The impact of non-compliance to business processes : a case of a South African commercial bank

This paper investigates the non-compliance of most Business Processes in the implementation of the goals and targets of commercial Banks in Gauteng South Africa. The Banks lose millions of Rands, as a result of staff not adhering to the Business processes. The non-compliance has a major impact on the successful implementation of bank strategy. The study explores why staffs do not adhere to business processes and establishes their level of understanding and maturity in terms of business processes. The study was conducted in selected branches chosen randomly in Gauteng Province. The analysis done was on data obtained from audit reports, bank investigative reports and financial loss data reports provided by different branches. Questionnaires were also administered to staff in the different branches to understand their own perspective. It is evident from the research that non adherence to processes have a financial and reputational impact on the Banks. Non adherence also has detrimental and adverse impact on achieving overall objectives of the Banks. The most common areas not adhered to were notably; identification and verification of customers; transactions not authorised according to laid down procedures; customers cards not cancelled immediately when reported lost or stolen. The paper then concludes with several recommendations to Bank Management and Strategy implementers on how to use technological methods to check and monitor these processes

The impact of technology on the health care services in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Modern technology has enabled global integration with an immense opportunity for sharing knowledge. This paper examines the impact of modern medical technology on the Gauteng medical services. Gauteng is the smallest of the nine provinces in South Africa with the highest population. It produces 33.9% of the GDP of South Africa, equivalent to 10% of that of the entire African continent. Gauteng has the fourth largest economy in Africa after Algeria. Although numerous studies have identified the impact of technology on the medical fraternity, little data and analytical attention has been given to South Africa regarding modern technology, especially its impact on medical tourism. Patients from poor countries lacking modern technology travel to South Africa to benefit from technology that has improved diagnosis and made surgery quick, safe, efficient, and reduced the post-operative recovery to a few days. A multi-case approach was used in this study to explore the benefits of modern technology on the health care services. An in-depth analysis was conducted on two public and two private hospitals, selected because of their location in Gauteng and their bed capacity. A five point Likert questionnaire was administered to the hospital managers, nurses, doctors and medical technologists. In conclusion the paper emphasises the need for improved environmental friendliness by utilising paperless medical records and prescriptions, and recommends upgrading technological acuity of policy makers and healthcare Managers about the impact of Medical Technology in Disease management

The potential for bio-ethanol fuel from molasses in the Southern African sugar industry

This paper investigates the technical advancement in the production of ethanol in Southern Africa and examines the utilisation of ethanol and of the by-products derived from its production process. Although numerous studies have identified the use of ethanol as an alternative energy source especially in Brazil and the USA, very little data and analytical attention has been given to Southern Africa. This paper therefore builds on that and on the study done on alternative energy in Southern Africa such as the coal to liquids processes by Sasol. The paper demonstrates that the expansion of bio-ethanol as an alternative fuel would result in the reduction of Greenhouse gasses emissions and an increase in the rural economic development in the Southern African region. In conclusion the paper emphasises the need for a speedy upgrading of the ethanol technological methods in order to expand the use of bio-ethanol as an alternative energy. In addition the paper strongly recommends the supplementation of coal for the generation of electricity, as well as the progressive replacement of petroleum fuelled vehicles with the ethanol blend or the complete replacement with ethanol-fuelled ones

Capacity development for landfill infrastructure

Landfill, as a Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal infrastructure, has progressed beyond mere dumping site to infrastructure of high economic importance; it is useful for entrepreneurial development, poverty alleviation scheme, energy generation and reduction in the emission of Green House Gas (GHG) and harvesting biogas for other economic use. The life cycle of a typical landfill structure is over thirty years from design to final closure; it has many components that include design, construction, operation, waste collection, transportation, recycling, maintenance and reuse of landfill site after closure. The whole process requires a steady stream of adequately resourced personnel. Therefore, embracing the concept of continuous capacity building will ensure the provision of suitable manpower at the strategic, tactical and operational levels for the effective and beneficial management of the landfill project throughout its life cycle. This research is the product of extensive desktop search and examination of a training programme for personnel at the strategic and tactical level of a pilot landfill project, facilitated by the authors. The result showed that the trained personnel were empowered to train others at the various phase of the landfill project, thus ensuring continuous supply of competent manpower to operate the project profitably

