The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA)
has become one of the pioneering regulatory bodies in the world to embrace
mobile technologies for various processes and services, which is an affirmative
step towards going paperless within a few years in to the future. In line with
efforts to realise this vision the regulator launched first of its kind mobile
app – SAMAE, an app developed by GCAA’s in house IT department as a smarter way
for stakeholders and customers to communicate with the authority. The GCAA is
also the first to use ipad to carry out safety audits. Mohammed Saeed AL Shehhi, IT Director, GCAA shares the details
of SAMAE and other technological developments happening at GCAA.
SAMAE is an Arabic word that means ‘My
Sky’; the name itself signifies the importance of swift services in a
continuously growing aviation industry. Speaking about the SAMAE App Shehhi
said, “The unique mobile app was designed after studying various markets
including Europe, GCC and other regions of the world. It was interesting fact to find that a
complete electronic service was not offered by any civil aviation authority.
Our department took up the task and we started development of electronic
services and full automation on the customer side and in the back office too.”
A customer can now check status of his
queries, and forward his applications online, and check details of his license
on palmtop with a touch on his mobile screen. Pilots can now access APIs and
even store them offline on their devices. The hybrid application can run on all
iOS and is also available in HTML and enables end to end transactions including
issuing, renewal and re issuance of Pilot, flight dispatcher, engineer, air
traffic controller and cabin crew licenses along with e-payment functionality.
The app also integrates attached services like medical fitness reports of
employees to be available for employers to view it, a first of its kind service
in the world, according to Shehhi. GCAA also has in-house services employees
with fully interactive HR system online with the help of SAMAE.
“Out of 184 e-services GCAA offers 41 are
already mobile and we hope to pack all the services in to the app by May 2015.
However, the broader vision of GCAA is to make all the information exchange
possible in cloud. GCAA has always led the technological innovation in the
region; the IT department has already gone paperless and has won the Green IT
Award recently. And within another 2 years whole GCAA processes will go online
and paperless. We are now doing away with fax machines and have moved to e-fax,
which can be accessed on mobile too. We are also planning to stop printing
paper in the future.
Looking in to the future GCAA is focusing
on the use of Business Intelligence, as most of the data is available in the
cloud already. Highlighting the ease of access and worthiness of data Shehhi
says, “We are now talking about the use business intelligence and making the processes
in the GCAA smart and swift. For example, if the Director General wants to see
the financial results for a given period or customer satisfaction index or
percentage of Emiratisation, he no more needs to go through time consuming meetings
and briefings, the data can be reviewed on his GCAA App dashboard. He just
needs to enter his credentials.”
Concluding his remarks Shehhi reiterated
that GCAA’s e-services platform is a one-stop solution for authorities, employees
and customers. And he also welcomed general public to check out the SAMAE app
so as to update their awareness. They can read all the e-publications and
public announcements. Also find the location of GCAA offices, and can connect
with GCAA complain and suggest.
No comments:
Post a Comment