Software AG Helps Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Build a Smart City on South Africas Gold Reef

[Software AG - 11.11.2014] Software AG Helps Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Build a Smart City on South Africas Gold Reef

Software AG revealed today how Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, the municipality that runs the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, provides enhanced public services for more than three million citizens. Ekurhuleni, one of the most densely populated areas in South Africa, has implemented a digital transformation program over the last two years and slashed many Government service response times by up to 70 percent. By streamlining and automating many processes, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality ensures that its citizens are kept constantly informed of the status of service applications through mobile updates, while at the same time the municipality is always fully aware of application processing times and service delivery bottlenecks. Ekurhuleni Municipality management sees this digital transformation as a further step in attracting business investment and talent.
Rika Pieterse, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Senior Business Analyst for the Department of Information
Communications Technology, said: "We understand that South African citizens dont just need service delivery from their local government, they want easy access to services along with modern systems that can provide them with alerts and updates on their pending requests."
Through Software AG technology, service delivery was optimised throughout six different departments: energy; water and sanitation; corporate and legal; city development; infrastructure services; and health and social services. One significant example of the difference accelerated services means to the lives of the most vulnerable citizens is Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipalitys Indigent Management process, intended to provide free essential services such as water and electricity to those that cannot afford them. The approval process often took over three months, with some residents being disconnected before qualifying applications were approved. Today, this process has been reduced by over two months and is completed within 21 days.
"We are the first South African municipality to have implemented a process-driven indigent management program," said Vuyani Zwane, Requirements Management and Solutions Delivery Manager at Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. 2Others looking to solve similar municipal challenges have typically sought an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) approach to Business Process Management but our strategy was an integration approach. Many others started earlier than us, spent more money and still have yet to see results. We think with our processes approach and intellectual property we can do something completely different - and leverage these to assist other municipalities and generate revenue opportunities for Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality."
Before their digital transformation, Ekurhulenis 20 Customer Care Areas were operating in isolation and each department had their own policies, processes and procedures. For example, the over 100 healthcare clinics in the municipality each had its own process for a given service. This created substantial duplication of work and cumbersome service-delivery processes. Ekurhuleni took an innovative approach and decided on a technology solution that would transform it into a streamlined digital service provider.
Mike Slater, COO of Northern Europe
South Africa at Software AG said, "Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipalitys management displayed an exceptionally innovative approach to providing inclusive and responsive government services. I am delighted how our software has been used to implement their vision as I am sure their citizens are too."
About Software AG
Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) helps organizations achieve their business objectives faster. The company's big data, integration and business process technologies enable customers to drive operational efficiency, modernize their systems and optimize processes for smarter decisions and better service. Building on over 40 years of customer-centric innovation, the company is ranked as a "leader" in fourteen market categories, fueled by core product families Adabas-Natural, ARIS, Alfabet, Apama, Terracotta and webMethods. Software AG has more than 5,200 employees in 70 countries and had revenues of €973 million in 2013. Learn more at www.softwareag.com.
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