The Delphi technique: A credible research methodology

Abstract: The Delphi technique, as a research method for achieving consensus of opinion of participants, is sometimes seen as a less reliable research method because the participants do change their opinion from one round of the exercise to the other. Instead of seeing this as weakness, it is actually the strength of the technique. The controlled feedbacks allow participants to view their individual submissions in the light of the whole group. The Delphi technique is about the only research method that allows participants to interact with the opinion of each other, without coercion, adjust ones position where necessary and yet retain anonymity. Thoughtful selection of participants and effective communication throughout the exercise ensures that the outcome of the exercise is truly a consensus opinion of the group that can proffer appropriate solution to the research question. The participants for the Delphi exercise, being reported, were chosen from the strategic and tactical levels of leadership of the client, end-user and the service provider. Though participants changed their opinion from one round to the other; the net result showed a more refined selection of appropriate Key Performance Indicator, without evidence of complicity or coercion

Technological feasibility and cultural acceptability study of solar power systems for microwave assisted sandstone artisanal mining

This paper investigates the technical feasibility of microwave assisted artisanal mining in the production of Sandstone from QwaQwa in South Africa. It further discusses the cultural acceptability by the rural community of the synergetic application of the emerging technology (microwave energy) and the renewable resource (solar). Sandstone in QwaQwa, Free State is artisanally mined using chisels and hammers. This form of mining is extensively laborious and is normally accompanied by numerous casualties. The paper demonstrates the existence and the possible utilization of alternative methods including emerging technologies which are more productive, efficient, effective and sustainable. The solar energy systems are used to trigger the microwave magnetron which results into high energy microwave dosage. The dosage causes differential or selective heating on the rocks which culminate into rock breaking along the interfacial grain boundaries between the different constituting minerals. The data used in the analysis was collected by administering questionnaires to the artisanal mining community in QwaQwa and from observations made on site as well as desk top information obtained from secondary sources. The paper contributes to knowledge by drawing on the solar energy systems to generate the dosage required to trigger the microwave magnetron used to facilitate a more efficient and economical artisanal mining of sandstones. In conclusion the paper recommends to policy makers the application of microwave energy in mineral artisanal mining and processing instead of the manual chisel and hammer currently being utilized country wide. It then gives a detail analysis of the technical, scheduling and economic analysis of the sandstone artisanal mining in QwaQwa

Developing an Environmental Performance Index (EPI): a focus on impacts of information and communication technology use

There is a growing need for environmental performance measures that can be used by all stakeholders like surrounding communities, customers, suppliers and shareholders to gauge the environmental performance of organizations. The environmental performance measures that are used worldwide are normally not suitable for benchmarking organizations. This paper develops an environmental performance index using indicator and weight matrices of the full life cycle phases of an organization’s energy use for environmental management system activities. This work is transdisciplinary in nature and applies mathematical matrices and environmental productivity approaches, and borrows from the development of quality indices to consider a variety of impacts that cut across various phases of a product life cycle and different functions within an organization. The focus is on information and communication technology use in these systems. The model is applied to the Japanese automotive industry and the findings show that it is feasible and effective for comparing the environmental performance of companies in the same sector using the same weight matrices and indicators agreed to. The work informs decision making on the development of environmental performance measures that have worldwide applications, across many disciplines, in situations where suitable data are recorded. It also contributes to efforts on economic and social sustainability. Research efforts in similar areas in Southern Africa can benefit from the development and improvement of the proposed methodology. Keywords: Environmental performance index, indicator and weight matrices, benchmarking Disciplines: Information and Communications Technology Studies (ICT), Environmental Studies, Economics, Sustainability Studie