Targeting Results: Lessons Learned from UAE National ID Program

ISSN: 2249-1945
Ali M.Al-Khouri et al, GJCAT, Vol 2 (1), 2012, 830-836

Ali M. Al-Khouri

Abstract: Many governments around the world have compared to other biometric systems and hence the
invested inestimably in modernizing their identity maturity of the overall technology, did not take into
management systems to enable more complex and secure consideration higher levels of customer or service
forms of identification. However, these programs have satisfaction since the intended users were in forensic and
been challenged to achieve their desired targets due to
police jurisdictions. Therefore, and based on the
several factors; political, organizational, technical, etc. This
article presents the strategy adopted in one of the major biometrics and verification procedures, the registration
programs in the Middle East region launched in 2003, and process can be time consuming and inconvenient. A well
key challenges that were identified and addressed during thought through enrolment plan that captures an
the course of implementation to achieve its strategic understanding of population demographics and cultural
objectives. It also presents some key management elements, and follows a modular approach of gradual
consideration areas for the purpose of sharing knowledge registration based on geographical distribution and other
and experience in the field. segmentation factors, is likely to yield more successful
results. This article presents a case study of the process
1. Introduction followed to develop an enrolment plan to register the
population of the United Arab Emirates. It touches upon
Governments around the world have been very much a broader organizational scope, and presents essential
attracted to modern identity management systems; more lessons learned and important building blocks for
specifically national ID programs [1]. These programs government officials working in this field. Though the
are globally justified on the basis of building an identity project size and targeted population is considered
management system to achieve primarily two objectives: relatively small in comparison to other countries, the
support national security and improve access to services presented processes and overall thoughts are believed to
[2]. More than 30 countries have initiated smart ID card contribute and advance existing knowledge.
programs in the last decade with a total value of those
projects exceeding $100 billion. In fact, India has 2. UAE National ID Program
launched recently its project with a total value of around
$33.5 billion. Besides, more than 15 countries are in the The UAE national ID program was launched in 2003 to
process of upgrading their current ID cards to biometric build a federal identity management system for the
based systems such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, country. The government relied primarily on a social
USA, etc. GCC countries have been among the first marketing strategy to enroll the population and its
countries to launch biometric based smart ID card copious developed strategies only succeeded to enroll
initiatives. Due to nature and complexity of such less than 20% of the total population over a 5 year
schemes, these initiatives have been challenged to meet period. This represented a challenge to overcome and a
its specified projects scope, timelines, and budgets [3]. difficulty to justify the heavy budget expenses and no
Our observations of national ID card programs overall clear return on investment (ROI) upshots. Altogether,
show that many countries are struggling with the this forced the government to go through muscular
enrolment of population in their ID schemes. Apart from change process to address this problem area.
the technical complexity of such projects, the most
significant challenge lies in the fact that these programs A four-staged change process was developed to guide the
include biometric acquisition which entails the presence change implementation, as depicted in Figure 1 below.
of individuals. Some countries capture only two The change process was instigated to enact an
fingerprints, others capture a full set of fingerprints organizational mindset change with the aim of
including palm prints and writers, while others use a developing a service driven and result oriented
variety of biometric identification systems such facial, organization. It also aimed to increase accountability,
iris, and fingerprints. The practice of biometric improve efficiency, overall performance and high quality
acquisition was previously limited to forensic and services.
traditional law enforcement applications. For obvious
reasons, developments of systems like fingerprints

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Identify the Change
Prepare for Change Make the Change Make it Sustainable
Requirements

Stage I Stage II Stage III Stage IV
High Level Planning Design & Detailed Planning Implementation Stabilization

Understand the drivers, and Design a realistic solution Implement the operational Stabilize change and
develop the high level along with a plan and gain and resulting organizational implement continuous
processes and build the case commitment to change change effectively improvement
for change
Figure 1: Change management program components

