Digitisation is a buzzword that has evolved into a topic of serious discussion in society, academia, and industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures introduced by the South African Government has catapulted digitization to the forefront where the pandemic has become the engine for digital transformation with a profound impact on social life and the economy.
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised the important of digitization in his weekly newsletter of the 26th November 2020 when he indicated that as a country, âwe are positioning ourselves as a hub for digital servicesâ. Thus, digitisation is necessary not only to enable operational efficiencies, and remote access to government services, but also and very importantly to make South Africa a globally competitive country in the world.
Fortunately, the NHBRC and the team involved in this journey had commenced making concerted efforts that would assist the organization on the road to our digital services programme.
Prior to the national lockdown the Digital-Service project team has been working tirelessly in close collaboration with the home builders in preparation for Phase 1, of the rollout of project which focuses on the automation of the Registration and Renewal processes to enable online submissions. The project team has started embarking on a âPhased Inâ rollout approach which started with KZN as a first Pilot site in October.
The plan is to start a second Pilot in Gauteng and the Western Cape before the end of February. The initiative to start piloting the system in the indicated regions will enable the project team to test the resilience of the system, identify and address teething problems which came during the piloting phase.
This approach will also enable the project to develop and execute a comprehensive rollout plan to address all aspects necessary to implement appropriate digital capabilities throughout all the NHBRC regions in collaboration with all the NHBRC internal and external stakeholders.
We are looking forward to a successful rollout which will enable home builderâs compliance, customer convenience and satisfaction, improved operational efficiencies and facilitating the attainment of the NHBRC mandate and contributing towards a broader sustainable home building industry.