 Home to 2.2 million residents—including President Thabo Mbeki and the rest of his cabinet for six months a year—the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) finds itself squarely in the service delivery spotlight. It is braving the glare.
In September 2005, the City of Tshwane was rated the best managed of South Africa's cities for the effectiveness of its services, administration and infrastructure, financial control, management transparency, policing/crime prevention and community development initiatives. This rating was awarded by the Professional Management Review, a think-tank that annually surveys the performance of private and public sector organisations across South Africa. It came barely two months after the completion of the fastest municipal systems integration project undertaken by Accenture anywhere in the world. The timing may be coincidental, but the facts suggest otherwise. Not too long ago, the CTMM's information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure stood on shaky ground. "Most of the systems were 25 years old and a plethora of different applications were in use," says Gloria Nkadimeng, General Manager: Information Systems. "There were four billing systems, three payroll versions and two fleet management systems, all doing the same things across the City and resulting in quite a lot of wastage and duplication, not to mention hampering service delivery." This state of affairs has to be seen in the context of the countrywide transformation of local government in South Africa from 2000. In the place of hundreds of standalone local councils that were previously scattered across the country, six Metropolitan Municipalities were created to support more coordinated service delivery and address the delivery imbalances left by Apartheid. The CTMM was formed in December 2000 through the amalgamation of 13 former local councils in the greater Pretoria area and surroundings, stretching over a total of 3,200 square kilometres. Understandably, each former council had been using its own delivery systems, employees and business processes, which had to be drawn together into a common environment. "It was clear that without an integrated solution and standardised business processes, the City of Tshwane was not going to be manageable in the long run," Nkadimeng says. Rapid Implementation
Although the CTMM came up with an integrated ICT strategy soon after its establishment, it was slow to take shape. The pace picked up smartly in February 2004 however, after an Accenture-led consortium won the tender to implement an integrated solution using SAP technology. "What caught our eye was their capacity to deliver and their experience in the municipal billing environment," Nkadimeng says, referring to a similar Accenture project with the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. "We knew this was going to be a difficult, complex project and we felt Accenture would give us a solution we could really use. They also gave us a good deal in terms of affordability as they could leverage their City of Cape Town experience." Working with a 300-strong project team, half from Accenture and half from the CTMM, the integration project surged into top gear. In January 2005, the project went live with the first SAP modules, enabling expenditure management. Less than two months later, the human resources module was implemented, including an integrated payroll. This was followed by several releases of the integrated billing and revenue modules in July 2005. The entire project took just 17 months from start to finish, believed to be the fastest implementation of its kind in Accenture's international experience. Accenture, however, declines to take all the credit. This was a team effort, with the 150 Tshwane members eagerly taking advantage of the opportunity to learn and apply new skills. "The success of this project depended on teamwork and it is important to acknowledge that," Nkadimeng says. Another critical success factor was the executive sponsorship of Blake Mosley–Lefatola, Tshwane's municipal manager. He saw this project as a catalyst that would drive the municipality to keep its service delivery promises and become a high–performance organisation. In no uncertain terms, he removed any obstacles, saw to it that decisions were made quickly, and generally ensured that nothing stood in its way. Adding his weight to the project was the City of Tshwane's executive mayor, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa–who was named as South Africa's most proactive mayor of 2005, also by the Professional Management Review. "He supported and pushed this project all the way, offering his leadership and encouragement and making sure it got the attention it deserved," Nkadimeng says. Far-reaching Service Benefits
While pleased about the speed with which the project was implemented, Nkadimeng prefers to focus on the benefits that are starting to be felt, particularly among the people who pay the bills, Tshwane's ratepayers. A key improvement is the credibility and accuracy of the new billing system. "It is very stringent in terms of controls and if a water or electricity meter reading is not in line with a customer's historical consumption, the bill is blocked from going out," she says. "As a result, we can never bill you for something you have not used." Revenue collection and expenditure tracking have improved, and the municipality has become much more agile in dealing with queries and complaints thanks to the new Customer Interaction Centre that has been established. "For the first time, our agents have real-time access to an interaction history for each customer, as well as notification of every query so that we can see exactly where we are failing," Nkadimeng says. "We are also moving towards having just two numbers that our customers can call, one for services and the second for emergencies." She emphasises the importance of "excellent responsiveness" in CTMM's plans to become a high-performing municipality. "High performance means meeting your clients' needs the first time round, not after three or four tries. Of course we realise that excellent delivery is a process that does not happen at the snap of a finger, but it certainly will happen here—sooner rather than later. I think this project has given us a firm foundation for our journey towards becoming a capital city of excellence." To Top |