Business Connexion's e-Venus solution, purpose developed for the South African market, is in place in 72 municipalities around the country, and efficiently handles over four million accounts every month.
According to Isaac Mophatlane, Chief Executive for Innovation Group at Business Connexion, e-Venus is the modernised, Internet-ready version of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution developed by the company over two decades ago. “Designed specifically for South African municipalities, e-Venus is easily implemented in a standard manner, with nearly a hundred reference sites providing ample real-world insights,” he says.
Meanwhile, continues Mophatlane, full support and development teams are available on site. “A dedicated team of specialists, from pre-sales, to sales, implementation and even the programmers responsible for the creation and maintenance of the programme are right here, on the ground, in the country, to quickly solve technical issues should they arise,” he notes.
The lengthy track record offered by the e-Venus system is evidenced by the millions of ratepayers around the country who continue to regularly receive an accurate billing service. “Within the municipal setting, there is a clear requirement for dependable systems to support effective service delivery. This directly translates to ratepayer satisfaction,” says Mophatlane.
That's not all. As a proven solution made in South Africa, the cost of the e-Venus solution is highly competitive. “While there are obviously ongoing costs associated with the continued development and modernisation of a solution, which started out as a 'green screen' application, the licensing fees are based in rands,” notes Mophatlane.
Going into some detail, he explains that with the licence fees comes at least two new releases of the system per annum, online support from capable consultants and on-site consulting as required. “Clients are also guaranteed legislative compliance with all regulatory requirements, such as those from Treasury and the Public Finance Management Act; these are regulations which are unique to South Africa and which e-Venus is designed to support.”
The users of the system, continues Mophatlane, have a say in its development. “Keeping e-Venus competitive and capable of meeting the needs of municipalites is our priority. As such, we engage with working groups which include senior municipal finance officials. That's necessary to ensure that we are fully in touch with our users.”
The development team is paid in rands - and the intellectual property - which goes into the proven best-practice processes for running every aspect of municipal business, is long paid for,” explains Mophatlane.
With its track record, he says even a large-scale implementation takes a matter of months. “Once again, the specific design of the solution for our conditions in this country makes it easily deployed by the municipality; that said, and as with all large ICT projects, there is never a one-size-fits-all. Every implementation is unique, but lessons learned over the years are always applied in new projects.”
More than that, as a software package long used in local government, skills availability is good, with a proven training and change management regime which ensures that where new implementations are made, it is a predictable process to get people up to speed. “A proven solution is further enhanced by the Prince2 implementation methodology, workshops and a roving Training Academy that ensures continuous training, post-implementation support and municipal input into enhancements.”
In short, says Mophatlane, hundreds of millions of rands are not required for a city to benefit from a completely integrated, fully functional and widely proven enterprise resource planning solution. “Ratepayers want simple and cost-effective value, not complex systems. They just want a system that will provide accurate billing on time, so that they can pay for the services they consume. That's what e-Venus promises. And it's what e-Venus has delivered countrywide for over two decades.”
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