Through this project DCCI wanted to arrive at an online multilingual and personalised portal that integrates multiple data sources and provides advanced services to chamber members and visitors - all managed through an extranet solution. Part one of the challenge was a real-time concern faced by DCCI on how to incorporate their existing server and the membership databases with the new e-commerce platform. The second challenge was the long-term e-government drive, where seamless integration was imperative before all government departments were integrated online. With Microsoft's Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft's Visual Studio 6.0, these challenges were met well ahead of the 18-month deadline set by the Dubai E-Government Committee.

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a government body that looks after the commercial, industrial and agricultural interests of its members and strives to develop those interests. DCCI was created in 1950, and now represents more than 40,000 members. DCCI is considered one of the largest chambers of commerce, not only in the Arab world, but across the continent of Asia.

DCCI's new portal is a case of work in progress and was taken into account whilst creating the solution for its content-dynamic website. The plan consists of three stages: providing public interface to access the Chamber's services, the internal integration of all member departments and finally, the integration between all 27 government departments. The target was not to solely build an application that meets the needs of running the website, but to build a platform that will work with future applications and platforms.

"The Chamber was looking to create seamlessly inter-connected departments in Dubai. When we planned the portal, we were very clear that we wanted a very dynamic website, where our internal departments would have ownership of the content and management that could be updated hourly, if necessary." said, Khaled Al Kassim, Director, Information Technology Department, DCCI.

Membership services made easier

A key feature of the new portal is its extensive business directory equipped with a powerful search engine that enables visitors to search and access business-specific information about DCCI's member companies in a fraction of a second. Other online services offered to the Chamber's members include certificate of origin, booking of conference rooms at DCCI's premises and proposing or registering both regional and international DCCI-sponsored events. The portal, which has links to other e-government websites, includes an online shopping mall where members can shop online for various products, including publications about the UAE.

The Chambers arbitration centre, which had a tendency to clog up resources, can now offer major time as well as operational costs savings to members and the Chamber itself. Previously the claimant came to the Chamber to explain his case to a legal advisor, before having to submit all the relevant documentation manually. A hearing would then be arranged between both parties and then accordingly arrive at a court date. Now the case is submitted online in writing. The advisor can see more cases during the day, and some cases can be settled just by advising the claimant to check the Chamber's archives.

An important benefit in addition to saving man-hours, is that this mechanism also acts as a knowledge-building process.

"Each department in the Chamber is responsible for providing the content, as well as checking approving and updating the site. As we see it, this focused on the role of the IT department. In most companies, anything to do with computers is seen as their responsibility especially when things go wrong but we wanted to involve each department." said Khaled Al Kassim, Director, Information Technology Department, DCCI.

Platform flexibility

The technology platform for the DCCI portal includes Microsoft's Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

The solution has been developed in partnership with Microsoft Consultancy Services (MCS) and DiverseInc., using Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and Windows 2000 COM+ services, and takes advantage of the extensive multilingual support provided by Microsoft Commerce Server 2000.

With the advanced multilingual capabilities of Microsoft's Commerce Server 2000, DCCI's E-Services are offered in Arabic or English at the push of a button. The dynamic content management system enables DCCI employees to easily access and manage the portal's content from any desk. The system is also fully integrated with the existing Windows network for all users.
"Microsoft's technology provides the backbone for the portal both on the front-end service offerings aspect, as well as integration with our existing systems," added Kassim.

Microsoft Services mapped DCCI's business requirements and designed the portal in partnership with DiverseInc. "One of the highlights was the creation of a back-end Intranet solution to provide seamless content management for the public website and to provide state-of-the-art digital dashboard functionality to DCCI employees" said, Dr. Gianni Zorzino, Architectural Consultant for MCS.

"Created on DiverseInc's content management server DIHub, the intranet portal was designed to cater to online submissions as well as to manage the dynamic content of the Internet portal.

"The Intranet solution offers breakthrough functionality in both Arabic and English and is integrated with the existing Windows 2000 Active Directory for single sign-on authentication, employee authorisation and personalised content like daily tasks and alerts," explained Zorzino.

The seamless integration with DIHub reveals the flexibility of the Microsoft platform, which was in turn integrated with the existing legacy back-end system.

In addition, Commerce Server 2000 provided multi-lingual functionality. The best feature of Commerce Server 2000 is that it is so easy to manage and is truly multi-lingual - so while it is Arabic-English at the moment, this can be extended to include other languages in the future.

The three modules- Commerce Server 2000, the Internet, and DIHub - co-exist, and are all perfectly compatible with each other, as well as with the existing back-end solution.