UAE Census Takes Just Three Months Using PDAs to Capture ...



Overview

Country or Region: United Arab Emirates

Industry: Government

Customer Profile

The Ministry of Economy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has 2,000 employees and is responsible for the completion of a nationwide census, among other tasks.

Business Situation

The ministry wanted to improve the accuracy of the census and reduce the timeline from one year to three months by using mobile devices to record information provided by citizens and expatriates.

Solution

FOHMICS deployed Microsoft® Windows® CE 4.21 on HP IPAQ personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a custom-built Tedad 2005 smart device application that runs on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework.

Benefits

■ Accurate and timely data collection.

■ Data reusable by different departments.

■ Clean data for statistical analysis.

■ First-ever electronic census in Gulf region.

■ Facilitated to open a new Geographical Information System (GIS) department.

| | |“Tedad (Census) 2005 is the UAE’s most ambitious and far-reaching census ever conducted. Previously, the census enumerators used paper forms and registers.”

Mohammed Nasser, Project IT Manager UAE Tedad (Census) 2005, Ministry of Economy, United Arab Emirates

| |

| | | |UAE Tedad (Census) 2005, the most important nationwide initiative in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) |

| | | |last year, was completed on time, thanks to Microsoft® technologies. A regular census has happened in|

| | | |the UAE since 1968, but for the first time in the Gulf region at the national level, enumerators used|

| | | |personal digital assistants (PDAs) and satellite technology to record information in real time. The |

| | | |Ministry of Economy first selected Java for collecting information, and later switched to the |

| | | |Microsoft NET Framework. FOHMICS, an Abu Dhabi-based software development house, helped to deploy |

| | | |iPAQ PDAs running Microsoft Windows® CE 4.21, and a custom-built smart device application running on |

| | | |the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. The census results were ready in three months instead of a |

| | | |year, and because information was recorded against pre-determined rules, there were very few errors. |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|[pic] | | |[pic] |

| | | | |

Situation

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), an oil-producing federation of seven emirates in the Lower Gulf, has a highly mobile population estimated at around 4.7 million, including UAE nationals and expatriates from many countries. Some nationals (Emiratis) in the more remote areas still follow an agrarian or nomadic lifestyle.

The federal Ministry of Economy, now headed by the first woman cabinet minister Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi, is responsible for conducting a periodic census in the country. The data helps the UAE government to plan service delivery and to position the country to compete in the global economy.

Using traditional and largely paper-based processes with forms and registers, the census—conducted by up to 1,500 volunteers—previously took up to a year to complete and analyse. The legacy system sometimes resulted in flawed or incomplete information, and inevitably delayed decision-making by ministers and civil servants.

In the UAE, a regular census has been carried out since before independence in 1971, most recently in 1995. It provides invaluable demographic data on a young nation where a quarter of the population is under the age of 14. Hafsa Abdullah Al Ulama, Assistant Under-Secretary for Planning and Director General, Tedad (Census) 2005, says: “The results will have a significant impact on setting our education and economic policies. The census will provide vital benchmark data on the state of our society. The demographics will help us to provide decent living standards for our citizens and other residents.”

For Tedad (Census) 2005, the ministry wanted to give government planners a much more sophisticated analysis of citizen needs, to help with the delivery of even better citizen-focused public services including, for the first time, gathering information on citizens with disabilities or special needs.

The ministry was responsible for conducting the census in five emirates states—Sharjah, Ajman, Umm-Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah—and to oversee the census in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which was being conducted by local departments. The project was divided into two phases by the ministry: the first stage calibrated fixed assets, including buildings, establishments, and households, but the highly complex task of recording names, ages, nationality, professions, disabilities, and family relationships of people in each household only began in December 2005.

Solution

Initially, the ministry considered Java technologies for the enumerators to collect information from around 1.3 million people in the urban and rural areas of the UAE, because this technology had already been used to collect data from businesses.

Working with Abu Dhabi-based software developer FOHMICS, the ministry instead deployed mobile personal digital assistants (PDAs) running Microsoft® Windows® CE 4.21, and a custom-built Tedad 2005 smart device application that runs on the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework. It was coded using the Microsoft Visual C#® development tool and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003 development system.

Muhammed Amir, Chief Information Officer, FOHMICS, says: “The ministry considered using Java technologies as an alternative to Microsoft. The phase-one survey was conducted using Java in the data centre application, with Oracle reports. The reason for proposing Microsoft technology was to meet the tight deadlines and to ensure that validations used in the PDAs were the same as in the back-office application.”

Nauman Ahmad, Government Account Manager, Microsoft South Gulf, adds: “The great advantage of using Microsoft technology was in simplifying the validation rules and in using the same business logic on the mobile devices as in the back office. This helped make the census data much more accurate and reliable.”

The ministry was also keen to ensure that any data collection system was secure to maintain high levels of confidentiality concerning personal data. Amir adds: “Microsoft technologies met all the key project parameters, and as a result of using the .NET Compact Framework, development time was massively reduced.”

