The Western Cape Sub-Chamber of the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry (CIBC) has burst into the new millennium with the implementation of CASE 2000, an end-to-end administration system designed to manage employee benefits across the industry.
The custom-developed system, which replaces a 16-year-old in-house application, was designed, developed and implemented by the professional services division of enterprise infrastructure and integration software company Sybase SA. It uses an adaptive server enterprise (ASE) 12.0 database manager with PowerBuilder and PowerDesigner as system development tools.
The solution enables the CIBC to tighten control of its management of the range of systems it oversees across the clothing manufacturing industry in the Western Cape, specifically the industry's member and manufacturer databases, provident and healthcare fund processes, and debtors systems. There are two remaining systems to be developed, the housing loan and patient management systems.
"We needed to improve a number of business processes, and required an integrated database to support these improvements," says Peter Crosoer, regional secretary of the Western Cape Sub-Chamber of the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry.
"We were becoming vulnerable on the support available for the legacy system and information we had on the industry was fragmented. Data was stored in multiple locations, data integrity was impaired and was difficult to work with."
Crosoer says CASE 2000 has revolutionised the Council's business processes and streamlined procedures, which are now supported by consistent, reliable information.
"The most profound change we've seen is with our debtors system - we're able to invoice each member of the industry on a monthly basis. Previously we relied on the employers calculating what they owed us, and we had to rely on their returns," he says.
Exemptions, benefits, contributions, payouts and allocations are now accurately calculated and monitored, and precise information is fed back into the database to ensure records are up to date.
"The old system used by the CIBC was DOS-based and cumbersome," says Steve Farmer, systems analyst and project manager at Sybase Professional Services. "CASE 2000 is a Windows graphical user interface (GUI) which not only makes navigation easier but presents information in a more concise, user-friendly manner. Quick access to data is essential for efficient factory management, and all relevant information relating to the payment of levies, provident and maternity fund contributions, which factories are open and closed, and even the state of debtors' accounts can be viewed in a single screen."
Implementation of CASE 2000 began in March 2000 and is being conducted in two phases, allowing the council the opportunity to restructure and reorganise its business processes. The first module saw the completion of member-, manufacturer-, provident fund- and debtors management. Completion of the second phase, dealing with patient management and housing loans, is expected before mid-2003.
The system has provided enhanced functionality, improved workflow procedures, better access to information and tighter security control to data accessibility, says Sybase SA business development manager, Wolfgang Ochojski.
"The system has evolved over the past 20 months, becoming a lot more comprehensive and richer in functionality than what was originally envisaged. As development progressed additions were made and the system grew as the council saw the benefits of broader functionality and tighter workflow procedures," he says.
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