Transforming Dubai Government Entities into Smart Organization - Essay Example

Challenges of Transforming Dubai Government Entities into Smart Organizations, and the Best Framework to Address the Transformation Abstract Dubai government’s initiative on transforming the e-government to a smart government has created lots of pressure on all organizations; due to the massive changes required on the strategic plans, the business plans, and the budgeting of the organizations, including the manpower planning. As the smart government project is still new, there is very limited work that has been done to identify the opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed. Researches are required in order to provide information from which the government can formulate effective strategies to deploy the project successfully across all organizations. This study aims at identifying the opportunities that Dubai government should grasp to succeed in developing a smart government and the challenges that can undermine the project. This research uses interview analysis and survey technique to collect data across different government organizations in Dubai. More than 55 employees were invited to participate in a close-ended questionnaire, besides, 11 interviews were also conducted with management representatives. Further, the research focused on the frameworks of implementation of the smart government initiatives with special attention on the most important aspects of the frameworks, their reviews and evaluation techniques. It was concluded that technology plays an important role in supporting organizations to transform into smart organizations. Further, a well stipulated strategy must be used to improve the implementation and evaluate its effectiveness. The interviewees shared their views and the different strategies that are being followed within their organizations to implement a variety of smart government initiatives. Apart from technology, the areas that were very evident and acknowledged by most of the interviewees were the expected smart organization challenges, the need for gradual transformation process, and the needed collaboration between organizations. These explained the framework needed to successfully implement the smart organization project in Dubai. Content Abstract i Content ii List of Figures iv List of Abbreviations: v Acknowledgements vi Declaration vii Chapter 1: Introduction 8 Background 8 Dubai Smart Government Project Status 9 Research Problem 12 Research Questions 12 Aims and Objectives 13 Target Audience 13 Restrictions and Limitations 14 Structure of the Thesis 14 Chapter 2: Literature Review 15 Successful Smart Government 15 Successful Smart Government Initiatives - Worldwide 16 Successful Smart Government Initiatives - United Arab Emirates 17 Failed Smart Government Initiatives 18 Failed Smart Government Initiatives – Worldwide 19 Failed Smart Government Initiatives - United Arab Emirates 20 Opportunities and Challenges of Smart Government in UAE and Worldwide 21 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 22 Research Variables 22 Quantitative Research 22 Qualitative Research 23 Research Population 23 Research Sample 23 Inclusion criteria 23 Sample size 23 Research Path 23 Primary Analysis 24 Secondary Analysis 24 Significance of Research 24 Data Collection Methods 24 Interview design 25 Survey Analysis 25 Data Collection: 25 Data Security and Privacy 26 Data Analysis 26 Data Presentation and Analysis 26 Qualitative Data: Interviews 26 Quantitative Data: Survey 31 Analysis of Survey Results 31 Summary 39 Chapter 4: The Framework 41 Zygiaris Framework Overview: 41 Enabler – Disabler Framework: 42 Enabler-Disabler Framework Usage: 46 Framework Implementation: 47 Framework Review 48 Framework Evaluation 48 Framework Limitations: 49 Conclusion: 49 Chapter 5: Findings and Recommendations 50 Findings: 50 Recommendations: 52 Evaluating Dubai Smart Government project: 52 Using IT and Technology: 52 Overcoming Challenges: 53 Gradual Transformation: 53 Collaboration: 53 Chapter 6: Conclusion 53 Overall Analysis 53 Significance of the Research 54 Strength and Limitation of Research 55 Future Research 55 Bibliography 56 Appendices 60 List of Figures List of Abbreviations: DAFZA Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority DCAS Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services DGHRD Dubai government Human Resources Development DSG Dubai Smart Government Department ICT Information and Communication Technology IT Information Technology RTA Road and Traffic Authority SCID Smart City Initiatives Design SME Small and Medium Enterprises UAE United Arab Emirates UK United Kingdom Acknowledgements Thank you, all mighty, Allah, for helping me in completing this research. It was one of the best learning experiences in my life. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Amala Rajan, my supervisor, for providing me with all the necessary guidance, encouragement, and support to complete my research. I place on record, my sincere thank you to Dr. Nasser Nassiri, Dean of the Faculty, for the continuous encouragement and support. I am also grateful to Dr. Hatem Tamimi, Dr. Salam Hoshang, and Dr. Vishwesh Akre, my professors in the MISM program. I am extremely thankful and indebted to them for sharing expertise, and sincere and valuable guidance and encouragement extended to me. I greatly thank my parents and family for the never-ending encouragement, support and attention. I also thank my friends, peer group for keeping me motivated whenever I was short of it. I place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all, who directly or indirectly, have lent their hand in this venture. Regards Buthaina Bin Fahad Declaration I CERTIFY THAT THE WORK CONTAINED IN THIS DISSERTATION IS MY OWN UNLESS REFERENCED. NAME SIGNATURE DATE Chapter 1: Introduction Background Today, it has become crucial for governments to function smartly. By definition, a Smart Government is one that successfully utilizes technological advancements to improve service delivery and stimulate economic growth (Chourabi, 2012). The challenges in the field of finance, environment and services of a city can be addressed through use of innovative techniques and policies, innovative business model, and technology. These solutions provided by smart organizations would solve the challenges faced by people and organizations in the city and thus, the overall service delivery. At the same time, new establishments can be developed to share data, communicate proactively and develop applications. The development of a successful smart government in providing services to the public is now becoming part of building Smart Cities by means of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for speedy, transparent, accountable and efficient government systems and services. As per Bilbao (2012), a city can be described as smart when it promotes sustainable economic development through ICT to make its critical infrastructure, components, and utilities more interactive and efficient, and educate its citizens about the facilities and make use of them. According to Howard (2013), any smart government is an extension of earlier concepts of e-government, joined-up government, and open government that is aimed at taking full advantage of the ICT needed to improve government services in ways that are quick, measurable, affordable and sustainable. With smart government projects, sufficient internet access points should be provided across the city for public use to empower the current mobile driven government services (mgovernment, 2013). A range of researches have been conducted on the use of technology to build smarter business operations, smarter organizations, and smarter cities such as in Chicago, Rio De Janeiro, Stockholm, Boston, Barcelona, and Hong Kong (gov.uk, 2013). Gov.uk, 2013 study has revealed that successful cities have defined strategies to succeed in creating smart cities and government such as establishing partnerships between the government and private sectors, government funding of smart projects, permitting the open data strategy, measuring the impact of projects, and applying change management to form smart cities by integrating Information Technology (IT), social and physical infrastructures. Nevertheless, there is literature gap in identifying the various opportunities that any government should take advantage of such as, the efficiency of government operations, service delivery, quality of life, and economic growth. Besides, there are various challenges that should be predicted in this critical process of inducing innovation within cities such as the process of engaging and educating people, funding of projects, allocating the required resources, the necessary integration between organizations, including the policies and regulations that might act against smart government project. As per gov.uk (2013), one of the major challenges faced by Hong Kong city is to shift their IT Operations to cloud, whereas the Financial and Human Capital are the major challenges faced by Chicago city. Dubai Smart Government Project Status This research has taken Dubai Smart Government project as its base. It has addressed the opportunities and challenges that should be handled in order to guarantee a successful establishment of a smart government, and it identified the factors that can influence the success of the project. Dubai is currently experiencing an extraordinary development phase with high ambitions and opportunities for the future and the welfare of its people, visitors, and organizations. The government believes that Information Technology (IT) will enhance the efficiency of the service delivery in the country and play a vital role in becoming a global economic hub (Emirates247.com, 2014). The government of Dubai has launched an initiative called "Government of the Future" in February 2014, which aims at making a global move from providing faster services to providing instant services by transforming Dubai Government entities into smart organizations (Emirates247.com, 2014). This came as an extension of the smart government project which was announced in May 2013 as a continuation of the eTransformation of Dubai Government which started 13 years ago (e4all, 2013). In June 2014, the Dubai Smart Government Department (DSG) announced its strategy (SG21), which aims at enabling Dubai Government as a World Class Smart Government for the 21st century that supports Dubai Government towards 2021 vision. Their mission is “To formulate and implement policies and initiatives for innovative and smart ICT usage contributing to the economic welfare, social progress, and global competitiveness of Dubai” (GOVERNMENT OF DUBAI, 2014). The SG21 strategy map consists of 4 strategic perspectives and 22 strategic objectives (GOVERNMENT OF DUBAI, 2014) as shown in Table 1. Table 1: SG21 strategy map Perspective Strategic Objective 1. Customer 1. Increase Customer Satisfaction and Trust 2. Increase Time & Cost Savings 3. Increase Adoption 4. Enhance Customer Engagement & Participation Internal Process 1. Smart Connected Services: 1.1 Mobilize Government Services 1.2 Connect & Organize Government Services in a Customer Centric Manner 1.3 Enhance Government Services through Smart Technologies & Infrastructure 1.4 Enhance Quality of Government Smart Services 1. 2. Lean Administration: 2.1 Enhance & Implement Integrated Shared Services 2.2 Streamline, Automate & Mobilize Internal Processes for Customer Centric Services 2. 3. Open Government: 3.1 Provide Effective Technology Based Customer Engagement Solutions 3.2 Enhance Data Governance & Provide Decision Support 3.3 Provide Open Data & Encourage Co-Creation and Innovation 3. 