Vodacom Business partners with local governments for smarter South African cities
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Vodacom Business has been working with local governments to provide technology solutions to help make South African cities smarter. Announcing the partnership, which forms part of a five-year Transversal Contract with the National Treasury, Vodacom Business showcased the role digital solutions can play in enabling municipalities to deliver services efficiently and build an inclusive future.
Digital solutions can help municipalities manage the consumption and delivery of services, such as water and electricity. Vodacom Business offers a smart utilities management system, which makes use of connected smart meters to provide real-time information on consumption. This can also help to improve accurate billing and revenue collection for residents and has been extended to include fleet management – saving the municipalities costs and enhancing the lifespan, value and efficiency of their assets. To further enhance service delivery, Vodacom Business has also developed and deployed the Citizen Engagement app, which enables two-way communication and collaboration between citizens and municipalities, including logging service requests and tracking their progress.
Technology has been used as a solution for improving critical access to healthcare. Apps, such as the cloud-based Stock Visibility Solution (SVS) by Vodacom Business, can strengthen stock-level monitoring and administration by healthcare facilities to deliver greater efficiency and medication-dispensing responses. For better patient care, AitaHealth is a smartphone-based platform that empowers Community Health Workers (CHWs) to deliver preventative care services to communities on a home-based level. Other digital initiatives from Vodacom Business to support public healthcare delivery include the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, which allows users to track ambulance requests from the moment a call is logged all the way through to the final delivery of the patients at their destination.
In the education space, Vodacom Business has developed digital solutions to support education departments and schools with more streamlined e-admissions, as well as bridging the communication gap between schools, district management and provincial offices for greater visibility. Vodacom’s e-learning uses mobile technology to help improve the learning experience both in and out of the classroom, supporting the government’s goal to improve educational outcomes in South Africa.
In ensuring citizen safety, Vodacom Business has developed various IoT security solutions, such as real-time firearm tracking and geo-fencing to enhance public sector security services. Body-worn cameras facilitate real-time video transmission to central locations, enabling live monitoring during critical situations and providing evidentiary proof for incident management.
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