Dubai Police Promote Community Outreach with RightFax, CallXpress and Infinite Mobile Delivery
BACKGROUND
A rag to riches story of mammoth proportions, Dubai is home to the primary port for the United Arab Emirates, the largest
dry docks in the world, multiple trade free zones and is the trading hub for the entire Persian Gulf. Dubai Police was set
up during the late 1960s. The modern police establishment became essential as a result of the societal development that followed
the discovery of oil.
Today, Dubai Police strive hard to make Dubai a safer place and believe that information flow between the force and the public
is vital. The Dubai Police actively encourage opinions, suggestions and comments from the public. What other police force
in the world have had their Web site and email address branded on each of their official vehicles since 2001?
The Challenge
Communication is good, but too much information can cripple an organization unless it can be filtered and managed effectively.
With over 700 employees at Dubai Police, over 2,000 land lines, countless mobile phones, 178 individual fax machines, group
and individual email addresses, and information coming from the public via their Web page, something had to be done.
Captain Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, E-Operations Department, who led the Dubai Police implementation team explains, “We leave
no stone unturned to make Dubai Police more efficient and more helpful to the people. Understanding that two-way communication
with the public is paramount for success, we have to be available 24/7. So, once we reached communication overload we realized
we could not turn the information away, but had to find a smarter way of dealing with it”.
There were a number of communication factors that are integral when talking about business information delivery for the Dubai
Police.
Of greatest importance is confidentiality. Captain Razooqi continues, “Confidentiality, especially of fax communications,
is vital in our area of service. Previously we had 178 fax machines, many serving just one individual, to ensure that the
appropriate people only saw a given message. The cost alone of 178 analogue lines, maintenance of those machines, and the
consumables they required was a large burden.”
Secondly, the Dubai Police force had a requirement to reduce the load on the receptionists so they could perform more productive
work. Before the Captaris installation, many points of contact were not available 24 hours a day as no voice mail existed
and a receptionist took all messages. People used to call and if their contact point was not available they would then call
the relevant mobile and keep calling until they reached the person.
Thirdly, employees traveling, often outside normal business hours, wanted access to their messages, even if the receptionist
was not there. The need to collect information and act on it in the police force can literally mean the difference between
life and death.
The fourth challenge that faced the Dubai Police was the Dubai government’s proactive encouragement to embrace their e-government
initiative. The Federal Government of UAE issued resolution (No. 631/1) on the development and implementation of e-government.
This project’s aim is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of administration and delivery of services in all government
entities. The first step was to issue all Dubai Police force employees with an individual email account, but Captain Razooqi
knew that their initiative could go even further.
Lastly, like many organizations, Captain Razooqi was under pressure to reduce costs. The expense of running multiple communication
channels over different hardware solutions was escalating and the Dubai Police were determined to find an immediate solution.
THE SOLUTION
Dubai Police jumped into technological innovation to unify their communications with RightFax enterprise fax and e-document
delivery, CallXpress voice mail and unified messaging, and Infinite Mobile Delivery server-based wireless solutions, all three
products by Captaris.
Choosing to implement these on a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 meant that Dubai Police gained reliable and secure business
information delivery solutions that enable their employees to maximize their productivity and communication efficiency.
RightFax is the proven market leader in enterprise fax and e-document delivery solutions. RightFax achieves significant cost
reductions for Dubai Police by integrating and automating the flow of a full range of fax, paper and electronic documents
and data from any application via fax, email, print devices or over the Internet.
CallXpress voice mail and unified messaging solutions provide Dubai Police office and mobile workers with centralized access
and management of voice, fax and email. CallXpress also gives Dubai Police a rich set of messaging features, regardless of
the PBX platform, providing employees with a reliable system that delivers significant productivity gains.
The Infinite family of server-based wireless solutions delivers secure and reliable access to any device, over any network
from any application. Infinite increases Dubai Police mobile workers productivity by reducing voice, fax and email message
retrieval time for mobile workers by 70 percent compared to traditional methods.
Together, these three solutions enable Dubai police to increase message confidentiality, increase employee efficiency, and
allow traveling staff to remain in control of their communications 24/7, surpassing Dubai’s e-government initiative expectations
and saving significant costs.
Implementation
Captain Razooqi highlights the risks that many technology implementers face, “When a new technology is integrated into Dubai
Police we have a number of concerns. First, we look at disruption to the employees and their workflow. Second, we critically
examine how the new system will fit in with existing systems. Third, we insist on local support and vendor presence”.
The Dubai Police did not want to encounter any hidden costs for staff re-training. The chosen business information delivery
solution had to be manageable for their users via their extensive Microsoft based knowledge.
“Our users choose to use Microsoft Outlook 2000, they enjoy the features it offers, and know how to maximize their productivity
with the tools available,” Captain Razooqi explained, “Choosing the Microsoft compliant Captaris solution meant there were
no additional training requirements”.
The actual system requisite for this solution needed to fit with the existing Microsoft server cluster. A migration away from
PBX technology towards the installed and reliable Microsoft Windows 2000 server meant the IT department had added control.
