Computer Foundation, a subsidiary of the Face Group division of arivia.kom, has completed an ambitious project in conjunction with the Johannesburg City Council to analyse the activities of informal traders in the area and the contribution these entrepreneurs have on local economic development.
Sean Dinat, programme manager of SMME development in the Johannesburg City Council, says: "The council is implementing the new informal trading development policy which is founded on three pillars - market development, training and support, and by-law enforcement. The purpose of this project was to map out where informal traders are active and precisely what they are trading."
With its expertise in putting spatial-enabled management information systems (MIS) to work in a business context, Computer Foundation was deemed the most suitable organisation to carry out the tasks required for this project to succeed.
Computer Foundation project leader Jan Kleynhans comments: "The council conducted a survey in 11 regions of Johannesburg, and put together a detailed sample of informal trading activities which included the types of goods being traded, as well as the stock value of the goods. The purpose of this survey was to see what contribution these traders make to the economic environment in Johannesburg, how many jobs have been generated through these activities and what impact they have on current businesses and infrastructure."
The company was then required to construct a database from the information gleaned in this survey and to perform various analyses on this data. One aspect vital to the project was the ability to capture the exact coordinates of each trader using geographic information systems (GIS) to compare the relationship with other trader and formal businesses.
"The council needed these trader coordinates to identify high density or concentrated areas per product that could then lead to the building of new formal markets and to determine where the demand is the greatest to maximise the benefits of constructing a new market," Kleynhans continues. "We also overlaid additional data, such as taxi routes, which showed much trading taking place alongside these routes. Additional information such as how long they had been trading at their current locations, what goods they trade and what kinds of services they required the most was also entered."
The analysis enables the city council to pinpoint key areas in need of development. Dinat comments: "We have almost 7 000 informal traders in the database at this stage, representing an average stock value on the street of R5 million and an annual turnover of just over R6 million. This system has become an invaluable tool enabling us to work efficiently around planning and development issues."
Dinat says Computer Foundation was chosen for its proven ability to design databases, capture data and link this data to a GIS component.
"From our point of view, it`s really still a work in progress," Dinat says. "We`re beginning to use the data now, and have brought on some urban planners so we can use the information as a tool to determine where to focus our energy next. But the system is certainly going to help us tremendously in this endeavour - that much is already clear."
Computer Foundation MD Johan van Heerden concludes: "With the spatial enablement of the traditional database, the standard MIS can be transformed into a decision support system with a mapping front-end. The aerial view facilitates the understanding of the bigger picture and the key interrelationships involved."
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