The initial phase of the change process dealt with the Identification
identification of the change requirements and building Transaction and authentication Population Enrolment
the overall case for change. The second phase was more services
of a planning phase, and included detailed assessment of
the impact of change to the overall program. The third Data Trans-
phase was about implementing the change according to action
the plan, and the fourth was more of an improvement and Population Data
sustainability stage. The outcome of the first phase was Population Enrolment
Data Transactions
the development of an operating model that captured the Enrolment
fundamental and evolving functions of the program. It
provided the foundation and flexibility required to
execute the program initiatives. As depicted in Figure 2,
the primary function that needed to be addressed at first Figure 2: The operating model – shift in core operations
was population enrolment. As the project progresses, the over time
function of enrolment will shrink down to become less Another outcome of the first phase was the development
than 20% of the overall operation. The program role will of the core pillars of strategic directions that would
turn gradually into a service delivery function related to determine the success of the overall program. See also
authentication and identification. This model is Figure 3. They were later used in the development
considered to be a valuable knowledge to existing process of the corporate strategy and the design of the
literature in the field, as it is generic and applicable to all consequent initiatives. These pillars included:
ID card programs.

to develop secure and robust infrastructure to support Governmental
electronic services, in relation to the validation and authentication of
online identities in electronic transactions.
develop strategies to increase population enrolment,
that incorporates marketing, outreach, program, and
staff development efforts to increase enrolment in an
effective manner.
keeping the population register database timely updated, is essential to
the overall success of the program. Connecting to the databases of
to become a customer focused organisation, and
"data owners" is therefore inevitable. Six government entities were
complement enrolment strategy through renewed
identified: (1) Ministry of Interior: immigration; (2) Health Ministry:
attention to the customers' interface with the
birth and death; (3) LabourMinistry (4) Justice: marriage and divorce;
organisation.
(5) Education, and (6) Higher Education.

Figure 3: The core pillars of strategic directions

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3. The emerging enrolment strategy
Figure 4: Cost and revenues
4. The New Enrolment Strategy
8.2 M

Total Population
Linking
Business Process Registration at
registration with
4.1 M Re-engineering Labour camps
residency
& Optimization through Ministry
permits
of Labour
950,000
procedures
825,000

2010 Census 2005 Census
Figure 5: Focus themes of the new enrolment strategy
Figure 3: UAE total population
As indicated earlier, the previous enrolment strategy
adopted in the organization was a marketing based. The
According to the original enrolment strategy, it was
fundamental thinking that guided the development of the
envisaged that a total of 5 million people will be
new enrolment strategy was to follow a process driven
registered by the end of 2010. However, the national
approach. The principles of this approach were based on
census revealed that the population in the UAE has
the relationships between business processes that would
grown to over 8 million in 2010 (see also Figure 3). A
promote public participation. The new strategy consisted
study conducted to evaluate and forecast enrolment,
of three main focus themes as depicted in Figure 5, and
showed that it would take more than 10 years to register
discussed next.
the population with existing enrolment rates. Another
factor that forced the development of a new enrolment
strategy was the increasing financial cost to the
organization and reprehensible revenues. Figure 4 shows 4.1 The new process: Reengineering of the enrolment
that the cost of the card have gone up more than 30% process
higher than the fees paid by the applicants, as the cost of
the card is dependent on specific annual registration.
This meant that for each card, the organization issued, it
lost around $68. In fact, it was needed to produce 1.6
million cards a year to make the breakeven point, and as
depicted in Figure 4. All together, these factors forced
the organization to rethink its value proposition, and
rework the overall enrolment strategy, which is discussed
next.

Figure 6: New registration process

The new process divided the registration into three
segregated functions, see also Figure 6. More than 3000
typing centers in the government were equipped with a
new application form that allowed them to key-in
personal information, scan in documents, scan in photos
for those below 15's, and accept payments, and
automatically generate appointments to applicants. All

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these functions apart from the application form were centre for medical check up and go through the ID card
previously done at registration centers. Registration registration office for portrait and biometric acquisition.
centers new role was limited to do portrait and biometric Upon the acceptance of the issuance/renewal of
acquisition only. This implied an 8-10 minute process residency permit, the immigration database at the
compared to 20 to 25 minute previously. Applicants' Ministry of Interior, electronically notifies the ID card
data is then transferred electronically to the internal data database, which will trigger card printing request, and
audit office (back office) which verifies the complete dispatch it to the applicant through a registered courier.
dossier against the Ministry of Interior's database, and For the purpose of unification, ID card validity is linked
authorizes or rejects applications. The new process made with the residency permit. It is envisaged that once the
more than half of the previous procedures invisible to the process is streamlined, and reached to a satisfactory
applicants, as they were shifted to either back end or level, the residency sticker and labor card will be
typing centers. The new process also had a great impact replaced with the ID card, as a single identity document
on the existing registration centers layout. The new for residents.
process was considered as a one stop shopping office,
and allowed higher capacity in terms of enrolment rates,
and space utilization.

