The Ekurhuleni Metro recently carried off the 2013 Customer Innovation Award, in the Digital Transformation category, at the 2013 Innovation World Conference, held in San Francisco, in the USA.
Ekurhuleni was chosen from dozens of global nominations, and was given the Digital Transformation Award due to its highly improved customer-facing processes.
The metro boasts 20 customer care centres (CCCs) and various service departments.
These entities’ business processes and technologies were, initially, not standardised or integrated, in many cases causing duplication of work and cumbersome service delivery processes.
By leveraging on the web-Methods and ARIS solutions provided by Software AG, service delivery was optimised throughout different departments, for example energy, water and sanitation, as well as corporate and legal, city planning, health and social services.
Prior to the automation solution, the metro’s indigent management process would take over three months to approve qualifying applicants.
This process has been drastically reduced and the waiting period decreased.
It now takes 21 days for approval, with 1 500 applications being processed per month, across all the CCCs.
“The recognition at a global level is an indication that the city is moving in the right path in its Digital City strategy which, among other things, seeks to ensure that we are continuously re-engineering our business processes to optimise service delivery,” explained city manager Khaya Ngema.
“It is imperative for us to ensure we enhance our customers’ experience when they are interacting with us.
“The 2013 Global Award for ICT Innovation highlights our commitment in streamlining internal processes to achieve efficiency as a municipality.
The Digital City is one of the metro’s nine flagship projects,which are part of the growth and development strategy 2055.
It is a strategy that hopes to take the growth and development of the city forward, by modernising and capacitating it.
Innovation World is Software AG’s annual global technology conference, which gives global recognition to its customers who significantly optimise their enterprise structure through the innovative use of Software AG technology.
