The UAE has the second highest net perception of service improvement over the past two years globally and ranks first in terms of the highest levels of satisfaction for services in comparison to the private sector, a report said.

About 39.5 per cent more UAE citizens are using these services more often, according to the 2016 Digital Government Survey published by The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG), a global management consultancy.

UAE citizens rely more on digital government services

According to the survey, the UAE has witnessed a high degree of online service adoption with 39.5 per cent more UAE citizens increasingly relying on e-government services and accessing these services across multiple devices.

In fact, 89 per cent of users from UAE now use three or more devices to access online services and the weekly use of online government services has increased by 40 per cent since 2014. The most accessed and satisfactory e-government services include job search, information access and taxation, while IP registration and court interactions are least used.

“The proliferation of technology and digitalization of UAE citizens is evident, by the substantial increase of frequency of usage in digital government services when compared to 2014. The adoption of internet services has seen a particular high growth in wearable devices, which mirrors global trends. This points towards the need to advance and increase channels for citizens to access government service,” said Rami Mourtada, principal and digital transformation lead at BCG Middle East.

UAE is first in the region and fourth worldwide in service satisfaction

Nine in 10 UAE users believe that e-government services have improved over the past two years, with the country’s net satisfaction score improving by 21 points in the same period. The majority of users have experienced significant improvements in service the quality of e-government services, with the public sector vastly improving compared to private sector. These improvements have placed the UAE at the top of the region and the fourth worldwide after USA, Australia and the UK in net customer satisfaction.

There is high satisfaction when it comes to accessing real-time public information services amongst UAE citizens. The services that ranked highest in terms of satisfaction include accessing real-time public information services (77 per cent) and using e-gates at border control (76 per cent). UAE respondents are most dissatisfied with applying for or renewing a driver’s license (66 per cent) and registering or using a job search or employment service (65 per cent).

Young, low-income and part-time employed UAE respondents are the least satisfied customers of digital government services.

User Experience (UX) continues to fall short of the majority of UAE citizen’s expectations

In general, UAE users are satisfied with digital services across attributes, and no single service seems to be associated with presenting the most problems; having said that, 73 per cent of UAE users faced a problem while using e-government services.

The most pressing concerns for surveyed citizens were that the service they needed was not available online, the overall process was too long or difficult and they could not find what they needed. Among the most-used services, respondents faced the most problems with vehicle registration, with 23 per cent stating they did not have all the information or paperwork required.

Users are comfortable sharing personal information on government digital channels

UAE citizens are comfortable sharing personal information on government digital channels, motivated by efficiency benefits and improvement of services. Theft or loss of information and its misuse are seen as the biggest risk of sharing information digitally. UAE users generally agree with three privacy expectations – there should be an independent regulator enforcing standards around collection and use of personal data,  visibility on personal information access by organizations and the ability for citizens’ to seek compensation from organizations who misuse their information.

Key actions for the immediate future

“UAE must put forth key actions for the immediate future to improve its digital government offerings to citizens, and there are four key imperatives to consider,” said Mourtada.

“The first is to review the government digital strategy and develop a roadmap to meet demands for digital services; second, develop common standards for digital services across government bodies; third, establish a clear approach to improve satisfaction and perception of digital services across key user segments; and finally, strengthen and promote the regulatory environment overseeing the national digital infrastructure to build digital capabilities across citizen-facing government entities,” concluded Mourtada.

1. Review government digital strategy and develop a roadmap to meet the demand for digital services:

The UAE should identify high demand services of the future (independent of current functionality) and understand the gaps and functionality limitations of current digital services to develop a roadmap for the improvement of digitization for existing high demand services.

2. Develop common standards for digital services across government, focusing on:

Decreasing transaction time by decreasing the complexity of digital services and weeding out confusing design to reduce unnecessary steps; as well as improving usability and accessibility for faster and easier to use digital services including a clear design, and smooth user authentication with minimal requests for information.

3. Develop an approach to improve satisfaction for and perception of digital services across key user segments including youth, lower and middle income and part time employees:

Ensure that the services offered are relevant to these segments, provide access to key channels including smart TV, wearables and e-Readers, and communicate the benefits of using digital government services clearly, while simultaneously alleviating fears about user data sharing and security across government entities and services.

4. Strengthen and promote a regulatory environment that governs user privacy and user data security, including clear rights for government use and access of citizens’ data, government oversight of data, individual control over data sharing and compensation or penalties for the misuse of data. – TradeArabia News Service