4.2 Linking registration with immigration procedures
The second focus theme of the enrolment strategy was to
link the ID registration with the issuance and renewal of
residency permits. Taking into consideration that the
maximum validity of residency permits is 3 years, then it
was assumed that all residents will be enrolled in this
timeframe given that all registration sites are operational.
In order to make the process more convenient to the
applicants, new registration centers were envisaged to be
built near existing preventative medicine centers;
responsible to issue medical fitness certificates to
complete the residency procedures. According to
statistics, there were around 9,000 to 15,000 daily
transactions of new and renewal of residencies in the Figure 7: process of registration merged with
UAE. This process merge between ID card and immigration processes
residency permit, was envisaged to enforce and increase
the daily registration rate remarkably. It was also noted
in this focus area, that the residents during their 4.3 Labor Registration
application for issuance and renewal of residency permits
fill different application forms for different entities, e.g., The third focus theme is the registration of labor
immigration form, labor form, and ID card form. population through mobile registration devices at labor
Comparing the three forms, it was fond that they were campus or their workplaces. This will relax the traffic at
almost identical. It was then decided to merge the three existing registration centers. Existing statistics refer that
forms to be a unified form for the three entities, besides the UAE has around two million unskilled labor
the preventative medicine which also issues separate population. The registration of this category was
forms. This step would contribute to prevent double planned with the Ministry of Labor to ensure prompt
implementation of such procedures and promote data registration and enforcement through their employing
accuracy. The new 3+1 form will also include the companies. Statistics also show that large number of
feature of central fees collection for all four entities, labor camps have been developed in the past five years,
payable at typing centers. The fees will be automatically with average residents in those camps ranging from
transferred to the beneficiary authorities through an 5,000 to 50,000 people.
electronic clearance system.
Having presented the components of the enrolment
4.2.1 Registration Process strategy, the next two sections will briefly discuss the
The registration process starts with the applicant or a three remaining pillars of the strategic directions
representative visiting the typing centre to fill the unified presented in section 2.
application form. The form will also include the new
functionalities described in section (4.1). Applicants
aged 15 and above will go to the preventative medicine

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5. Integration with Key Organizations next section presents some key management
One of the most strategic objectives of building an consideration areas that require management attention.
identity management system in the UAE was to make a 8. Management Considerations
central identity reference repository for the UAE 8.1 Change Management and Communication Plan
government about population demographics, timely
available census and statistical surveys. This database Change management as a discipline has grown
was also foreseen to provide decision makers with key tremendously over the last few years in the Gulf region.
data to enable informed planning decisions. Maintaining Our close interactions with government organizations in
an up to date and accurate population database is the region show us that a large number of public sector
considered an impossible objective without a centralized organizations used consultancy firms to develop and
e-information infrastructure to bring different databases implement structured approach to managing change
together into one centralized repository. An initiative programs. Indeed, a carefully planned change
was developed called citizen data-hub that aimed to management program is imperative to the overall success
connect six key government databases together that were of any strategic endeavor. Figure 8 shows that the
considered the "primary data owners". The secondary success of a change program is determined by the
objective of this initiative was to establish dynamic and awareness of the involved individuals or groups of the
real-time links between administrative government need and objectives of the change program. A change
departments across the country, thus enabling program is likely to be associated with vagueness,
information sharing that ultimately contributes to the rumors, distrust even among those involved in the
better administration of the country and provision of change process. Strong and consist leadership is needed
service delivery. to draw a clear path and set out performance and
expectations of outcomes.
6. Supporting e-Government
Development of a national population infrastructure Implementation
should consist of enabling the basis for online Success
authentication of users. It should address the overall
Clarity
requirements of trust, identity management and privacy Need to
Business Focus
and in the context of electronic governance. The Move Energy
Reality
federated identity management initiative was designed to here
Commitment
facilitate implementation of e-Government services
within the United Arab Emirates. This is envisaged to Decreasing Motivation
support advanced development of e-government
Feel unimportant to
specifically in areas related to e-inclusion and e- False Rumors the organisation
participation, as well as the end-to-end integrated Change Lack of
co-operation Negative Behaviours
government work processes. Normally
Starts Anxiety & Uncertainty Impacted stakeholders’
here about the future level of awareness
7. Customer Service Orientation
Given the challenges the UAE ID card program is facing,
it is confronted with key building blocks represented
Figure 8: The need for clear communication plan
accelerating enrolment rates, meeting stakeholders
expectations, improving quality of service, etc. The new
organization thinking as explained above shifted more Management would prefer to implement change and
towards a customer driven business organization. The expect least resistance and with the most buy-in as
aim was to positively embrace a customer focused possible. For this to occur, change must be applied with
culture, where core competencies are identified and a structured approach so that transition from one type of
developed to deliver value for customers. A customer behavior to another organization wide will be smooth.
service standard was developed based on guidelines Management need to carefully assess employees'
specified in the International customer service institute reaction to an implemented change and attempt to
[4]. This focus area described a management culture that understand the reaction to it. Although change programs
emphasized centrality of the citizen or customer in the are implemented to achieve organizational goals and
process, as well as accountability for results. objectives, certain changes do sometimes produce
tremendous amount of resistance at several operational
This section concluded the change management program and management levels. Management is expected to
and the developed enrolment strategy overview. The provide support throughout the process of these changes,
which are at times very difficult. Managing changes

