The solution provides all the functionality (financials, salaries and human resources, document management and workflow, GIS, business intelligence, etc) of competitive 'total' ERP solutions. According to Willie Schoeman, sales executive for Comparex Africa, the enhanced Venus is in the process of being piloted at some local government departments and has showed that an increased billing, by as much as R6 million a month, can be obtained by now having proper control over data, while maintaining an 80% lower price differential.
"Our experience in working with local government means our solutions are designed to be not only best practice, but also the best fit for local government. In providing local government with the Venus solution over the last few years, we are well positioned to understand their specific requirements.
“With our e-Venus solution all data is maintained from one central point, whether it is financial, payroll or HR, they all have access ‘across traditional silos' to customer profiles and billing information. This gives the ratepayer better service while boosting local government revenue streams.
"This makes life for the paying customer a lot easier as all his accounts are standardised and easily accessed by local government service providers. In addition, the system will ensure that records are kept up to date across all local government departments, ensuring the correct billings are made/payments are received."
Schoeman said that one recent investigation showed the implementation of the Comparex solution could save local government millions of rands by updating old records that still had local business sites paying less rates and taxes, because they were incorrectly registered as residences.
In addition, he said e-Venus is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing local council hardware and software, ensuring existing IT investments are not only retained but used optimally, boosting local government financial returns.
"This is another reason why e-Venus can potentially save money for local government. Unlike large traditional ‘total solutions' implementations, eVenus protects the investment in existing IT infrastructure. One of the reasons why we developed this enhanced solution was to address the results of a study we conducted which showed that municipalities could increase their billings by 10% per month. This translates into many millions of rands savings at the local level of government. e-Venus was developed by Comparex Africa to realise these savings for government," he said.
Schoeman added that Comparex Africa and its e-Venus solution are working with local government to embrace the future. This includes using business process management (BPM) in the solution to integrate and unite departments and remove bottlenecks - enhancing efficiency, transparency and accountability for all stakeholders.
This process includes centralising data and harnessing resources by enabling government IT systems to be browser-based and connect to the Internet, adopting XML as the interoperability standard and using FTP for file transfers. Schoeman concluded that Comparex Africa is proud to assist government in realising its vision of e-government.
Quelle: ITWeb, 08.01.2004
