Zimele Technologies Archives - 51��Africa News Center

Tshwane Innovates on Meter Reading, Revenue Collection

Kathy Gibson — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 07:06:52 +0000

Kathy Gibson is at Saphila Transcend in Sun City – Collecting revenue from electricity users is vital for the City of Tshwane’s financial health, but outdated and inefficient systems have been playing havoc with its ability to do so efficiently.

The city, which serves around 4-million citizens, had to come up with revenue strategies against a backdrop of numerous challenges.

, chief solutions architect at , explains that Tshwane recognised that there were a few ways it could improve revenue collection.

The first of these strategies was the Tshwane yaTina campaign that focused on disconnecting non-paying users.

It also realised that installing prepaid meters for indebted consumers could help to lower non-payment, along with other interventions such as implementing debit orders or negotiating payment plans.

Large power users (LPUs) like factories or malls are the biggest consumers, so connecting them to a pre-payment platform would make a big difference.

Simplifying payment platforms for all users would go hand-in-hand with outreach programmes to engage with customers who might not be able to reach the city with queries or payments.

Meter reading was identified as a key step in completing the meter to cash lifecycle.

Electricity makes up a big portion of the city’s service charges, which include water and sanitation. For a few years, revenue was growing well, then fell off by almost R5-billion in the 2022/2023 financial year – probably as the effects from Covid-19 came through the system.

In the 2023/2024 period, the revenue collected rose again, by almost R5-billion.

To reverse the negative trend and get revenue moving in the right direction, Molefe explains that the City of Tshwane leveraged a number of digital technologies to enhance service delivery and increase payments.

PhD, group head: shared services at the City of Tshwane, points out that revenue and customer engagement both suffered during the Covid period.

“But revenue management is one of the biggest causes of financial distress for local governments, and it affects the social sustainability of municipalities.”

Revenue collection was experiencing a number of challenges associated with delays in manual meter reading, as well as theft, tampering, and faulty meters.

This resulted in revenue leakages – while under-collection became a problem due to longer meter reading and billing cycles, and inaccurate meter readings and estimation.

Compounding the challenges were fragmented and non-integrated systems coupled with inaccurate customer information and insufficient customer channels.

“The range of challenges extended beyond these,” Khumalo adds. “But the biggest challenge was in billing – if you can’t do this correctly, you have a problem. And you can’t do credit control on wrong billing, because the customer will simply reject any action.

“The second part of the problem was collections. Now that you have billed, you have to collect.

“And, finally, we needed a way to interact with customers receiving the service and recognising that there are different types of customers: those that pay happily, those that pay grudgingly, those that battle to pay or pay late – possibly because they are distressed – and those who simply never pay.”

The city turned to a public-private partnership (PPP) engagement model to help solve its many issues.

Khumalo explains that in 2019 Tshwane transitioned away from a single 51��support partner by enabling a panel of service providers to provide support, enhancement, and implementation of SAP-related solutions. This led to the appointment of three service providers, with Zimele responsible for 51��Utilities and CRM.

“They were mandated to assess and understand the current setup, and identify a digital transformation roadmap.”

Zimele proposed a solution in three phases.

Short-term wins would empower meter readers, giving them the tools to be effective. This phase would see the implementation of an advanced metering infrastructure with MDMS for LPUs, and the implementation of SAP-based meter reading applications.

The medium-term is about empowering users, with wins enabled by the implementation of SAP-based financial management with a credit control application, and the implementation of the (wallet) solution for LPUs.

In the long-term, the plan is to implement the Sinch Contact Centre with omnichannel and extensions, and the implementation of the RPS solution for debt management.

“The long-term wins aim to build long-term relationships with our customers,” Khumalo says. “So, we will be able to tailor the message to the customer.

“Part of the what the roadmap looked at was to not simply throw technology and tools at the problems,” says Khumalo. “This is what usually happens: people panic and think about what they can buy.”