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especially in public sector organizations requires a broad need to develop a system to manage end-user training,
set of skills like political, analytical, communication, and focus to enhance fingerprint capture quality.
people, system, and business skills.
8.4 Media and Marketing Strategy
8.2 Organizational Development Principles
Due to the enormous pressure on management to create National ID schemes have been a very much subject to
value and bring out tangible results, it is easily found that controversial debate on international levels [5,9]. It is
we get distracted with day to day operations. A seen by privacy advocates to be a 'massive invasion' of
commendable framework management need to always their liberty and freedom rights, and promotes the
keep in mind is the EFQM model (see also Figure 9). concept of setting up 'big brother' or 'big government'. It
The model was found to sustain a management focus on was therefore important for the organization to develop a
key governance perspectives. It is a good management social media marketing strategy to better understand
assessment tool to measure the strengths and community interests by running customer and market
improvement areas of an organization across all business surveys within the social communities, and promote
operations, and to define the organization’s capability engagement and social participation into the project
and performance. value proposition. The second component of the media
strategy was related to building visibility about the
program through information sharing and interactions.
Results The communication strategy included specific aspects
that considered the cultural diversity of the target society
HR (eg. multiple language communication, information
Development leaflets etc).

9. Conclusion

Learning and Innovation

Figure 9: EFQM excellence framework

The three main elements that were considered crucial to
the success of the overall organization strategy were: (1)
to become a result driven organization, and focus on (2)
employing and developing highly qualified and trained
staff, who should enable and promote (3) creativity,
innovation and learning organization culture. The
framework supported management to rethink values,
policies, and controls and a restructuring that reflected a
renewed sense of mission.
Figure 10: Impact of unfocused management decisions

8.3 Users training
Without a clear blueprint and plan, organizations are
User training is a critical success factor for. The routine
more likely to drift and run in different directions (see
nature of work at registration centers caused a shortage
for example the illustration in Fig 10). Management
of workers with the necessary skills to cope with the
critical decisions that are not based on solid
rapid growth and expansion of centers. This shortage
understanding of impact and well-deliberated
forced the organization to continuously hire and train
calculations will most probably yield to an unknown
new employees who lack adequate technology skills, and
outcome [see also 10, 11]. Public sectors projects are to
to accept the chore of constantly retraining present
a great degree involve risk and uncertainty. This article
employees. In ID card schemes, fingerprint quality has
was written in an attempt to reveal some of the
huge impact on the identification/verification system.
challenges experienced in the implementation of a
Therefore, and to meet these challenges, organizations
strategic and large scale government program. National

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ID schemes and due to their size and complexity need
scrupulous planning to achieve their audacious goals.
Population enrolment in such schemes is considered a
challenging chore. The presented case study expounded
how the UAE government reacted to this challenge.
Though it could be argued that population size in the
UAE is lower than many other larger initiatives in other
countries, the presented approach in this article is
believed to provide a virtuous thinking path to address
similar issues. Besides, the presented management
consideration areas are assumed to be important
knowledge building blocks for those in the field to
address fundamental organizational and project
management rudiments.

References
1. Lyon, D. (2009) Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as
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Targeting Results: Lessons Learned from UAE National ID Program

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