Dubai Airports shifts to Box in GDPR compliance bid

Dubai Airports has moved its 2,000 employees over to the cloud content management platform Box.

The collaboration technology has helped the airport spend less time on servicing file servers and increased collaboration between employees and external partners. Dubai Airports owns and manages the operation and development of both of Dubai’s airports – Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC).

Using Box, Dubai Airports said employees can securely access, edit and share information from any device, making use of various services to comply with EU data protection standards, which was the company’s initial reason for partnering with Box.

“Box KeySafe, Box Governance, and Box Zones allow us to comply with EU regulations on data protection,” said Abdulrahman Al Hosani, vice president of Dubai Airport’s infrastructure and operations. “Now with Box, not only do we have greater control of our content with Box, it has simplified access to information resulting in a significant reduction in associated time and costs.”

The platform also integrates with Microsoft O365 and Okta and there is also centralised internal project management, digital assets and business-critical records on Box.

Employees can also access and edit content from any device, providing mobility anywhere on the airport campuses, greater Dubai metro and internationally.

Around 88.2 million passengers travelled through Dubai Airports in 2017, and Al Hosani said the company was looking to use technology to create a “smoother experience for those customers".

“With Box, we spend less time servicing file servers and support desk tickets and can focus on what we specialise in - providing premiere passenger experience, baggage processing, and airfield management,” he added.

The migration to Box, which began in 2016, is only the latest part of Dubai Airports’ journey to becoming fully digital. It has sought to update its image and services through other digital platforms like Clipatize, which has formed social media content and developed methods for measuring customer experience and instituting new workplace values.