The South African government manages over 93 000 buildings and 74 hospitals. Many of these assets, belonging to municipalities and state-owned enterprises, have tremendous potential for improvement and revitalisation.

Bani Kgosana, chief revenue officer at Pragma, explains: “Scheduled maintenance enables best outcomes. Eskom has shown the impact of maintaining its electricity generation and transmission network, which over the past year has resulted in more than six months without loadshedding.

“Pragma has developed advanced solutions for maintenance and asset management issues, which are being implemented locally and exported beyond our borders. These homegrown solutions have the potential to not only improve maintenance for government-owned assets but optimise them for the greater good of South Africans and our economy.

“Pragma’s On Key enterprise asset management software enables end-to-end management of maintenance processes and resource allocation. Resources, including third-party contractors, are tightly managed to remove the risk of work falling behind, jobs completed poorly or work dragging out due to unprepared or poorly skilled teams. An added benefit for contractors is that work is allocated to the most suitable contractor closest to the job. This ensures contractors can respond quickly, complete the job and conclude administrative processes in On Key to get sign-off and submit their invoices. This saves time and costs.”

Pragma’s network of contractors is located across the country. A stringent accreditation process ensures contractors with the right set of skills are identified and trained to legislated standards. Aspects such as hourly rates, the time required to perform a job and best practices are agreed upon with the client and contractors and set up in On Key. Spare parts are also specified to ensure the correct spares are used to prevent rework due to poor quality. Doing the job properly eliminates the need to revisit sites, saving time, fuel and costs.

Positive outcomes

Several municipalities, as well as public-private partnerships in the healthcare sector, have seen positive results from using Pragma’s services. “We are the technology partner for Tsebo on facilities management at Albert Luthuli Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, for instance, one of the best-run public hospitals in the country and this showcases the potential for broader application,” said Kgosana.

On Key software focuses on:

• Intelligent asset register: Creates a detailed asset register with scalable maintenance plans.
• Work management: Streamlines operational processes to ensure timely maintenance and repairs.
• Supplier material management: Manages suppliers, spares and spending to enhance service delivery and efficiency.

“If the same commitment to planned maintenance that we eventually saw at Eskom can be implemented by water management, healthcare, building management sector and other utility management sectors, the impact on our country will be immense,” added Kgosana.

Pragma is a specialist enterprise asset management business headquartered in South Africa with enterprise clients in 46 countries. With roots in engineering consulting, it helps industrial businesses and municipalities maximise their return on asset investments to support highly functional and reliable operations.