SOLAR ERP
Solution
Our Service Oriented Local Authority Resource Management Solution (SOLAR) is a proudly South African, purpose-built, municipal-focused financial management solution (FMS), that has been the market leader for over 35 years. SOLAR is tried, tested, and trusted in assisting municipalities to conform to the prescribed reforms and transacting procedures.
Extended to include additional modules, SOLAR ERP is more than an FMS. It is a market leader ERP in the municipal solutions environment that helps to support a municipality’s mSCOA roadmap.
SOLAR ERP is a digital solution stack with functionality that:
-
Covers National Treasury’s 15 business processes and ensures mSCOA compliance across the seven segments of budgeting and transacting;
-
Ensures transparent reporting according to requirements set out by National Treasury;
-
Facilitates decision-making through dashboard analytics;
-
Provides seamless integration into the 7 mSCOA segments and with external applications; and
-
Enables municipalities to connect, integrate, comply, and optimise quickly and simply.
What is our value proposition?
Our SOLAR ERP comes with specialised support services from a varied workforce that has 100s of years of combined municipal experience. The BCX municipal subject matter consulting experts assist municipalities in applying legislation; empowering municipal managers to conform to the prescribed reforms and transactional procedures. We have an unwavering desire to support Municipalities in their commitment to providing excellent service delivery.
Who do we serve?
SOLAR has a well-established client base. 50+ municipalities, and municipal entities from metropolitan, secondary cities, rural and district municipalities are using the solution, with clients in South Africa and Namibia.
What makes up our SOLAR ERP?
Our comprehensive flagship solution is comprehensive, providing the following capabilities:
Financial Management
- General ledger
- External loan register
- Grant register
- Investment register
- Financial asset management
- Bank control
- Consolidated stock control
- Fleet management costing
- Post level creator
- Job costing
Revenue Management
- Consolidated billing
- Point of sale
- Treasury Reporting Utility (TRU)
- SOLAR dashboards and reporting utility
–
We pride ourselves in quickly and regularly upgrading SOLAR FMS and RMS each time new regulations or legislation becomes available, and systems enhancements are shared at no cost with our regular product releases. We provide consultancy support, and SOLAR FMS integrates with all complementary SOLAR ERP submodules.
Credit Control and Debt Management
SOLAR Debt Management provides functionality for a municipality to manage the entire revenue collection process as per their specific policies.
- Automates the collection process
- Schedules actions, generates follow-ups, and provides reporting
- Supports pre-legal, legal and supplementary collection processes
- Views status accounts in collection in real time
- Automates communication with defaulters
–
This module facilitates effective revenue collection, leading to revenue enhancements.
Land Information Management and Valuation Management
SOLAR Land Information Management (LIM) provides a property register, as well as valuation roll management and land-use management capabilities.
- Provides a full property register for the municipality
- Includes valuation roll management and facilitates deeds transfers
- Provides for building control and land-use inclusion after application approval
- Improves land management and identification of land ownership
- Available reporting helps drive decision-making and identify revenue gaps
Meter Reading Management (Technical)
SOLAR Technical Meter Reading Management automates the meter-reading process with internal controls and exception reporting so that the municipality can better manage the challenges that typically exist within the meter-reading environment.
- Automates the generation and billing of metered services consumption with internal controls and exception reporting
- Provides continuous update of meter information (status and location)
- Billing accuracy as well as reduced customer and audit queries
- Serves as a tool for conducting regular meter audits and information validation
Human Resources and Payroll Management
SOLAR HR and Payroll Management is a cloud-hosted module, designed to meet a municipality’s payroll and people management needs.
- Manages employee lifecycle from onboarding to separation
- Includes time management, performance management and employee self-service capabilities
- Provides a one-stop shop for all HR and payroll needs
- Removes payroll downtime
Annual Financial Statements
The SOLAR Annual Financial Statements module is a financial reporting module that automates the generation of annual financial statements from SOLAR, at any time.