4. Enabling Environment: 4.1 Improve Security of Government Infrastructure & Services 4.2 Conduct Targeted Awareness & Marketing Activities 4.3 Provide Smart Government Legal Framework Support Learning & Growth 1. One Connected Collaborative Government 2. Enhance “Smart Skills” Financial 1. Enhance Government-wide Operational Efficiencies 2. Rationalize & Align ICT Financial Expenditures 3. Comply with Budget Targets Moreover, the SG21 strategy entails seven “Smart Branded” strategic initiatives to be achieved within three years (2014 – 2017) with high-level implementation plan (GOVERNMENT OF DUBAI, 2014). The initiatives are: 1. Smart Services Delighted Customers 2. Smart Administration 3. Smart Data 4. Smart Trusted Information 5. Smart Empowered Employees 6. Smart Engagement & Adoption 7. Smart Regulations Accordingly, DSG started issuing policies of transition to a smart government, and they are being distributed across all government organizations to be taken into consideration during implementations and operations (GOVERNMENT OF DUBAI, 2014). The policies are: Smart Service Definition Policy Document, 2015. Secure Mobile Application Implementation, Operation & Monitoring Guidelines”, 2015. The intention of Dubai government is to increase the efficiency of the government in developing the economy and in providing public services (Fakhri, 2010). In view of that, Dubai has a wide range of opportunities to transform into smart government; such as having an integrated service platform, instant service delivery, an enhanced quality of living, and improved economic growth. However, it is undeniable that the project may undergo numerous challenges; such as the needed collaboration and integration between government organizations, the share of information and transparency between organizations, project funding, and change management strategies for the organizations and the public, that if not overcome will probably disturb the development plan. Research Problem Dubai government’s initiative on transforming the e-government to a smart government has created lots of pressure on all organizations; due to the massive changes required on the strategic plans, the business plans, the budgeting of the organizations, and the manpower planning. As the Smart Government project is still new; there is very limited work that has been done to identify the opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed. Researches are required in order to provide information from which the government can formulate effective strategies to deploy the project successfully across all organizations. This research aims at identifying the opportunities that the government should grasp to succeed in developing a smart government and the challenges that can undermine the project. The adoption of technology is essential to inject efficiency in service delivery, and to transform the entities into smart organizations within the shortest time possible, creating an integrated service delivery platform. Therefore, sufficient ground needs to be provided to assist the government's potential to establish smart organizations in Dubai. Research Questions Research questions assists the researcher to narrow down the research process into specific and most crucial requirements of research. To address the research problem, this study has pre-formed questions that the researcher aims to answer through the conducting and completion of the research. These questions include: What is the current status of Dubai Smart Government Project? What are the opportunities for creating smart organizations in Dubai? What are the challenges that the Government of Dubai needs to overcome to succeed in implementing the Smart Government Project? What is the suitable framework for a smooth and successful transition of Dubai government into a smart government? A smooth move to a smart government is reliant on the discoveries of this examination and thus the responses to the exploration questions. Aims and Objectives This research seeks to evaluate the potential of Dubai to establish a smart government by investigating whether the opportunities available are adequate for it to succeed, and whether the challenges that exist are possible to overcome for a smooth transformation process. The broad objective of the research is to reduce the literature gap that is concerned with the opportunities and challenges of transforming government organizations into Smart organizations. The specific objectives of the research include: Investigating the current status of the Dubai Smart Government and its various initiatives. Investigating and identifying the various opportunities arising as a result of the implementation of the Smart Government initiatives in Dubai. Identifying the challenges affecting organisations and the government in the implementation of the Smart Government in Dubai. To study and identify the best framework for a smooth transition into smart Government suitable for Dubai Government. Target Audience The target audience for this study includes: Dubai Smart Government (DSG): DSG highlighted the need for unified strategies for Government entities to achieve successful transition. Accordingly, they have announced the Smart Government Strategy 2021 (SG21), which contains three years high-level plan with 7 defined smart initiatives. So far, they have issued two policies: the Smart Service Definition Policy and the Secure Mobile Application Implementation, Operation & Monitoring Guidelines” (GOVERNMENT OF DUBAI, 2015). Hence, DSG may use the findings of this research as a reference while developing upcoming policies and regulations related to smart government project. Smart Government Project Teams and Leaders: Some of Dubai government organizations have formed teams and committees to work on the transition towards smart organizations; therefore, project team members and leaders can use this research as a reference that identifies the common opportunities and challenges within Dubai government entities. IT Department Heads: They play a key role in the smart government project to facilitate the transformation process of all the related departments, business processes, systems, infrastructure, and integration. Consequently, using this research will expose them to the anticipated opportunities and challenges. Academic Researchers and Students: They can use this research as a reference for further studies related to Smart Government projects. Other Cities, Governments and Countries: They can use this research as a reference while preparing their strategies and plans towards establishing Smart Government. Restrictions and Limitations This research focuses only at the opportunities and challenges of transforming Dubai Government entities into smart organizations. The research highlights the anticipated opportunities and the foreseen challenges that might be encountered by Dubai Government organizations during the transition, and uses a conceptual framework that can be used for smooth transition. The research is also conducted in restricted period and hence the research has limited data collection. Structure of the Thesis This section included the research background, research problem, research questions, research aims and objectives, and the target audience. The remaining chapters are organized as follows: Chapter 2 analyzes the existing literature reviews and researches related to smart initiatives worldwide and in the UAE, that are both successful and a failure. Chapter 3 discusses the research methodology, and the interviews and survey results and analysis. Chapter 4 presents the Smart City Initiatives Design (SCID) framework for identifying the success and failure factors of establishing Smart Government. Chapter 5 summarizes the research findings and provides recommendations Chapter 6 concludes the research in general Chapter 2: Literature Review This section referred to previous studies related to changing organizations and cities into smart firms taking place around the world, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Although there is huge progress towards creating smart organization in UAE, there is limited literature review of smart government projects in the country, which is due to recent initiation of the project. Bettencourt and West, 2011, mentioned that the word “smart” means to be more focused on faster results with cost savings and efficiency. The factor of sustainability is an essential component of establishing smart organizations, where the attention is mainly given to the environmental, social, financial and political sustainability aspects. However, during the transformation process; there are multiple challenges observed that restrict the path to attain specific goals or to sustain service levels. These challenges are related to different domains, and normally are the main reason why some smart government initiatives are unsuccessful (Bettencourt & West, 2011). The two common factors in any smart government initiative are flexibility and effectiveness. The success of any smart initiative is mainly because of its alignment with the mission, and because of the effectiveness of service and operational efficiency that provide the required flexibility in any particular situation (Bloomberg, 2009). Successful Smart Government According to Bettencourt & West (2011), smart initiatives can be considered as steps taken by the government in order to develop smart cities that look forward in terms of people, economy, mobility, governance, living and the environment. Successful initiatives are based on multiple factors such as ICT economies, transportation, social and human capital, natural resources, society’s participation, and the quality of life. A proposal can be considered to be smart, when ventures pertaining to social and human capital, modern IT infrastructure, and a conventional transport system end up stimulating financial development that is sustainable (Bettencourt & West, 2011). As stated by Glaeser & Saiz (2003), this investment is done through the proper management of natural resources with the support of participatory governance. This helps to improve the quality of services offered by the government so that it is measurable, sustainable, quick and affordable. Scholl and Scholl (2014) mentioned that proceeding from research of electronic government towards research of smart government would focus on smart interaction with stakeholders, smart administration, smart infrastructure, and smart security and safety. Organizations require transforming into smart organizations to develop sustainability, reach citizens raising expectations, and attract potential investment opportunities. Successful Smart Government Initiatives - Worldwide As per Bloomberg (2011), there are various smart government initiatives across the globe. The concept of ‘smart transport’ is deeply integrated in many cities such as in Singapore, where they wanted to enhance the overall experience of more than 5 million people who travelled each day across the city. They provided integrated payment method in the city for transportation; as in the present scenario, people travelling by bus, train or any other transport form are using the same payment card. The main objective of such a smart initiative was to accelerate the movement and improve the degree of efficiency of the city’s transport system. According to Caragliu, Del & Nijkamp (2009), in the United States, Houston was a Centre Point Energy company that delivered a combination of natural and electric-gas. It had implemented a smart initiative in the form of an end-to-end meter management and monitoring system that delivers status updates and real time reporting in the context of a distribution network. In New York, in harmony with the public safety, the police department of the city has created a data warehouse that was very successful in merging data that was maintained as notes, which were handwritten or index cards (Caragliu, Del & Nijkamp, 2009). Real Time Computer Complex (RTCC) in the current