January 21, 2004
By Tammy O'Reilly
ONE of the after effects of the creation of the Johannesburg Metro - which saw several municipalities brought together to form the unicity in 2000 - was the assortment of administrative systems that had to be standardised.
The City of Johannesburg has been taking steps to bridge these disparate systems, and over the past year has been running an intensive training programme for employees in both the human resources and finances sections in the use of the administrative software package, SAP R/3.
The existing SAP R/3 system was upgraded from the 4.0b to the 4.6c version and during the upgrade it was decided to review the business processes and systems requirements of the metro.
So far 314 staff members in the various human resources departments, and 64 employees in the finance expenditure unit, have been trained on the SAP R/3 system.
SAP R/3 is an integrated computer package consisting of various modules dealing with accounting, management, and human resources and was selected as being capable of meeting all the requirements of the country's largest metropolitan structure.
"Various proposals were considered and it was agreed SAP R/3 was the system that could service all the Metropolitan Local Councils," says Amanda Lesufi, consulting manger for Bridge People and Technology, the company overseeing the training.
The SAP system was originally used to coordinate the setting up of the unicity and the establishment of the various Utilities, Agencies and Corporations, she added.
When Leonard Mavuso was appointed as director of the City's human resources department in 2001 he decided, "in line with best global practice", to upgrade the computer system to the SAP R/3.
This meant there was a need for staff to undergo in-depth training on the system. It was decided that the most effective and efficient way to do this was through e-learning, where members of staff utilise their computers, accessing both various software programmes and the Internet, to carry out learning tasks.
"E-learning," says Gary Galanti, sales and marketing director of Bridge PT, "is cheaper, faster and more precise than classroom-based teaching."
However, the training programme provided to staff members varied from person to person. "We evaluated the amount to e-learning a department required versus classroom, one-to-one, and workshop-style learning," says Lesufi.
The task of Bridge PT is to deliver, track, report on and manage the learning content, learner progress and learner interaction. It also evaluates electronically whether the e-learning implementation has worked, and what difference it has made to the city council.
Before being given access to the SAP R/3 system all prospective users have to complete all the on-line learning material and pass the experiential learning course.
"All the departments already have a reasonable number of users that have qualified," says Lesufi.
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