Case Study 1 water department reading meters manually. The process was manually and completely paper based. Although it was effective, it was inefficient. For example, in cases of rain, meter readers would go out read meters.
The following issues were still encountered:
• It was difficult to read majority of meters during rainy seasons resulting to high number of estimations.
• It took too long to take readings back to the office for capturing on to the Sap system for billing.
• Manual capturing kept making mistakes during capturing.
• There was no convenient way of dealing with customer queries as a result of the readings.
• Zimele implemented SAP Work Manager app to automate the meter reading process.
• The meter reading app improved significantly improved productivity of the meter readers
• The meter reading app allow capturing of readings together with pictures of the readings. The app automatically uploads the readings at any point where the meter reading device has a signal therefore saving time for the meter reader(no need to go the office to upload meter readings)
• Complaints from meter readers were significantly reduced.
• All data from meter readings is uploaded to Sap and is available for future reference therefore leading to better customer service.