scenario stitches more than 120 million criminal complaints of New York City, public records of 33 billion, and national crime records of 31 million (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010). Integrated operations centre has been implemented in Rio de Janeiro to provide a common dashboard for the critical systems of the city in order to ensure that civic authority can effectively manage the situations within the city (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010). According to Iivari & Venable (2009), through this smart initiative, the city’s agencies possess the required information on emergency services, weather, and traffic, which helps them to overcome any problem and prepare for big events in the city. Grameen Koota, a micro bank located in India employs a banking platform, which relies on an open source for more real-time and accurate information, so that they are able to predict capital requirements in order to expand banking functions, micro-loans, and insurance accounts (Iivari & Venable, 2009). Barcelona et al (2013) pointed out that smart organization involves smart mobility, smart environment, and smart economy. Smart organization infrastructures were created by integrating multiple systems and physical objectives. In addition, operational overlay systems were deployed for managing the communication among the integrated systems with limited direct human interaction; such infrastructure is called Climate Street or Smart Street, and found in many places such as Glasgow, UK. Successful Smart Government Initiatives - United Arab Emirates As per portal of United Arab Emirates (2014), the UAE has been successful in attaining a crucial ranking amongst successful countries because of the valued input provided by smart government initiatives. For example, dedicated departments have been established to focus on E-Government projects, such as Dubai Smart Government Department (previously Dubai E-Government), Abu Dhabi E-Government, Sharjah E-Government, Ajman E-Government, Umm Al Quwain E-Government, Ras Al Khaima E-Government, Fujairah E-Government, and the UAE E-Government. Currently, all departments are working on the transformation towards the Smart Government. Another great initiative of the UAE Smart Government is the m-Government. The initiative utilises mobile phones and devices applications to connect with the people. This has ensured that service delivery and information flow to the public is efficient. This mobile initiative is tightly tied to the feedback system that ensures the views of the public are considered in policy making. According to Komninos (2011), the government of Dubai in recent years has made several advancements in the field of technology by adopting various electronic transformation initiatives. E-government can be regarded as one initiative, which enabled government services to be easily accessible by citizens through the Internet. Dubai established a department that is dedicated of e-government initiatives and responsible for supervising and managing all forms of transformations within the government. With reference to Dubai in specific, it has experienced this stage in the 1990s, when crucial domains for advancement that had immense capacity were outlined, and accordingly optional methods were planned. However, there have been successful government initiatives in the city in the form of e-government, e-learning, e-payment, public Wi-Fi, and transport systems (Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothenberger & Chatterjee, 2007). In addition, the government has instituted the green UAE initiative which takes into consideration the renewable energy concepts and the nuclear programme. Failed Smart Government Initiatives Smart government projects fail due to strategic and implementation reasons whose details vary across different cities. There are causes behind failures that are determined by IT experts and they consider them as processes that can draw business attention towards IT (Vaidya & Kumar, 2006). Vasseur & Dunkels (2010) mentioned that more time is being invested in developing better solutions rather than thinking creatively or smartly in the context of challenges that are faced by the cities. Most of the smart government initiatives are considered projects that are linked with a form of revolution rather than evolution. As stated by Dubai Government (mGovernment, 2014), the current thinking towards public policy is not an accepted approach due to increasing inter-connected and complex challenges that are faced by different cities. Failed Smart Government Initiatives – Worldwide There are several unsuccessful instances that have taken place around the world in the context of smart government initiatives (UNPAN.ORG, 2010). For instance, in the United States of America, the security advisory expert and financier have witnessed a lot of chaos while implementing smart systems for taxpayers. They have experienced many hurdles from the beginning, to the extent that taxpayers had their money lost in order to avail the required services due to the complicated IT system. Another failure project in the USA is the project of Solyndra clean energy, which had failed miserably as a smart initiative implemented by the government to provide clean energy to the citizens. A total investment of $535 million was spent in the project, but there were no results. The major reason behind such failure was the complicated IT solutions incorporated in the project which in turn made it difficult to focus on the major objective of the project (UNPAN.ORG, 2010). In the UK, there have been crucial advancements in domains pertaining to information sharing, creating infrastructure and development of networks; however, the methodology related to cloud computing has been extremely unsuccessful (weforum.org, 2014). According to Tubtimhin & Pipe (2009), the UK government spent approximately 6.9 billion Euros in the overall process, but the project was not able to deliver desirable results. There is certain percentage of citizens who are not able to utilize this technology due to lack of knowledge and trust (Tubtimhin & Pipe, 2009). Even though cloud computing has been incorporated in many large enterprises, but it is still not common in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It can be undoubtedly mentioned that cloud computing was not recommended as a smart initiative by the government, but it was instead considered to be an ICT venture. In India, the smart government was a relatively hard initiative to engage in. although the initial milestones within the less populated regions were admirable. The initiative to increase public participation was rather too much to institute. This was initially considered to be a result of poor planning and lack of proper monitoring. The program expected to achieve the target participation level in only two years and thus spent over $2.5 million in the first phase only. As observed, the large Indian population could not be brought into a single domain in just a few months and all other practices replace. Lisbon's desire as a smart city was to enhance the city's vivacity and personal satisfaction, in particular through the dynamic association of subjects in the city's administration model. Lisbon expected to turn into a global centre point for world scale organizations, profiting from the extension Lisbon speaks to between Europe, Africa and America. However, the technological development in the country and the city was a major barrier. The extensive dependent of the social media as a connection between the city administration and the people gave loopholes for spamming and hacking of the system leading to multiple misinformation incidences and a loss of more than $10 million from the city finances. In 2013, the UK government lost a total of £10bn on a failed and abandoned NHS record system. The system was an initiative of the government to improve the health sector record keeping and delivery system. The failure of this initiative, whose initial cost of establishment was estimated to be £4.6bn but later escalated to over £10bn due to the savaging efforts, can be related to poor planning, policy miscalculation and failure in the overall planning. This failure resulted to a setback in other government-sponsored initiatives besides the loss of public money. Failed Smart Government Initiatives - United Arab Emirates Although the UAE is attaining an important ranking amongst successful countries with smart government initiatives, the m-Government and the m-trade initiatives have been unsuccessful in various sectors (vision2021.ae, 2014). For instance, there was an initiative taken by the UAE government after analyzing that over 4 million residents were subscribers of mobile phone data packages. The analysis was done to provide a platform through which citizens can access government services via mobile phones. It was designed to manage customer complaints, initiate best practices, innovation techniques, corporate social responsibility, and governance (vision2021.ae, 2014). The critical experience that UAE had to deal with while introducing such initiatives was raising the buy-in from shareholders within the private sector and gaining the participation of residents. Often, it becomes difficult to balance between requirements of stakeholders with that of residents (vision2021.ae, 2014); this in turn creates further problems that discourage effective participation of residents, which is an essential component in the overall success of any initiative. Opportunities and Challenges of Smart Government in UAE and Worldwide As observed in the foregoing, firms and government have had efforts to establish smart projects. However, it is clear that some of the projects have kept on failing to deliver a stream of successful products that are intended while others are successful. The reason behind the common desire is the opportunities that are found in the projects. According to Matheson and Matheson (1998), successful smart projects must be internalized in the nine interlocking principles that offer the opportunities for development. These principles include having a flow of information, embracing uncertainty and hence preparing for it; and encouraging comprehensive system thinking (Matheson &Matheson, 1998). Smart governments help improve the lives of citizens and speed up development. The opportunities arising from Smart Government initiatives are linked to the availability of government-citizen interaction which improves communication and feedback system. This ensures that the projects instituted are in line with what the community needs and desire. This also help to improve response to change and hence gives the government opportunities to do what the people need and respond effectively. The heterogeneous communication network helps in research and development and improve governments’ performance. In Dubai, a Smart government will give the opportunity for an interoperability of the cities security and economic system and develop an environment in which functionalities can be deployed effectively expecting success. Smart Governments are not immune to challenges. First it is a new concept of governance and work which as expected must face resistance before being adopted by people. According to research, communities themselves form part of the resistance and this if not addressed can derail the realization of the benefits and opportunities of the concept. In addition, conservative leaders and politicians seem to oppose the concept. While some of this opposition is based on mere misinformation, others observe the resultant transparency as a challenge to them In Caporarello, In Di, & In Martinez, 2014). Overcoming this resistance is crucial for the success of any Smart Government concept. From the previous researches, political goodwill, determination of the