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Dubai Municipality to Achieve Zero Visits by 2011 |
| Source: |
ameinfo.com |
| Source Date: |
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 |
| Focus: |
Electronic and Mobile Government, Institution and HR Management, Internet Governance
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| Country: |
United Arab Emirates |
| Created: |
Nov 11, 2010 |
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During IBM Middle East's annual CIO Conference, Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General, Dubai Municipality, discussed the Municipality's efforts in developing Dubai as a smarter city. Mr Lootah highlighted the municipality's work on the e-government project for the last 10 years, whereby they have converted almost 500 of their services to online services.
He also emphasised the municipality's aim to achieve "zero visits" by
the end of 2011, meaning that all of the Dubai Municipality's services
will be accessible online enabling that citizens and businesses can
access from their offices, homes and mobiles 24/7.
The panel was
also attended by eminent industry experts such as Osman Sultan, CEO, Du;
Abdullah Al Madani, CEO, RTA Corporate Technical Support Services
Sector and Yousif Asfour, CIO, New York University Abu Dhabi who
discussed in detail their visions of a smarter city, as well as the
projects they have been leading in the Emirates alongside Dr Colin
Harrison, IBM Master Inventor and Director for Strategic Innovation.
"The
IBM CIO conference has evolved and grown since our inaugural event in
2004 to become an annual meeting point for the region to address the
issues they face with a changing business environment. This year's event
attracted over 400 CIOs from across the region making for meaningful,
inclusive, region-led discussions that shared experiences and best
practice in delivering on the vision of a 'Smarter Planet'," said
Takreem El Tohamy, general manager IBM Middle East and Africa. "We're
very excited to carry on the relevant conversations kicked off at the
event with CIOs in sectors from government to healthcare and from
banking to education as we deliver 'Smarter Projects' across the
region."
Urbanization is changing the global landscape with over
50% of the world's population currently living in urban areas and close
to 70% of the world's population predicted to be living in cities by
2050, making the issue of Smarter Cities absolutely critical. The
Smarter Cities panel was therefore incredibly pertinent to today's CIO,
as a group of leading industry practitioners discussed the projects that
they have been delivering in building Smarter Cities here in the
region.
Jennifer Belissent, Ph.D., Senior Analyst, at
independent research firm Forrester Research, Inc. presented a session
that answer's one of the most critical factors in building a Smarter
Planet, that of Smarter Cities as she discussed 'Taking Lessons from
Smart Cities'.
The conference was also attended by eminent IBM
executives including; Laura Voglino - VP Growth Markets, Marketing and
Communications, IBM Systems and Technology Group; Mark Musto - Business
Development, Travel & Transportation, Smarter Travel and
Transportation, IBM Global Business Services; Virginie Haas, Vice
President, Worldwide Cloud Sales and Strategy and John Mclean, Vice
President WebSphere Connectivity Development and the Director of the IBM
Hursley Laboratory, amongst many others.
Following the Panel
discussion, IBM global executives also led 12 breakout sessions where
regional CIOs were invited to discuss the issues affecting their
businesses regionally and globally. Topics that were covered included;
The Smarter Bank, Business Analytics and Optimization for Banking,
Delivering Consistent Customer Experience, From virtualization to cloud
computing with integrated service management, Smarter Healthcare,
Smarter Travel and Transportation, Smarter Energy and Utilities, Smarter
Education, IT Leader's Guide to Building a Smarter Planet, Introducing
IBM Smart Business cloud solutions, Accelerate Value and Business
Insight From Your BPM and Business Analytics Investment and
Virtualization with Integrated Service Management for improved business
agility.
"Having travelled to the region for a number of the
MENA CIO conferences, I've found that the level of discussion never
ceases to impress me as we cover important topics in building a Smarter
Planet, here in the region," said Colin Harrison, Master Inventor and
Director for Strategic Innovation, IBM. "I'm looking forward to
developing these discussions into further projects that will deliver on
the vision of building a Smarter Planet, City by City."
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