In a move to enhance the delivery of computerised transactions and user response times, the city of Cape Town has deployed a software-based tracking and monitoring system.
Designed and developed by Computer Associates (Africa), the system is able to pinpoint potential problems within the city`s information technology (IT) infrastructure.
Douggi Gelderbloem, acting director at the Cape Town region, says hiccoughs in the various transaction interfaces with the public - the city`s valued customers - can be frustrating.
"When transactions don`t compute fast enough, it is not only our customers who become frustrated. The city staff are also under pressure and cannot afford the extended time it takes for an application to answer a query or process a payment," he says.
According to Gelderbloem, since CA`s software was implemented, areas for improvement have been noted. In addition, valuable feedback necessary for the city`s IT systems planners to gain a thorough understanding of the various business activities and processes has been provided.
The software - CA`s Unicenter Application Response Option (ARO) module, which is part of the Unicenter Network and Systems Management (NSM) suite - is designed to identify problem areas in corporate-wide IT infrastructures and help strategists plan to meet future technology requirements.
"Too often IT systems, and resulting service delivery issues, can tarnish an organisation`s reputation. This is why we decided to become proactive and implement appropriate solutions in good time," notes Gelderbloem.
"Since deploying CA`s ARO solution we have been able to identify barriers to service excellence and, at the same time, optimise our network infrastructure to meet agreed service delivery levels now and in the future."
The CA ARO software, which is tightly integrated with the NSM suite, was rolled out at specific points on the city`s network in August and September this year following a successful proof-of-concept that delivered immediate and tangible benefits.
The city`s IT department can now determine the satisfaction levels of individual users of its IT services. In addition, IT staff members are alerted when volume and other potentially damaging thresholds are reached. They also have access to both real-time and historical reporting and can use data gained from these sources for planning purposes.
Sue Dods, account manager at CA Africa, says that prior to implementing ARO, the city`s IT department had restricted means of assessing its network performance, or whether the system`s response times were within acceptable norms.
"Throwing new hardware or additional bandwidth at a perceived problem is a very expensive way of resolving performance issues," she says. "These methods seldom result in improved response times.
"In the city`s case, ARO showed where glitches were coming from within the city`s infrastructure and it became easy to identify the causes and rectify them."
Dods explains that the ARO solution measures the time taken to complete a request from the user`s perspective. "By measuring these response times, ARO provides a wealth of valuable statistics that can be used to streamline the systems and improve performance levels.
"Using ARO`s reporting tools, IT staff can track incremental degradations in application performance - addressing them before they have a noticeable effect on critical service and end-user productivity," she adds.
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Computer Associates International, Inc (NYSE:CA), one of the world`s largest software companies, delivers software and services that enable organisations to manage their IT environments. Focus areas include network and systems management, storage and security management, portal and business intelligence, and application lifecycle management. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, New York, and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information on CA, please visit http://ca.com.
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