ICT

IT Tools

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We boast of a robust ICT environment which enhance the easy of doing business, it helps both internally and externally.

THE ICT ORGANOGRAM

There is a lot of donkey work behind but I will quick to point out the fruits of management information systems.

 INTERNAL (easy of doing business)

• 24/7 uptime of ProMun and network services
• Clean and safe working environment (from Cybercrimes)
• Fulltime user support service (one skype call away)
• Various modes of inter office communication (skype, calls, bulkysms, emails and labelled doors)
• Accessibility of resources from any office (users can use any printer from any office, access departmental folders on roaming mapped drives, log onto any computer using own credentials)
• Automatic allocation of IP Addresses to client PC and network load balancing.
• Disaster preparedness and business continuity plans in place. Users see business as usual.

EXTERNAL (easy of doing business)

a. NDASENDA

FN Software Solutions Private Limited Zimbabwe, a wholly Zimbabwean owned company based in Harare is currently delivering a non-financial service to create a service aggregator platform which can work like a transaction junction to serve both financial and non-financial transactions.

     Benefits to STC and Residents

• STC to be enabled with real time updating of their debtors accounts on online payments
• Decentralisation of council receipting and enquiry points
• Council increased market penetration
• Free of cost integration with Ndasenda
• Flexibility in terms of travel and time to pay for the revenue and avoid residents being defaulters
• Facility for online enquiries and wider coverage of customer care service.

b. PREPAID METERS

• So far we have installed 240 meters, 38 of them malfunctioning have been replaced and they are functioning quite well, so far there are no complaints from the residents using
• The main advantage of prepaid meters is convenience and transparency on the resident side. To council side there is effective revenue collection and reduced query times.

c. PROMUN

     ProMun Modules –

All being used but not fully. The full utilisation is realised in Debtors Billing, Human Resources, Stores, Cashbook, General Ledger and Asset Register. The Loans and Creditors are not being    fully utilised.

   Provision of Per Ward Report

We are currently creating our balance and exception reports per each ward using the ProMun System; this will allow us to be informed on the wards that are paying their bills and the billed amounts to each and every ward.

d. Eco-cash and Merchant code

While EcoCash can allow residents to pay remotely it has been limiting to those walk-ins who would want to use it as a mode of payment and get a real-time receipt. As a result, residents were not able to buy water; inconvenience was due to the delay in receipting while waiting for Econet reports confirming the payments.

    A Solution for the Resident – Merchant

       Advantages

• Allows residents to make payments through EcoCash and get their receipts at the same time (real-time)
• Flexible and convenient because a resident can do any transaction that they want.
• Allows purchase of water through EcoCash
• Gives Council a good reputation and boost the resident confidence with our services
• We are therefore running these two parallel in this way Biller Code for remote payments and Merchant for face to face payments.

e. POINT OF SALE MACHINES

• We got four POS Machines (point of sale) from ZB Bank. One is used for council payments and the other three are used for purchase of stands in Impali Layout 4. The need for dedicated machines was brought in by the partnership.
• Our revenue collection has improved through the introduction of POS machines and to the residents its widely accepted mode of payment.

f. OTHER AREAS WHERE ICT WAS EMBRACED

• WhatsApp line for unlimited and convenient resident communication
• Council Facebook page for unlimited and convenient resident communication
• Council website for various communications and online forms obtainable
• Use of Econet Car Connected for vehicle monitoring
• Use of BulkySMS as a communication platform
• Sophisticated use of excel as data analysing tool
• Registration of all vendors (computerised database)