But the City of Tshwane was also in the middle of a move to so it needed to think holistically about people, technology, tools, and processes.

The city’s implementation strategy started with understanding the environment, while also looking to the future.

Khumalo explains that this involved also understanding the audit environment, including assessment and due diligence. A surprising initial finding was that 200 large users were not actually being billed at all.

The project roadmap involved implementing smart meter integration components in the first phases, digital mobile applications in the second phase, and customer engagement in the third phase.

Among the benefits that the city has already seen are seamless and direct integration to the core billing systems and a faster revenue collection cycle.

In addition, reporting is now in one system, a lot of manual work has been automated, and the city is getting an omnichannel and 360-degree view of the customer.

“We have solved not just finance problems, but also financial management,” Khumalo says.

Molefe explains that when Zimele got involved, Tshwane’s meter reading accuracy was just 27%. The new solutions were able to quickly move this to over 80%, and not long after, well into the 90% and above range.

Initially, the city was running an 51��system for billing, but the meters were not integrated. They had been sourced from a number of different vendors, with some being prepaid, some smart, and some traditional meters.

“We had to identify where the savings were to be had,” Molefe says. “We realised that 80% of the revenue sits with LPUs and that showed us where our focus needed to be.”

Zimele quickly realised that Tshwane had AMI licences that were not being used, so these were quickly activated.

“We converted the PI to PO, and now we had an integrated platform.”

The next step was to install the MDMS, which had to be meter agnostic because of the wide range of meter types out in the field.

The city already had a communication network which was activated so smart meters can talk seamlessly into the ISU. This also allows meters to be managed from the system.

“So we were live on AMI and MDMS, but some customers still had communication issues,” Khumalo explains. “So we brought in a meter-reading app that also integrates seamlessly into ISU.

“The ISU can now send instructions to readers about where they must read meters, and those readings are synched immediately. This means the back-office can start doing validations.”

Traditionally, the meter reading cycle is five days, which means there is no time to resolve issues. And the importation of flat files means the city can’t identify issues as they occur.

“By synching reading automatically, you can pick up issues and send people out to resolve them,’ Molefe says. “You can also measure the performance of the reader, check they went to the right properties, and that they did the readings.”

Field service management used to be an issue. When meters are replaced, there is a process within ISU to create a new meter in SAP. This can take about 15 minutes per meter.

“So we wrote a meter replacement program that captures details of what’s happening in realtime; and an engine in the system does the replacement within seconds.”

A similar system takes care of disconnections.

One of the biggest benefits of the new system is in converting LPUs from post-paid to prepaid.

“Once AMI was stabilised, we activated prepayment,” Molefe says. “A typical cycle would have been to receive payment 60 to 90 days after the power was consumed. Now, they pay before they consume. This has had a positive spin-off for the city.”

When thinking about customer engagement, Tshwane had to recognise that not every citizen has a smartphone. “But people may want to pay their accounts or submit readings, so we instituted a USSD solution. Now users don’t need a fancy phone to engage – and as many consumers as possible are included.”

Looking ahead, the City of Tshwane aims to expand its smart services and increase citizen engagement. It will improve financial transparency, increase revenue channels, and start enjoying AI-driven efficiency.

All services will be available in a municipal digital marketplace.

Finally, the city is engaged in ensuring that its people are empowered. “You can build the best system, but if people do not understand how to use it, you end up with a white elephant,” says Molefe.

“People need to be enabled, so change management and training are key.”

This article first appeared in .

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Building South Africa’s Smart Cities

51��News — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 09:34:39 +0000

South Africa’s metros are leveraging today’s technologies to improve service delivery and enhance the citizen experience, transforming the country into smarter, more sustainable cities.

According to , Director of Global Government Affairs & CSR for Africa at , smart cities hold enormous potential for improving the quality of life for millions of South Africans. “ leverage technology to bring improvements to every aspect of the citizen experience, from affordable housing to education and work opportunities. With a fast-growing population and high levels of development, South Africa is well positioned to take advantage of the benefits of smart cities to improve the living conditions of millions of citizens.”

