Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 50 | Page 59

CASE STUDY T he Community Development Authority in Dubai (CDA) plays a vital part in the way the government of Dubai operates to help vulnerable groups. CDA has adopted state-of-the-art technologies to analyse the services it provides to customers and improve its communication with them. One of its noteworthy projects is ‘Masar,’ a smart application that enables communication with those registered with its empowerment programme. The application allows CDA’s empowerment management team to interact with customers and update them on training schedules and send reminders to attend job interviews and employment events. The application enables users to give feedback and follow up the implementation of CDA’s empowerment plan. Empowering people who are eligible for financial and social benefits is one of CDA’s key missions. As a result, CDA has identified financial empowerment as one of the best methodologies to enhance the financial security of low-income people. To achieve this, it has been conducting successful interventions, including training, as well as education and social support for the underprivileged, helping them acquire financial and other skills that significantly enhance their social and physical security. The Masar application enables easy communication with the participants of CDA’s empowerment programmes, following up on their files and helping determine the extent to which the plans set for them have been completed. This will ensure that customers stay informed and demonstrates a commitment to the success of their plans. CDA utilises a smart dashboard that tracks service delivery, providing daily reports on the status of services provided to all customers. This service helps the CDA’s top management to improve the quality of the services provided to the customers by taking necessary decisions on the development of social services, introducing new initiatives and by addressing the evolving needs of the members of the community. I AM CONFIDENT AI WILL ONLY INCREASE IN VALUE IN THE COMING YEARS. Intelligent CIO spoke to Yousef Mohammed Bin Lahej Al Falasi, a Director at CDA, about how the organisation is using IT to better deliver its services, the potential of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and the way CDA uses analytics. Tell me about the work of the CDA The CDA works with various vulnerable groups in Dubai, particularly senior citizens, widowed women, separated people, people with disabilities and those socially excluded. We are a government organisation created to bring forward social inclusion by providing various types of support services to them in accordance with their specific needs. In addition, we provide support to members of the community with low income and people that have been disabled, which prevents them from going back to work www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 59