leaders and the community as well as preparedness and effective communication are the main variables linked to success and hence the realization of the opportunities. In political goodwill, leaders and politicians are required to identify the need for development into the direction of Smart Organization and let go of selfish desires. The community must be educated on the same to avoid misleading information that can challenge the concept. Further, resistance can be prevented by initial communication and seeking consent from the affected communities. In reference to the UAE, e-government department has been established in every city that is dedicated to e-government initiatives and responsible for supervising and managing all forms of transformations within government organizations in order to ensure successful transition. On the other hand, the above reviews on failures of implementing smart initiatives discussed several unsuccessful projects around the world in the context of smart government projects such as the smart systems for taxpayers and Solyndra clean energy in the USA, and Cloud Computing in the UK. Concerning the UAE, they experienced challenges in raising the buy-in from shareholders and residents which led to failure in introducing a new platform. The above clearly indicate that there are many aspects that need to be considered while planning Smart Government projects, such as the major challenge of satisfying and engaging stakeholders, and project funding. Repeatedly, initiatives are viewed as a project and hence aspects that are more technical are incorporated in the process that leads to failures. This research aims to address the challenges and opportunities of transforming a city to a smart government by identifying the factors influencing the government entities to becoming smart and prioritizing them. Chapter 3: Research Methodology Research Variables The data collection for this research is based on both dependent and independent variables. This research has several variables in each of the two categories: The dependent variables are economy, governance, mobility and living environment. The independent variables, on the other hand entail Smart Government and its concepts. Quantitative Research Quantitative research methodology involves the analysis of research based on analytically solving the data. The quantitative research is very reliable and accurate as the data is statistical and it can be measured (Newman, 1998). As the quantifiable data is analysed, the emotional data is least likely to be an area of concern in this analysis Qualitative Research Apart from quantitative research, the most common form of collecting qualitative data is interview analysis. The advantage of qualitative is that research can gather data that are much more comprehensive and detailed (Newman, 1998). Research Population The research will focus on the population living within Dubai, specifically those people working in major organizations in the city. Dubai is a big city with more than 200 major organizations both local and international; focusing on the employee population in these organizations is likely to provide adequate data for the research. Research Sample The research will include from the selected population employees to participate in the study. Convenient sampling technique will be used to select the respondents from among the organizations and represented demographic groups. Inclusion criteria To be included in the respondents list, one must be an adult, having worked in the organization for at least two years and in the decision making level of the organization. The respondents must have been involved at least once in smart government projects. In addition, respondents must sign a consent form to be considered as valid participants. Sample size Since the respondents are selected on matters of convenience from among the workers, all the respondents who sign the consent form and meet the inclusion criteria will be considered for this study. This, therefore, means that there is no specific sample size. Research Path Primary Analysis The data is collected in a way as required by the research. The researcher can decide how to interpret this data. Survey analysis is the most common form of primary data collection method. Other methods include interviews, observation, etc. (Glass, 1976). Secondary Analysis In secondary data, any resources containing the desired data may be used. The data collection in this way is easier, less time consuming and less expensive. The census, government websites, data websites, websites of competitors, etc are few examples of primary data collection (Glass, 1976). Significance of Research Smart Governments are aimed at establishing a system of governance and service delivery that includes the public to a large extent. In such a system, services delivery is simplified and enhanced. This research is aimed at investigating the smart government initiatives, observing the opportunities and challenges therein. This research will therefore be an important reference and a tool for evaluation and also assist organisations establishing a smart initiative to identify the opportunities to take advantage of and challenges to be wary of. Data Collection Methods The adopted research methodology included both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative analysis would collect data from the interview analysis of various representatives in Dubai Government. The answers of each employee would depend on the organization they are working at, their role in the organization, their involvement in the smart government project, etc. For quantitative data, the collection of data was done through a survey analysis. Again, employees of different organizations at the government of Dubai were asked to participate in the survey. Interview design The qualitative research collected the data through interview analysis. The objective of using interviews is to collect primary data from the respondents on what their perception and knowledge is concerning Smart Government. The employees working at different organizations in Dubai were interviewed. A semi-structured interview is defined as an interview where there is a fixed set of questions to guide the interview. The interview questions were set to be open-ended questions where answers would depend from one interviewee to the other, and they would have freedom to explain the answers in their capacity. There might be some close-ended questions if desired. All the questions will be based on the identified variables and structured to indirectly answer the research questions. The interview would be taken as 1-1 basis. The length of interviews would be approximately 1 hour and we would interview around 10-15 people for this research. Survey Analysis Once the interviews are done, questionnaires will also be issued to collect more information. Using questionnaires assist to collect more information that could not be collected through research and also assist the researcher to reach out to a larger respondent population. A survey was conducted with closed questions to get the desired answers from the respondents on the Smart Government and its initiatives. Data Collection: A total of 70 employees from different fields and hierarchical levels in various organizations in Dubai were invited to participate in the survey. They were selected based on their experience, knowledge, and involvement at the Dubai Smart Government project. Besides, 11 interviews were conducted with management representatives from the different government organizations in Dubai; to obtain details on the strategic plans and initiatives towards becoming smart organizations; taking into consideration the expected opportunities, challenges, and the required integration between entities. Data Security and Privacy To ensure confidentiality in the data collected, no names will be included in the interview sheets and questionnaires. In addition, all questionnaires were supposed to be original copies from the point of issuing and this was to be ensured during the collection of the questionnaires. Further, all questionnaires had serial numbers which were confirmed on collection. Data Analysis The analysis of both quantitative data and qualitative data are quite different. The qualitative data is less structured compared to quantitative data. The quantitative data would be analysed through graphs and charts. The qualitative data would be analysed through the 3-phase structure of Miles and Huberman (1994). Through this structure, the interviews would be analysed in 3 phases, where the first phase is data reduction, the second phase is findings themes, and the last phase is verifying themes. Data Presentation and Analysis As explained, a mixed technique was used to enable a deeper insight into the research problem, which included both qualitative and quantitative approaches in forms of interviews and a survey with a number of Dubai government representatives working at different organizations. Qualitative Data: Interviews All the answers given by different government officials were transcripted into a simple written language. From the transcript, common words, terminologies were selected as they were frequently discussed. These terminologies are known as themes (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The following themes were understood in the analysis: Technology As discussed in the literature review, it is clear that technology is one of the key components for smart government. Additionally, while discussing the smart government project with all interviewees, technology was mostly used and referred to. All of them accepted that technology is the key component for establishing a smart government, and is playing an important role in supporting organizations to transform into smart organizations. The interviews found that various smart initiatives have been implemented across organizations in Dubai. One of the interviewee said, “RTA is working towards transforming 200 of its services into smart services.” Similarly, one of the reputed people from DCAS said, “at DCAS the smart services are currently being integrated with other business processes such as the tendering process, RFP and engineering processes.” At DAFZA, a smart application in different platforms has been introduced to deliver more than 300 services to customers and staff, which enabled improving efficiency of service delivery and internal operations. Moreover, DAFZA provided public Wi-Fi network and also introduced smart initiatives related to green buildings and energy saving as part of the smart government and smart organization requirements,” responded one of the key employees at DAFZA. The improvement in technology provides a platform for increased global connectivity and the public can enjoy the fruits of globalisation from their own environment. On the issue of technology, chances are that most of the respondents will understand what it means to have improved technology. This means, therefore, that there is an opportunity to obtain reputable and informed data from the respondents on this case. However, there is a challenge that there is no measure on the ‘goodness’ of technology. What one respondent mentions as drastic improvement may be to another ‘not doing enough’. This gives a challenge during the analysis phase. Strategic Planning It can be observed that in terms of the strategic planning towards smart government, all organizations have given priority to a number of aspects according to their core business and by taking into consideration the government's vision. DAFZA personnel commented, “DAFZA has prioritized mobility and connectivity initiatives, and projects that included smart services, energy optimization and security management.” RTA has prioritized cost efficiency, customer satisfaction, ease of implementation, and availability