Data was transmitted to 27 data collection centres using Hewlett-Packard iPAQ devices with the Global Positioning System (GPS). At the data collection centres, ministry staff used Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), and the .NET Compact Framework. At headquarters, the ministry deployed Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ Engineered integrated server software, as well as Windows XP and IIS.

A team of 600 observers checked the accuracy of data collected on the PDAs while 100 supervisors used the Microsoft back-office application to monitor and approve data synchronised into the data centre. The back-office application was coded in Visual C# using Visual Studio .NET 2003.

Mr. Christ Miller, CTO and Census Project Director at FOHMICS, says: “Our development team was available round the clock to meet any circumstances in case of process change, new requirements, or changes from the client side. Our technical support team was highly trained and professional. Customised helpdesk software was developed using Microsoft technology with a Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database. The help desk rapidly resolved any issues that arose in the field.”

Benefits

Thanks to Microsoft technologies, UAE census results were gathered and analysed in record time. In addition, because information was recorded against pre-determined rules, there were very few errors.

Accurate and Timely Data Collection

Instead of taking a year, the Tedad (Census) 2005 took just three months to collect data from 1.3 million people in a country the size of Scotland or the State of Maine.

Mohammed Nasser, Project IT Manager of the UAE Tedad (Census) 2005 at the Ministry of Economy, says: “Tedad (Census) 2005 is the UAE’s most ambitious and far-reaching census ever conducted. Previously, the census enumerators—mainly teachers working in the afternoons and evenings—used paper forms and registers. “If data was wrongly recorded, making corrections was a laborious and time-consuming process.

“Under the new system with validation rules on the PDAs, the data integrity was massively improved. As soon as the field work for census was completed, the results were instantly available.”

Under the legacy system, civil servants often spent up to nine months analysing the returns from the census enumerators. This time, the census results are already known to the minister and will be published later in 2006, according to an agreed schedule.

Data Reusable by Different Departments

The highly scalable reporting engine implemented using Microsoft technology means that census data is systematic and managed.

Nasser says: “The census data can be consumed by any department of the UAE government for constructing new policies, services, or plans. It will also greatly help in improving existing services offered by the government to both Emiratis and expatriates.”

Clean Data for Statistical Analysis

Inaccurate data undermined the value of earlier census exercises, the last of which took place in 1995. The validation rules applied on the PDAs made it much easier for enumerators to enter clean data.

“In the past, by the time the census was published, statistical data had become historical data. We now have immediate clean data for evaluation by government ministries in planning services, including data about citizens with disabilities or special educational needs,” says Nasser.

First-Ever Electronic Census in Gulf Region

The UAE is the first country in the Gulf region to conduct a nationwide inclusive census using PDA devices operated by trained enumerators using either Arabic or English.

Nasser says: “We’ve broken new ground in the Gulf region by including data about sections of the population that are disabled and afflicted by diseases. In addition, it includes data related to the number of existing computers in citizens’ homes and Internet connections.”

Geographical Information System Output in Less Time

Using specialised devices, surveyors were able to record the building and establish Geographical Information System (GIS) coordinates that were mandatory to be entered in the census smart application.

When verified by the GIS coordinates they found that 99 per cent of the census matched the satellite information. This shows the improved accuracy that is achieved. The information will be very useful for future GIS purposes required by the government.

Microsoft .NET

Microsoft .NET is software that connects people, information, systems, and devices through the use of Web services. Web services are a combination of protocols that enable computers to work together by exchanging messages. Web services are based on the standard protocols of XML, SOAP, and WSDL, which allow them to interoperate across platforms and programming languages.

.NET is integrated across Microsoft products and services, providing the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, secure solutions with Web services. These solutions provide agile business integration and the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device.

For more information about Microsoft .NET and Web services, please visit these Web sites:

msdn.webservices

[pic]

-----------------------

| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft Windows Server System Engineered

− Microsoft Visual C# .NET

− Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003

− Microsoft SQL Server 2000

− Microsoft Windows Server 2003

|Microsoft Windows XP Professional

− Microsoft Windows CE 4.21

■ Technologies

− Microsoft .NET Compact Framework

− Microsoft

− Microsoft Internet Information Service

| |

“We’ve broken new ground in the Gulf region by including data about sections of the population that are disabled and afflicted by diseases.”

Mohammed Nasser, Project IT Manager, UAE Tedad (Census) 2005 at the Ministry of Economy

| |

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Windows, the Windows logo, Windows Server, and Windows Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Document published July, 2006 | | |

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:



For more information about FOHMICS products and services, visit the Web site at:



For more information about The Ministry of Economy in the United Arab Emirates products and services, visit the Web site at:

.ae

“The great advantage of using Microsoft technology was in using the same business logic on the mobile devices as in the back office. This helped make the census data much more accurate and reliable.”

Nauman Ahmad, Government Account Manager, Microsoft South Gulf

| |

“The results will have a significant impact on setting our education and economic policies. The census will provide vital benchmark data on the state of our society.”

12; ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download