Joburg billing systems offline again - City should bring in experts with multi-channel strategy, says consultant

The failure of the City of Johannesburg's core billing and payments systems is causing chaos for residents, reports Moneyweb.

Both systems are apparently offline, with no payments reflecting for two weeks. The customer services centres have also stopped accepting payments.

Ward 117 Councillor Tim Truluck told Moneyweb that payments can still be made via online banking or banking apps as well as through EasyPay at supermarket tills (including Shoprite Checkers and Pick n Pay) across the country.

Stephen Grootes asks municipal governance expert Miyelani Holeni (Ntiyiso Consulting) about the root cause of the CoJ's ongoing problems.

Holeni says we need to take into account the history of the metro and also question why it has still not got on top of not-so-new systems.

It was in 1995 that a number of local authorities amalgamated to form four councils coordinated by a central metropolitan council under a single tax base.

"It means we must trace back the steps to where they were pulling together other local councils into this metro... We need to look at what the platforms are being used and whether there are better ways to define roadmaps of taking the CoJ to at least being able to be credible, stable and able to serve its customers fully with an integrated system."

Holeni believes it is time for the City to call in experts able to support it to move into the new age and migrate onto a platform that is fully integrated with a good master data system "that at least has the information of every customer".

"That is expected from anyone who is serving customers today whether you are in the private sector or whether you are in government, that you move your systems to a point where they are more intuitive and deliver the right information and the right interfaces... Municipalities should be adopting a multi-channel strategy, with a stable, credible core system that is able to store the info of all the customers, and work from there."

To hear more insight from Holeni, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article