The Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) revealed four main projects at GITEX Technology week this year. All these initiatives are aligned with Dubai Smart City Strategy and aimed at simplifying operations and enhancing customer experiences.

 

As part of DAFZA Innovation Strategy to become the leading freezone in the world, the authority announced the first smart industrial freezone in applying smart customs, which will be operational by the first half of 2018. Talking about this new industrial freezone that will be located in Al Qusais, Buthaina Bin Fahad, Senior Director of Information and Communication Technology, DAFZA, said, “We signed an agreement with Dubai Customs to transform the whole custom procedures into smart operations. DAFZA is the first Freezone in the world to have such a centre. It will be a high tech hub which includes advanced solutions that seamlessly facilitate custom operations for companies.”

Human intervention won’t be needed in this smart centre that will provide security and customs services in an innovative and integrated manner that automates procedures around the clock.

Another progressing project is a comprehensive, integrated and interactive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to manage customers’ pre-and post its foundation. “We have partnered with Oracle to take our existing customer experience to a higher level. It is a closed solution that goes beyond the normal CRM. We have studied the complete customer journey from A to Z, since the moment they inquire about DAFZA up to termination,” Buthaina explained.

 

The system is characterized by high automation of services, rapid service delivery, high responsiveness, and the ability to anticipate and solve any problem affecting the experiences and happiness of DAFZA’s customers.

The CRM is expected to change current customers experience radically and result in more positive and interactive relations with customers.

For the first time as well, DAFZA showcased the all-new “SINAPIS” project designed to manage digital blockchain transactions. “DAFZA is the first freezone to adopt blockchain transactions. We are already progressing with this project. We started with licence renewal but we will keep on adding more services. This project is based on a new and smart technique for recording transactions and organizing data. It allows customers to drop the paperwork since it can accurately and quickly verify various papers and documents and support the necessary transactions to establish a business,” she noted.

The innovative project digitally connects the Authority’s ecosystem to provide customers with one window for all transactions with government agencies. It will improve customer experiences by ensuring high accuracy, ease of use, security, transparency and speed in the completion of transactions. SINAPIS features a smart, IBM-Bluemix designed platform to securely and permanently link complex transactions in the ecosystem and save data while ensuring their availability in more than one site, making data recovery and tracking more accurate and efficient.

Last but not least, Buthaina pointed out another project that the Freezone is working on. “We are also launching DAFZA Cloud in cooperation with DELL EMC.” DAFZA Cloud will serve as an enabling platform for existing and future ICT infrastructure, including increased operational efficiency and acceleration of all technical services, greater customer service and high-performance storage technology, plus disaster recovery system.

To conclude, Buthaina was confident to say that the latest initiatives announced by DAFZA are putting Dubai ahead of other global cities. “Dubai future establishment is motivating us to be proactive and come up with new initiatives. At DAFZA, we don’t wait for a new opportunity, we make it happen.”