The CallXpress open architecture and tight integration with the Microsoft environment provided the decision makers peace of
mind. Additionally, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server offered the capabilities to support unlimited message databases, Exchange
2000 provided a reliable, scalable messaging collaboration environment that has the capacity to deliver secure messaging capabilities
to recipients inside and outside the organization.
The installation was completed with three on-site parties lead by the Dubai Police implementation team. The two main vendors
involved in this project, Captaris and Microsoft, both have local offices in Dubai. ITQAN, a well-established and reputed
e-services solution provider in the government sector carried out the installation. The combined technology and expertise
of all three companies provided the support and commitment that Dubai Police were looking for.
ITQAN trained the administration staff at the Dubai Police force to ensure that all users could efficiently utilize the Captaris
solutions. ITQAN are also providing the ongoing technical support to ensure that RightFax, CallXpress and Infinite Mobile
Delivery provide the Dubai Police the full functionality they require.
Captain Razooqi said, “Every implementation has one overriding goal. I am delighted to report that this project was completed
on time, within budget. ITQAN made that possible. They worked as one integrated team with our internal implementation team
to make this installation as smooth as possible”.
Exceeding Customer Expectations
“People around here are very happy using it,” Captain Razooqi summarized. “We now have access to messages at anytime, using
different channels from wherever we are. We can call in to listen to emails or voice messages and login on our mobile phone
to access messages. We get our faxes forwarded to any fax machine and accessing all is possible on the Web.
“We are able to respond to important messages in a very short period of time – especially emails. People know you are out,
but send you emails and are surprised when you respond quickly or with a voice reply. No more telling customers, ‘I will reply
to you when I am back in the office.’ If I have an urgent message, CallXpress calls me on my mobile phone and I take action
immediately.
“We can also receive SMS text messages as notification of messages. What else can we ask for to be responsive? We have all
the tools,” he added.
By implementing RightFax over DID lines, individual fax messages are delivered with 100% confidentiality to the desired recipient.
Not only is this an increase in confidentiality from traditional fax machines, it also facilitates quicker delivery (no waiting
for employees to pass reception or internal delivery), and there is a huge cost saving after removing over 100 analogue lines,
a similar number of fax machines and their upkeep/maintenance.
RightFax has been an elegant solution to save the time and excessive cost of manual faxing and distributing over 1,000 faxes
a day. It is estimated by Captain Razooqi that office administration is now 70% more productive. Additionally, information
sent to Dubai Police by fax is now accessible 24 hours a day.
CallXpress is presently being used by 100 users in Dubai Police and in itself reduced the load on the receptionists, enabling
them to focus on more productive work. Users have 24-hour access to their messages, which is vital as at any given time one
fifth of those users will be out of the office.
Captain Razooqi reports, “Driving home, in a taxi or simply being away from your desk, you can now be productive – we estimate
40% more productive. Messages are business information; we cannot afford to neglect them.”
RESULTS
Dubai government has an e-government initiative across all government departments. The real basic component is to provide
all employees with their own email mailbox.
Captain Razooqi stated, “Integration of all voice, email and fax messages in one place is for us a natural evolution and was
considered another component of the e-government initiative. Increased productivity, better community service and responsiveness
are all benefits of the Dubai Police e-government initiative. Implementing CallXpress, RightFax and Infinite Mobile Delivery
on a Microsoft platform helped us achieve that”.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Captaris is a leading provider of business information delivery solutions that integrate and automate the flow of messages,
data and documents. Captaris produces a suite of proven products and services, in partnership with leading enterprise software
companies, delivered through a global distribution network. Captaris has over 100,000 systems installed worldwide, with more
than 90 of the Fortune 100 using the company's award-winning products and services to reduce costs and increase the performance
of critical business information investments. For more information please contact us at: www.Captaris.com or call Captaris Dubai: +971 4 390 0280.
ABOUT MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal
and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great
software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft opened its Dubai-based Middle East office in 1991, headquartered
at Dubai Internet City and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s business in the region, covering UAE, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Malta, Egypt and Pakistan. Microsoft Corporation's address on
the World Wide Web is: www.microsoft.com. Microsoft Middle East's Web site is: www.microsoft.com/middleeast. For further information please contact: Aimee Peters, PR Manager, Microsoft South Gulf, i-aimeep@microsoft.com.
ABOUT ITQAN
Established in the United Arab Emirates in 1984, Al Bawardi Computers has progressed quickly to become the regions leading
e-enabler. In 1997, Al-Bawardi Computers, became ITQAN - taking on a new name, which literally translates to mean “excellence”
in Arabic, and a new mission statement to become a totally customer led organization with a passion for quality. Today, ITQAN’s
customer focus and commitment to quality have been recognized in the form of the ISO9001 Certification, the Dubai Quality
Appreciation Award, and the recent Middle East Information Technology Award, as the IT Company of the Year.
ITQAN’s mission is to provide Quality e-solutions to its Institutional clients by means of integrating business processes
with Information and People. For more information, please contact ITQAN at www.itqan.ae or call +971 2 676 7666.
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