of technology. Conversely, DCAS priority is dedicated to ensuring that it creates staff awareness on smart government and improving IT through strategic planning, in addition to creating a roadmap to enhance their services. Furthermore, DGHRD shared that it is devoted to ensuring employee and public satisfaction across all entities. Revisiting individual organisations strategies gives the researcher an opportunity to explore deeper into the implementation of smart initiatives at the local level. The respondents therefore, on giving answers regarding their local situation, collectively paint a picture of the whole concept. However, a challenge may be when some of the respondents exaggerate their situations to look more positive and hence interfere with the real picture expected by the researcher. Smart Government Challenges When discussing smart organizations, the discussion lingered around challenges that organizations, bodies, and the government are facing in the transition process. Concerning the challenges posed by the financial constraints, organizations expect these financial constraints can be resolved though proper financial management. All interviewees agreed that proper budgeting and management of resources is a critical step in ensuring that the financial challenges are minimized and controlled with accuracy. RTA representative said, “It is not that we are not moving towards latest technology and smart government, but there are lot of concerns and challenges. The biggest challenge is to remain flexible. No smart government is effective if we are not flexible.” Some of the highlighted challenges by RTA included the need for change in the leadership style by having a management that adapts changes. Key personnel at DAFZA concluded, “At DAFZA, challenges included education and training of the stakeholders on the necessity of transformation, while the major challenge is the selection of the right suppliers to execute the smart systems and solutions.” At DCAS, the lack of sufficient infrastructure and IT resources were main challenges. “It is very important to build the infrastructure and overcome shortage of resources before we can move forward. These aspects of the technology can paralyse the whole organization. Thus we are focussing on eradicating these challenges before calling ourselves as a smart government,” said one of the senior personnel working at DCAS. The manager at DGHRD concluded, “DGHRD shared that they suffer as well as many other organizations from not being transparent about their projects' details and progress which leads to inefficiency and problems, both within the organization and with others.” Unforeseen challenges remain a threat to the achievement of smart government, as various challenges were highlighted by the different organizations that confront the objectives of transformation. This theme brought the challenges that need to be met for a successful smart government. When the researcher embarks on studying the challenges, the results give an opportunity to relate every local challenge to the impact it has on disabling the whole process at the organisational and country level and how the government or the management can tackle the challenge. However, some respondent may not point out crucial challenges especially when they demonstrate a failure or laxity on their individual or collective performance. Step-by-Step Transformation Most of the interviewees agreed that the process of transforming any organization into a smart organization is not one-step or a moment shift. Rather, it is a gradual drift from traditional working set-up to smart. Different interviewees presented different viewpoints. The Manager at DGHRD said “For most of the employees, the shift if sudden would create chaos. It would become a challenge and thus to avoid this chaos, the process needs to be slow and steady as a step by step upgrade.” RTA representative said, “Well at RTA, we have challenges that we need to overcome, and if all is changed suddenly, how would we cope with changes? We are training our employees and this need to get adjusted with time so that the transformation is smooth, and also helps not create any unwanted challenges.” “There is huge investment of money, time and value involved in the transformation of the organization. Hence, it should be a gradual process so that employees, stakeholders, public etc, are equipped to handle the change and the technology,” replied one of the interviewees from DCAS. This provides a great opportunity to understand and monitor the implementation process. However, for the initiatives that were instituted long before and which were only to be improve, a step-by-step transformation was not traceable and hence a big challenge in monitoring. Collaboration One theme that emerged from the interviews but not much discussed before was “Collaboration”. Collaboration of different departments, organizations, bodies and systems is needed for successful launch and sustainability of smart government. The same inputs were given by interviewees. On discussing collaboration and integration, all participants confirmed their plans of cooperating with other entities, which is a critical factor for establishing smart government. Through measures of collaboration and information sharing; organizations are constantly aiming at ensuring the required integration with the related entities. “RTA achieves the said objective by signing agreements with different organizations. We maintain collaboration with many stakeholders and accept this as a must for the vision of smart government to become a reality in Dubai” responded RTA representative. The manager from DAFZA contributed that “At DAFZA, agreements are being signed with strategic and business partners, and constant meetings are held for the coordination of services and operational efficiency.” DGHRD believes that collaboration with other organizations will be done by establishing a single database that can be accessed by all entities. In contrast, DCAS ensures that it attains the mentioned objective by allowing organizations to access its services through a cloud system. Overall, the general feeling about collaboration was similar across the organizations that we interviewed. The theme of collaboration is a core aspect in smart initiatives. This is because to realise the public participation and inclusivity, several levels of management and leadership must collaborate. The collaboration gives clear guidelines on where, when and how initiatives will be instituted. However, collaboration demands consultation, a process that can be time consuming and derailing the initiatives realisation. Smart organization: Success The interview analysis gives a wider view of the smart government project in Dubai. All of the government departments are very positive and this was seen as they mostly talked about success of the initiative. The future of the city and the initiative looks to be going in a right direction with increased public participation and connectivity to benchmark initiatives elsewhere in the world. When asked about the future of their organizations' transformation towards smart government in the next five years, all participants were positive. Some of them were confident that their organizations would have been fully transformed into a smart organization, while some thought that they would be at progressive stages. Overall, each of the interviewees thought that their organization would be contributing to Dubai’s vision and will be providing better services and experience to the citizens, visitors, and businesses. The success may not be as easy as key people here are anticipating, however as they have discussed major challenges, it is evident that they are prepared for any variance in the initiative. The positive energy given by all participants tells their beliefs and faith in the project and His Highness’s vision. The success is very significant in giving the government and the organisation more energy and power to drive future initiatives. It also increases public confidence in the management of issues and governance. However, success may be blinding, making the management restful and hence unable to perform. When all is said and done, the respondents consider smart government initiative as the way to go. This is because the system exposes the whole community to leadership in the local and well as global domain and increases the effectiveness of service delivery. Accordingly, the implementation and monitoring should be fully documented to help in improvements and replication of the processes. Quantitative Data: Survey A survey questionnaire was published online using "Survey Monkey" portal, whereby, the link was sent to 55 government officials who were directly selected because of their involvement with the smart government implementations within their organizations. The response rate was sufficient as all participants answered almost all the questions, and the analysis of the data extracted from the survey is discussed hereinafter. Analysis of Survey Results The age range of the participants was 25 to 55 years. Most of the participants belonged to the age range of 25 to 44 years. All individuals who participated in the survey had at least a higher degree diploma. Some individuals possessed bachelor degrees, graduate and postgraduate degrees. This indicated that all participants in the survey had at least basic Figure 1: Response Rate by Age education. Furthermore, all the people who took part in the survey held managerial posts, where middle management level recorded 63% participation, while individuals from top management level accounted for 37% of the total contribution as shown in Figure 1. 1. Impact of Smart Government in Dubai As depicted in Figure 1, 52 participants agree that Smart Government will improve services and promote economic growth in Dubai, This is because technology has the ability to reduce cost, save time and efforts, increase productivity and enhance the business operations and processes, which as a result reflects positively on the economic growth. Of these 75% strongly agree that smart government have a great impact on improvement of service delivery in Dubai. Figure 2: Smart Government Impact 2. Impact of Government Policies on Entities As shown in Figure 3, total of 48 participants (50%) agree that integration of policies within government entities will easily address the environmental, financial and service delivery within organizations. This result indicates that more than half of the respondents were confident that through integration of policies the environmental waste for example will be reduced since data is stored Figure 3: Impact of Government Policies on Integration and made available digitally as opposed to files and papers. Another example is the manipulation of data, which will be restricted through information security measures as technology has the ability to reduce bureaucracies within organizations. Furthermore, the service delivery will be more efficient since data is easily accessible by the concerned users. 3. Modern Technology Impact on Speed, Transparency, Accountability and Efficiency As shown in Figures 4, 53 (73%) of the participants agree that Smart Government will improve transparency, accountability and efficiency, because data is made available to users through multiple channels, and it takes less time to access files and information vital to the service production and delivery process. Additionally, since information will be widely available in real-time at government Figure 4: Impact of Modern Technology on Service Delivery websites, it will form transparency with the public, which improves the government’s accountability towards the community. Furthermore, as data is protected and easily accessible by audit officials, the auditing will become more efficient. 