JOHANNESBURG SOUTH- Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA)’s ground-breaking Find & Fix mobile app received top honours at the Microsoft Partner Network Awards held at the Inanda Club in Sandton on Thursday October 2.
This innovation from the City, the first of its kind in the country, continent and entire southern hemisphere, was developed for the JRA by Enterprise Information Management (EIM) solution provider, Intervate.
The Find & Fix app was instrumental to Intervate in winning the Microsoft Application Development Partner of the Year of the year award; Public Sector Industry Award; ; and the prestigious Managing Director’s Award.
The annual awards ceremony honours Microsoft partners for delivering innovative solutions that directly address customer challenges.
The JRA Find & Fix app has created a partnership between Joburg citizens and the JRA by providing the latest technology with which to report any road-related defect at the touch of a button.
Since the launch of the JRA Find & Fix app in May 2014, 5728 citizens have registered on the app and 9 749 issues such as potholes, traffic signals, storm water drains, manhole covers and other infrastructure matters have been reported.
The Find & Fix app – tagged as “snap it, send it, and we’ll fix it” – is freely downloadable on mobile operating System platforms such as Windows Phone 8, Android and iOS.
“This app has positioned the City of Johannesburg and the JRA at the forefront of technology and innovation, truly embodying the City’s tagline to be ‘A world class African City’, a great achievement benefiting the community at large. It forms part of the JRA’s turnaround strategy and service delivery drive,” said Skhumbuzo Macozoma, JRA Managing Director.
One of the interesting features of the app is its ability to provide an accurate location of the infrastructure that requires fixing through the exact GPS coordinates.
This enables citizens to take a picture and send the evidence to the JRA. This also provides the agency with a growing database of information that enables it to identify trends and improve its efficiency and productivity over time.
The agency encourages residents to report all road and stormwater related issues, including potholes to 0860 562 874 or hotline@jra.org.za or twitter @MyJra or the new JRA Find&Fix app.