Author(s): SMEs Development Authority
Resource Type: Case studies
Countries: Oman
Keywords: Access to Information, E-Government, Public Sector Innovation, Inclusive Development, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence
Ask Raed
Source in Arabic: ENACT Case Study - Ask Raed, Oman
A new service channel was launched based on the "WhatsApp" application by Meta (formerly known as Facebook) to provide services to the public because of the widespread use of the "WhatsApp" application among various segments of society and age groups. The purpose is to facilitate access to government services, especially for older individuals who may have difficulty using mobile applications and websites.
To achieve this goal, the authority has developed a parallel system that relies on the "WhatsApp" application, under the name "Ra'id." This virtual persona interacts with speakers, provides services, sends electronic payment links, and receives the required documents. These documents are integrated directly into the government services system. In addition, the virtual persona offers services to obtain some official government documents by sending them directly to beneficiaries through the "WhatsApp" application.
Purpose
Provide a service delivery channel in the easiest possible way, without having to use additional applications, and especially for the elderly who have difficulty in learning new mobile applications.
Contributors/ Partners
- Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion
- Social Insurance Council
- Ministry of Labour
- Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology
- Oman Development Bank
Functions and/or Features
- Entrepreneurship card issuance and certificate document services.
- Small and Medium Enterprises registration document.
- Inquiry on commercial registration data.
- Query about individuals' data.
- Submission of complaints, suggestions, opinions, and inquiries.
- Requests for consultations, directions, marketing, commercial support, and information on loan data.
Outcomes, impacts & changes
- Faster implementation of services. The service that took five minutes takes less than two minutes.
- Diversity in the members of society who can interact with the easy service.
- Provision of an additional channel that attracts a large number of people.
- The return on investment was important and from the beneficiaries of the service.
Challenges
- Difficulty in adopting the applicant's credibility and confirming their identity. This was solved through the e-certification service provided by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology.
- Inability to determine the services requested through WhatsApp text without human intervention. The solution was through programming an artificial intelligence that is capable of automatically sorting requests and entering them into the service system.
- Difficulty in verifying attachments received through WhatsApp. The solution was based on artificial intelligence that uses image classification technology to automatically identify the type of attached files.
Lessons learned
Facilitating and simplifying government procedures would increase the number of service seekers and their categories, which would intern require more capabilities to serve more people.