4. Impact of New Business Models to Growth 51% (n=50) of the participants agree that the introduction of new business models within organizations will increase the economic growth which is shown in Figure 5. The business models could be in terms of business strategy, market segment, and competitive positioning of the organization. Therefore, with Smart Government, information will be easily accessible and available to the concerned users which will encourage the introduction of new business models. On the other hand, data modifications will be prevented through the introduction of security measures such as access codes and passwords on the systems used for running the operations of the Figure 5: Impact of Smart Government on Economic Growth government. Consequently, corruption and malicious misuse of data and funds can be greatly reduced. This saves the government a lot of financial resources that can be directed to other projects to promote economic growth. 5. How Integrated Systems Ease Audits and Analysis The majority of participants (n=50) agree that auditing and analysis of financial records will be simplified with Smart Government (Refer Figure 6). This represents 54% of the study population and it is due to the fact that integration between different systems and data sources will create a centralized information base which will positively affect the auditing and analysis process and efficiency in terms of data retrieval generating reports, data Figure 6: Impact of Integrated Systems on Audit and Analysis reconciliation, including other auditing activities. 6. Impact of Technology on Information Accessibility 51 participants agree that with the introduction of Smart Government, obtaining information and government services will be easily available for users, as information on services and submitted transactions will not only be provided through websites, but also through smart applications and devices, which makes them accessible through multiple channels, hence, the constraints presented by Figure 7: Impact of Technology on Information Accessibility geographical barriers are rendered obsolete (Refer Figure 7). 7. Impact of Internet Access Points on Mobile Driven Services Most participants (total 52) agree that for the Smart Government to function effectively, internet access points must to be introduced within Dubai as shown in Figure 8. In fact, internet access points will have a positive impact on the incorporation of mobile applications to business activities. Across Dubai, there are different projects in multiple locations that are being executed to provide free public wireless Figure 8: Impact of Internet Access Points on Smart Services network such as the public parks, the beaches, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Boulevard, Dubai Airports, and Dubai Airport Free Zone, which will encourage the usage of mobile services across the city 24/7. 8. Impact of Government-Private Sector Partnership to Advanced Services According to the graph shown in Figure 9, 61% (n=53) participants agree that the collaboration between the government and private sectors in implementing Smart Government projects will allow introducing advanced services to the public. This is due to the fact that both sectors require the specialty and expertise of each other, and respondents are aware of the importance of such partnership as success comes with collaboration, commitment, Figure 9: Impact of Government and Private Partnership on Services shared investments and accountabilities. Besides, both sectors will ensure allocating the required resources and funds to succeed, sustain projects and streamline the related operational activities. 9. Impact of Organizational Restructuring on Service Delivery According to the graph shown in Figure 10, most participants 48% (n= 44) agree that restructuring their current organizations will improve the service delivery to the public. This indicates having obstacles with the current structures such as the functional differences and multiple systems to provide services; therefore restructuring will be required within some organizations to improve efficiency and services delivery. For example, Figure 10: Impact of Organizational Restructuring on Services new units were introduced at Dubai Police and DEWA to handle the Smart Government projects. At DAFZA, a new organizational structure was introduced where IT and Engineering Departments have been joined under one division to focus on executing Smart Government and Smart City initiatives. 10. Government’s Financial Capacity to Fund Project According to the graph shown in Figure 11, 29 respondents are confident that Dubai government has adequate funds to finance the Smart Government projects, this could be based on the announcement of Dubai 2021 strategy and Expo 2020 preparation, where the government is promising huge development in the country, including becoming one of the leading smart cities in the world. Figure 11: Financial Capacity to Fund Smart Government Projects Subsequently, the government will undeniably invest in smart government projects to achieve its vision. On the other hand, 12 respondents thought that the government might not be able to fund the projects smoothly, as respondents may have linked projects' funding to the fact that the government has diverse development roles and as such, budget allocation to smart government projects may be affected. 11. Effect of Change in Management, Strategy and Structure on Service Delivery As per Figure 12, 25 (46%) respondents disagree that changes in management or strategy and structure could negatively affect the performance of an organization. They must have associated their answer to actual circumstances within their organizations, as changes in management, strategy and structure usually affect some organizations from functioning smoothly. Relatively, 9 respondents were undecided on their opinion, and 16 Figure 12: Impact of Change Management on Service Delivery respondents were doubtful mentioning the uncertainties that come with the aforementioned changes. 12. Challenges to Entity Integration and Collaboration According to the graph shown in Figure 13, 52 respondents agree that it will be a challenge to have integration and collaboration between government organizations in order to establish Smart Government. This must be based on actual experiences of cooperation amongst organizations, where each has different policies and procedures being applied that restrict transparency and sharing of Figure 13: Integration Challenges between organizations information, and therefore perceived as a challenge across different organizations. 13. Government’s Workforce and Technical Capacity in Relation to New Technology According to the graph shown in Figure 14, 47% (n=29) of the respondents agree that there is adequate workforce and technical skills in government organizations to utilize new technologies, which means within their organizations they have sufficient manpower with the required skills. However, 11 individuals disagree, (18%) and this means they do not have adequate manpower and they lack the required technical skills. Figure 14: Government Workforce against Technical Capacity In view of that, they need to increase their workforce and improve their technical skills to ensure Smart Government projects are successfully implemented and maintained. 14. Challenges Introduced by Transformation to Information Sharing and Transparency The majority of responses, 52% (n=39) agree that information sharing and transparency between organizations is a challenge, which is probably due to the confidentiality terms and applied policies within organizations (as explained in point 12) as shown in Figure 15. There are only two respondents who disagree, which must be based on their actual experiences and years of service. Figure 15: Challenges of Information Sharing and Transparency 15. External Sources of Manpower and Funds in Project Execution Figure 16 depicts that 35% (n=27) of the individuals agree that the government may require external sources of funds and manpower to execute the smart government projects, while 18% (n=9) of the respondents disagree. Their answers must be based on the fact that the smart government project is new, challenging, and requires huge budgets, and organizations lack expertise in smart Figure 16: External Sources to execute Smart Government Projects government implementations. Accordingly, external sources of funds and manpower are needed to succeed in the execution of the related projects and the required transformation process, which could be managed through shared investments as clarified in point (8), where success comes with collaboration, commitment, shared investments and accountabilities. Summary Overall, the data analysis of the interviews and survey results gave an overview of the status of Dubai Smart Government project within organizations, including the anticipated opportunities and challenges across different areas. As thoroughly discussed within the interview section, all of them agree that technology plays a significant role in enabling organizations to transform into smart organizations. Interviewees shared their views and the different strategies that are being followed within their organizations to implement a variety of smart government initiatives, such as the projects provided by DAFZA, DGHRD, DCAS, and RTA. Apart from technology, the themes that were evident and acknowledged by most of the interviewees were smart organization challenges, step-by-step transformation, organizational collaboration, and smart initiatives success. These themes indicated the framework needed to successfully implement the smart organization project in Dubai. In reference to the survey data, the results indicated positive confidence of most organizations in terms of the impact of the Dubai Smart Government project in the following areas: The City of Dubai in general The Government Policies on Entities New Business Models for Economic Growth Government-Private Sector Partnership to provide Advanced Services Organizational Restructuring to enhance Service Delivery In addition, the survey results exposed positive response of most organizations in terms of the impact of technology on Dubai Smart Government project in the following areas: Modern Technology for Speed, Transparency, Accountability and Efficiency Integrated Systems for Audits and Analysis Information Accessibility Internet Access Points for Mobile Driven Services Nevertheless, the survey results also presented negative and a doubtful response of most organizations in terms of the impact of Dubai Smart Government project in the following areas: Government’s Financial Capacity to Fund Projects Government’s Workforce and Technical Capacity in Relation to New Technology Challenges Introduced by Transformation to Information Sharing and Transparency External Sources of Manpower and Funds in Project Execution All of the above summarizes the actual view of personnel within Dubai government organizations in relation to the Dubai Smart Government project, which assists in providing a conceptual framework in the next section for a smooth transition for a successful Smart Government. This chapter describes the depth of the findings and the opportunities that smart government can avail to the public. Further, the chapter helps elucidate the opportunities as well as the challenges that affect the initiatives. In addition, it is from these results that a framework taking advantage of the opportunities and addressing the challenges will be developed. Chapter 4: The Framework The following chapter would review the Zygiaris (2012) framework of Smart City Initiatives Design (SCID). It would be used to identify the smart government framework as per the research findings. Zygiaris Framework Overview: Figure 17: SCID Framework The SCID framework as shown in Figure 17 