- Reports are based on mSCOA (6.6 / 6.7), and the National Treasury Illustrative template
- Integrates with trial balance, general ledger, and sub-ledgers
- Standardised management accounts for monthly reporting
- Reduces time of AFS preparation since it reports directly from the FMS
Asset Management (Technical)
SOLAR Technical Asset Management is a holistic technical asset life-cycle management solution. Asset maintenance management capabilities have been added to complement the existing financial asset management functionality in SOLAR FMS.
- Technical asset register
- Asset identification and verification
- Maintenance plans
- Work management
- Maintenance execution
- Dynamic analysisBy having a technical asset maintenance management module, the municipality now has factual data to use for maintenance budget submissions
Supply Chain Management
SOLAR Supply Chain Management (SCM) complements the procurement functionality in SOLAR FMS. SOLAR SCM consists of Bid Management and the Management of Contracts and Projects.
Both capabilities assist municipalities to adhere to SCM internal controls and systems, and overcome challenges within the SCM environment. They help to ensure financial compliance, avoiding fruitless, irregular or unauthorised expenditure.
- Supplier Database Management (integrated with Treasury’s CSD), Supplier Portal, Procurement, Bid & Contract Management
- Electronic retention of documents against a bid or a contract. This allows for easy retrieval of documentation for audit purposes
- Tracking and recording of bid activities throughout the tender process
- Provides standardisation and compliance
Budget Management
SOLAR Budget Management is complementary to the SOLAR FMS. The module is fully regulatory and mSCOA compliant.
- Audit trail of all activities that occur in the system
- Supports all the budgeting cycles (Department and Supplementary Budgets, Operational and Capital Budgets, In-year (Adjustment) and MTREF Budgets)
- Enhanced with bulk calculations and ‘what-if’ scenarios
- Links to post level creator, virements and approved policy documentation
Audit Management
SOLAR Financial Audit Management assists with streamlining and managing the financial post-auditing process. It is a centralised environment for managing communication, follow-ups, escalations, encompassing internal and external audits.
- Findings management and resolution tracking
- Issues tracking and workflow management
- Reports on audit outcomes and recommendations
- Monitors resolution progress
Business Intelligence Reporting
SOLAR dashboards are available in Power BI. They are part of SOLAR FMS (excluding the licences). The dashboards fulfil the MFMA Circular 71 requirement for Financial Indicator charts. They are based on the mSCOA segments as per the ledger detail. Some of the charts and tables available are:
- mSCOA segment pivot table
- Asset acquisition per asset mSCOA class
- Asset maintenance budget versus expenditure
- Store item levels, bank recon status and meter-reading trends
- Debtor levies per service
- Debtor age analysis (multiple options)
–
A municipality can further leverage from having a data analytic platform, by requesting from BCX advanced analytics against SOLAR ERP for meaningful data insights and improved decision-making.
Fleet Management and Tracking (Technical)
SOLAR Fleet Management and Tracking is a comprehensive fleet management control solution. Whilst SOLAR FMS manages the financial aspects of the vehicles of a municipality. This technical module complements the FMS and assists municipalities to manage other aspects of their fleet. SOLAR Fleet Management can be used with or without the tracking devices.
- Fleet management: driver behaviour, vehicle requests, traffic fines, fuel and lube management, checklists, etc.
- Maintenance management: manage schedules, work requests as well as planned and unplanned job cards
- Workshop management: collection forms
- HR management: driver information
- Extensive reporting, such as fleet availability vs utilisation
- Real-time tracking, notifications, geofencing, points-of-interest tool, fuel saving and mobile capability
Performance Management
SOLAR Performance Management enables a municipality to manage its organisational and individual performance metrics. The module automates the performance management processes, generates reports, and includes all controls as defined by the legislative framework.
