4.2 The Case Study
4.2.4 Not yet accrued benefits
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in line with the Municipal Systems Act of 2000. The framework proposes the use of a ―smart card‖ system that will be an integral part of the City‘s new Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) network. This system will be required to capture information about all individuals who intend to use the public transport and all their transactions. It is clear that the Municipality is aware of the benefits of investing in an ERP system to increase the efficiency of its information management (Van der Walt & Du Toit, 2006) and to improve its service delivery. Thirty-eight independent municipal systems were amalgamated into a single super system. This system encompassed all the different departments that are found in an operational municipality making it very complex, given the way public institutions operate.
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system benefits that were promised in the business case but are still not yet realised. These are elaborated in the sections that follow.
Enhanced communications between the City and citizens
One of these benefits relates to the way in which the ERP is able to harness the use of mobile cell-phones. This is referred to as ―mobile access‖ by the Municipality management, with the communication through the cell phone linked to the business processes such as those of service request or request tracking automatically. Citizens could, for example, receive timeous updates on traffic flows, warnings of intermittent problems such as faulty traffic lights. On-line communication channels such as really simple syndicates (RSS) feeds can be used in this respect. The active majority of the Cape Town residents owns a cellphone. Mobile phone access is thus one of the primary channels which citizens are able to use to access services or to commuicate with the Municipality. Text-based mobile communication is relatively cheap and accessible, hence, it will benefit the citizens.
Although a number of private blog sites are already providing this kind of service the City has access to primary data in respect of benefits provided. The ERP system will be able to support such benefits by recording the primary data in real time and also enable real time access to any interested party. Therefore, mobile access becomes a crucially anticipated ERP-enabled channel that most managers promised to bring to the residents in the near future. The following interview extract elaborates examples of the Municipality plans to ensure that the ERP system supports maximum benefits accrual to the citizens:
“We would want to incorporate event management technology enabled by the ERP system where residents can also access the City‟s information automatically, through alerts, such as electricity cuts, accidents on freeways, etc” (Interviewee 8, 2012).
In this ―information age‖, sharing of information becomes the determinant of success in any organisation, public organisations especially. Effective communication as portrayed above is proposed to consider an event management approach.
Event management12
Event management would mean that residents would be able to trigger the events that result in receipt of services, for example entering their meter reading to get a bill calculated and
12 Event management is a term that was used by several informants to refer to a scenario where the citizens can manage their own services without human intervention. This would be enabled through the ERP system configuration process.
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delivered the same minute. Event management technologies would ensure that every event happening within the Municipality is managed by the ERP system. This makes the progress and status of every event available in real time to any interested citizen. Once an issue, be it a court case, police report or even buying a house, is recorded onto the ERP system, then only the authorised and documented personnel will be able to alter or resolve in a standard, fair, transparent and documented manner. This is sometimes referred to as ―case management”. It was described by one manager as follows:
“When I talk to you about value for the citizen, CRM, business management, and case management, the next wave of innovation. Every single interaction that you will have with this city, will find its way in a case, and if you track that case” (Interviewee 5, 2012).
The benefit will be tangible when all transactions and correspondence with the City are accurately recorded and thus traceable. In addition, the following quote from one respondent explains by expanding the possible cases such as court cases, ARV drug dispensing, etc., that are expected to be facilitated when case management is involved:
“… through case management, the court cases, the municipal courts get to benefit.
Documentation gets lost and evidence keeps on disappearing thus only traceable accurate documentation through the ERP system will solve this problem. I am sharing this with you because not only this has value for the citizen, but it‟s going to help with the social ills of the society, shorten the time to dispense an ARV drug, and that is underpinned by the ERP system” (Interviewee 2, 2012).
However, it is worth noting that the ERP system will be limited as to what it will be configured to offer, thus there is a need to manage the ERP system to ensure availability of these benefits.
