ENTERPRISE RESOURE PLANNING IN CITY OF CAPE TOWN

SAP Modernization for the benefit of the citizen

The SAP Public Services contract for the supply of the SAP software for the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution is set to streamline the City of Cape Town's IT systems.
This is the first implementation of a complete SAP suite of solutions with Revenue Management focusing on key services in a Unicity in South Africa. The City of Cape Town is now poised to become the forerunner in the National Strategy aimed at developing e-government solutions addressing the needs of citizens.
"The decision to implement the SAP ERP solution by the City of Cape Town will lead to it becoming the most technologically advanced city in Africa," says SAP's Senior Account Executive, Andre de Meyer. "and derive extensive benefits from expertise developed by SAP in more than a thousand public sector and city government installations worldwide".
"In the future, the City could further benefit by this back office modernization through the closing of the loop between their service offerings on a Portal, whereby technology is allowed to talk to the back office applications so internal processes can reach out to citizens." De Meyer added.
The SAP provided platform will enable the city to manage its resources more efficiently, plan more effectively and devise more accurate projections in terms of needs and shortfalls. The SAP solution will also link geographically scattered departments and their differing functions to a centralised computer system.
The upgrading of the existing IT systems follows close on the heels of other significant developments in Cape Town. In 1996, a decision was taken to amalgamate 18 local authorities into to 7 administrations. In 2000, these 7 administrations were brought together under the auspices of the Cape Town Unicity structure. The resulting authority with a staff compliment of close to 28 000 serves over 3-million people.
The SAP ERP system has several advantages for the City of Cape Town, and these include:
· The Streamlining of financial processes such as collection, financing, payment and settlement;
· Allowing Increasing operational efficiency therefore reducing transaction costs;
· Ensuring profitability and increasing liquidity;
· Improving investment communication and decision-making;
· Enhancing e-business strategies by linking financial processes with business partners and service providers;
· Enabling the City of Cape Town to make effective and strategic business decisions.
The Citizens of Cape Town can expect improved efficiencies when transacting with the council, therefore enhancing transparency of processes and experience a reduction in errors following the introduction of automated rather than manual processing of transactions.
The implementation of the SAP ERP solution, christened Project Ukuntinga (Xhosa: "to Soar") is geared for iKapa eqavileyo (a smarter Cape Town) and kicked-off in January of this year, and first phase benefits would be realized as early as November this year.

SAP Modernization for the benefit of the citizen

The SAP Public Services contract for the supply of the SAP software for the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution is set to streamline the City of Cape Town's IT systems.
This is the first implementation of a complete SAP suite of solutions with Revenue Management focusing on key services in a Unicity in South Africa. The City of Cape Town is now poised to become the forerunner in the National Strategy aimed at developing e-government solutions addressing the needs of citizens.
"The decision to implement the SAP ERP solution by the City of Cape Town will lead to it becoming the most technologically advanced city in Africa," says SAP's Senior Account Executive, Andre de Meyer. "and derive extensive benefits from expertise developed by SAP in more than a thousand public sector and city government installations worldwide".
"In the future, the City could further benefit by this back office modernization through the closing of the loop between their service offerings on a Portal, whereby technology is allowed to talk to the back office applications so internal processes can reach out to citizens." De Meyer added.
The SAP provided platform will enable the city to manage its resources more efficiently, plan more effectively and devise more accurate projections in terms of needs and shortfalls. The SAP solution will also link geographically scattered departments and their differing functions to a centralised computer system.
The upgrading of the existing IT systems follows close on the heels of other significant developments in Cape Town. In 1996, a decision was taken to amalgamate 18 local authorities into to 7 administrations. In 2000, these 7 administrations were brought together under the auspices of the Cape Town Unicity structure. The resulting authority with a staff compliment of close to 28 000 serves over 3-million people.
The SAP ERP system has several advantages for the City of Cape Town, and these include:
· The Streamlining of financial processes such as collection, financing, payment and settlement;
· Allowing Increasing operational efficiency therefore reducing transaction costs;
· Ensuring profitability and increasing liquidity;
· Improving investment communication and decision-making;
· Enhancing e-business strategies by linking financial processes with business partners and service providers;
· Enabling the City of Cape Town to make effective and strategic business decisions.
The Citizens of Cape Town can expect improved efficiencies when transacting with the council, therefore enhancing transparency of processes and experience a reduction in errors following the introduction of automated rather than manual processing of transactions.
The implementation of the SAP ERP solution, christened Project Ukuntinga (Xhosa: "to Soar") is geared for iKapa eqavileyo (a smarter Cape Town) and kicked-off in January of this year, and first phase benefits would be realized as early as November this year.

