ATCUAE (Automobile & Touring Club of the UAE) welcomes with open arms a new E-Permit system for motorsports events in the United Arab Emirates. This digital transformation is going to simplify the entire application process for motorsport event organizers to attain a permit by ATCUAE.
What is ATCUAE?
Founded in 1965, it is one of the oldest national organizations in the UAE. It is the sole representative of the Federation Automobile International (FIA) in the UAE. ATCUAE governs approximately 140 competitive motorsports events including the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 GP, Cross Country World Cup and World Rally X events.
What is this E-Permit system?
So the thing is that before any motorsport event is organized within the UAE, a permit must be granted by the ATCUAE. For this, the current application process is slow, manual and labor intensive, with multiple event types and data point requirements, across location, insurance, course maps, and user details. It clearly involves a series of cumbersome and time-consuming steps that are a headache for both the event organizers and ATCUAE. And that’s why this new E-Permit system has been accepted.
Taking up the responsibility for this huge project is an Irish technology firm called ActionPoint. It employs over 100 people and has operations in Ireland, the US and the UK. It has been selected from an international field of competitors to deliver a key strategic project for ATCUAE titled “Motorsport Event E-Permit Portal”. The agreement was signed in Dubai between ATCUAE President Dr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem and ActionPoint Co-founder John Savage.
“The decision to select ActionPoint was influenced by their successful delivery of the award-winning online passport renewal system, on behalf of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland’s growing international reputation as the Silicon Valley of Europe and ActionPoint’s strong track record in the sports industry.”
-Dr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem President of ATCUAE
What are the advantages of the new E-Permit system?
The E-Permit system will be built on Microsoft Azure and Dynamics ensuring a highly secure, scalable and enterprise-grade platform. This provides the ease of use and stickiness, key to driving rapid adoption for the ATCUAE. In building the solution on Microsoft Azure the organization’s growth plans are fully supported now and into the future.
The new portal will provide motorsport event organizers with an online self-service tool to initiate and complete their event-permit application process. It will also facilitate secure online payments with full PCI-DSS compliance.
It will provide event organizers with complete visibility of the approval process significantly reducing the time and costs around managing permit approvals. The new system is scheduled to go live later in the year. Dr. Ben Sulayem, himself a fourteen times Middle East Rally Champion, confirmed that once the system is working in the UAE he plans to roll out the system across the Middle East and North Africa region, ideally in the next 12 months.
ActionPoint’s CTO and Co-Founder John Savage, said, “ActionPoint is delighted to have been chosen for this project, which will enable ATCUAE to completely transform their permit application process, using the power of Microsoft Azure combined without our vast experience at building custom software and enabling Digital Transformation. With over 140 events running each year in the UAE, the new system will make a significant impact on their organizational resourcing and overall efficiencies.”
He further added, “We work with a number of sports data and sports technology clients, and so the inclusion of motorsports to the mix is very exciting. This project will have a focus on usability, security and of course accessibility across multiple languages.”