- Uploads performance-related information from the IDP to feed the SDBIP and ensure alignment
- Manages top-layer and departmental SDBIP reporting with electronic upload and auditing of the portfolio of evidence
- Manages and reports on individual KPIs contained in performance agreements, but not included in the SDBIP
- Management of employee data, organogram, job titles, organisational posts and job descriptions
- Stores job descriptions as job KPAs/KPIs for inclusion in future performance agreements
- Stores competencies as prescribed by COGTA in a competency library
Business Process Management
The SOLAR Business Process Management (BPM) module is designed to optimise and streamline business processes within a municipality. Conformity with regulatory standards and internal policies can be monitored and audited through SOLAR BPM, enabling a Municipality to be mSCOA compliant. SOLAR BPM provides control mechanisms for enforcing business rules, ensuring process and policy adherence, and approval mechanisms.
The following automated processes are available with SOLAR BPM:
- Expenditure and payment cycle
- Revenue and receipt cycle
- Budget cycle
- Payroll and HR cycles
Document Management
SOLAR Electronic Document and Record Management (EDRM) allows municipalities to manage content throughout their organisation. This module provides a central storage location for all documents generated/required by any SOLAR ERP module.
- Organises files in a user-definable structure
- Files can be checked in/out
- Provides robust search and retrieval functionality
- Enables searching across multiple libraries
- Optimal version control to prevent lost edits
- Easy sharing of documents
- Seamless workflow to route documents for approval
CRM and Voice Contact Centre
SOLAR Omni-channel Contact Centre is a platform for municipalities to interact with their customers. It is made up of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that operates across multiple communication channels such as social media, SMS, WhatsApp, Mail, Chat, Voice, and Video.
The Omni-channel Contact Centre is offered as part of SOLAR ERP, so that municipalities can streamline their operations and improve their interactions with customers.
- Customer data management (customer profiles, etc.)
- Interaction tracking
- Ticketing functionality
- Communication logs
- Automated follow-up
- Real-time analytics and customer reporting
Cemetery Management
The SOLAR Cemetery Management module provides end-to-end Cemetery and Undertaker capabilities.
- Grave reservations and cemetery tariffs
- Registration of undertakers
- Forensic and voluntary exhumations
- Management of memorial stone/niche plaques, etc.
- Improves cemetery management operations, transparency and service delivery
- Provides a user-friendly information system for the public
- Centralised cemetery management information, data integrity, audit trail
E-payment Portal
The SOLAR E-payment portal is aimed at a municipality’s customers, making it easier for them to interact with the municipality. The SOLAR E-payment portal offers residents and businesses the convenience of online services while reducing the carbon footprint and saving time and money. It provides the ability to view and/or download statements and pay debtor accounts through several payment channels.
- User management and registration with multi- factor authentication functionality
- Profile management for (individuals, property management agent and/or business entity)
- Multi-tenant application
- Document storage
- Linking of municipal accounts
- Payments of municipal accounts; payment options are: MasterPass, WhatsApp, debit orders and Instant EFT; As payment options, the following banking institutions are available: Absa Bank, First National Bank, Capitec Bank, Standard Bank, and Nedbank. The portal users can select the bank of their choice in terms of payment options available on the system
- Notifications
- The user can view or download municipal bills or utility usage
- View payment history
- Reporting functionality
Indigent Management
SOLAR Indigent Management is a module that keeps track of and accurately reflects the status of impoverished households.
SOLAR Indigent Management enhances the management of the equitable share of the municipality.
- Caters for all actions during the indigent management process, from initial registration to maintaining the register
- Enables focused and appropriate collection strategies
Project Management
SOLAR Project Management assists municipal project managers with the execution of all project activities. The module follows the framework of the Project Management Body of Knowledge Fourth Edition, PMBOK®, with functions supporting all aspects of the methodology. It is a comprehensive project tool that can be used by all project stakeholders for all types of projects.
