Asset-intensive businesses such as mines and private security companies are made up of countless moving parts, many of which need to work together for the company to remain compliant and operational. Licence renewals aren’t the sexiest topic; in fact, they’re downright boring, which is why so many of us forget to renew our own licences in time.
Whether we like it or not, timely licence renewals play an important role in keeping things running smoothly at home and at work. The consequences of mismanagement can range from inconvenient to dire for large corporates.
Mining permits, Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) certificates, driver’s licences, vehicle licences, firearms licences – the list goes on. In a company of thousands, it is inevitable that individual renewal dates will fall on different days, adding an additional layer of complexity to an already admin-intensive task.
Most recently, Fidelity Security Services found itself in the unfortunate position of having approximately 700 firearm licences lapse. The person intended to renew the licences, but fell ill and eventually left company’s employment.
According to reports, the company is one of the largest security providers in South Africa and owns more than 8 500 firearms that are used by about 15 000 qualified armed personnel. Like most security companies, it purchases firearms when they are required, which means the firearm licences expire at different times.
A firearm licence must be renewed at least 90 days before it lapses. If this is not done in time and the licence expires, the weapon is considered to be illegal and having it in one’s possession constitutes an offence. Weapons with expired licences should be handed into SAPS to be destroyed.
In the case of Fidelity Security Services, the company faces the prospect of handing in approximately 700 firearms for destruction, only to purchase and licence more weapons.
Eldir, a FlowCentric Technologies ISV Partner, has developed an application designed specifically to address the challenges faced by security companies.
“Managing the industry's many licensing requirements is such a laborious, yet critical, part of the business that we designed a module dedicated to streamlining these tasks,” explains Eldir CEO Adriaan Heijns.
Eldir: DSO offers a central digital place where each licence and the applicable renewal dates are recorded. The system not only alerts the relevant personnel of impending renewals, but continues to send reminders until the work is done or the task is escalated to the next in charge for action. This ensures that, even when employees are off sick or have left the company, the renewal deadlines aren’t missed.
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