ICE TECH: Digital Transformations Bridge Gaps Across the Continent

As quickly as the private sector has raised the bar on the customer experience, as have increased pressure and demands on the government to keep pace. As a result, digitisation of public services has become an imperative, helping governments meet public expectations and simultaneously become more efficient and resilient.

It is widely known that for an overwhelming majority of residents satisfaction with a public service are far more likely to trust the government overall than those who are not, while further benefits are more tangible. Digital offices, unlike their physical counterparts, are open to the public 24/7 and able to remain operational during even the unimaginable disruption of the likes the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital interactions, furthermore, are less time-consuming and can massively reduce the administrative burden on companies. The automation of case handling significantly boosts productivity, meanwhile, as it reduces backlogs and frees up resources for other priorities. This becomes particularly pertinent at present when speed and resilience for delivering critical services such as unemployment or medical benefits are paramount.

AUTOMATION OF EVERYTHING

“We are software engineers with a passion for agility,” ICE Tech outlines of a core, expert team with much knowledge around the complete development lifecycle of government information systems. Behind the design and development of its digital transformation platform ICE Engine was first-hand experience of government, and what ICE Tech observed of the need of solutions to be implemented with increasing speed and efficiency.

“Our solutions have enabled government to significantly increase revenue, compliance and ultimately the citizen experience,” summarises CMO Dimitri Kanellopoulos of the impact of this revolutionary technology. “We recognised that bespoke project-by-project development was too slow and lacked the agility demanded by our customers. ICE Engine had developed beyond its initial mandate as a tool for ICE Tech to use internally, into one applicable to every developer.

“We built ICE Engine to accelerate our development process without compromising functionality.

“Our main objective is to change the citizen experience, through our very own business process automation platform,” Kanellopoulos effuses. “It allows the development of any kind of automation to enable the citizen to be serviced by the government – such integral and easily accomplished functions as online ordering of passports, IDs and drivers’ licences, as well as more complex utilities billings systems with IoT enablement, for example, and e-wallets and the switching of government funds between ministries and treasury. We are also able to take care of ticketing and payment for things like national parks, and law enforcement in the form of spot fine payment.

“We are, right now, about to go live with tolls in Mozambique, where there was one toll before, and on top of this our ICE Engine solution operates around 60% of the massive toll network in Zimbabwe,” reveals Kanellopoulos, furthering that one of ICE Tech’s primary areas at present, and where it boasts deep expertise, is in vehicle registration. “We have completely overhauled and re-engineered the entire process of importing and exporting a car. It is no longer even necessary to approach the authorities to register an imported vehicle; the dealer can now do everything themselves.”

All of these intricate and finely-tuned processes are accomplished through ICE Tech’s low-code development platform ICE Engine, a powerful system engine enabling business processes to be driven in a dynamic and integrated way. “It is an application builder, an integration platform, a process orchestration engine and a low-code development framework,” Kanellopoulos explains. “With the ICE Engine Framework development is between three and six times faster compared to an equivalent enterprise-grade solution, with solution changes that are lightning-fast and which can be deployed in production with no downtime.”

BEITBRIDGE BORDER IMPACT

While not the biggest, the border control between Zimbabwe and South Africa is by far the busiest not just in the country, but in the entire continent, Kanellopoulos tells us. “There is, essentially, no other way to the African continent apart from through there. It means that all the big logistics companies are using this critical entry point to move cargo between South Africa and its southern African neighbours, translating to hundreds, if not thousands, of commercial vehicles traversing daily.”

With this level of use, however, naturally comes the ever-present threat of congestion, and levels reached critical points last year; in some cases, as a result, drivers were waiting for days to cross between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The challenges were put down to a damaging combination of new border access fees, slow traffic flow systems and a lack of coordination at different points along the border, while apparent electronic system problems also persisted on the Zimbabwean side.

The US$300m to the current infrastructure while going a long way toward creating efficient and effective traffic management for both stakeholders and the economy at large.

This construction project, entailing upgrade, expansion and modernisation of the pivotal Beitbridge Border Post, has afforded ICE Engine the ideal opportunity to showcase the full extent of its capabilities, Kanellopoulos furthers, with the whole continent looking on. “Our involvement in the project went live just a few months ago, just short of its complete form,” he explains. “This is clearly a massive undertaking, but is exactly the type of work to which we are best suited.

“Our system integrates with existing government process and becomes the overarching enablement function for the entire procedure of a truck, or a passenger vehicle, entering the border and taking care of everything that is required to successfully exit with its visa.”

The change at this critical post has been monumental, Kanellopoulos proudly reveals – a startling example of just what ICE Tech’s systems and innovations are capable of achieving. “I have seen, both first-hand and in videos, the difference and it is genuinely night-and-day when comparing pre- and post-implementation. A week before we deployed the technology queues of 20 to 30 kilometres were the norm; a week afterwards, there are no cars at all.

“This is the kind of impact our system has, and it is all built in with one philosophy: to ensure that, by using our technology and operational support the experience of the citizen, corporation or corporate customer is made significantly better than that to which we have grown accustomed.”