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
If configured well, the SCM module is the basis on which a diversity of benefits to the citizen may be realised either directly or indirectly. A variety of potential services, not yet implemented, was identified in the interview evidence. These include the supply chain management whereby vendors will manage the Municipality inventory to ensure that replenishment is undertaken at the most suitable timing. This will ensure that residents are catered for in terms of supply of their needs for repairs and maintenance. High service level standards are possible when the ERP system manages the supply chain. The following quotation noted some of these benefits:
―Examples include: creating an on-line communication channel to reach new customers;
introducing vendor managed inventory for key suppliers; allowing customers to undertake self-billing; deploying a data warehouse and analytics to automate operational decision
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making; and introducing mobile technologies for professionals to work on-line during client engagements” (Interviewee 1, 2012).
Mobile technologies such as tablets and smart phones mentioned above will be linked to the ERP system through dedicated channels to provide accurate and updated information to benefit the citizen.
Integrated bill to the residents
The ERP system also was the basis on which the City promised to provide an integrated bill to the residents. This will see residents being able to pay all their rates, electricity, library services, traffic services etc., on a single invoice. Currently, citizens can access these services separately even though they can go and pay in the same office. They were also promised the ability to update their meter readings, what is called ―self-billing‖, from the comfort of their homes.
Health and the Safety and the Security modules
The other benefits, which are being planned for, include the Health module and the Safety and Security module. These will affect all citizens who interact with health services. Hospitals and clinics are currently running their own system. This existence of disparate systems is contrary to the expectation that the ERP system must integrate all vital departments and systems. The health module is of paramount importance because everyone needs to access health services at some time irrespective of their financial status. This means the earlier these modules are activated the better for all the citizens. The following quote from the head of change management substantiates and further elaborates the plans to introduce the Safety and Security module as well as the Health System module:
“Then the other modules that are important to our organisation, that we have to activate, are the safety and security module, to get the metro police into SAP, the other one will be the Health System. How do we take clinics and bring them to SAP? At the moment they are on their own network and they have their home grown open source application.
Obviously there is value in integrating them. So there are certain key business processes that we haven‟t managed to introduce” (Interviewee 2, 2012).
With the Safety and Security module, citizens will directly benefit when all the citizens are recorded on the system with accurate details. If fingerprints are accurately recorded for every citizen, then forensic scientists will be relieved in criminal investigations, as identification of individuals will be made easier. With the Health System module, access to citizens records will be made easier whereby less time will be needed to follow-up the medical condition and the accurate medical history of an individual before medication can be given. Currently,
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citizens need proof of residence to access services, meaning that one should get medication where one resides. The ERP system must enable versatility and a stop to that restriction.
Fast internet connection
The implementation of the ERP system is also creating benefits for citizens, who are not directly linked to it. The City has built the fibre network to service its own internal needs, i.e.
prompted by the ERP. These faster connections are specifically designed and configured to support faster internet connectivity by providing a higher bandwidth. This will provide a robust, reliable and affordable network for citizens to communicate with the City.
Consequently, the City is now investigating ways in which it will make the space capacity of the fibre network available to citizens. Once enabled, access to the fibre network will provide a multitude of benefits to the citizens.
This is an example of an indirect benefit, i.e. the Municipality is going beyond its internal systems. It is also ensuring that the infrastructure is provided for citizens to access services via the internet. Currently, all the Municipality libraries provide free limited access to the internet to the residents. With the plans to extend the fibre network to all citizens, the benefits from the ERP system will be universally accessible in the future. The following quotation explains that the Municipality is improving the public infrastructure and why it is doing so:
“The problem is access to internet and the speed of the internet facility, improvement on the public infrastructure. We are linking schools, hospitals and police stations using a fibre to connect the citizens with a better speed connectivity to enable citizens to have better access especially to our services through the portal” (Interviewee 5, 2012).
Once extended, the benefits elaborated above will open up more other benefits and enable the citizens to enjoy more ERP system benefits.
The value of the ERP system is measured by both available and potential citizen benefits.
The IT specialists and the Municipality managers are aware of the potential benefits such as mobile access capability even though they are not yet explored. Currently, citizens can only call the City on mobile phones but more functionality can be included to enable citizens to interact with the City, as one respondent put this across:
“The ERP system, as it currently exists, contributes to value for the citizen both directly and indirectly. This will be extended into the future with the planned benefits that contribute to the value for the citizen directly becoming more and more visible”
(Interviewee 3, 2012).
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