In line with the Smart Dubai 2021 vision, Smart Dubai announced a strategic partnership with Software AG to accelerate Smart Dubai’s aspiration to make Dubai the happiest city on Earth by 2021. The partnership will leverage innovation technology to launch a multi-function iPaaS webMethods, Integration Platform as a Service, technology powered platform. The new offering will interconnect Dubai wide government entities and key private sector systems and processes to deliver the city’s commitment to boost UAE’s economy.

Key initiatives launched by Smart Dubai include the Dubai Data Initiative, Dubai Blockchain Strategy, Dubai AI Roadmap, Dubai IoT Strategy, Digital Wealth Initiative and most recently the Dubai Paperless Strategy.

The new partnership is in line with Smart Dubai’s key strategic objectives to harness digital innovation by fully embracing technology and to create a 100% paperless and digitised government that fosters smart living in 2021. Palmira Software House, a long term partner of Software AG will work closely with the global solutions provider to deliver this project successfully.

HE Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General, Smart Dubai said: “Dubai is undergoing a progressive technological transformation that aims to see it as the happiest city on Earth by 2021, as per the vision and directive of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. By ensuring we enhance the wellbeing and satisfaction of all Dubai’s citizens, residents and visitors, we create the right environment to improve the city’s ranking across a whole host of other metrics, including its ease of conducting business, which will boost the Emirate’s economy.”

Talking about the partnership she added: “Smart Dubai is delighted to partner with Software AG for this digital transformation project, which goes a long way towards helping the city meet its technology transformation goals. It does this by connecting multiple government organisations and key private sector firms and by simplifying processes for citizens, residents, tourists, students, investors and business visitors in Dubai. It is through forging such strategic and mutually beneficial relationships that Smart Dubai is able to maintain its position at the forefront of digital transformation in the global arena,” Her Excellency added.

HE Wesam Lootah, CEO of Smart Dubai Government Establishment confirmed: “We are only two years from realising our ambitious strategy and are thrilled to be partnering with Software AG to accelerate our transformation. Software AG’s expertise in customer intimacy and seamless integration make them the right partners for us to serve our residents, visitors, businesses and families and deliver a superior, personalised city experience – cornerstone of our strategy.”

Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO of Software AG said, “Smart Dubai is a global benchmark for smart city development and we are proud to play a major role in this strategic initiative. As the hidden engine to Dubai’s digital drive, we look forward to offering a robust platform that supports real-time integration and joining the city’s commitment to deliver a seamless, safe and personalised experience to its people.”

Commenting on the announcement, Jamal Al Mahamid, CEO Palmira Software House, Regional Premier Partner of Software AG stated, “Palmira Software House is honored to be the implementer of the iPaaS, Integration Platform as a Service, technology that will accelerate Dubai’s Paperless 2021 strategy through the deployment, thereby reiterating Dubai’s vision as the frontrunner for worldwide excellence in public services.”

“This is the most challenging project for us to date. Our collaboration promises seamless implementation and supports real-time integration with the goal of minimal disruption, providing citizens with an enhanced overall experience supported on this robust platform for the Dubai Government. Naturally, we are excited to play a key role in this strategic initiative,” exclaimed Al Mahamid.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President& Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched the Smart Dubai Initiative in 2013 with a vision of making Dubai the happiest and smartest city on Earth. The Smart Dubai Office was formed in 2015 to oversee Dubai’s smart transformation and accomplish the leadership’s vision. Collaborating with government and private sector partners, Smart Dubai is consistently adopting latest technological innovations to provide more efficient, seamless, safe and personalised city experiences for residents and visitors. Since its establishment, Smart Dubai has launched a series of initiatives and strategies to achieve its vision and help Dubai become a global benchmark for smart city development.

Governments around the world face huge political, economic and social change. But in the middle of all this change are their citizens. And yet only the bold few are rolling out digital agendas that offer people all the advantages of a modern administration. The city of Dubai is one. Its 2021 strategy is spun out of the UAE 2071 vision: to be the world’s leading nation. And a prime candidate for transformation is The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs – Dubai (GDRFAD).

One of the busiest agencies, GDRFAD offers 600 different services and operates with 10 other service providers. But in 2017 it was slow and unresponsive. The business architecture prevented it from reinventing itself. And three disparate units were managingrisk and compliancein anything other than a unified way. “We wanted to be more agile in responding to demands received by 42 departments and to achieve our goal of improving our smart, intelligent and responsive services,” says Major Khalid Bin Mediah, Deputy Director of the Smart Services Department.

A giant digital step for Dubai

That same year, a big stride forward was taken with local partner Palmira Software House LLC. The team knew exactly what needed to happen to see GDRFAD through its digital transformation. The agency needed to align IT to the new direction through a “business layer,” set up anagile enterprise architecture, create a process management flow to help the agency respond quicker, implement an API-based service portfolio management, digitalize and consolidate the compliance process and—perhaps most importantly for an ambitious leadership team—monitor and track their goal attainment in real time. Only one software house, with a regional presence as well, could get the job done: Palmira called in Software AG.