supports the decision needs of policymakers in the governments responsible for planning smart organization initiatives. As shown in Figure 17, there are specific enablers and priorities that support establishing a Smart Government, which allow identifying the strategy to be followed, the required resources, the form of influence that can be developed, and the anticipated changes. The enablers are initiated by the government to elevate organizations to the smart government status. The priorities are the actual improvement in the government due to the provided enablers. This can be stated as a cause effect theory. The causes of the smart government are enablers and the effects are priorities. Enabler – Disabler Framework: The research has been able to create a framework that identifies the factors that can help the transformation towards a smart government in Dubai. The framework is aligned with the need to make use of the opportunities of connectedness and public participation. The framework has two kinds of variables; the first set is defined as “independent” variables that act as inputs. The government and stakeholders of an organization would provide these variables. The second set of variables is classified as “dependent”, those that change based on changes of independent variables. From the research findings, the variables shown in Figure 18 and 19 can be classified as “independent” variables. Figure 18 depicts the positive enablers derived from the data analysis through surveys and interviews and Figure 19 lists the positive enablers derived through the literature review. Figure 18: Smart government positive enablers from Analysis Figure 19: Smart government positive enablers from Literature Review The government should push these inputs into organizations to facilitate the process of smart transformation. Thus, the government needs to provide better policies, amend the business model of some organizations, restructure some organizations, and encourage the government-private partnerships. However, through the literature review and analysis, there were few more factors that were not enabling the smart government, but if present, they would have negative impact on the project. These factors are defined as “disablers” which are shown in Figure 20. As shown in Figure 20, we could analyse that these factors were lack of trust by people on the government initiatives, failure to create systems that are not complicated, maintaining stakeholders’ value, funding capacity of the government, and transparency within organizations. Figure 20: Negative inputs of the framework As mentioned above, “dependent” variables those that change based on changes of independent variables (enables and disablers). Accordingly, any increase or decrease in the independent variables would affect the smart government project progress. For example, Social participation and increase in human capital would mean more work-force. This workforce can be used to increase the economy growth of the city, the more productive they are, the more the economy would grow. Thus, all the factors that can measure the success of the project would be dependent variables. Figure 21 shows the dependent variables derived from the literature review and data analysis which are together combined to be known as “success factors for a smart organization.” If most of the above inputs are provided to an organization, there would be sufficient funding for organizations to grow, the information would be easily accessible, audit will be integrated for organizations, transportation would improve, mobility would get better, and the country would see better economic growth. Accordingly, the organizations, stakeholders, people, and visitors would benefit from better delivery of services. Figure 21. Opportunities in the Framework Enabler-Disabler Framework Usage: The framework could be useful for the following: 1. Project Managers: They will be able to understand the inputs required while creating the roadmap of smart government project. For example, they can request approval from the concerned departments and government authorities in order to integrate different departments. A project manager of developing an e-traffic service needs to integrate with traffic police, crime department, hospitals, and ambulance services so that they can respond instantly together for any incident. 2. IT Managers: The framework will enable them to understand the need of user-friendly systems for the success of smart government initiatives, and also resolve the IT related constraints. E.g. In the e-traffic integration, IT managers need to create a powerful yet simple system that can help people to easily contact them for help. At the same time, Police can use this system to control the law and order. 3. Finance Managers: It will allow them to understand and facilitate the funding and manpower requirements, which are key factors to the success of the smart government project. In the e-traffic example, the Finance manager would understand the cost centres of the project, and accordingly provide the required budget. Thus, they would avoid the budget shortage crises. 4. Audit department: They can use the framework to understand the lapses in the smart government project that should be audited. In the e-traffic example, the auditing team can use the framework to gather information of the process, concerned department’s efficiency, etc. and thus, provide an audit report that can be used as a tool to measure the functionality gaps. 5. Stakeholders: This group is directly associated with the project. They can be a part of enablers or they can be the people getting benefit out of the project. In the e-traffic example, drivers on the road are stakeholders. They can use the system to track the traffic around them and at the same time if any accident happens, they can call the police and ambulance immediately. Additionally, other cities, governments and countries can also consider this framework while planning the transformation towards smart government. Moreover, the academic researchers and students can use it for further studies related to smart government projects. However, there is dire need for suitability and feasibility studies before initiatives can be recommended for replication or study. The deeper a researcher or a student delve into these initiative, the better the understanding and hence application. Framework Implementation: The priorities and enablers of the SCID framework play a key role to determine success and failure factors associated with the Smart Government project. In many cases, failure of initiatives arises due to their non-alignment with the main objectives of an organization. Hence, this framework can be implemented successfully if the following positive factors are provided and at the same time the negative factors are excluded. Positive Enablers: While the research accepted the importance of resources, manpower, and financial stability of government, transparency within organizations, information sharing, IT systems, and improving technical capacity. These factors can be related to the enablers of SCID framework like shared ICT services, innovation infrastructure, policy building, etc. Thus, the enablers of the research are quite similar to the enablers of the SCID framework that support the success of smart government initiatives. Disablers: Failure to take care of stakeholders was one of the reasons why many similar projects failed around the world. Lack of funds also restricts the success of projects. Lack of trust by people in the new system produces negative results. Complicated IT systems have been a roadblock to the success of many projects. Thus, organizations should overcome these bottlenecks to succeed with smart government projects. The implementation of the project is one of the key challenges for the government. For any project, the government and concerned departments need to first analyse the scope of the project. Accordingly, they need to prepare all the inputs and resources required, the budget, and the timeline in agreement with the concerned departments. While implementing the project, it is necessary that all the positive factors involved in the project are implemented at the necessary stages. The government should also ensure that most of the identified positive factors are contributing towards the smart government initiative. At the same time, the government should ensure that negative factors are not disrupting the smart government project. At each step of implementation, the government should prepare countermeasures to overcome the negative factors. This would enable to departments to coordinate and act accordingly for a smooth and successful implementation. Framework Review The usage of this framework depends on the collective commitment of all the collaborators. This therefore means that with research on the opportunities and challenges that the framework harbor, the management of any smart initiative can effectively manage the projects. First, this kind of management must identify all the factors within the government or the organization to institute the policies on smart government and its initiatives. For instance, the framework demands first establishing an economy, infrastructure and environment that will enable laying down of the initiative. This must first be established to fund the initiative before the results or success can be achieved. Further, realizing the opportunities being offered by an initiative from the beginning keeps the managers and institutors of the initiative at their feet to realize the initiative. Framework Evaluation Based on the elements of each of the frameworks, there are real benefits related to the concept. Regardless of the framework chosen, the public will be the main beneficiary of the concept. This implies that the success of the framework is based on how the framework is instituted. The evaluation will be instituted to measure the effectiveness and the manifestation of the opportunities stipulated. The management of the project should engage in implementation monitoring and ensuring that all the enablers are duly instituted. The implementation could be instituted in sections of the organizations or entities and the challenges addressed. These sections can be used as pilot projects whose success is evaluated and further implementation done with better understanding of the concepts. This kind or evaluation requires further research and surveys when the concepts are being implemented. Framework Limitations: The Zygiaris framework discussed the human resource through education as one of the priorities. Education is one of the key aspects, but the conceptual framework in the research does not cover education. The framework does not prescribe the timelines for the realisation of the enablers and the manifestation of the opportunities. In addition, the evaluation of the framework is a mandate of the government as opposed to an external independent institution. Conclusion: When we compare priorities of SCID to the framework proposed through literature review and data analysis, we can find similarities. These frameworks highlight similar type of enablers that would bring changes into organizations during the transformation towards smart organizations. The framework is successful in discussing both; enabling factors that would affect the smart government project as well as disabling factors that would disrupt the smart government project. The idea of discussing a framework was to enable the government of Dubai and its departments to understand their target opportunities and deal with the factors that can affect the situation. Some of these factors would accelerate the transformation process like “Integration of policies”, “manpower”, “Transportation”, “natural resources”, etc. However, the government needs to also understand the negative impact