STEADY UPTAKE OF THE NEW CIPC WEBSITE
In the fortnight since launching the new CIPC website and on-line transaction services, CIPC has received both positive and negative feedback. This is a new website and a number of enquiries are attributable to clients being new to the site. However, there has also been some system challenges and CIPC has worked around the clock to sort out any problems. CIPC would like clarify the following points:
1. The CIPC launched its new website on 17 September 2014. CIPC switched to its new website at 14:00 p.m. on the 16th of September 2014.
2. The new website introduced new online transacting services, including a new company registration system, a new name reservation system, a new director and member change system and new systems for company and close corporation address and financial year-end changes.
3. Since the new on-line services have been launched, the CIPC has received large volumes of transactions. The following number of transactions have actually been lodged on the website since the 16thof September.
|
Name Reservations |
Company Registrations |
Address Changes |
Financial-Year End Changes |
Director and Member Changes |
Annual Returns |
|
8, 406 |
11, 758 |
2, 637 |
421 |
13, 041 |
23, 668 |
4. The CIPC implemented a query logging system with its new website. To date, the CIPC has received close to 2,000 queries on the new system, for which tickets have been issued. The full turnaround time for these queries, including escalation, is 10 working days. To date, 10% of the queries have been solved. The CIPC is aware that clients are logging the same query several times, which creates bottlenecks and wishes to encourage the public to please log each query only once.
5. The CIPC acknowledges that there appear to be problems with slow response times on director changes and company registration. To deal with this, the CIPC has effected a number of changes over the past two weeks, including increasing the bandwidth that it has and most recently, increasing the storage and memory on its infrastructure. The CIPC is implementing the latest changes on its infrastructure this afternoon and will closely monitor the impact tomorrow. However, the CIPC wishes to point out that the volumes actually received is comparable to the volumes the CIPC received prior to the launch of the new website.
6. The CIPC also acknowledges that there have been problems with the allocation of funds to customer accounts, which has constrained clients, and notably intermediaries, from transacting on the website. A system change was effected on 23 September 2014, which affected the automated allocation. The problem has been corrected today.
7. Internally, the CIPC has been struggling with the volumes of transactions in the following areas: company registration, amendments to company memoranda of incorporation and director changes. System refinements as well as extended processing times are being implemented to ensure that we are able to address the volumes.
8. We are confident that systems problems will have been resolved by the end of this week and that the backlogs in critical areas, such company registration and director changes will have been significantly reduced over the next two weeks. The CIPC is proud to say that name reservations are currently processed within 2 working days of being lodged.
9. Finally, the CIPC does not have a call centre and its back office is responsible for answering calls. Clients are encouraged to lodge enquiries via the website, adhering to the service delivery time frames and to not log the same enquiry repeatedly.
The CIPC is continuously working to improve its service delivery to economic citizens.
Statement issued by Karin Coode, Senior Manager : Strategic Communication, Strategy Division, Office of the Commissioner, September 29 2014
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