Mthatha

 Mthatha is the main town of the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality in Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The town has an airport, previously known by the name K. D. Matanzima Airport after former leader Kaiser Matanzima.

It was a military post for the colonial forces in 1882, and the town itself was founded in 1883, along the banks of the Mthatha River. The Mthatha Dam was constructed about eight kilometers upstream of the town. Mthatha became the leading administrative center of the area, having both Anglican and Catholic cathedrals. It also became the seat of the traditional authorities and a parliament building for this purpose known as the , was erected.
A branch of the University of Fort Hare was established in the town, and after the "independence" of the Transkei in 1977 it became the University of Transkei, which has since been integrated into the Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science. The campus was the base for the region's first community radio station, UCRFM, which started in 1996 and has become a significant community broadcaster.
From 1976 to 1994, Mthatha served as the capital of the Transkei bantustan, under the name of Umtata.

After the end of apartheid, some sections of the African business and professional community migrated to traditionally white areas of economic activity, and this has been widely posited as a cause of economic recession in the municipality, but a number of construction projects offer some hope for renewal.

Many of South Africa's black leaders — including Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela — come from this area, and the retired Mandela still lives in his home village of Qunu some miles south of Mthatha. Mthatha is the home of one of the three Nelson Mandela Museums: Spread across three sites, it collects, interprets and exhibits key aspects of the story of the life and times of Nelson Mandela in context. The three historical sites of the museum are all in the locality at Mvezo, Qunu and the Bunga Building in Mthatha itself. In the Bunga Building is the story of the Long Walk to Freedom and an exhibition of the many gifts received by Nelson Mandela on behalf of the South African people.
On the 2nd March 2004 Umtata was officially renamed to its current name Mthatha.

WELCOME

The Information Technology Association (ITA) was founded in 1934  and represents various companies concerned with the supply of information technology equipment, systems, software and services in the ICT industry. The ITA comprises a body of members actively participating in issues and events, which directly or indirectly affect business and need attention at national, international, governmental, NGO, para-statal and business level.
One of the many functions of the ITA is lobbying and negotiating at government level on behalf of its members. The ITA works in close liaison with government, consumer and other specialist organizations. Through its close association with the ISETT SETA and Services SETA, the ITA promotes the maintenance of high standards of IT industry technical skills in accordance with international trends.

 The purpose of the ITA as stated in its Constitution is to “represent and promote the interests of its members, which shall be employers active in the Information Technology Sector.”
The core objective of the South African Government as set out in 2004 is to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014.  By being able to constantly evolve in a fast-paced ICT environment, the ITA believes that we, as an ICT Community, can meet these objectives through cooperation, partnerships and sustainable development initiatives encouraging new businesses to proliferate and expand in order to pave the way for industry growth.

BEE STATUS

The ITA is committed to the process of black economic empowerment (BEE) and fully supportive of Government's transformation objectives and initiatives. We permanently employ 6 people, of whom 83% are female, one on senior management level, and 67% are from previously disadvantaged groups. The ITA Management Committee and Executive Council comprises 12 member companies of which at least 90% are BEE Compliant.

SITA

SITA was established in 1999 to consolidate and coordinate the State’s information technology resources in order to achieve cost savings through scale, increase delivery capabilities and enhance interoperability.  SITA is committed to leveraging Information Technology (IT) as a strategic resource for government, managing the IT procurement and delivery process to ensure that the Government gets value for money, and using IT to support the delivery of e-Government services to all citizens. In short, SITA is the IT business for the largest employer and consumer of IT products and services in South Africa – the Government.

Furthermore, the Act separates SITA's services into mandatory services (i.e. SITA must provide).

SITA remains committed in all its engagements to adhere to the Government 's "IT house of values" aiming

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

 A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.
GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts.

A GIS helps you answer questions and solve problems by looking at your data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared.
GIS technology can be integrated into any enterprise information system framework.

Geography is the science of our world.  Coupled with GIS, geography is helping us to better understand the earth and apply geographic knowledge to a host of human activities.  The outcome is the emergence of The Geographic Approach—a new way of thinking and problem solving that integrates geographic information into how we understand and manage our planet. This approach allows us to create geographic knowledge by measuring the earth, organizing this data, and analyzing and modeling various processes and their relationships. The Geographic Approach also allows us to apply this knowledge to the way we design, plan, and change our world.