A smart city uses technology and other innovative means to improve the quality of life for citizens, deliver efficient services, and meets the needs of current and future generations as they relate to economic, social and environmental aspects.

“Smart cities enable better management through more effective data-driven decision-making, reduced environmental impact, expanded opportunities for economic development, safer communities, and general enhancements in how communities and municipalities collaborate,” explains Geness. “South Africans could benefit greatly from the advantages of smart cities, especially as we move to more sustainable ways of living in light of the growing impacts of climate change.”

The concept of smart cities have featured regularly in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speeches over the past few years. In 2020, the President announced the R84-billion project east of Pretoria, with plans to establish up to 50,000 sectional titles units in a first phase of development. A separate smart city is also in the works at Lanseria north of Johannesburg, as well as two others, one in the Eastern Cape and another near the Kruger National Park.

The Department of Cooperative Governance also published the . The framework, which was developed in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, sets out guidelines for what a smart city means in the South African context.

, Executive Head of Marketing at , a specialist technology implementation partner, says South Africa’s metros have already made significant investments in building smart city capabilities. “Cities throughout the country are making vital investments into smart city capabilities by integrating technology into the fabric of service delivery and the citizen experience.”

Much of the smart technology deployments within SA’s metros have focused on improving water and energy management, which have traditionally been key revenue streams for cities. “The rollout of advanced metering infrastructure that measures, collects and analyses energy usage has enabled the real-time data collection and management of utilities, leading to improved energy distribution and lower costs for metros. Smart prepayment of utilities has also improved municipal cash flow through better billing and revenue collection, contributing to the financial sustainability within our key urban areas.”

Looking ahead, Mgayi notes huge scope for greater smart technology deployments within the country’s metros to support service delivery across a range of applications. “Chatbots and online platforms are increasingly favoured for customer service and could drive greater efficiency within metro call centres. Revenue collection can be enhanced through payment gateway integration and wallet-based platforms, while IoT sensor integration could enable predictive maintenance through early detection of potential faults.”

Geness highlights the need for human-centred technology deployment, noting that “digital literacy is an essential component of any smart city and should be a top priority for local and provincial government.” He emphasises that “care should also be taken to ensure that the technologies enable instead of hamper human development, for example the use of artificial intelligence as a value-driver, not a means of replacing jobs.”

The post Building South Africa’s Smart Cities appeared first on 51��Africa News Center.

UNISA Enterprise Announces 51��Training For Organisations

51��News — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 08:44:54 +0000

, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Africa’s largest university, , on Monday announced its offering of SAP-accredited programmes in support of businesses.

Organisations running the software are invited to visit the to register for the short courses, which will help the institutions to keep their teams up to date with the 51��solution skills.

51��prides itself as a global leader in enterprise application software, which helps organisations of all sizes run at their best.

It is estimated that 77% of the world’s transactions revenues touches on the 51��system.

UE is offering the courses in collaboration with , a 51��implementation partner.

Included in the UE courses are:

Expert-led live sessions covering deep dives and preparations to stay certified.
Access to hands-on practice systems to experiment with solutions.
Four 51��certification exam attempts per year and access to enablement and assessment to keep certifications valid.
Learning analytics capabilities to support individual and team management.

The minimum contract duration for the courses, which work with the entire 51��product portfolio, is one year .

The programme covers areas such as financial accounting, management accounting, procurement, extended warehouse management and business intelligence.

Supported languages for the course include English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

To enrol visit:

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Eswatini’s Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund Transforms Capabilities with 51��S/4HANA Private Cloud

51��News — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 07:14:44 +0000

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 21 June 2023 – The Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund of Eswatini has gone live with SAP’s flagship S/4HANA Private Cloud ERP in a rapid timeframe to enhance the organisation’s ability to process claims speedily and provide vital support to victims of motor vehicle accidents in the Kingdom.