- Provides the scheduling capabilities of Microsoft Project and integrates with Microsoft Project
- Functions for the planning and control of project activities, project resources and project costs, assisting a municipality to implement projects successfully within strategy and plan
- Provides a municipality with an overview of their entire project portfolio, profitability, and status to help maximise the benefit of their project investments
- Tightly integrated with SOLAR FMS and SOLAR Budget Management for a single view of project status
Financial Management
- General ledger
- External loan register
- Grant register
- Investment register
- Financial asset management
- Bank control
- Consolidated stock control
- Fleet management costing
- Post level creator
- Job costing
Revenue Management
- Consolidated billing
- Point of sale
- Treasury Reporting Utility (TRU)
- SOLAR dashboards and reporting utility
–
We pride ourselves in quickly and regularly upgrading SOLAR FMS and RMS each time new regulations or legislation becomes available, and systems enhancements are shared at no cost with our regular product releases. We provide consultancy support, and SOLAR FMS integrates with all complementary SOLAR ERP submodules.
Credit Control and Debt Management
SOLAR Debt Management provides functionality for a municipality to manage the entire revenue collection process as per their specific policies.
- Automates the collection process
- Schedules actions, generates follow-ups, and provides reporting
- Supports pre-legal, legal and supplementary collection processes
- Views status accounts in collection in real time
- Automates communication with defaulters
–
This module facilitates effective revenue collection, leading to revenue enhancements.
Land Information Management and Valuation Management
SOLAR Land Information Management (LIM) provides a property register, as well as valuation roll management and land-use management capabilities.
- Provides a full property register for the municipality
- Includes valuation roll management and facilitates deeds transfers
- Provides for building control and land-use inclusion after application approval
- Improves land management and identification of land ownership
- Available reporting helps drive decision-making and identify revenue gaps
Meter Reading Management (Technical)
SOLAR Technical Meter Reading Management automates the meter-reading process with internal controls and exception reporting so that the municipality can better manage the challenges that typically exist within the meter-reading environment.
- Automates the generation and billing of metered services consumption with internal controls and exception reporting
- Provides continuous update of meter information (status and location)
- Billing accuracy as well as reduced customer and audit queries
- Serves as a tool for conducting regular meter audits and information validation
Human Resources and Payroll Management
SOLAR HR and Payroll Management is a cloud-hosted module, designed to meet a municipality’s payroll and people management needs.
- Manages employee lifecycle from onboarding to separation
- Includes time management, performance management and employee self-service capabilities
- Provides a one-stop shop for all HR and payroll needs
- Removes payroll downtime
Annual Financial Statements
The SOLAR Annual Financial Statements module is a financial reporting module that automates the generation of annual financial statements from SOLAR, at any time.
- Reports are based on mSCOA (6.6 / 6.7), and the National Treasury Illustrative template
- Integrates with trial balance, general ledger, and sub-ledgers
- Standardised management accounts for monthly reporting
- Reduces time of AFS preparation since it reports directly from the FMS
Asset Management (Technical)
SOLAR Technical Asset Management is a holistic technical asset life-cycle management solution. Asset maintenance management capabilities have been added to complement the existing financial asset management functionality in SOLAR FMS.
- Technical asset register
- Asset identification and verification
- Maintenance plans
- Work management
- Maintenance execution
- Dynamic analysisBy having a technical asset maintenance management module, the municipality now has factual data to use for maintenance budget submissions
Supply Chain Management
SOLAR Supply Chain Management (SCM) complements the procurement functionality in SOLAR FMS. SOLAR SCM consists of Bid Management and the Management of Contracts and Projects.
Both capabilities assist municipalities to adhere to SCM internal controls and systems, and overcome challenges within the SCM environment. They help to ensure financial compliance, avoiding fruitless, irregular or unauthorised expenditure.