A new architecture with ARIS and Alfabet

A major issue was the divide between IT and the business. Director of Applications Captain Amer bin Adhed Almehairi says; “Our IT department needed a clear view of the organization’s architecture to go from ‘as-is’ to ‘future’ and we needed one robust solution to do it.” Using Software AG’s ARIS, GDRFAD started off by gathering raw data on everything relating to how the business worked. The turnaround was fast. GDRFAD was able to capture their current business architecture and roll out the new one in just eight months. From strategy, services, processes, organizational structure and customer journeys—they did it all. These could then be monitored usingprocess governanceworkflows. And here a low hanging fruit was discovered.

Exposing service updates on the web through ARIS API

During the implementation, GDRFAD discovered other features in ARIS, such as the potential to integrate with the multiple websites that GDRFAD operated. Brigadier Hussain Ibrahim came up with an innovative idea to save time and automate service updates. He explains: “Given that all services details were captured and maintained in ARIS, and governed through process governance, I figured we could directly link those services with our websites to automate and expose service updates to the public and guarantee a single repository for changes.” Palmira took on the challenge and implemented it using the ARIS API interface with no additional effort from the IT or business teams.

A real-time picture of the IT landscape with Enterprise Architecture Management

While the business architecture was taking shape, Software AG’s Alfabet was being put to use elsewhere. A team of 20 got to work reviewing current application and infrastructure architecture. Alfabet gave them a crystal clear view. Captain Amer Bin Adhed says of the experience: “During my career I’ve implemented multiple projects—but Alfabet was different. This project changed the culture in GDRFAD, and changing culture is not an easy task. With Alfabet we successfully identified most of our application portfolio, infrastructure and business layer. And we were able to retire some applications, servers and other artifacts.”

Risk management becomes “joyful”

Meanwhile, glowing reports were also coming out of the Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) division. Previously preoccupied with manually updating key risk indicators, identifying internal control measures, as well as capturing incidents and issues—a whole new world of synchronization had suddenly opened up to them. “With ARIS for risk & compliance management and process management, our compliance plans were all synched,” says Hanan Al Marzogi. Captain Mohamed Al Merri added: “Risk management became a joyful process.”
Across the three units, a demand management workflow was established using Alfabet. Not only were the team able to cut costs, they eliminated duplication by consolidating audit plans and synchronizing with other departments.

Unleashing the value in digital transformation

Just two years in, GDRFAD is a lean, mean digital machine. And they can prove it: Alfabet allows IT management to see exactly how their applications, capabilities and business processes are all linked. It gives them a real-time picture of their IT landscape where they can identify lifecycles and understand the pipeline in terms of financials and strategy. And ARIS has literally unified IT and the business for a single source of truth. Ultimately, the agency’s mission has been accomplished. “At GDRFAD we are indeed using one platform to understand business and IT and manage our internal controls, governance and audit plans,” says Noora Ayoub from the GRC department. And as Dubai and the UAE push past imagination to build future governments, these achievements will not go unnoticed.

Software AG, a global leader in enterprise architecture, IT planning, business process management, integration and big data, recently signed an agreement with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA) to assist them in the digital transformation of immigration operations. The memorandum was signed by Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO, Software AG; Major General Obaid Muhair bin Suroor, Deputy Director, GDRFA-Dubai and Dr. Abdulqader Al Khayat, Chairman of Palmira Software House LLC during a ceremony held at Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm, with an aim to drive co-innovation together to support Dubai’s digital transformation goals in immigration business.

Through its partnership with Palmira Software House, a consulting and technology firm that carries out strategic implementation of its products in the region, Software AG will help GDRFA-Dubai harness the full potential of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain in enhancing business operations.

The strategic MoU will also pave the way for further interactions between GDRFA and Software AG, strengthening its hold as the leading software company in the region and showcasing continuous support to the Dubai Government in their digital transformation journey.

Nasri Nassereddine, Regional Territory Manager, Software AG, said: “The latest partnership with GDRFA reflects Software AG’s commitment to continuously supporting the government in accelerating the UAE’s digital transformation, thereby playing a role in the achievement of the targets set by the National Agenda for UAE Vision 2021. Digital transformation will open up a lot of possibilities in enhancing and simplifying immigration business, while also making processes significantly convenient to the end users.”

Major Khalid Bin Mediya Al Falasi, Assistant General Director of Smart Services, GDRFA-Dubai, said: “Our partnership with Software AG is aimed at harnessing the full potential of the ongoing digital revolution, particularly artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain. We believe that the adoption of latest and innovative technologies will effectively address our growing business needs and are confident that Software AG’s expertise and capabilities will add immense value to our growth and development strategies.”

Dr. Abdulqader Al Khayat, Chairman of Palmira Software House, said: “As Software AG’s trusted partner, we are proud to be associated with this project, which is aimed at accelerating Dubai’s smart transformation aspirations. Palmira remains committed to delivering exceptional services while adhering to highest professional standards.”

