Could you please tell me about Dubai Technologies?
Dubai Technologies provides ICT Solutions and business knowledge consulting, involving designing & developing solutions for Smart Cities. The investment in technology and deployment of smart solution is very high in UAE but none of the solutions were homegrown. We wanted to be a catalyst to the Vision of Country by creating innovative technology and smart solutions in Dubai to meet the needs of the region and the world. Today we are home grown market leaders in IOT/Mobility and engaged with many Smart City projects like RTA’s Heavy Vehicle Smart Monitoring, DM Integrated Waste Transport Monitoring, ADEC Smart School Transport, AD-DMAT Highway Patrol Management, etc. We also associating and assisting many Start-up Companies as their Technology Innovation Partner as part of Dubai Vision to make the city as Breeding Ground for Start-ups.
How has technology changed your business models over the last 2 decades?
In terms of technology, there is exponential change globally which was well received in UAE in general and Dubai Particularly. In 1995, the first level of taxi and bus transportation was regulated in Dubai, we were an integral part of it. Since the time RTA took over in 2005, lot of advanced deployments of technology has taken place. So, we were always in line with or ahead of that technology implementation in Dubai. We heavily invested in developing some of those changes in Dubai and preparing us ready for the Global Market. In 2013, His Highness given direction for creating smart city and the same year we switched all our solutions to smart system.
How are your solutions walking hand-in-hand with the smart cities?
As the business process demanded integration of various process despite its diversified needs in various industry sectors, we bought all of them into a single Smart IOT Platform. Today our solutions serve the key pillars – MOBILITY, SUSTAINABILITY and SECURITY – of Smart City, the latest value addition provided in our solutions is the Remote Monitoring of Regulatory Policy. Our solutions are now imbibed with the Regulatory Policy Monitoring Features for industry sectors like, Heavy Vehicles Safety, Hazardous Transport, Public transport, etc., which again needs centralized intelligence to monitor and ensure the regulation followed. These are not ready-made solutions. They require strenuous amount of research and development. We also focused in waste management industry as part of our continued engagement for sustainable Environmental for Smart Cities. We developed solutions taking 360-degree control of the waste right from the source of disposal to recycling.
Who are the partners you work with?
Under technology partners, we have partners from across the globe like France, Spain, Taiwan, USA, etc who are our device suppliers. We heavily depend on them for products and equipment’s which we do not manufacture anymore. On the business side, we work with large corporate, government and semi government sectors like Municipality, RTA in Dubai and DP World, Etisalat in UAE. Within RTA, we work with most of the agencies like the licensing or public transport or marine to understand their vision or challenges for their services to improve.
Who is your competition in the market?
We have competition from the standard business line like Fleet tracking and monitoring for which there are many players in the market but our focus is on specialized solutions and always a step ahead of the market. We also have competition from international players who come with established solutions which is a tough challenge for us. We always overcome such competition by our dynamism, flexibility in adopting innovation and value-added services. But nevertheless, competition is always interesting and the support from the wise leadership of the country and our management keeps us going!