DED adds new features on ‘Sallety’ and ‘Meydani’ in line with Dubai Smart Government

The Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector in theDepartment of Economic Development (DED), Dubai has announced major improvements to its smart applications ‘Sallety’ and ‘Meydani,’ launched in line with the Dubai Smart Government initiative. 

Speaking at a media briefing held at the ongoing Gitex Technology Week in Dubai, Omar Bushahab, CEO of CCCP said a variety of new features have been added to the two application, making them more user-friendly and beneficial for consumers and DED employees. 

Sallety enables consumers to use their smart phones to browse through shelves of leading hypermarkets and stores in Dubai and make their purchase decisions round the clock. Meydani allows DED’s field inspectors to use their smart phones to check and follow up on violations among business outlets. 

Meydani will now have a ‘Smart Search’ option, which will enable inspectors to search for shops and other outlets by various keywords including area, trade names, fines issued etc. With the GPS-enabled application an inspector can see the status of licenses of shops in his vicinity, fines issued if any and the follow-up action required in real time. 

“Since launching Meydani in 2011, we have made continuous improvements to this application with the support of the Information Technology team in DED. The application was moved from larger hand-held devices to smaller smart phones and GPs enabled as well as the need to print fines and receipts done away with as the application evolved,” said Bushahab. 

Fines issued for violations are instantly uploaded to the central system of DED and the smart application will display complete, updated information on any outlet at any given time. 

Consumers using Sallety application will also view real time information on prices across ten leading hypermarkets on their smart phones now. Earlier the price lists were updated every 24 hours but DED has now linked Sallety to the IT network of the hypermarkets to reflect any variations in prices instantly. 

“We have also increased the number of goods listed on Sallety from 550 to 1,200, an increase of over 100 per cent. The added features also mean that if a consumer can’t find the specific brand of product he is searching for, the system will give him the alternative options. The application will also print a bill of the products chosen and their prices so that the consumer can avail of the same price when he makes the actual purchase,” Bushahab explained. 

Omar Al Mehairi, Director of Development & Follow-up Department at CCCP said that the improvements in Meydani and Sallety will make the process of doing business in Dubai easier. “With the added features Meydani cuts the need for random physical inspections while users of Sallety has wider choice and guaranteed prices,” he said. 

Over 40,000 consumers are currently using Sallety to get information on goods and prices. The App also assists consumers to submit complaints.