Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 34 | Page 43

COUNTRY FOCUS: COUNTRY SOUTH AFRICA FOCUS: • Failures have been reduced by 50% due to improved work management processes • The significant reduction of operational times has impacted positively on safety issues for citizens Meanwhile, Fisher noted that the mobilisation of the system processing had also become a journey of empowerment for the users in the field. While a few of the older workers had been initially resistant, he said, they had reached a point where they had embraced the technology and been proud of the digital empowerment this had brought them. He added that more general benefits brought by the mobilisation technology included staff motivation, because staff members feel empowered, output levels have improved by over 20%; employee safety because the device allows for tracking www.intelligentcio.com of staff and reports can be enabled if the device is going off the expected route, and/ or no movement is detected; and a focus on strategic objectives. “Effective asset management results in savings that can be used to invest in the organisation’s objectives,” said Fisher. “Taking the system information onto the mobile device allows field workers to see all the invisible underground assets in the area that they need to know about. For example, storm water or sewage conduits. Other processes which are done in the field from the mobile device allow the inputting of failure codes, confirmations of the processes followed and the updating of costings then and there. “The end result of this particular service call was a grateful message on Twitter, in which the resident who had initially reported the incident sent out an incredibly positive tweet complimenting the City of Cape Town on a job well done.” Fisher explained that the City of Cape Town was currently carrying out 22,000 maintenance orders per month, and that there has been a real improvement in wear-and-tear failures being eliminated through preventative maintenance. “We are continuously striving to improve our systems and processes and are driving down the numbers of issues even further on a monthly basis, by holding ongoing meetings with the relevant people,” he said. “We aim for continuous improvement and look forward to using Machine Learning to allow us to fix even broader picture issues. It has been a wonderful experience as a SAP consultant to have had these types of tools to use. It has made it much easier for us as consultants to make a real difference in a city like Cape Town.” n INTELLIGENTCIO 43