4.5 Direct citizen benefits
4.5.1 Opportunity value of integration
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prematurely close down by choice. For example, there were projects that ran in order to target and service the World Cup period but that closed immediately thereafter. On the contrary, once a municipality is established then it will stay forever.
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ensures that their information regarding any services is available at all points and at any time. A good example is with the call centre where a single call instance can be utilised to query a number of services even from all different departments” (Interviewee 4, 2012).
The foregoing demonstrates that the call centre provides a standard platform where citizens are afforded a similar service regardless of their race or financial status.
Billing and invoicing benefits
Another notable benefit is the citizens‘ ability to manage their own accounts in the comfort of their homes. This brings service convenience to the citizens. The billing and invoicing services form the basic interaction of residents with the City. The billing and invoicing benefits are realised at various levels, ranging from single bill to composite bills such as water and electricity. Citizens can now access some of the basic and common services, such as checking for water and electricity bills and making payments online. They can now apply for jobs and follow up on their applications online. The ERP system is able to bring to the Municipality the quality of service which citizens have begun to expect from the corporate world, such as the banks, where customers access services via various channels. This is a big step in creation of ―E-citizens‖. The following extract confirms this finding:
“Citizens can interact with the City online. They can now read their own electricity and water bills, update the data on their accounts online at the comfort of their homes. They can now do job applications on the portal. Lots of people are already using the portal”
(Interviewee 3, 2012).
Many times citizens have had to wait for the bill to be posted to find out how much they owe.
This waiting time is removed as they can contact the City through any available channel and get the informational any time they wish. This goes a long way to supporting personal budgets to the benefit of the individual or organisation concerned. What is more interesting is the involvement of the citizen in the service delivery process. This is enabled by the ERP system as cited below:
”Using the ERP system, citizens can actually make things happen for themselves and then engage the officials for value added services that they are not able to do themselves.” (Interviewee 7, 2012).
Removal of bureaucratic processes
A frequent critique of the public service has been the bureaucratic processes that citizens face. Thus, opening up the administration through the ERP system will enable the citizens to
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easily transact and communicate with the Municipality. These specific features produce many benefits. Previously, citizens would need to wait for special services, for example when they needed to change or update their details. This would call for lots of bureaucratic processes that are now replaced by the use of the ERP system.
Some respondents revealed that with the implementation and utilisation of the ERP system, residents can clearly notice and enjoy the benefits of efficiency. This is seen when they manage to access services anywhere at any time without waiting in long queues. This benefit can be directly associated with the ERP system or its utilisation. The emphasis is put on the tremendous reduction in turnaround time in most of the day-to-day procedures undertaken by the citizens as they request services from the City. The efficiency is made possible by the ERP system, which streamlines the processes. A good example is the time taken to get approval of a building plan that was reduced from a month to three (3) days. The following citations attest to this as follows:
“…send an email with whatever format, and you take it to the large format printer then you print out, you jump onto the portal and you submit your business plan application, and your 30 day turnaround time is reduced to 2 to 3 days turnaround time” (Interviewee 5, 2012), and
“Equitable service delivery, the ERP system can prioritise maintenance, quicker response to the needs as there is one view of the City on one window” (Interviewee 13, 2012).
Reduction in the turnaround time
The dramatic reduction in the turnaround time can be attributed to the support of the ERP system. Citizens no longer need to physically visit the Municipality, but just electronically exchange the necessary documentation from the comfort of their homes or offices. The change of the business process is driven by the ERP system that integrated the different sub-processes that take place. In addition, the ERP system will go a long way towards controlling every stakeholder‘s behaviour by defining policies and procedures that should be followed by officials. This includes the day-to-day activities such as the procedure undertaken to employ an individual, i.e. from job application to payroll management. The time that was needed for the employment process is reduced as well.
Public participation processes
The complexity associated with public participation processes is simplified by the utilisation of the ERP system. Citizens benefit not only if they are participating but also when they are assured that their rates are used in a transparent and honest way. There is always mistrust
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between the Municipality management and the citizens; this at times results in demonstrations. If the citizens see transparency in the whole organisation then there will be overall satisfaction among the citizens. This will also contribute to a higher value for the citizen. The CIO explained this by saying:
“Once a process is agreed upon and „hard coded‟ no-one can change or shortcut it unless the right procedure is followed to update it no matter who you are. People undermining processes or undermining policy are actually taken out of the way or eliminated through this ERP system intervention” Interviewee 1, 2012).
The main benefit of utilising standard ways is the availability of information where all the stakeholders make informed decisions. The ERP system gives the citizens an opportunity to access not only the relevant information but also the required services. The citizens are enjoying benefits such as quick access to their integrated information and services that help them make informed decisions.