1. Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry Companies and Intellectual Property Commission: A Progress Report 24 January 2012 Ms A Ludin (Commissioner)

2. Objective of the presentation
Provide an update on the progress made since July 2011
Outline ongoing challenges and steps being taken

3. Introduction Challenges CIPC experienced since inception:
Weak administrative systems;
Backlogs in key areas of registration: CC, company and co-operative registration and amendments to Companies and CCs
Problematic IT systems;
Inability to respond to queries and calls from the public.
Huge initial demand for restoration of deregistered entities coupled with teething problems with Annual Return system and billing;
Awareness of the new Act and its requirements

4. August project to clear backlogs
Project to clear backlogs across organisation in August
Delivered good results – backlogs cleared in many parts of organisation
But results could not be maintained and struggle in some parts of operations have continued

5. Transactions lodged and completed between 1 May and 31 December 2011
Applications lodged
(01/05–31/12)
Applications processed (01/05 – 31/12)
Applications outstanding
(03/01/12)
Percent
completed
CC registration
54,218
100%
CC changes
104,441
104,068
373
Company registration
67,657
54,379
13,278
80%
Company changes
118,066
113,905
4,161
96%
Name reservation
153,269
Co-operative registration
9,864
8,656
1,208
88%
Total transactions
507,515
488,495
19,020

6. Reasons for numbers and steps taken
Company registrations and amendments:
A lot of errors made during initial period, requiring rework;
Pace of worked was slowed down to improve accuracy;
Significant increase in number of company applications since September 2011;
Additional resources allocated, with more coming on stream in January 2012;
Reliance on temporary resources until new structure is in place.
Co-operative registration:
Number of applications have increased substantially – almost 2,000 more applications in last 4 months;
Additional resources have been contracted until the end of March 2012;
Temporary resources will be brought on board to allow institution to bridge gap until new structure is in place.

7. Calls statistics for period 1 June to 31 Dec 2011

8. Reasons for numbers and steps taken
Inefficiencies in call centre and low ability to resolve queries – inconsistent and worsening performance;
Initial consideration – outsource the call centre;
But difficulties with IT systems and network limit ability for full call resolution when outsourced – essentially would achieve quicker call answering and lower abandonment, but not higher call resolution;
Decision that call resolution is most important – decision to “decentralise” the call centre by creating query handling support in business areas; currently works in the IP area, although volume of queries are much lower
Initiative to be rolled out in February 2012.

9. Service delivery improvements
Service delivery standards – maximum amount of time a transaction should take – complaints mechanism in place, where service standards are not met;
On-line company registration rolled out on 16 January 2012 – slow initial uptake, as we still find some faults in the system;
Uniforms for frontline staff to distinguish staff from “agents”;
Data quality tender issued and being adjudicated to improve data quality;
Building tender issued and in process of final adjudication
Designing new organisation – strategy and structure in final stages

10. Conclusion Much work has been done in the organisation;
Things have settled down and there are efforts at continuous improvement;
However, much work still remains to build the world class organisation that is required to match the world class legislation;
Our journey continues….