Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 26 | Page 68

CASE STUDY ABOUT DIFC WILLS AND PROBATE REGISTRY DIFC Wills and Probate Registry is a public entity of the Dubai Government and an ancillary body of the DIFC’s Dispute Resolution Authority. It was established to provide non-Muslims with assets and/or children in Dubai with the option to choose the DIFC Courts through which to enforce their inheritance wishes as an alternative to other judicial routes. appointment, to registration meeting, to approval and encryption of the will and digital storage. The will review process for online registration was the additional module. The process required a lot of user experience design models which also had to support mobile devices. Making the flow simple enough to be understood and followed was a challenge that was tested before the development. How does the new solution integrate with existing systems? The solution is part of the will registration system architected by EmQube and the extension was a smooth affair owing to the scalable design of the software. All new functionalities were merged within the same modules. EmQube is an innovative, trusted and competent software company. Since 2003, it has been serving enterprises across the USA, Europe, India and the Middle East for bespoke and packaged software solutions across different software platforms. Based in Dubai with an on-site team of analysts, programmers and project managers, it offers regional companies the comfort and confidence of working with a local company. WHILE THE FEES FOR REGISTERING WERE AFFORDABLE, THE ASSOCIATED TASK OF DRAWING UP THE WILL WITH THE HELP OF LAWYERS WAS TIME- CONSUMING AND COSTLY. registration portal. EmQube had in-depth knowledge of the legal as well as the business requirements and had worked on the technology platform that was being considered for this approach. Can you describe the solution provided? The solution consists of two systems: A web-based portal for the client to compose the will, make an appointment and make payment, and the Skype Meeting and digital signature modules specifically for the online registration. A web-based back office system for managing the complete process from 68 INTELLIGENTCIO How long did it take to implement the solution? The property will had a total implementation cycle of over five months and went live in March 2017. The online will registration took two months to deliver and went live on October 2017. Both the projects were delivered on time. Was additional staff training required? The staff were given additional training in terms of managing the verification process on Skype Meeting. The will review was assisted with a checklist control which ensured compliance to the legal requirements. What precautions were taken to secure the existing IT environment? The solution stores confidential data in an encrypted data vault that is separate from the main transaction database. All identities of the clients are encrypted and the will is digitally encrypted. The client portal and the back office portal are two different applications that do not talk to each other directly as all interfaces are done through a middle-layer. What are the main advantages of the new solution? End users can now compose their own will and do not have to travel to Dubai to register their property will. As the software architecture is scalable, it can be used to launch other similar services. As a matter of fact, the initial wills application has been expanded to now offer property wills, financial asset wills and free zone company shares wills. n www.intelligentcio.com