The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality is readying a R46 million citizen relationship management (CRM), billing, financial and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for its debut in October.
The system forms part of the metropole's Project Connect that is based on Microsoft .Net technology and a service orientated architecture that integrates 27 discreet legacy systems into a whole.
The work is being done by Fujitsu Services SA, whose head of application services, Pierre van der Merwe, says the implementation will affect 3 700 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality staff and should revolutionise their ability to serve the residents of Port Elizabeth, Despatch and Uitenhage.
Fujitsu claims to hold 44% of the local government IT market, servicing some 125 municipalities, mostly in the form of legacy systems, which they are keenly punting upgrades for - including CRM.
"Many local governments still run on green screens, old technology, mainframes and stuff like that," he says. But many can't afford to "rip-and-replace" because they lack the finances. "Most local governments are struggling and cost is definitely an issue," he says.
Van der Merwe says there's "a real understanding in government to address citizen relations, because they realise people are unhappy with service delivery".
"A lot of the problem is not that local govt doesn't want to deliver the service, it is they have so many disparate systems that it becomes difficult for them to perform because the one system doesn't talk to the other and one person doesn't know what the next is doing...
"I think that is probably the root of all evil in local government and why CRM is so critical. If you keep a citizen happy, it wins you votes."
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