Lesotho Revenue Authority drives automation, grows ITSM capability with Marval

INDUSTRY

The Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) is tasked with collecting all revenues due to the Government of Lesotho, including income tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) as well as customs and excise duties, and with protecting Lesotho’s borders to ensure contraband does not enter the country. As part of a drive towards automation and an agenda of modernisation, IT is growing within the LRA organisation, which means that the ability to effectively manage the ICT environment is critical. To support this drive, the LRA turned to Marval South Africa (SA) and the MSM Expert solution to deliver fully integrated IT Service Management (ITSM) capabilities.

“Prior to our engagement with Marval SA, we were carrying out IT Service Management manually. However, in light of our automation drive and modernisation agenda, we realised that manual processes would not remain efficient in the long term. IT is an increasingly critical part of the successful running and growth of the LRA going forward, and we needed a tool to assist with this goal,” says Molupe Mothepo, Manager: IT Operations at the Lesotho Revenue Authority.

The LRA followed a tender process with a number of selection criteria. These included the system’s ability to meet the LRA’s requirement to support ITIL-based ITSM processes, as well as the cost of implementation, licensing and support, and the implementation methodology of the bidders. Site references were also required so that the LRA could follow up the claims made by the bidders. Marval SA came out on top of this selection process for a number of reasons.

“The Marval solution met our requirements as per the LRA’s internal IT Service Management processes, as expressed in the LRA’s Tender Document. The implementation methodology was also shown to be sound and the proposal put forward by Marval SA gave the LRA the assurance that they would be able to provide the Authority with the necessary support in the implementation of the tool,” Mothepo says.

MSM Expert is a fully integrated ITSM solution that can be fully extended to support a highly mature ITIL environment. It offers reliable and scalable ITSM technology to support IT and business services as well as future growth, enabling IT organisations to deliver cost-effective services to its customers, either internal or external. MSM Expert also provides visibility and accountability to support IT governance within a business, as well as compliance with external requirements through standardisation, audit and reporting.

“We believe that Marval MSM Expert will effectively support and facilitate the LRA’s IT Service Management needs and assist us to effectively grow our ITSM capability within the organisation,” Mothepo adds.

Marval SA provides Administrator training as part of the implementation for Process Managers and Analysts. This allows them to obtain a deeper level of understanding of the product capabilities, improving their ability to manage and control their respective processes. This training forms a vital component of Marval’s value-added offering, transforming the ITSM software into a valuable business tool, allowing the LRA to further develop Service Management capabilities in-house.

“While the project is still in its early stages, the LRA is already experiencing a number of benefits, including the simplification and adoption of ITIL-based processes. Implementing Marval’s MSM Expert, the LRA is well positioned should they wish to further their ITIL implementation in future or work towards an ISO/IEC 20000 certification,” says Edward Carbutt, Executive Director at Marval South Africa.

The LRA implementation began in June 2012 and is scheduled for completion by the end of September 2012.