- Supplier Database Management (integrated with Treasury’s CSD), Supplier Portal, Procurement, Bid & Contract Management
- Electronic retention of documents against a bid or a contract. This allows for easy retrieval of documentation for audit purposes
- Tracking and recording of bid activities throughout the tender process
- Provides standardisation and compliance
Budget Management
SOLAR Budget Management is complementary to the SOLAR FMS. The module is fully regulatory and mSCOA compliant.
- Audit trail of all activities that occur in the system
- Supports all the budgeting cycles (Department and Supplementary Budgets, Operational and Capital Budgets, In-year (Adjustment) and MTREF Budgets)
- Enhanced with bulk calculations and ‘what-if’ scenarios
- Links to post level creator, virements and approved policy documentation
Audit Management
SOLAR Financial Audit Management assists with streamlining and managing the financial post-auditing process. It is a centralised environment for managing communication, follow-ups, escalations, encompassing internal and external audits.
- Findings management and resolution tracking
- Issues tracking and workflow management
- Reports on audit outcomes and recommendations
- Monitors resolution progress
Business Intelligence Reporting
SOLAR dashboards are available in Power BI. They are part of SOLAR FMS (excluding the licences). The dashboards fulfil the MFMA Circular 71 requirement for Financial Indicator charts. They are based on the mSCOA segments as per the ledger detail. Some of the charts and tables available are:
- mSCOA segment pivot table
- Asset acquisition per asset mSCOA class
- Asset maintenance budget versus expenditure
- Store item levels, bank recon status and meter-reading trends
- Debtor levies per service
- Debtor age analysis (multiple options)
–
A municipality can further leverage from having a data analytic platform, by requesting from BCX advanced analytics against SOLAR ERP for meaningful data insights and improved decision-making.
Fleet Management and Tracking (Technical)
SOLAR Fleet Management and Tracking is a comprehensive fleet management control solution. Whilst SOLAR FMS manages the financial aspects of the vehicles of a municipality. This technical module complements the FMS and assists municipalities to manage other aspects of their fleet. SOLAR Fleet Management can be used with or without the tracking devices.
- Fleet management: driver behaviour, vehicle requests, traffic fines, fuel and lube management, checklists, etc.
- Maintenance management: manage schedules, work requests as well as planned and unplanned job cards
- Workshop management: collection forms
- HR management: driver information
- Extensive reporting, such as fleet availability vs utilisation
- Real-time tracking, notifications, geofencing, points-of-interest tool, fuel saving and mobile capability
Performance Management
SOLAR Performance Management enables a municipality to manage its organisational and individual performance metrics. The module automates the performance management processes, generates reports, and includes all controls as defined by the legislative framework.
- Uploads performance-related information from the IDP to feed the SDBIP and ensure alignment
- Manages top-layer and departmental SDBIP reporting with electronic upload and auditing of the portfolio of evidence
- Manages and reports on individual KPIs contained in performance agreements, but not included in the SDBIP
- Management of employee data, organogram, job titles, organisational posts and job descriptions
- Stores job descriptions as job KPAs/KPIs for inclusion in future performance agreements
- Stores competencies as prescribed by COGTA in a competency library
Business Process Management
The SOLAR Business Process Management (BPM) module is designed to optimise and streamline business processes within a municipality. Conformity with regulatory standards and internal policies can be monitored and audited through SOLAR BPM, enabling a Municipality to be mSCOA compliant. SOLAR BPM provides control mechanisms for enforcing business rules, ensuring process and policy adherence, and approval mechanisms.
The following automated processes are available with SOLAR BPM:
- Expenditure and payment cycle
- Revenue and receipt cycle
- Budget cycle
- Payroll and HR cycles
Document Management
SOLAR Electronic Document and Record Management (EDRM) allows municipalities to manage content throughout their organisation. This module provides a central storage location for all documents generated/required by any SOLAR ERP module.
