Abu Dhabi Social Support Authority Reinvents Financial Support Delivery, Scoring 95% on CX

Challenge

Choosing the right solution for a tight deadline

The SSA team operates as an “entrepreneurial state” organization. It aims to be agile, lean, and fast-moving, with its small team working to align with and exceed the UAE government’s vision of becoming a smart country.

When the SSA team was tasked with creating the country’s first Social Support Application to enable UAE citizens to apply for financial support, all under a tight deadline, they had four options to consider.

One, reuse an existing entity’s core system and build on their existing processes. Two, buy an off-the-shelf product. Three, build the application with traditional code. Or four, use OutSystems low-code platform to deliver the application within budget and on time.

With the deadline looming, the team quickly decided that reusing a core system would add complications. “It would be difficult to get resourcing for the technologies used, and it would limit our operational independence,” says Matthew McHenry, Business Design Lead at Abu Dhabi Social Support Authority.

The off-the-shelf product option seemed promising to save the team time. “But we realized we wouldn’t be going much faster than if we built it with low-code, and this option wouldn’t have been able to handle the type of customization and scalability we needed,” Matthew recalls.

They briefly considered building the application with traditional code, but the time it would take to develop the app and the cost of hiring additional developers did not align with their goals.

OutSystems not only fit the project’s requirements, but the low-code platform also aligned with the team’s fast-paced and agile approach. “We decided to go with OutSystems due to its reliability, speed of development, and future adaptability,” says Matthew. “We required the platform to be highly adaptable and scalable to meet our future needs. OutSystems has proven to do that.”

Solution

Harnessing OutSystems for agile, fast service delivery

The SSA team, comprising eight members from various groups, including development, UX/UI design, and business analysis, began envisioning an application that would manage the entire end-to-end process of applying for financial assistance. This included everything from application submission and processing to payment processing, which required integration with an external service, and finally, activation with case management.

“All of our logic is built on OutSystems,” says Matthew. “So, we have relied heavily on OutSystems as our central integration hub with TAMM, the Abu Dhabi government services portal used to access these services.”

Making OutSystems the foundation of the core application allowed the in-house development team to quickly expand their offerings to UAE citizens. When the government announced two new programs, one to provide financial support for maternity leave to Emirati mothers working in the private sector of the UAE, and another to offer interest-free loans to cover marriage expenses, SSA needed to create two new services for the Social Support App.

The team worked swiftly to bring these new services to the public, but they also wanted to provide the best customer experience. Instead of requiring users to upload multiple documents to verify their identity and apply for each service, the team developed an automation engine that would integrate 27 government entities into the application. This made the application process seamless and more user-friendly.

“We were able to bring up both services from the ground up in two months quickly and securely because of the flexibility of OutSystems,” says Noun Eltoum, Senior Application Specialist at SSA and the main owner of the Social Support App.

Results

Distinguished recognition by the Crown Prince

After SSA launched the two new services in the Social Support Application, usage of the application increased significantly—processing 346,251 payments for beneficiaries and people in need. Overall, the application has achieved a high customer experience score of 85-95% and a customer effort score (ease-of-use) of around 90-95%.

In recognition of the remarkable success of the Social Support Application, His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council awarded the team the Best Service Award during the inaugural Abu Dhabi Effortless Customer Experience Awards.

The success of the application would not have been possible without a highly communicative and synchronized team like SSA, which was enabled by the capabilities of OutSystems.

“OutSystems acts as a bridge of collaboration between the different stakeholders in our group,” says Matthew. “The data transparency we receive with the OutSystems platform gives us insight into what every attribute is doing, so you can easily communicate what was built and why.”

The team continues to enhance the application and build new services as needed. With the speed at which they can build applications with OutSystems, they are ready to take on any new project that comes across their desks.

“I estimate we built our services 10 times faster than if we were to build using traditional technology,” says Noun. “Our team works efficiently and ahead of schedule because of how quick it is to build in OutSystems. We have happy OutSystems developers and happy business stakeholders.”