Press Release: Wednesday, 2nd May 2010
SMC Enterprise, the web development specialists, recently relaunched a portal to enable South African Hajj pilgrims to register online. Each year more than 3 million people converge on Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the five day pilgrimage. A Muslim is only required to perform pilgrimage once in a lifetime if by the means.
Pain Points
The local authority that governs Hajj in South Africa, SAHUC, previously had to contend with a manual paper-based process that resulted in long queues at their offices around the country. These manual processes coupled with the physical logistics of catering for large numbers of applicants at their offices queuing to register, was becoming difficult and expensive to manage. In addition each country is provided with a quota of pilgrims they may send, which required SAHUC to provide a mechanism whereby it could track whether pilgrims had previously performed hajj; thus giving first time pilgrims an advantage.
According to Ebrahim Ismail, SAHUC General Secretary, the organisation is a voluntary organisation with little manpower at its disposal. The hajj period puts tremendous strain on the available workforce, thus a solution with optimum levels of automation was needed.
SAHUC experimented with an online solution in 2008, and therefore had an initiation of the value that an Internet-based registration and accreditation process would add.
Online Solution
SAHUC contracted Microsoft Gold Partner and Portal specialists, SMC Enterprise, to build a solution to meet its requirement. The solution was launched on time and went live on in May 2009 for the first time and was relaunched in March 2010 for its second year of operation. In the first week alone of the 2010 period approximately 2500 people registered and paid a nominal registration fee.
The portal consists of features to register different types of groups, make payments, confirm details and later on verify acceptance. It also enables other stakeholders like agents and SAHUC to access pertinent information online. SAHUC administration staff can also perform functions like bank reconciliations from the system, generate bar coded identity cards, check flight/accommodation manifests and check an array of information they need at their fingertips. According to Ebrahim Ismail, SAHUC General Secretary, “the Hajj Registry system has had a dramatic impact in the way we work. We improved our productivity internally while providing a much better service in managing the hajj registration and accreditation process.”
A major innovation of the portal introduced in 2010, is the mobile features to enable consistent communication to an audience without internet access from PCs. The user base of the portal can thus use features like premium SMS and notifications from the system without needing to have an email or internet access.
“This portal addresses such a simple requirement and provides such a tremendously useful function that we had to get involved. Our team did a fantastic job and definitely improved this very painstaking process in our community“, says Allie Khan, Director SMC Enterprise.
The website is visible at www.sahuchajjregistry.org.za.
