Case Studies
1. Nithi Water and Services Company is Water Service Provider (WSP) under the Tana-Athi Water Services Board. With a customer base of over five thousand customers all spread across the Chuka County, the company found it a challenge when sending out to customer bills on time. Most bills got delayed not to mention the ones that did not reach the clients. The company resorted to using SMS service and Flametree was the preferred partner to develop an SMS engine and for query and broadcast service. According to Mr. Njiru, the commercial Manager, the service has improved the period their customers take to make payment. Customers can now query their balance by sending an SMS to a short-code number and get their bills. Mr. Kirinya, a customer says he used to travel to Chuka town, to check on his balance in case his bills did not come by post so as to avoid a disconnection. The journey costed him over one hundred shillings to come and pay a bill of fifty shillings not considering half a day spent on travel.
The company now plans to embrace Mpesa and GIS to improve revenue collection and service delivery.
2. County Council of Makueni is one of the most extensive counties in Kenya, covering an area of over one hundred thousand square kilometers. It has over thirteen civic wards. The Council is involved in community projects through LASDAP. The Council face a challenge of having all the projects in a single database which you could search by ward, year or particular project without going through the many files. Flametree Systems partnered with the Council in developing Community Information Centre (CIC) Projects Database in Tawa. In the words of Mr. Kalya, the Tawa Ward Councilor, 'we have seen the increase in the number of wananchi interested in the Council projects. this has changed their perception of the Councils doing nothing, as they are able to see all the projects and the different implementation stages. Photographs of the projects are available in the Council website' Mr. kalya feels that application should be based so that wananchi can see the projects database from wherever they are and not having to rely on visits to his community office in Tawa.
3. Organizations often spend on ICT without any guideline. There are ICT budgets allocated for the various ICT projects. In the long end, organizations may not get optimum results in spite of the systems and the ICT infrastructure in place. Chuka Municipal Council have just an ambitious ICT project in the Council with the first phase being the implementation of LAIFOMS. The Council is gearing up for GID development as a junior partner with two ther Councils namely Wareng County Council and Makueni County Council.
Before the installation of LAIFOMS, the Council with the technical assistance of Flametree carried out an ambitious Five Year ICT Strategic Plan that would act as a guide to the Council's ICT Spending. "This is the only sure way we can have correct ICT budget allocation against expected output and deliveries from the department", says Mr Mbondo, the Clerk to the Council.
4. GIS is a practical tool that Councils can use can use for planning, administration and information. GIS offers informed decision making when allocating resources for projects. You can compare population statistics against proposed project site to arrive at the best location to set up a health centre, school or water points, devoid of emotions or political inclinations. Kibwezi township under County Council of Makueni, have began a GIS project filled with information related to security, schools, banking facilities, water distribution among other attributes. Plans are underway to digitize the town's plots and integrate it with the LAIFOMS( LOcal Authorities MIS). This will enable information on land rates available at the click of a button. Through color schemes you can see the plots that have arrears and those that are paid up. Zoning information, land use, roads and other facilities can be over layed.
