Smart services save Dubai $100m annually

30 June 2016

Shared services were introduced in 2003

Shared smart services have enabled the Dubai government to save AED4.3bn ($1.17bn) between 2003 and 2015, an average savings of close to $100m annually, according to a report conducted by the US’ IBM.

The six-month study analysed the Smart Dubai Government (SDG) service portfolio, expenditure reports and projected cost savings to determine the cost-to-savings ratio for the government as a result of shared smart government services.

It was the first such attempt to quantify the impact of these services to the government, the SDG office said in a statement.

The report found that an estimated AED5.6 has been saved for every AED1 spent by the SDG since it was founded in 2003. The report established an average saving of AED358m a year for the government over 12 years resulting from the SDG services.

The study calculated total savings across four SDG service categories: infrastructure management; government resource planning (GRP) services; smart services; and the annual Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex) event.

GRP, which includes daily business support services such as finance, human resources (HR), procurement and asset management, contributed the most significant savings, accounting for more than AED1.2bn saved over 12 years.

Infrastructure management provided the highest cost-to-savings ratio, saving the government AED 5.2 for every AED 1 spent on network services, cloud services, data and disaster recovery, and communication support services.

Smart services such as the DubaiNow application, the single-sign-on digital identity service MyID, and the digital payment platform ePay contributed an additional AED443m in savings to the government over 12 years, the report said.

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