Rami Kichli, Vice President, Software AG – Gulf and Levant region; Philippe La Fornara – President, EMEA (Excl. DACH) – Software AG; Jonathan Heywood, Senior Business Assistant to the CEO; Nasri Nassereddine, Regional Territory Manager Software AG; Major Khalid Bin Mediya Al Falasi, Assistant General Director of Smart Services in GDRFA-Dubai; Brigidir General Hussein Ibrahim, Assistant General Manager of Corporate Support Sector; Dr. Abdulqader AlKhayat, Chairman of Palmira Software House LLC; Mr. Mohammed Al Sulty, Principle Consultant, Palmira Software House and Principle Architecture, Eng. Soliman Agha, were present during the ceremony.

Digital Dubai Joins Forces with Software AG & Palmira to Empower Government Entities via Dubai iPaaS Framework

Digital Dubai signs MoU to enable Government Entities to manage Integration Capabilities

26th October 2023, UAE: Digital Dubai has forged a strategic partnership with global technology leader Software AG (Frankfurt MDAX: SOW), and regional implementation partner Palmira Software House to offer the Dubai Integration Platform as a Service (Dubai iPaaS) framework across Dubai Government Entities to provide a tailored and cost-effective solution for their integration needs. The partnership represents a significant step towards Dubai’s Digital City goals and aligns well with the UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025, which emphasizes the integration of digital aspects into government strategies.

The announcement was made during an official MoU signing ceremony at GITEX Global 2023 between H.E. Matar AlHemeiri, Chief Executive, Digital Dubai Government Establishment, one of the entities under the Digital Dubai umbrella; Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, Middle East and Turkey, Software AG, and Jamal AlMahamid, CEO, Palmira Software House LLC.

With the introduction of this advanced iPaaS framework, government entities in Dubai will gain independence and control over their integration processes. This empowerment over their data enables them to efficiently address their integration requirements, marking a significant enhancement in their digital capabilities.

Dubai iPaaS framework, is a flexible unified offering, pioneered by Digital Dubai, which plays a central role in advancing Dubai’s digital city aspirations. In alignment with these goals, Digital Dubai’s primary mission is to create seamless and accessible digital pathways for resident and visitors, thereby contributing to Dubai’s stature in the digital economy.

 H.E. Matar AlHemeiri, Chief Executive, Digital Dubai Government Establishment, Digital Dubai, said: “Our stated mission, at Digital Dubai, is to digitalize every aspect of life for Dubai’s citizens, residents, and visitors, cementing the emirate’s reputation as a pioneer in digital transformation and digital city applications. Dubai iPaaS is a powerful tool that plays a critical role in achieving these ambitious objectives, as it allows for seamless and easy-to-build integrations among all government entities. It also offers enhanced security, access control, a dedicated threat-protection layer, and centralized governance, among many other features, and the agreement we have signed with Software AG & Palmira truly sets the stage for us to take the system to the next level.”

Rami Kichli, Senior Vice President, Middle East and Turkey, Software AG “Digital Dubai is recognized globally for setting standards in innovation and technology advancement. We’re pleased to expand our partnership with Digital Dubai and our valued regional implementation partner, Palmira Software House, to pioneer the Dubai iPaaS framework. This initiative underscores our commitment to actively contribute to Dubai’s transformative and innovative landscape, resulting in an elevated quality of life for residents and visitors, achieved through effortless and accessible digital journeys. Through this framework, we empower government entities to efficiently address their evolving integration needs, contributing to Dubai’s vision of becoming a global leader in the digital economy.”

Jamal AlMahamid, CEO, Palmira Software House said: “Our enduring partnership with Software AG in serving Digital Dubai has reached another milestone as we facilitate the Dubai iPaaS framework. We are pleased to play an active role in Dubai’s path to becoming a globally leading Digital City. We look forward to facilitate this digital transformation by providing a digital foundation for the city’s development, fostering innovation, and enhancing the overall digital experience for its citizens.”

The partnership will provide government entities with cost-effective access to a secure, integrated framework, that boosts agility and ensures consistent performance. Powered by Software AG’s webMethods Integration and API Management Platform, the initiative facilitates scalable, resilient, and data-driven experiences for citizens, residents, tourists, students, investors, and businesses. Together, they strive to establish a reliable digital system that enhances the digital economy and empowers a digitally driven society.

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About Software AG

Software AG simplifies the connected world. Founded in 1969 it helps deliver the experiences that employees, partners and customers now expect. Its technology creates the digital backbone that integrates applications, devices, data and clouds; empowers streamlined processes; and connects “things” like sensors, devices and machines. It helps 10,000+ organizations to become a truly connected enterprise and make smarter decisions, faster. The company has more than 5,000 employees across more than 70 countries and annual revenue of over €830 million.

For more information, visit www.softwareag.com. And follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Palmira Software House LLC

Palmira is a trusted technology partner with extensive experience in serving organizations across the EMEA region for more than a decade. With offices located in the UAE, KSA, Jordan, and Portugal, Palmira has established strong industry ties and possesses technical expertise that allows them to consistently deliver best-of-breed solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of their customers.

For more information, visit www.palmira-itc.com. And follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.