E-government services on SMS

With ICT innovations simplifying all forms of transactions within the vertical markets, the public sector also stands to benefit immensely from technologies that will not only improve efficiencies for government departments and agencies but also save them hundreds of millions of rands.

One of these technologies is short message services (SMS) that can be adopted to streamline internal processes and communications with the country's citizens. That's the word from Rob Airey, CEO of SMS Cellular Services, provider of CellSys SMS technology.

Airey says the technology has proven itself in the private sector and is mature enough to support a host of public sector applications, cutting costs across departments and functions such as revenue collection, healthcare and justice.

"Because of the high penetration of cellphones across all strata of society, GSM coverage in corners of the country that the fixed-line infrastructure doesn't reach and the ease of use of these devices, SMS technology offers one of the best ways for the public sector to roll-out e-government services to its citizens," he adds.

Among the benefits of SMS are that it can help reduce manual interventions by automating processes, slash telephone costs by using inexpensive text messaging in certain applications and allow government to improve communications with its citizens.

Says Airey: "SMS technology has already proven its value to governments in other parts of the world. For example, Hong Kong authorities sent a blanket text message to some six million phones at the height of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) scare to defuse panic among citizens about a false rumour that their city had been declared an infected area. This sort of technology could quite easily be applied to things such as terrorist attack alerts."

A few South African government departments are already experimenting with mobile and wireless technologies as they look for ways of containing costs while improving the services they offer citizens. For example, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police already uses a SMS service that allows officers to access a stolen vehicle database using standard cellphones.

"But the small pilot projects currently under way are just the beginning," says Airey. "The South African Revenue Service (SARS) could send reminders to errant taxpayers to get late tax returns in as soon as possible. The Department of Home Affairs could alert citizens when their passports or ID books are ready for collection, while local governments could alert ratepayers that their water and lights will be cut if overdue bills are not settled."

Airey says government departments that want to leverage the true power of SMS need to be able to integrate their SMS communications systems with their other business applications. They need a system that is designed for openness and easy integration with existing infrastructure. This could allow them to deploy SMS-enabled applications quickly and easily, which could result in massive cost savings.

"As SMS grows in importance as a communications channel, the public sector will need to look for solutions that are robust and highly available. In many instances, companies will be replacing or complementing voice communications with SMS, so they need a system that is as reliable as the traditional Packet Switch Telephone Network (PSTN)," adds Airey.

"South African companies in industries as diverse as air travel, financial services and IT services already depend on SMS for applications ranging from debt collection and customer relationship management through to alerting field service staff to service needs. We expect the technology to become as prevalent in the public sector over the next three years," concludes Airey.