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Vodacom Business’ public sector unit offers converged communication solutions to government, enabling it to fast-track service delivery

 Vodacom Business’ public sector-focused unit understands the communications needs of South African government, offering converged communications and managed services solutions to support the goal of citizen-centric government.

Chris Lazarus, managing executive of the public sector unit, says its objective is to offer converged communication solutions that will aid government in speeding up service delivery.

“Our government faces the challenge of improving service delivery to all citizens and expectations are high. Fortunately, reliable, accessible communications solutions capable of fast-tracking service delivery and achieving the Batho Pele vision are available.”

360° services

Launched in early 2008, Vodacom Business offers a total communications service portfolio to corporate and public service customers, including next-generation IP voice, managed networks and infrastructure, as well as dedicated Internet access, hosting and storage.

The unit is founded on four key pillars, divisions offering different yet complementary services: Access Services, Managed Network Services, Convergence Application Services and Managed Hosted Services. Significant infrastructure investment joins with a state-of-the-art data centre at Vodacom Business HQ, in Midrand, and a client services operations centre to support this full complement of services.

The Access division delivers network access via mobile or fixed means, including fibre, 3G, WiMax, microwave and satellite offerings. Lazarus says the division also has the capacity to lease lines from Telkom.

Managed services allow organisations to outsource their network management requirements. “The division is geared towards taking responsibility for the non-core aspects of running a government department,” says Lazarus. “This allows government departments to free up time and focus on service delivery.”

Managed Hosting Services is based on the backbone of Vodacom Business’ R100 million data centre, which was opened in Midrand in November 2008.

Offering 1 000 square metres of hosting space, clients have access to always-on power and security – again allowing them to free up valuable resources for use elsewhere. “Every organisation and function can’t spend R100 million on a data centre facility,” says Lazarus, pointing out that disparate data centres can cause problems with standards and access challenges, leading to the creation of the very information silos that effective e-government seeks to eliminate. “Vodacom’s offering automatically standardises data storage, making it available to a broad spread of government departments and functions.”

The fourth pillar in the Vodacom Business offering is the most exciting, Lazarus says. “This is where it all comes together. Converged applications are all about making data available through the network, ensuring that the channels are in place to access it.” When it comes to opening up access, Lazarus says Vodacom plans to “democratise mobile data, what we did with prepaid” – get it into as many pockets as possible.

Mobile-ising citizen-centric government

Vodacom Business aims to partner with government across all levels to implement this vision of complete, complementary services. For Lazarus, two key areas of government delivery offer a point of focus: health and education. “On a simple level, the need to, say, fill out forms at a hospital could be eliminated,” he says. “We can start with the most simple, basic transactions; an easy-to-use terminal at hospitals would negate the need to replicate paperwork with every visit.”

Taking the concept further, Lazarus says an integrated database could be developed and hosted, giving a single view of the citizen-patient, from hospital visits to the medicines booked out of the pharmacy and beyond. “This sort of information would be available on demand nationally, to all government hospitals.”

There are already examples where technology is being used in the health sector, for instance, the award-winning SIMpill initiative, which used SMS technology to remind patients to take their medication and attend medical appointments. A 2007 study conducted by SIMpill showed that the project saw patient compliance increase from 60% to 90% where the programme was in place.

In addition, says Lazarus, “the mobile device has a huge role to play in educating South Africa’s youth”. Although devices are costly now, they should come down in price and applications can be made available – in conjunction with the handset manufactures – that will aid learners.

Mobile also has the opportunity to bridge the gap between citizens and their government. Lazarus sketches the possibility of going to an application on a mobile handset, and scrolling through the menu to report a pothole, or a power outage – this would save time and money and improve efficiencies, as the correct information can be filtered to the correct department.

Tip of the iceberg

Vodacom Business’ public sector unit, set up in February 2009, has already won significant contracts, such as the South African Police Services, one of Vodacom Business’ largest clients. It has also won the Multiprotocol Label Switching virtual private network tender from the Independent Communications Authority of SA, and also provides dedicated Internet access for the United Nations’ Development Programme.

Lazarus says these contracts are the “tip of the iceberg”, as there is so much more that Vodacom Business is capable of offering to clients in the public sector.

”One way that we can overcome some of the service delivery challenges in SA is to use converged communications solutions.”

C O N T A C T

Chris Lazarus

Managing Executive, Public Sector Unit, Vodacom Business
Tel: 011-546 1165
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: http://www.vodacom.co.za/business

PICTURE 1

Chris Lazarus, managing executive of Vodacom Business’ public sector division