ComUnity
Enabling Governments to Engage with Citizens Digitally

Digitalization is undoubtedly the bedrock of innovation for public, private, and government-run businesses in the current day and age. It not only creates multiple channels of revenue but also ensures sustainability in any venture. That said, pursuing profitable digitalization initiatives is hardly a smooth sail for the public sector, which, more often than not, struggles to access the necessary skills, tools, and expertise in an economical manner. Though a hard pill to swallow, the public sector does not have the resources or the time to stand on the same footing as multinational organizations such as Google, Facebook, or the like. Recognizing this dire need, ComUnity—a digitization services and solutions provider—aspires to assist public service companies quickly and seamlessly adopt utilitarian technologies, in turn, empowering them to offer essential products and services to the masses. “Our solutions and services really make a difference in the way a government operates and interacts with its citizens,” comments David Prosser, CEO at ComUnity.

ComUnity’s low-code, end-to-end digitalization platform enables PSOs to automate a complex and sophisticated ecosystem of services. It allows the government’s IT departments to design, build, operate, and evolve automation technologies quickly by aggregating relevant skillsets and digital prerequisites to construct ‘rich and wrap-around’ applications. “Alongside our digitalization platform, the services we offer help clients conceptualize a platform design, and the method to connect with producers and consumers of value in their work environments,” elucidates Prosser. By understanding citizens’ behaviour, preferences, and necessities, the digitalization expert identifies various markers essential to the smooth functioning of a government and creates a clear channel of communications for PSOs to interact with citizens positively.

For one client in the national healthcare sector, ComUnity built out a COVID 19 clinical surveillance and reporting platform in the shortest possible time frame. The quick rollout would go on to play a critical role in the way the Institute of Communicable Diseases modelled regulations to create a plan of action to combat the pandemic. Within a week of collaboration with the client, the application was integrated at over 1500 government and private healthcare institutions for the active collection of patient data, highlighting the manner in which individuals were reacting to treatments. The information would pave the way for national task forces to formulate a strategic and tactical response to prevent the further spread of COVID 19.

Another local government facing a financial windfall due to non-payment of utility bills in the wake of COVID-19 approached Comunity for a solution that would provide easy access for citizens to view their pending bills and make payments online. Engaging with the city’s administration, Comunity empowered them with a robotic payment gateway technology that allows people to receive, make enquiries, and pay their bills with full clarity on the charges levied automatically. The new system of communication set the track straight, and the local government body was able to manage their revenue streams and also assure that its citizens did not incur bad credit reports on account of non-remittance.

Interestingly, having worked with various government organizations, Comunity has started an R&D facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, to study the multiple issues that developing nations face during their digitization projects. While developed nations continue to progress with the implementation of the latest digital software and hardware, ComUnity is trying to understand the challenges that developing nations incur during engagements with their citizens. The idea is to bridge the gap between these countries and their citizens by delivering digital solutions that offer clear lines of engagement and nurture unique experiences across those locations. Moving forward, ComUnity will broaden its portfolio of services to permit local governments in connecting their ecosystem of employees, citizens, and other stakeholders under a single common platform and empower them with the same benefits that their larger counterparts utilize on a daily basis.