Smart Dubai Government briefs high profile delegation from Abu Dhabi Department of Finance on best government practices

UAE, July 24, 2016– Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), the technology arm of Smart Dubai, recently received delegates from the Department of Finance – Abu Dhabi. The visiting delegation wanted to be briefed on the SDG’s best practices in government resources planning systems (GRPS) and discuss means of exchanging expertise and prospects of future co-operation.

Huda Al Hashimi, Director, Government Information Resources Planning Systems, SDG, along with senior departmental officials, received delegates and briefed them on their strategy to achieve happiness through the provision of world-class smart services and infrastructure.

SDG provided a detailed explanation to the members about the GRPS, which are an integrated suite of (shared) centralized technological solutions provided by them to all Dubai government entities to assist them in managing all their basic back-office operations, including finance, logistics, human resources, payroll, supply chain, asset life management, and related self-services.

The delegation was informed about the government information network (GIN), which is the cornerstone for the electronic infrastructure of Dubai government. It resembles a broad safe highway that links the systems of the departments together for the purpose of transferring information and applications with optimum protection, thus guaranteeing safety and credibility of government information. 

The visiting members were also briefed on the ‘Smart Employee’ app for smartphones and tablets, which has been designed especially for Dubai government employees. The app, available in both Arabic and English, provides the employees with a list of self-services, such as leave management, including submission of leave, return-from-leave requests, and inquiry about leave balances and previous leave requests; absence and attendance records; payroll (obtaining information related to the pay, including pay-slips); team hierarchy; and search for and contact information of an employee. The government procurement systems were also reviewed in detail together with work procedures and the optimal use of systems to ease procedures.

SDG has revealed recently that it has enabled Dubai Government to make cost savings of AED 4.3 billion as a result of the shared and innovative smart services since their inception in 2003. The results were announced as part of a comprehensive six-month study to uncover the impact of cost savings and the benefits generated from the shared infrastructure and the roll-out of GRPS and smart services in government entities.