Information is key to effective municipal service delivery for the Potchefstroom City Council (PCC). To ensure it keeps tabs on all business processes arising from incoming and outgoing documents and delivers the service its public requires, the city`s officials have implemented a Web-based document management, workflow and portal solution developed by Johannesburg-based software company Tilos.
PCC is committed to good governance for all its stakeholders. This is difficult as its municipal area is vast, being divided into 20 wards, each with a ward committee chaired by the ward councillor. It also supports a large contingent of decentralised national and provincial government departments.
"If the council is to deliver efficient service, it is vital that all incoming and outgoing documents are distributed quickly to the correct people," says Ben Robbertse, city secretary of Potchefstroom. "We used to distribute documents manually, but increasing volumes and higher levels of accountability made a manual document management system impractical and unreliable."
Under manual control, the distribution of documents was handled by different functional areas of the council, which meant the central archiving department had little or no control over documents. Often documents could not be traced and employees responsible for taking actions could not be held accountable as the paperwork they needed would be held up in someone`s inbox or lost in the wrong department.
"This led to the council delivering an unacceptable level of service to our clients," asserts Robbertse, "so we decided to implement a document management system to help us improve efficiency."
Many of the council`s offices are dispersed over a wide area of the city, making integrated IT systems difficult. This led to the decision to opt for a Web-based system.
Tilos director Sybille McCloghrie says the solution PCC decided on was the Tilos Product Suite, a Web-based solution consisting of Tilos Portal, Tilos Workflow and Tilos Documents.
"The suite was implemented to automate and control all the processes in the organisation. Via a central portal running on a Web browser, council employees have access to their documents in real-time, as well as information on where documents are in the process and who is handling them," McCloghrie says.
All documents are now scanned as they enter the council. The paper document is then stored in the central archives, the department tasked with holding and managing all physical documents for the council. The image is saved in PCC`s workflow system and routed to the city secretary, who assigns each document to the appropriate people and departments.
Robbertse says the workflow solution allows management to immediately query the status of any project, process or document at any time at the push of a button. Staff in the workflow process can add notes to the documents without damaging the original, keeping everyone updated as to what has occurred since the document entered the system and highlighting any problems or anomalies.
"Through the document audit report we can easily pick up any problems, such as a staff member who continually returns a document or forwards an incomplete document. Recurring errors such as these are a beacon to warn us that additional training is necessary, allowing us to plan for corrective action targeted at real problems that employees experience in their day-to-day routines," adds Robbertse.
"Should a member of the public call in to find out the progress on a letter sent to the council, for example, we can immediately provide all pertinent information, such as what still needs to be done and by when the process should be finished. Keeping the public happy means keeping them informed at all times."
Even in an electronic workflow solution, one person can often hold up a process by not completing a task in its allotted time. Checks and balances ensure that, should any bottlenecks occur, management is alerted and can assist the person concerned. "The Tilos solution also allows us to forward documents in parallel, ensuring its routing to all appropriate people at the same time to avoid any blockages."
Robbertse says the adoption of the Tilos suite proceeded smoothly as many Tilos employees had already worked on the Y2K conversion for the municipality and knew the old system well.
"PCC has seen definite improvements in productivity, efficiency and accuracy since installing the Tilos products," he explains. "Our staff can now get more done in less time and they don`t have to wait for anyone to pass a piece of paper along or go searching for lost documents before being able to do their jobs."
The system`s Web-based architecture has allowed the council to prepare for the next phase of its growth: Authorised managers will be able to log into the network from any Web browser, such as when working at home, for example, and conduct business as if they were in the office.
Robbertse says he would heartily recommend the Web-based Tilos solution to larger metropolitan municipal regions as it makes communications and tighter control easier and more reliable across a dispersed organisation. "A simple click of the mouse and any information you need is at your fingertips."
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