Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) achieved the top position across Dubai Government in implementing the Dubai Paperless Strategy, for the second consecutive time. This underlines DEWA’s commitment to the vision and directives of the wise leadership in the shift towards a smart government. DEWA has cut its paper usage by 82% in the Large Entities category, which uses more than 10 million sheets of paper annually.
"We work in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that the smart government goes to the people and does not wait for them to come to it. We also follow the directives of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, to transform the Government of Dubai into a fully digital government and build an integrated, paperless government framework. This is part of the Dubai Paperless Strategy, launched by His Highness to stop using paper in all internal and external transactions and with customers by December 2021. DEWA contributes to Dubai’s leadership of the future by reshaping traditional concepts of work mechanisms to cope with the rapid developments taking place in the world and promote Dubai as an incubator for creativity and innovation. I commend the efforts of Smart Dubai and its collaboration with all government organisations in Dubai to achieve the objectives of the Dubai Paperless Strategy," said Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA.
"We are proud of DEWA’s second consecutive achievement in this area. We have cut paper usage by 82% and are working to reach 100%. DEWA was one of the first government organisations to complete its digital transformation in 2014. This was less than one year after His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had launched the Smart Dubai initiative to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world. Today, 95% of DEWA’s customers use its smart services, and we expect this to reach 100%. All of DEWA’s services are available through several smart channels. We have managed to change the culture of customers and staff to rely on smart and digital services, instead of paper. This saves time and effort as well as protects the environment and saves natural resources. Our efforts to make customers happy have resulted in our obtaining the first place in the 2019 Dubai Customer Happiness Index by The General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Dubai with 90.1%. DEWA also achieved 95.7% in the Smart Dubai Happiness Index," added Al Tayer.
Key factors that contributed to DEWA achieving the highest percentage in cutting paper transactions across the Government of Dubai is its smart app, which provides all DEWA services and is compatible with most platforms. Another factor is DEWA’s website, which offers a seamless experience for users, enabling them to access all services and information, as well as help them complete all their transactions efficiently. DEWA’s services are also available through Rammas, its virtual employee, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to respond to customers’ enquiries in English and Arabic. It is available on DEWA’s website and smart app, Facebook page, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and WhatsApp Business. Rammas has responded to 3.5 million enquiries and requests since its inception in Q1 of 2017.