Measuring the digital government indices

Results of Digital Government Enablers Indices - 2021

In 2021, TDRA measured the quality of 363 services provided by the UAE Government to individuals and businesses. These services are feasible for digitisation and provided by 33 federal entities via 33 websites.

TDRA used the indices of the digital government enablers to measure the percentage of digital transformation. The following table shows the indices used, and the percentage of compliance of the services with regard to each of the indices.

Indices	Score (in %)
Percentage of digital transformation of the government services	98.59
Usage of digital government services	74.58
Public awareness of digital service	88.32
Quality of digital websites	87.86
Quality of digital services	80.88
Usage of the digital enablers	89.20

Source: Results of Digital Government Enablers Indices- 2021 (PowerPoint 14 KB, available in Arabic only).

Purpose of the digital government indices

The digital government indices project corresponds to the directives of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) in its capacity as the enabler of the digital government and digital transformation in the UAE.

The project also corresponds to the guidance of the UAE’s leadership which stresses the necessity to continue working as a unified national team with all federal entities in order to achieve Vision 2021 and the National Agenda that aims for the UAE to be at the forefront of the world in electronic and mobile services index.

TDRA seeks to enable the federal entities to achieve excellence in the indices of the digital government enablers and improve the quality of their digital services services and presence through:

updating the benchmarks of the indices of the digital government enablers and the measurement mechanism according to best international practices, the UN standards, and the new instructions of the UAE’s leadership
providing the federal entities with consultations on the digital transformation round the year
continuously supervising the work of the federal entities, the digital transformation plans for their services and the extent of their commitment to achieve these plans; additionally, raising proper reports and recommendations for the respective decision makers
holding meetings and awareness workshops with the federal entities regarding the indices of the digital government enablers and the digital transformation in general
monitoring and measuring the level of the federal entities' commitment to the indices of the digital government enablers
raising recommendations and developmental proposals to the federal entities regarding digital government enablers indices.

What are the digital government enablers?

The digital government enablers represent a comprehensive work system implemented by Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) under the supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office in Ministry of Cabinet Affairs. These enablers aim to measure and improve the level of customers’ experience in using digital services in the UAE.

TDRA monitors and measures the development of government entities digital services according to six indices/enablers which are carefully studied to achieve the national goals. These indices are:

percentage of digital transformation index
percentage of usage of digital services index
percentage of government services compliance with digital services quality indices
level of public awareness about digital services index
percentage of government websites’ compliance with government websites' quality indices
level of digital services compliance with integration index.

This system is part of the projects under the national plan to support digital government initiative. It seeks to ensure the pioneering role of the UAE in realising a digital government that makes the community happy with its fast services. These indices aim to raise the per cent of digital service users to 90 within two years and the satisfaction of the people as per the UAE Strategy for Government Services.

The evaluation team measures the level of digital transition of government services and their level of quality in order to ensure customer satisfaction with the provision of easy, simple and high-quality services. The team then measures the level of public awareness about these services in order to increase customers' awareness and ultimately the usage of these services.

Departments handling the digital government enablers

Following is a list of the departments which handle the digital government enablers. These departments may differ from one government entity to another according to the organisational structure and work mechanisms in each.

Strategy Department: This department is in charge of the strategic and operational indices in the respective federal entity and mandated to follow up the level of its achievement with other departments concerned.
Services Provision Department: This is the main department which is responsible for the development of the service and its procedures. Being in constant contact with customers and their needs, it works to ensure their satisfaction and the provision of easy, fast and simple services obtained through electronic/mobile channels.
Customer Happiness Department: This department receives customers who request the entity’s services. Being the front office which deals with variety of customers, it has a vital role in raising their awareness about electronic/mobile services and hearing their feedback about them. Other departments can utilise from the services of Customer Happiness Department in understanding customers’ needs and expectations.
Institutional Excellence Department: The Institutional Excellence team handles surveys to measure the degree of customers’ satisfaction. It provides the necessary support to the department concerned with the service and the Customer Happiness Department by analysing, observing and measuring the impact of marketing campaigns and the customers’ views in various matters.
Information Technology Department: It is the executive and technical advisory in the field of the development of electronic/mobile services which is based on the document about service requirements received from the department of the respective service.
Government Communication Department: This department has an executive and advisory role in the field of service awareness. It ensures the validity of the website’s content and services, as well as marketing and awareness of electronic/mobile services.

