According to Willie Oosthuizen, CFO of the NCDoE, this approach was decided upon to ensure that the department has the right information at hand to optimise the deployment of human and financial resources across the province, to the maximum benefit of both learners and staff.
"The NCDoE opted to fast track the process in order to realise these benefits as quickly as possible," he explained. "We understood that in order to complete this project for the Northern Cape Province, the largest geographical area in South Africa, over a very short period of time, a dedicated focus and concerted effort was required with the least possible impact on learning processes. Based on these needs and our requirement for a well-experienced business partner with a good reputation in the capturing electronic personnel verification data, we appointed Datacentrix, in conjunction with its business partners, Indenani Consulting and Leboa IT, and its joint venture business partner, LAWtrust."
Through this collaboration, Datacentrix and its partners employed the electronic eDNA personnel data capture system and are using a committed team to speed up the process by gathering the necessary information in electronic format directly from personnel, over the three-week period, said Kenny Nkosi, MD of government business at Datacentrix.
"Datacentrix has become the partner of choice for local government when it comes to the electronic verification of personnel and the gathering of personnel information, having successfully conducted this exercise for several other provincial departments," Nkosi explained. "We have proven that our approach, technology and processes deliver significant gains and tangible benefits for those departments and people they serve."
"The eDNA solution was locally developed through the Datacentrix/ LAWtrust joint venture, specifically with the requirements of the South African government context in mind. Our advanced technology and process have been tried and tested over the years in this environment, so we were confident from the onset that we could assist the department to achieve its objectives in this regard."
According to Oosthuizen, the momentum will be sustained after the initial project phase to ensure that this practise is institutionalised and maintained. "Information of new personnel appointed over time will also be recorded electronically using the eDNA solution, as Datacentrix and its business partners will deploy technology and personnel strategically across the province for this purpose.
"We have set bold progress objectives for the department and, through employing leading technology and practises, such as the eDNA technology, our progress will be accelerated, allowing us to realise the benefits of optimised human and financial resource management, for our learners and educational institutions in the shortest possible time," he concluded.
