk at +974 2342000.

Metrash2 application is available for every female in Qatar that is eligible to obtain MOI’s services. A valid Qatari ID and a working mobile number are the only requirements to subscribe to and apply for Metrash2 services. There is no condition on obtaining such services other than service-specific conditions provided by the laws of the State of Qatar. Gender equality is one of the main objectives of the Qatari socio-economic development, a matter that is apparent in Metrash2 application where a subscriber female personal information security, privacy and safety are guaranteed and protected at all levels just like male subscribers.

Metrash2 is designed to make government services accessible and easy to use by a wide variety of people from different age groups (Qataris, foreign residents, men, women, visa holders, elderly people, and persons of disabilities), education levels, talking into consideration the technology knowledge levels and the different languages spoken in Qatar. Moreover, many interviews were established with users with different disabilities to verify that the application supports the tools they use to interact with technology (text-to-voice). As a result of this effort, the application was awarded digital access certificate from Mada Qatar assistive technology center on March 2018 for providing outstanding accessible digital services. It is safe to claim that Metrash2 is a favorite electronic services channel for men, women, elderly people, persons with disabilities from different age groups and social backgrounds in the Qatari community. Metrash2 enhanced the transaction operation time by making it 2 minutes in the average, which saves the queue time and transportation to great extent. Metrash2 users have increased significantly every year to reach over 600,000 users in proportion with the number of provided services (currently 180). Metrash2 number of transactions per services has grown steadily to reach 3 million execution transactions per year.

Metrash2 application was implemented through Agile development methodology that encourages continuous feedback and improvements through development sprints built on collaboration with different government entities and public stakeholders, end users included. Every MOI department provided their input on the services that could be provided electronically, priorities were set with regards to the most requested services in government offices with high wait times and high impact to citizens, residents, and visa holders. Several meetings were held with stakeholders to propose any changes in business processes to adapt the new electronic service. The below contributors were part of defining and building the provided services: From the Ministry of Interior · Information Systems Department · Traffic Department · Immigration Department · Community Police Department · Citizens Department · Human Resources Department · Medical Services Department Other Entities MADA Assistive Technology Center The application started to provide government services through mobiles since 2012 to become one of leader smart applications in the MENA region with continued releases on a monthly basis, a matter that improved the application and services over time. The feedback-oriented development was the main engine behind many of the innovative ideas such as “Zero Clicks” idea introduced to the application in 2016 to provide intelligent automatic services for public and private enterprises in Qatar. Each new release of Metrash2 application goes through continued integration pipeline which guarantees the quality of each release and apply automatic testing scenarios that helped to support stakeholders’ different environments and systems integration easily.

One obstacle is people's awareness of government initiatives like Metrash2. This has been overcome by ways of: Extensive media coverage PR campaigns MOI’s pages on social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) Distribution of printed materials to explain benefits of MOI’s eServices portfolio. Participation in conferences, workshops, and symposiums to give first-hand information on government initiatives. Service availability on a 24/7 basis is another obstacle. This has been overcome by providing different infrastructure environments to handle the user load at all times and to provide smart operation to resolve user issues automatically without the need for human interaction.

- The application started to provide government services through mobiles early since 2012 to become one of first applications in the region that provide such a service. - Zero clicks idea introduced to the application 2016 to provide intelligent automatic services for companies and people that require them to register only and the service will do all the work such as automatic residency renewal. - Ability for companies to delegate services and permission to the application users to execute the government service online on behalf of them.

The application has innovated new ways to deal with services that are not electronic in other countries, like transferring vehicle’s ownership through mobile application. In addition to inspiration of other services such as empowering the people democracy to facilitate election registration for local communities though mobile.

Many ministries in Qatar has adopted the way Metrash2 provides electronic services through mobile applications and knowledge transfer sessions were held to provide best practices.

Metrash2 initiative is confirmed to have been transferred and/or adapted by other ministries of the Qatari government.

Metrash2 team is divided into three sections: development, quality, and user support to provide a complete government service that covers user needs. Development and infrastructure tools are provided by companies such as Microsoft and IBM to guarantee the adoption of the latest technologies,

New services are added frequently to provide unique user experience with the focus on social and economic needs of the Qatari community. In addition, Metrash2 application provides many user communication channels through calls, emails and mobile application, to facilitate user feedback and to cover their daily issues. Many parts of the backend services are automated to resolve any issues and problems in the provided services and recover any errors.

Yes

The Planning & Quality Department of the Ministry of Interior has conducted so many evaluations on Metrash2 and other service channels of MOI. Data analysis and statistics were used to evaluate how services were beneficial to users and their impact on daily life in regard with the ease of use and reducing the need to visit service centers. Evaluation also took into consideration the time needed to complete a service through the mobile application.

- App stores download statistics - Internal user interactions statistics - Average time required to complete certain services - Feedback received through various communication channels.

- Metrash2 enhanced the transaction operation time by making it 2 minutes in average - Metrash2 saves the queue time and transportation to great extent - Metrash2 users have increased significantly every year in proportion with the number of provided services - Metrash2 number of transactions per services has been growing steadily. - Peoples awareness of Metrash2 has been growing over has been growing steadily.

Metrash2 application is connected with different MOI stakeholders and other government entities to provide integrated and full electronic services and transactions for the users. To achieve this, Metrash2 supports open standards Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to facilitate the integration with other government entities which, by turn, provide other sets of specialized government services to the Qatari community. Additionally, Metrash2 opens communication channels with the stakeholders to facilitate the feedback from its subscribers and to continue improvements of the application and the way it operates to the best interest of the different categories of the Qatari community.

Metrash2 application is always developed through team working that encourages innovation, engagement, and partnership of the different government, public, private stakeholders and end users. Every MOI department and/or entity is engaged by offering their input on the kind of services that should be provided through this smart application. MOI departments set priorities for the services that need to be offered through electronic channels and provide explanations of the boundaries of such services and their limits. All parties are encouraged to propose ideas and enhancements in business processes or product design to keep up the perfect score it has reached so far in facilitating lives of all categories of the society. MOI departments(i.e., Information Systems, Traffic, Immigration, Planning & Quality) set technical and business requirements of each service to be added to Metrash2 and also conduct evaluations of each service introduced to the community. Non-Government entities like MADA (‬Assistive Technology Center Qatar) has a perfect role‬ as it promotes digital inclusion and building a technology-based community that meets the needs of persons with disabilities‭ ‬and the elderly in Qatar‭.

The success story of Metrash2 may be repeated in any government agency, inside or outside Qatar, provided that it sticks to the people; i.e., it is derived from the real-life needs of the people and is targeted at the welfare of the people. An initiative, just like Metrash2, requires support on all levels, governmental, public, and private levels. The government should provide all required financial, technological, and human resources, while public or private users should respond positively and offer proper feedback to ensure that the initiative contributes to the well-being and benefit of all categories of society.