The entity responsible for each index

The responsibility of following up on the indices depends on the entity and the tasks of the respective department/section. In general, all departments have a role in all indices, including the departments referred to herein below:

Percentage of digital transformation of the government services

Main role: The department of the respective service + Information Technology team
Supporting role: Strategy + Excellence + Communication + Customers happiness teams

Percentage of digital government services usage index

Main role: The department of the respective service + Strategy + Information Technology teams
Supporting role: Government Communication + Customers Happiness + Institutional Excellence teams

Level of public awareness about the digital services index

Main role: The department of the respective service + Government Communication + Customers Happiness teams
Supporting role: Strategy + Institutional Excellence + Information Technology teams

Percentage of government websites’ compliance with digital websites quality index

Main role: Government Communication + Information Technology teams
Supporting role: Strategy + Customers happiness + Institutional Excellence teams + the departments of the respective services

Percentage of government service compliance with the quality of the digital services indices

Main role: The department of the respective service + Information Technology + Government Communication + Customers happiness teams
Supporting role: Strategy + Institutional Excellence teams

Percentage of usage of digital enablers

Main role: Government Communication + Information Technology teams
Supporting role: Strategy + Institutional Excellence teams

Innovation in the indices system

In line with the concepts of happiness and innovation introduced in the UAE, new methodology and mechanism have been established to monitor and measure the enablers of digital transformation for 2016.

The concept ‘Innovation degree’ was introduced to be applied to standards used for measuring the indicators of the enablers of digital government. This concept aims to motivate employees of the federal entities to think out of the box to provide the best services to the public. It also aims to collect innovative ideas to make customers happy and encourage them to use digital services.

The new mechanism aims to open the way for positive competition among federal entities to achieve excellence in providing digital services. It motivates them to innovate in applying standards used for measuring the indicators of the enablers of digital government.

Terminologies of the digital government enablers

The following table defines the most important terms used in assessing the indicators of the enablers of the digital government:

Term	Definition/Description
Enabler entity	It is the federal entity assigned by the UAE Cabinet to manage the standards of government enablers approved for the strategic planning of each cycle
Digital government pillar	It is the third of government enablers’ indicators for the strategic planning cycle used to measure digital government enablers.
Digital government enablers and indicators	They are strategic and operational indicators used to measure the maturity of digital services of federal entities and their ePresence. They include six indicators as follows: percentage of digital transformation index percentage of usage of digital services index percentage of government services compliance with digital services quality indices level of public awareness about digital services index percentage of government websites’ compliance with digital websites quality index level of the use of digital enablers
Scope of evaluation	It refers to official government electronic services and websites subject to evaluation under the approved indicators of the enablers of digital government.
Services worth digitizing	They are the most important and impactful services for government customers. Government entities must focus on these services while developing their programmes and projects. Priority services can be determined by conducting a feasibility study that takes into consideration the importance of the service, the number of customers using it, the number of annual transactions, and a comparison between the cost of transforming the service and the return of investment.
Evaluation Committee of digital transformation	A group of employees assigned by Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority, in its capacity as the enabler of digital government for strategic planning, who measure the level of commitment by the federal entities to apply the indicators of the enablers of digital government.
Evaluation committee	A group of officers assigned by TDRA, as enabling entity of the digital government aspects for strategic planning cycle, who review and verify the level of commitment of the federal entities to the application of the indicators of the enablers of digital government.
Audit team	A group of officers assigned by TDRA, as enabling entity of the digital government aspects for the strategic planning cycle, who review and verify the evaluation result of level of commitment of the federal entities to the application of the indicators of the enablers of digital government.
Arbitration committee	A joint committee between TDRA and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in charge of reviewing and responding to the entities’ complaints, based on the response of the audit and evaluation team.
Evaluation process	Measuring the level of federal entities commitment to apply the indicators of the digital government enablers.
Evaluation period	The time spent to evaluate the federal entities' commitment to apply the indicators of the digital government enablers.

Percentage of usage of digital enablers index

The ‘Percentage of usage of digital enablers’ index aims to lead federal entities to complete the integration of their government services with the support of digital government enablers. These enablers comprise joint digital government systems and infrastructure, which the federal government developed to facilitate connectivity and digital transformation in the UAE.

The index includes all the digital government enablers involved in enabling the federal entities to develop digital and proactive government services. Hence, while the federal entity is managing to provide digital services, it should apply a system that is compatible with these enablers, as indicated in the UAE’s ‘Digital Customer and Digital Government Service Policy’.

One of the enablers is the ‘service integration’ indicator. It includes the following three tracks:

1-Infrastructure - it is based on linking with FedNet as the main network for all local networks in the UAE.

2-Secure services – a secure service is based on the Single Sign-On (SSO) service that federal government entities need to connect to, so that users can access all government services through a single username and password. Secure services include:

UAE Pass
digital authentication feature
digital signature feature
digital stamp feature.

3-Services’ interconnection that includes:

Government Services Bus (GSB)
Digital Trust Platform
National Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
the smart data systems.

The whole integration operation is managed by Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA).