The City of Johannesburg today announced the temporary shutdown of its Citizen Engagement Mobile
Application to make way for an improved application incorporating lessons learnt during the “Proof
of Concept” (POC) phase.
As part of its journey to turn Johannesburg into a smart place the City launched a ground-breaking
application, Joburg App, which is downloadable on smart and low end mobile phones to deliver the
following: .
• Improve COJ Communication with its customers
• Increase engagement and facilitate participation with Johannesburg’s citizens and organizations
in matters that affect them.
• Provide effective and relevant service delivery to Johannesburg’s citizens, employees and
organizations in manner that is convenient to them.
The mobile App made it easy for residents to log faults, chat with agents, send feedback or receive
messages targeted only for their suburb. More than 50% of people who have downloaded the App have
been using it during this test period.
The application’s POC phase will now be coming to an end on the 26 December 2014 to pave way for a
much improved Citizens Engagement Application which should give residents a complete experience
when interacting with the City. Imagine an end-to end integrated platform that brings the entire
City’s Municipal Entities services together.
The objective of the POC was to evaluate options for the integration of community and customer
information as well as essential services into various systems that can run a mobile app solution
that is not only available for smart phones but is also downloadable from entry level phones and to
all phones as long as internet access is available. This initiative has demonstrated that the City
of Johannesburg can enable the digital inclusion of even the marginalized citizens and ensure that
their voices are heard by the City.
During the POC phase the city specifically assessed the following functionalities to enable
improved services to residents:
• Use any mobile phone to download it and connect with a broad range of smart mobile service;
• Receive contextualised, relevant and personalised communication from the City;
• Log faults with the greatest of ease;
• Have access to an instant messaging agent chat facility for immediate customer support;
• Get quick access to important phone numbers that can be dialed directly from the app;
• Provide feedback directly to the City about anything and
• Enjoy app sharing function so friends and family can also enjoy being connected to the City.
The assessment clearly indicated that the app is efficient, responsive and ensures financial,
environmental and quality service delivery sustainability. It is the fastest, most convenient and
cost-effective way to interact with the city.
The concept, planning, design and built of the Joburg app POC phase provided the following key
learnings and enhancements to be done going forward:
• There is the possibility of integrating the app into the City’s Customer Relations Management
(CRM) as well as the SAP systems.
Here customers will be able to log a fault on: water, power, refuse, parks, Rea-Vaya, Metrobus,
illegal buildings, JMPD dispatch requests or any other faults straight to our systems to receive a
reference number back from SAP and CRM immediately in the app pop up message.
• Digital Contact Centre
The City and all of its Entities will support citizens via a state of the art, next generation
Digital Customer Contact Centre (DC3). This allows the City to efficiently service and support
citizens while simultaneously and substantially reducing the cost of engagement for citizens. The
DC3 will seamlessly integrate with social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, allowing
citizens to engage through any channel they are accustomed to. Truly digital, end-to-end query
resolution will be driven through the platform on any channel selected by citizens.
• Integration into City maps.
From the app using Global Positioning System (GPS) capability, one will be able to get the nearest
ATM, museum, theatre or any tourist destination.
• Integration into pay-city or city payment systems:
Customers will be able to transact, view and download accounts statements, dispute bills by lodging
a bill dispute straight to SAP or CRM on the app and integration to Licensing departments to
perform some requests from the App.
• Integrating into City Power’s meter reading capability, so that citizens can log their readings
through the App.
• Integration into JMPD systems to dispatch metro police to intersections or by-law interventions.
• Ward Councillors’ details will be In-app functionality for residents to stay in touch with their
councillors.
• Ward Councillors and officials themselves will be able to use the App to log faults, call
meetings or chat with their residents using the send message by "region/surburb" functionality.
Using the enhanced App, administrators will be able to see all citywide faults from the green to
red ones in terms of priority, urgency and importance or risk or severity profile from one platform
with access to functionality to escalate or assign the task and responsibility to responsible ME’s
and departments.
The City has already put messages in the App stores from today Wednesday 17th December 2014 about
the closing of the App which will officially close on the 26 December 2014.
