Escom in system upgrade, to enhance efficiency

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has migrated to a new management information system (MIS) to enhance efficiency by consolidating all work and systems to produce desired output.

The project, which started in 2014 as part of reforms at Escom, is a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-funded project through Millennium Challenge Account Malawi (MCA-M).

The changeover to the new system, which starts today, will see a temporal switch off of the current system for prepaid and post-paid billing until the go live date of the system on Thursday (January 18 2018) at 6 am.

Realising that its operations are constrained due to lack of an integrated MIS which can implement industry best practices, Escom director of distribution and customer service Alfred Kaponda said on Sunday that the new system is expected to address such challenges.

Speaking at a media briefing in Blantyre, he said customers should expect an improvement and some changes in terms of how they use and access Escom’s services during and after implementation of the MIS.

“Our customers will see a quick delivery of service and better supervision of our operations because with this system, it will not matter wherever somebody is serving our customers because the central office will be able to see what is happening as everything will be online,” said Kaponda.

MIS project manager David Tandwe explained that the new system brings in a number of advantages to the customer as well as the company with a core objective of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of business processes.

The system replaces multiple non-integrated computerised and manual processes and will automate most of the manual processes and implement new systems in areas where there are no computer systems in place.

Meanwhile, Escom is in the process of replacing seven-digit pre-paid meters with 11-digit meters.

This means that customers with seven-digits pre-paid meters will be purchasing pre-paid electricity units through the Escom customer service centres and through prepaid electricity scratch cards up until their meters have been replaced.

Escom has since advised customers to buy enough prepaid electricity units to take them through the changeover period when the service will not be available.