of disablers, and thus create a strategy to mitigate them. These factors that can potentially disrupt the smart government include “lack of trust”, “lack of transparency, “lack of funding”, “disagreement among stakeholders”, etc. Overall, the framework with combined study of positive and negative factors was able to discuss the benefits that the smart governance would provide to government organizations in Dubai. Chapter 5: Findings and Recommendations In this section, the major findings and recommendations of the research are outlined as a result of data analysis, interviews, literature reviews, and framework evaluation. Findings: The qualitative data and the quantitative data was useful to understand the ground realities of different resources, the actual status in the government of Dubai, and the resources needed, etc. The literature review covered some of the successful and unsuccessful smart initiatives across the globe and helped in understanding the factors that affected them. The successful initiatives were more due to development of technology, manpower, security, integration of policies, etc. While many initiatives failed due to trust issues, complicated systems, stakeholders differences, etc. It is apparent from the qualitative data that the transformation into smart government should be a gradual process, and organizations need to collaborate to establish a successful smart government in Dubai. The research also concluded that technology would play a vital role in the project, however there would be many challenges that organizations would face such as stakeholders trust, selecting competent suppliers for execution, and the financial backup. Other challenges include resource management, flexibility of the systems, the education and training of stakeholders on the new system, and the successful implementation of smart initiative. The findings from the quantitative data were specific and helped to determine key opportunities of smart government, and also identify challenges that may lead to future difficulties within organizations. The smart government project would enhance services and endorse financial advancement in Dubai. There would be more accountability and transparency within organizations, and the integration of strategies between government bodies would effortlessly improve the environmental, financial and service delivery in Dubai. As the collaboration between the government and private sectors in implementing smart government projects will permit presenting developed facilities to the public. With smart government, the process of reviewing and investigating economic particulars will be streamlined, and most important is that it would be easier for users to get information and to access government services. Adding to that, providing wireless Internet access points is critical for the success of smart government to function effectively. It was implicated that the government of UAE has sufficient fund to support smart government ventures, and that there is sufficient workforce and technical competence at organizations to employ innovative technologies within their firms. Although the government has a great opportunity though initiating the smart government in Dubai, but there are many challenges that could affect the project which they need to overcome such as, the required modifications in organizational policies, the integration and collaboration between organizations in order to establish smart government, sharing information amongst various organizations, and transparency. Besides, the government of Dubai might need extrinsic sources of funds and manpower to implement the smart government project. One of the main objectives of this research was to propose a framework for Dubai government organizations to transform successfully into smart organizations. The framework as discussed with enablers, disablers, and priorities in the previous section are key findings. The research findings from literature review, qualitative and quantitative data can be linked to this framework in terms of creating the probable enablers, disablers, and priorities. In addition, this framework is well connected with the Zygiaris framework, thus providing authenticity to the framework. The findings can be summarised and prioritized as follows: 1. Reviewing the positive and negative factors for the smart government in Dubai is important to determine the current situation and facilitate the transition process for the government organizations. 2. The role of IT is highly important for the implementation of smart government initiative. 3. Each project has challenges, and there could be failures in implementing certain initiatives related to smart government, unless organizations prepare in advance for anticipated failure factors. 4. Smart government cannot succeed without collaboration of different government departments and continuous monitoring of the implementation process. 5. The project can only be implemented in phases based on priorities and needs observing to minimise the disablers in the process and capitalising on enablers. 6. Smart government provides opportunities for the public to participate in governance and to enjoy accountable and well-structured service delivery. Recommendations: After analyzing the status of Dubai smart government project and identifying, prioritizing and evaluating the opportunities and challenges of transforming government entities into smart organizations, certain strategies can be recommended to succeed in the transformation process and the smart government project. Evaluating Dubai Smart Government project: It is important to evaluate the status of Dubai smart government project on regular basis and discuss how it would impact stakeholders and organizations. Many positive and negative factors have been discussed in the previous sections; which organizations can analyse further to estimate the amount of efforts that would be needed to benefit from the positive factors and overcome the negative factors. To be more effective, the evaluation should involve both internal and external independent audits whose findings can be accessed by the public and compared. Using IT and Technology: As highlighted in the data analysis, technology is a critical factor for establishing smart government. Organizations should ensure that modern technology is used for speed, efficiency, and accessibility. Moreover, wireless networks need to be established in order to support the mobile driven services of the smart government. Overcoming Challenges: Organizations need to understand the importance of prioritising the constraints that might affect the smart government transformation process, such as the financial resources; infrastructures, integration between departments, and stakeholders engagement. They need to put strategies to minimize the challenges in order to succeed in the transformation and also sustain it. Gradual Transformation: As discussed in the qualitative research, the city of Dubai should follow a step-by-step transformation strategy, which will ensure successful transition of organizations and ease the acceptance of stakeholders on the change and the technology. Collaboration: The government should not only focus on the transformation, but also on the integration between organizations. The greater the collaboration, the greater the impact it would bring. Integration can result in a variety of services for the public, for example, in terms of public safety; integration could establish advanced predictive disaster management systems and real-time crime response centres. Chapter 6: Conclusion Overall Analysis In order to identify the opportunities and challenges of transforming Dubai government entities into smart organizations, the research used qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and referred to literature reviews on smart government initiatives worldwide and in the UAE. In Dubai, the Smart Government department is supervising these transformations efficiently and effectively, as they have started issuing specific policies and an overall strategy of smart government services to guide the government organizations on the transformation requirements and process (Dubai.ae, 2015). It can be examined that several advancements have been made in the smart government project across different organizations by adopting various transformation initiatives, which allow the citizens, tourists, and businesses to easily access and obtain government services through different channels and methodologies. The research found out various factors that enable the entities to transform into smart organizations, such as ICT economies, transportation, social and human capital, natural resources, society’s participation, and the quality of life (Al-Hader & Rodzi, 2009). Consequently, these factors lead to the expected opportunities such as providing smart services; energy optimization; security management; cost efficiency, customer and public satisfaction (Brown, 2012). On the other hand, challenges remain a threat to the successful achievement of smart government in Dubai, such as the budgeting and management of resources, education and training of stakeholders, selecting suppliers to execute the transformation, lack of advanced infrastructure, sufficient IT resources, and lack of cooperation between organizations. The overall framework was a successful result of the research as it was similar to the theoretical framework of Zygiaris (2012) also known as SCID framework. There were positive and negative factors that affect the whole initiative. Significance of the Research The main purpose of this research is to investigate the anticipated opportunities and challenges that would face the government of Dubai to transform entities into smart organizations in order to create a successful and effective smart government, which will be beneficial for the government’s decision makers as well as the public. The research further has the responsibility to explore the role of an implementation framework and how such a framework can be evaluated. For the government, the research will help identifying the opportunities they can obtain as a result of becoming a smart government and the challenges they should expect and overcome to create a smart government. Thus, the decision makers will have basis to measure the viability of the project and will help them in preparing counter measures against the project challenges. To the public, the research will highlight the benefits they will receive through efficient fast services provided over a unified government service delivery platform that is available 24/7. The success of a project depends on the ability of the implementers to overcome any challenges that threaten to frustrate the project (Kim & Mauborgne, 2009). Therefore, the research is beneficial not only to Dubai Government but also to any other city that intends to deploy a smart government project, which aims at improving the economy and the welfare of people. Strength and Limitation of Research The research used primary data analysis technique, which means that the data is useful and reliable. It has also used both qualitative and quantitative data analysis to understand the statistical significance as well as qualitative analysis. The research however has one main limitation. The respondents were selected were already aware of the processes. This implies that they may have prior information about what the study may ask and hence the results may have been biased. The research was able to create a framework implying that the research is being able to reach its goal. 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(2012). Smart city reference model: assisting planners to conceptualize the building of smart city innovation ecosystems. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. 39 (7), pp. 95-99. Appendices Read More