- Organises files in a user-definable structure
- Files can be checked in/out
- Provides robust search and retrieval functionality
- Enables searching across multiple libraries
- Optimal version control to prevent lost edits
- Easy sharing of documents
- Seamless workflow to route documents for approval
CRM and Voice Contact Centre
SOLAR Omni-channel Contact Centre is a platform for municipalities to interact with their customers. It is made up of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that operates across multiple communication channels such as social media, SMS, WhatsApp, Mail, Chat, Voice, and Video.
The Omni-channel Contact Centre is offered as part of SOLAR ERP, so that municipalities can streamline their operations and improve their interactions with customers.
- Customer data management (customer profiles, etc.)
- Interaction tracking
- Ticketing functionality
- Communication logs
- Automated follow-up
- Real-time analytics and customer reporting
Cemetery Management
The SOLAR Cemetery Management module provides end-to-end Cemetery and Undertaker capabilities.
- Grave reservations and cemetery tariffs
- Registration of undertakers
- Forensic and voluntary exhumations
- Management of memorial stone/niche plaques, etc.
- Improves cemetery management operations, transparency and service delivery
- Provides a user-friendly information system for the public
- Centralised cemetery management information, data integrity, audit trail
E-payment Portal
The SOLAR E-payment portal is aimed at a municipality’s customers, making it easier for them to interact with the municipality. The SOLAR E-payment portal offers residents and businesses the convenience of online services while reducing the carbon footprint and saving time and money. It provides the ability to view and/or download statements and pay debtor accounts through several payment channels.
- User management and registration with multi- factor authentication functionality
- Profile management for (individuals, property management agent and/or business entity)
- Multi-tenant application
- Document storage
- Linking of municipal accounts
- Payments of municipal accounts; payment options are: MasterPass, WhatsApp, debit orders and Instant EFT; As payment options, the following banking institutions are available: Absa Bank, First National Bank, Capitec Bank, Standard Bank, and Nedbank. The portal users can select the bank of their choice in terms of payment options available on the system
- Notifications
- The user can view or download municipal bills or utility usage
- View payment history
- Reporting functionality
Indigent Management
SOLAR Indigent Management is a module that keeps track of and accurately reflects the status of impoverished households.
SOLAR Indigent Management enhances the management of the equitable share of the municipality.
- Caters for all actions during the indigent management process, from initial registration to maintaining the register
- Enables focused and appropriate collection strategies
Project Management
SOLAR Project Management assists municipal project managers with the execution of all project activities. The module follows the framework of the Project Management Body of Knowledge Fourth Edition, PMBOK®, with functions supporting all aspects of the methodology. It is a comprehensive project tool that can be used by all project stakeholders for all types of projects.
- Provides the scheduling capabilities of Microsoft Project and integrates with Microsoft Project
- Functions for the planning and control of project activities, project resources and project costs, assisting a municipality to implement projects successfully within strategy and plan
- Provides a municipality with an overview of their entire project portfolio, profitability, and status to help maximise the benefit of their project investments
- Tightly integrated with SOLAR FMS and SOLAR Budget Management for a single view of project status
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Your strategic partner of choice
We service diverse clients across industry sectors and geographies, providing perfectly tailored local and global solutions. We're constantly evaluating and connecting with the industry's most trusted technology companies to ensure you'll always have access to cutting-edge infrastructure. Work with us to safeguard your business success.
We have a wide footprint, with operations in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. With 2000+ people power, 310+ partner alliances, and 21 data centres, you're in safe hands.
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Mining
Retail
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Government
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Your strategic partner of choice
We service diverse clients across industry sectors and geographies, providing perfectly tailored local and global solutions. We're constantly evaluating and connecting with the industry's most trusted technology companies to ensure you'll always have access to cutting-edge infrastructure. Work with us to safeguard your business success.
We have a wide footprint, with operations in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. With 2000+ people power, 310+ partner alliances, and 21 data centres, you're in safe hands.
Manufacturing
Mining
Retail
Finance
Government
Healthcare