Makhosi Magongo, Corporate Communications Manager at the Sincephetelo MVA Fund (The Fund), says: “Our Organisation’s reliance on outdated manual processes was hampering our ability to provide much-needed support to claimants. We sought a solution that would speed up the claims process, improve visibility over end-to-end claims processes, and provide a single source of the truth for all claims in our system. Despite not having had an ERP in place before, the implementation team’s focus on change management and outstanding support of our partners helped ensure we could build new capabilities and establish a firm foundation for our organisation.”

The Fund has a mandate to provide compensation for certain loss or damage caused unlawfully by means of motor vehicles and to cooperate with stakeholders in preventing road accidents. The Fund was established by an Act of Parliament under the Motor Vehicle Accidents Act No. 13 of 1991 as the instrument by which the Government of Eswatini compensates road accidents victims who have suffered bodily injuries or loss of support following the death of breadwinners. The Sincephetelo MVA Fund employs more than 100 staff supporting the entire Eswatini public sector.

Cloud, best practices accelerate adoption

The Organisation had no formal ERP solution in place, instead relying on standard accounting software to support its claims processing and disbursements. “We wanted an integrated ERP solution that could enhance our ability to deliver on our mandate and set out to develop an RFP to find a suitable solution and expert implementation partner to support our digital transformation initiative,” says Magongo.

The Fund found the correct mix with experienced 51��implementation partner Zimele Technologies. While The Fund initially wanted an on-premises solution, they took the bold step of embracing private cloud as this would better serve their business in the long term.

“We worked with the customer’s IT team to implement 51��S/4HANA Private Cloud and used RISE with 51��for a rapid implementation of several components, including finance, sourcing and procurement materials management, customer engagement and some Fiori reporting,” says Nomvuyo Mnyaka, Delivery Head Executive at Zimele Technologies. “To support the business’ core focus of claims management and cash disbursements, we implemented 51��Fioneer products and integrated these to the core ERP platform.”

The entire implementation will be completed on a very tight timeline, which depends on strong internal support and an aversion to costly and lengthy customisation. “Customer workshops and fit gap analyses were conducted in November, and the cloud environment was provisioned and set up end-December,” says Mnyaka. “The build and implementation from there was completed in under four months, with the final solution going live in mid-April, and currently testing and addressing any glitches before transition to support.”

To avoid delays, the implementation team settled on standard processes and reporting capabilities, leveraging SAP’s extensive best-practice modules.

Executive support enables successful change

Another major factor contributing to the quick implementation was the extensive support the project enjoyed throughout the organisation. A change management team was appointed, and the project was supported from the executive level, with the Chief Operations Officer as the main project sponsor.

As a government entity, the Sincephetelo MVA Fund is subject to comply with a range of government regulations. Magongo says the new system had to include powerful records management capabilities. “Claims can last for as long as a claimant is alive, so documents relating to each claim have to be stored indefinitely. Our new solution provides us with the records management functionality we need, allowing us to have a clear audit trail to all claims and ensuring information can be tracked, stored, and filed with 100% accuracy.”

Improved records management was especially important due to The Fund still supporting historic claims, hampering its ability to meet new claims as per its mandate. “This deployment has allowed us to clear our backlog and spend funds more wisely, ensuring that we can deliver on our mandate. Our new reporting capabilities also give our management team real-time insights for decision-making, reducing our reliance on manual processes and helping us to confidently improve our operations,” says Magongo.

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at SAP, lauds the Sincephetelo MVA Fund’s vision supported by strong executive support. “This bold and ground-breaking project in the public sector is a showcase for how cloud, best-practices and expert guidance combine with outstanding change management support to deliver true digital transformation. Equipped with the power of 51��S/4HANA Private Cloud and supported by expert partners, the Sincephetelo MVA Fund has built a strong foundation that will enable it to deliver on its crucial mandate.”

