By Leon Engelbrecht

The Department of Transport's (DOT's) R408 million electronic national transport information system (eNatis) turned one on Saturday.

eNatis launched into turbulent waters on 12 April 2007, when the DOT – in one swoop – migrated the country's entire vehicle and driver database from a series of legacy data centres to a centralised system.

As is often the case with “big bang” implementations, teething troubles soon surfaced and undermined public confidence in the system. The DOT initially downplayed the trouble, further damaging eNatis' image.

It gradually emerged that the nub of the problem was the designers underestimating the public uptake of the system and a series of emergency capacity upgrades were implemented in the weeks following eNatis' debut.

Since then, the DOT and the Tasima Consortium, which designed and installed the system, have been on a sustained publicity drive to rehabilitate the image of the now-stable eNatis.

DOT eNatis project manager Werner Koekemoer says eNatis has 2 500 concurrent users who performed more than 140 million online transactions in the last year worth R4 billion. The system carries more than 4.6 billion records in its database, including 20 million vehicle and driving licence records.

The system software contains more than three million lines of code and 400 000 man hours were spent on development, including around 100 000 on testing.

Koekemoer adds that the system has also become “widely rated as the international benchmark for systems of its kind” and that the teething troubles aside, “the system has proved to be outstanding in its first 12 months of operation”.

“eNatis utilises the very latest technology and has, at its core, a central data centre,” says Koekemoer. “The centralised architecture makes integrated road traffic management possible. It also means that there is no unnecessary duplication of infrastructure and data. As a result, the system is much more cost-effective than its predecessor.

“Users connect to the system with PCs or thin clients (as opposed to the ‘dumb terminals' used in the Natis) and connection speed is greatly improved. System security is of the highest order. The functionality of the system is far greater than that of its predecessor, as is its ability to incorporate enhancements to deal with new demands,” he adds.

Commenting on the problems experienced after launch, Koekemoer says switching over from the previous system was an extremely complex exercise.

“It entailed, among other things, transferring more than 4.6 billion records, from 14 decentralised databases, to the current centralised one, equipping and training thousands of users across the width and breadth of SA, and implementing hundreds of functional enhancements,” he adds.

“Against this background, the teething problems, the extent of which was hugely exaggerated in the media, were not really significant. We experienced system availability of 93% over a period of approximately a fortnight. Therefore, contrary to incorrect reports, the system was available although functioning was briefly impaired as indicated.”

eNatis is used by all provincial departments of transport, the police, the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS) and a number of non-government organisations (such as vehicle manufacturers, importers and builders) to register and license vehicles.

In addition, it manages and records applications for, and authorisations of, driver and learner licences.

“A highly effective law enforcement tool, the eNatis is used to ensure the details of vehicles that are stolen are circulated and to prevent irregular and fraudulent re-registration of such vehicles. Importantly, the system also serves as a register for recording the decisions of safety as provided by the SABS,” the DOT adds on the official eNatis Web site, which is hosted in the US.

Koekemoer says eNatis is performing optimally and is handling large transaction volumes speedily – on average, around 600 000 transactions are performed each day and monthly totals regularly exceed 13 million.

“eNatis has undoubtedly greatly enhanced the department's service delivery levels, and will continue to do so.

“Through careful planning and research, the system's design allows for further enhancements and the utilisation of a wide array of new technologies, as and when the need arises.”

One of these enhancements is a centralised licence appointment booking system that is now in use in a number of provinces – but not Gauteng, which uses its own system.

In addition to streamlining the booking process, the new booking system validates examiners, testing centres and appointments, and prevents unscrupulous officials from abusing the system by extorting money from the public in order to obtain driving licence appointments.

Further down the road, the system will also incorporate strict electronic tagging of documents to eradicate the falsification of vehicle licences, registration certificates and driving licence cards.