Intervate announces launch plans for Smart Citizen

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1 MEDIA INFORMATION Johannesburg, South Africa, 1 November, 2016 Intervate announces launch plans for Smart Citizen Intervate s Citizen Reporting Framework re-positioned as a Smart Citizen Intervate to go global with its Smart Citizen Smart Citizen is already making a difference across South Africa. Having already been successfully utilised to power the Johannesburg Road Agency Find and Fix mobile app, Intervate s Citizen Reporting Framework service is currently being re-positioned as Smart Citizen. Designed to enable bi-directional engagement and communication between citizens and their local authorities and service providers, the Smart Citizen product makes use of the most universal technology that most citizens have - a smartphone equipped with GPS and a camera. It connects citizens and authorities to help improve the environment, service levels and customer satisfaction. Says Marc Fletcher, Head of Marketing & Business Development at Intervate (a T-Systems company), Our South African product launch took take place on the 31st October at GovTech This coincides with a new microsite ( and once we ve launched the product locally, we ll be taking it worldwide at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on 15th November. The free downloadable Smart Citizen apps enable citizens to interact with local authorities on different utilities; be it water, electricity, roads or emergency services, and each authority can decide which services they d like to deploy within their reach. Citizens report issues and provide a photograph and GPS location of the issue, thereby equipping local authorities with information to

2 locate and assess the problem. Accountability is provided by the Field Agent tablet app, which allows contractors to conduct remedial work at the location of the citizen-reported issue and mark that incident as resolved. Verification takes place by logging the GPS location of the field agent along with a photograph of the work done, which gives local authorities the ability to track their contractors and the assess quality of work, which was not possible before, Fletcher explains. This application provides the authority and citizen with the full feedback loop as the citizen receives verification of the resolved issue. This serves as acknowledgement that authorities are making a difference in their local community, which was not possible when the only means of engagement open to citizens was a call centre. As our tagline says, you can t have a smart city without smart citizens, so we re providing the citizen engagement part of the larger smart city solution, notes Fletcher, which starts at a basic level with infrastructure and connectivity, with the goal of building a truly digital city. Smart Citizen is already making a difference across South Africa. Intervate is currently working with the City of Johannesburg on their mobile app, Maru a Jozi to add the mobile communication and back end management component, while the VayaMoja app is an uber-like initiative for smart citizen public transport commuting. Intervate is a Microsoft CityNext partner. This program is a partner-led initiative that empowers cities to be more sustainable, prosperous, and economically competitive with a simplified approach. It helps cities unlock their potential by delivering innovative digital services that can help citizens lead safer, healthier, and more educated lives. Cities can tap into the solution portfolios of Microsoft and our partners and innovate at their own pace, Smart Citizen is one such

3 portfolio item and Intervate hope to expand the product to cover a number of the other Smart City sectors. In previous incarnations of the platform we d marketed it as a service, creating bespoke solutions for each use case over the last five years, explains Fletcher, yet we have recently realised that it s essential to package the platform and start selling it as a product, therefore making it easier for our customers to understand and by doing so speed up the roll-out of the smart city concept. The best way to get the product out there is through the creation of a global reseller channel, Fletcher continues. We re excited to take our product global and we have no doubt about its value and usefulness in connecting and empowering citizens across the world, improving service delivery and enforcing transparency and service accountability, Fletcher concludes. T-Systems in South Africa: Communications Specialist Thamsanqa Malinga Thami.Malinga@t-systems.co.za +27(11) (Phone) +27(0) (Mobile) About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world s leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 151 million mobile customers, 30 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2014). The Group provides fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has approximately 228,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 62.7 billion in the 2014 financial year more than 60 percent of it outside Germany.

4 About T-Systems Deutsche Telekom considers the European business customer segment a strategic growth area. Deutsche Telekom offers small, medium-sized and multinational companies ICT solutions for an increasingly complex digital world. In addition to services from the cloud, the range of services is centred around M2M and security solutions, complementary mobile communications and fixed network products, and solutions for virtual collaboration and IT platforms, all of which forms the basis for our customers' digital business models. With approximately 47,800 employees worldwide, T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR 8,6 billion in the 2014 financial year. Since the inception of T-Systems in South Africa in 1997, the company has cemented its position as one of the most successful T-Systems companies outside of Europe. A leading ICT outsourcing service provider locally, T- Systems offers end-to-end ICT solutions in both the ICT Operations and Systems Integration markets. Their extensive portfolio of services covers the vertical, horizontal, IT and TC space. T-Systems South Africa s head office is located in Midrand with another major office in Cape Town, and 20 further representative offices in locations throughout southern Africa. About Intervate Intervate, a T-Systems company in South Africa, is an enabler of digital transformation, delivering digital workplace solutions and customer experiences that drive business value and improve productivity. We have over 17 years experience in delivering innovative solutions that enable digital transformation including Enterprise Mobility, Enterprise Information Management, Customer and Data Insights, Business Process Solutions, Cloud solutions and Enterprise Application Integration. Our technical expertise is supported by an understanding of the strategic drivers and challenges that enable us to provide our customers with professional guidance

5 regarding the best practices proven to deliver successful projects and business benefits.