The post Eswatini’s Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund Transforms Capabilities with 51��S/4HANA Private Cloud appeared first on 51��Africa News Center.

51��Recognises Digital Transformation, Cloud Excellence at 51��Africa Partner Awards

51��News — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 09:06:56 +0000

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — June 1st, 2023 — 51��today announced the winners of its latest 51��Africa Partner Awards, which recognises excellence within the 51��partner ecosystem across Africa.

The 51��Africa Partner Awards recognise the insight, expertise and value that partner organisations deliver to companies using 51��technologies to run core business processes. The winning partner organisations include Dimension Data, Accenture South Africa, and Zimele Technologies.

Tracy Bolton, Chief Operating Officer at 51��Africa, notes the important role partner organisations play in supporting digital transformation initiatives across the continent. “African organisations are adopting cloud technologies at an unprecedented scale as they strive to boost efficiency, unlock innovation and transform their business models. As a partner-led organisation, 51��works closely with a broad range of innovators, experts and market leaders to ensure African enterprises have the support and insight they need to realise their intelligent enterprise ambitions.”

The winning companies at this year’s 51��Africa Partner Awards include:

Dimension Data, winner of the Top Cloud Performance category, which considers cloud bookings, year-on-year growth, and renewals;

Zimele Technologies, winner of the Top Capacity Growth category, which considers skills development, training and the percentage increase in certified consultants;

Accenture South Africa, winner of the Go-Lives category, which recognises the number of customer go-lives; and

Dimension Data for excellence in 51��RISE, which considers RISE bookings.

Growing interest in cloud adoption in Africa

Andrew Strachan, Head of Sales: Business Applications at Dimension Data, cites growing interest from customers wishing to migrate their on-premise ERP business processes to cloud environments. “We help our clients move to the cloud and embrace the latest 51��technologies. Lately we’ve seen growing numbers of clients adopt the 51��RISE program to move their on-premise 51��applications into both public and private cloud environments. We work closely with 51��and our customers to ensure that their cloud migration is a success.”

According to Bertrin Pekeur, 51��Lead at Accenture South Africa, 51��forms an integral part of Accenture’s strategy of digitalisation. “We believe every business is a digital business, and the quickest way to digitalise is through the cloud. RISE with 51��and SOAR with Accenture provide clients with the ideal platform for cloud adoption.”

Skills essential to cloud success

One of the most important factors for successful cloud adoption is the availability of sufficiently skilled consultants and technology experts. In , four in five African organisations said they were affected by a lack of tech skills, leading to increased pressure on existing teams, a lack of competitiveness, and stifled innovation capabilities.

Accepting the award for Top Capacity Growth, Nomvuyo Mnyaka, Delivery Head Executive at Zimele Technologies, notes the importance of skills in the successful implementation of ERP solutions, integrations and support services. “Our people are our most valuable asset, and we invest heavily in their development and growth. With SAP’s strategic focus on creating business value over It value, the availability of skilled consultants and technology specialists is essential to our long-term success.”

Partner ecosystem thriving

Bolton cites the thriving partner ecosystem as a cornerstone of SAP’s success with supporting Africa’s digital transformation efforts. “The winners at this year’s 51��Africa Partner Awards are a showcase of the expert guidance, technological capabilities and business insight our partners provide to organisations across the continent. We look forward to deepening our relationship with our partners and continuing with the great work done to date in driving cloud adoption and tech-enabled innovation throughout the continent.”

Pekeur adds: “Considering the broad interdependencies within the cloud ecosystem, one of the most important factors for successful cloud adoption is how well the various partners can work together. Our experience with the strategic and operational management of various ecosystem partners help us deliver successful cloud deployments for our customers.”

ENDS

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About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51��customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51��helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51��helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit .

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Zimele Technologies Archives - 51����Africa News Center