The eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal will be the first of what is expected to be many public sector entities that will benefit from DynaTech’s brand new “Smart City” mobile application.
The “Smart City” app is designed to integrate a range of services offered by the municipality. It is a responsive service delivery tool designed to enable municipalities to interact with their customers in realtime.
This, in turn, not only saves the customers” from having to queue at service points, but also allows speedy resolution and communication of cases. In this way, it can serve as the ultimate customer participation and customer relations tool for municipalities of all sizes.
This revolutionary app was launched at the Mobile Government Summit yesterday, a national initiative facilitated to advance the use of mobile technology at national, provincial and local government level. Mobile Government Summit 2014 took place at the Hilton Hotel in Durban and aimed to bring together key figures from across all areas of the public sector, most particularly those focused on the development and delivery of e-government solutions.
CLLR Fawzia Peer eThekwini municipality chairperson lauded the new Smart City app, “We are excited to be the first municipality in South Africa to adopt such innovative technology. DynaTech should be very proud of this exciting initiative.”
Also speaking at the event, Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo, CEO of SITA says, “This app provides us and the country with a huge leap forward.”
Asked to position the ‘Smart City’ app in a broader service delivery context, DynaTech CEO Ntokozo Xaba explains that the ‘Smart City’ app is only one part of the company’s broader Integrated Service Management (ISM) e-government solution.
“Overall, the ISM solution covers mobility, big data, the cloud and the Internet of Things – what Gartner refers to as the Nexus of Forces – using very advanced software for managing service delivery issues. This means that eThekwini will be the first municipality to benefit from this technology, which I believe will transform service delivery in the public sector, providing a truly 21st century approach to this vexing issue.”
It is clear that the move from out-dated, paper-based systems into e-government solutions needs to occur sooner, rather than later. It is equally clear that gathering together public sector thought leaders at the Mobile Government Summit and launching new apps like “Smart City” are vital steps on the path to enabling municipalities and other government entities to not only keep up with, but get ahead of the current service delivery backlog.