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Govt to focus on connecting Thusong centres

Government has set up over 171 Thusong Service Centres across the country – with a total of 96 centres connected through SITAs network.

Speaking during a briefing by the Governance and Administration cluster – Public Service and Administration minister, Roy Padayachie, revealed that government had plans on expanding the network as it finds ways of dealing with deficiencies in its connected ICT systems.

“We are looking at creating the infrastructure for connected government across the various levels. Programmes on e-government, and what we now define as m-government (mobility government), an ability to take government to where the people are, is quite critical to the dispensation of services,” Padayachie explained.

Govt to table cyber security policy

The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster says that the cyber-security policy framework would soon be tabled before Cabinet.

In addition, it said that the finalisation of specific cyber-crime plans would be its objective for this year.

Leading the cluster, Justice and Constitutional Development minister, Jeff Radebe, said that police have put in place operational measures to help manage cyber-crime.

Growth in Absa ATM cash deposits

Absa has announced that cash deposits at its Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have recorded a 223% year-on-year growth, between January 2011 and January 2012. This follows the release of the banking group’s results that reported a 21% increase in headline earnings for the year ended 31 December 2011. “Rising usage of our bulk note cash accepting ATMs, of which there are now nearly 400 around the country, reveals an interesting trend in customer behaviour,” says Absa’s head of Retail Markets, Arrie [...]

FNB mobile solutions grow in Africa

Mobile banking is taking off in Africa, with FNB recording a 150% jump in transaction growth for its cellphone banking service and 1384% growth for eWallet for the month of December 2011 when compared to the previous December. The bank’s customers conducted 2.4 million cellphone banking transactions during December 2011 in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland and Lesotho, to the value of R214 million as compared to R986 000 transactions in  December 2010. Botswana, the bank’s leading subsidiary outside South Africa [...]

FNB allows access to 22seven

FNB has decided to enable 22seven limited access to its customers’ accounts – saying it will help create simple and convenient solutions for its customers. “FNB has set a precedence of responding to our customer’s needs with innovative products and services. We are now providing a secure means to engage with 22seven in response to our customers’ need to learn more about their financial behavior,” says Lee-Anne van Zyl, CEO online banking at FNB. FNB online banking customers can set-up [...]

Sizzling devices heating up SA market

After a frantic few years of activity in the South African data services market, it is mobile devices and applications that I see driving the country’s ICT sector in the year ahead. With sleek new tablets and ultrabooks reaching the market and a revolution in mobile banking, we can expect to see more and more South Africans depending on mobile communications and devices to access data for work and fun while staying connected to their social networks. Before I delve [...]

ICASA expects further drops in call costs

The Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) says that while call termination regulations have reduced fixed to mobile call costs – overall price reductions can be expected in 2013.

ICASA chairperson, Stephen Mncube, noted that while regulations have only been in place for a year – they had impacted on call costs from a fixed line to a mobile phone and reduced the cost of doing business for smaller operators in the market.

“As the rates decrease in line with the specified glide-path the Authority expects overall reductions in the total cost of communication as operators seek new avenues to provide cost-efficient and quality services to end-users,” he stated.

R1bn sent through Absa CashSend

Absa announced today that its money transfer service, CashSend, has processed over R1 billion in transaction values since it was first introduced. “We have seen phenomenal uptake and growth for CashSend. Our customers are making an average of 170 000 CashSend transactions every month. We have now seen 2.5 million transactions since we launched ,” says Absa’s head of Retail Markets, Arrie Rautenbach. According to the bank, the service which allows Absa customers to send money to any cellphone number [...]

Getting to grips with customer needs

Exceptional customer service is the holy grail of business. Communication and marketing teams around the world focus on this key element, and yet as much focus as it receives, exceptional service remains elusive at best, and frequently highly problematic for many organisations. One of the primary reasons for this is that the inter-play between technological evolution and consumer behaviour has created a permanently shifting communication landscape. Thus the real challenge for brands is adapting to ongoing changes in communication behaviour, [...]

Computer lab for DOC special school

The Department of Communications (DOC) in partnership with Cell C, the ZTE Corporation and New Age Holdings have unveiled a fully-equipped computer lab donated to the newly-opened Diepsloot Primary School, as part of the Ministry’s special schools programme. Officially opened by the deputy minister of Communications, Stella Ndabeni, the lab houses 10 Dell XPS desktop computers with core i7 processors and running windows server using NComputing on thin client. “Technology has proven transformative through its singular capacity to enable us [...]