Etisalat announced that it has undertaken several initiatives across functions and departments of the company to commemorate the ‘UAE Innovation Week’ held from November 22-28, 2015. The company’s activities follow the announcement by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, declaring 2015 as the ‘Year of Innovation’, and the launch of the ‘Innovation Week’ by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – Vice- President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

During the week, Etisalat announced several internal seminars on innovation and creativity in building business strategies. A series of workshops and competitions are also being held for employees to assess their creative skills and enrich the culture of innovation within the organisation.

Commenting on Etisalat’s initiatives throughout the week, Abdulla Al-Jaziri, Chief Governance Officer at Etisalat, said, “The UAE’s Innovation Week is an important initiative to support the country’s National Innovation Strategy and UAE Vision 2021 for building a knowledge-based society. Innovation has always been at the core of Etisalat’s business operations. In view of the country’s march towards innovation across vital sectors, it has become a bigger part of Etisalat’s commitment to adopt new ideas and creativity for our investments in technologies, people and processes, thereby contributing to positioning the UAE as a global hub for innovation.”

On the sidelines of the UAE Innovation Week, Etisalat announced the roll out of a host of intelligent, automated processes to facilitate customer registrations, Etisalat bill payments and utility payment and so on. As part of the “smart” deployment, new Smart Registration Pads used by Etisalat’s sales channels allows automation of customer process including capturing emirates ID, passport details and GCC IDs details required to purchase Etisalat services. Etisalat’s Smart Pad currently supports registration for select Etisalat services including mobile prepaid and postpaid, eLife, and Business Ultimate.

Also part of the automated deployment are Etisalat’s Smart Services Machines, which are installed in major shopping malls across the country. The Smart Services Machines help customers conduct various transactions including monthly bill payments by cash or credit card, utility bill payments for water and electricity in Dubai and Sharjah, as well as customer re-registration.

Keeping with its commitment to provide innovative and “smart” solutions, Etisalat recently teamed up with Road and Transport Authority (RTA) and launched the country’s first ‘Smart Mall’, an integrated technology eCommerce service that provides shoppers with an immersive purchasing experience. The first Smart Mall opened at the Mall of the Emirates metro station, with more to be installed at key metro stations in Dubai. The Smart Mall allows customers to digitally explore products and interact with stores in an intuitive 3D-enabled format.  In addition, customers can make purchases instantly with Mobile Cashier (mCashier), Etisalat’s highly secured payment solution. The shopped products are then delivered to the customer’s destination.

Al-Jaziri added, “Over the past few decades, Internet and digital technology have made it possible to tap into the enormous potential of a highly connected, digitised future. At Etisalat, we are leveraging digital technologies and investing in advanced fixed and mobile networks to speed up the progress towards building the smart cities of the future.”

During the Innovation week, Etisalat displayed a number of its smart solutions across its Business Centres in collaboration with its partners, including unmanned aerial vehicles, smart home, smart retail and smart health solutions.